Agile NCR 2013 - Milind Agnihotri - Agile & the imperatives of effective dialoguing
- 1. iSkra Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing. Milind Agnihotri Director - iSkra 2nd February 2013 © 2013 iSkra milind@iskra.in
- 2. iSkra Session Abstract “The agile manifesto and the 12 agile principles carry an underlying tacit assumption of effective dialoguing between all stakeholders – internal and external. How important is the process of dialoguing in achieving the ideals of agile philosophy? Is effective dialoguing simply about effective communication or is it something beyond? The session explores the art and science of effective dialoguing in the context of agile methodology and how to implement and measure the same in the practice space. Participants would get an exposure to a pragmatic dialoguing framework that can be leveraged to realize the agile promise.” 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 2
- 3. iSkra Agile Manifesto – The 4 Values We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: – Individuals and interactions over processes and tools – Working software over comprehensive documentation – Customer collaboration over contract negotiation – Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 3
- 4. iSkra Agile Principles … 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 4
- 5. iSkra 1. Continuity 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 5
- 6. iSkra 2. Responsiveness to Change 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 6
- 7. iSkra 3. Frequent Delivery 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 7
- 8. iSkra 4. Collaboration 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 8
- 9. iSkra 5. Motivated Individuals 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 9
- 10. iSkra 6. Face-to-Face Communication 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 10
- 11. iSkra 7. Working Software 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 11
- 12. iSkra 8. Constant Pace 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 12
- 13. iSkra 9. Eye for Excellence 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 13
- 14. iSkra 10. Simplicity 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 14
- 15. iSkra 11. Self Organizing Abilities 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 15
- 16. iSkra 12. Self Reflection 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 16
- 17. iSkra 12 Agile Principles … • Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer • Working software is the primary measure of through early and continuous delivery progress. of valuable software. • Agile processes promote sustainable • Welcome changing requirements, even late development. The sponsors, developers, and in development. Agile processes harness users should be able to maintain a constant change for the customer's competitive pace indefinitely. advantage. • Continuous attention to technical excellence • Deliver working software frequently, from a and good design enhances agility. couple of weeks to a couple of months, with • Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount a preference to the shorter timescale. of work not done--is essential. • Business people and developers must work • The best architectures, requirements, and together daily throughout the project. designs emerge from self-organizing teams. • Build projects around motivated individuals. • At regular intervals, the team reflects on Give them the environment and support they how to become more effective, then tunes need, and trust them to get the job done. and adjusts its behavior accordingly. • The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 17
- 18. iSkra 12 Agile Principles … • Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer • Working software is the primary measure of through early and continuous delivery progress. of valuable software. • Agile processes promote sustainable • Welcome changing requirements, even late development. The sponsors, developers, and in development. Agile processes harness users should be able to maintain a constant change for the customer's competitive pace indefinitely. advantage. • Continuous attention to technical excellence • Deliver working software frequently, from a and good design enhances agility. couple of weeks to a couple of months, with • Simplicity--the art of maximizing the a preference to the shorter timescale. amount of work not done--is essential. • Business people and developers must work • The best architectures, requirements, and together daily throughout the project. designs emerge from self-organizing teams. • Build projects around motivated individuals. • At regular intervals, the team reflects on Give them the environment and support they how to become more effective, then tunes need, and trust them to get the job done. and adjusts its behaviour accordingly. • The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 18
- 19. iSkra Agile Manifesto & Principles – A Key Tacit Assumption Effective Dialoguing! 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 19
- 20. iSkra Examples … 1. Planning Meeting (before a sprint cycle) 2. Daily Scrum Meetings (during sprint) 3. Retrospectives (end of sprint cycle) 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 20
- 21. iSkra Planning Meeting … “A typical case during the planning meeting is where a joint planning meeting happens for two teams – one in US and the other in India, both working on the same product backlog and the product owner is based out of US (closer proximity to customers). The product owner expects both the teams to equally pick up backlog items & complete them in high quality before the end of the sprint (usually 3 weeks long). The past history shows that the India team comes rather close to completing the items they commit to, but not 100%, whereas, the US team almost always completes the work 100%. This has caused relationships to be strained and the product owner wants to ensure during the planning meeting that the India team completes 100% what it has committed to. The India team members resent the product owner’s tone and have their list of justifications as to why they were unable to complete 100% & they believe that the product owner doesn’t understand all these subtle reasons. However, from the product owner’s point of view, completing 100% is a sacrosanct goal that the team shouldn’t compromise at any cost.” 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 21
- 22. iSkra Daily Scrum Meeting … “This case deals with an employee (name him X for simplicity) within a scrum team who has earned a reputation of being a laggard (a drag) to the team. The other team members in this agile team work well with each other and have a good camaraderie amongst them. The interactions during the daily scrum involves X giving his updates & trying to pick up easy activities for his day’s work and how other team members react to this kind of ‘taking the easy route’ by X. There could be several reasons why X is unable to meet the expectations of the other team members in terms of the volume of his contribution, but these are not being addressed. Instead, there is an atmosphere of distrust within the team and it would look as if the entire team wants X out of their team.” 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 22
- 23. iSkra Retrospective Meeting … “Team members are very open during retrospective and often, strong feedback on how things went wrong during a particular sprint comes out during the frank discussions. When a team member slacked during a sprint causing additional load on other team members, this item would be discussed in the retrospective meeting under the heading “what went wrong”. Only when the team provides constructive feedback (without attacking the person) and only when the receiving employee accepts the feedback without being defensive, an environment of team learning and growth operates in that conversation.” 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 23
- 24. iSkra The Phenomena during Planning & Daily Scrum … 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 24
- 25. iSkra The Phenomena during Planning & Daily Scrum … 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 25
- 26. iSkra The Phenomena during Planning & Daily Scrum … 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 26
- 27. iSkra The Phenomenon during Retrospective … 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 27
- 28. iSkra The Phenomenon during Retrospective … 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 28
- 29. iSkra The Phenomenon during Retrospective … 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 29
- 30. iSkra Effective Dialoguing Principles in Agile 1. Test all assumptions and inferences (before deciding any action) 2. Share all relevant information (complete transparency) 3. Use specific examples to explain what you really mean (avoid any misunderstandings). 4. Explain reasoning and intent (behind your thoughts as well as actions) 5. Focus on interests and not on positions 6. Combine advocacy with inquiry (present your stance, invite others to inquire into the same and vice-versa) 7. Jointly design the approach/next steps (including ways to test disagreements) 8. Discuss the undiscussables (openly and freely) 9. Involve everybody in decision making so as to generate commitment. 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 30
- 31. iSkra Dialogue – Visible & Invisible Processes Less effective Internal Invisible leverage Points Processes Strategies Assumptions Act of Results Used for Behind Communication/ Communication/ Strategies Dialogue Dialogue More effective External Visible leverage points Processes 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 31
- 32. iSkra Dialogue – A Living Process How we listen and speak …. Mutual Learning Unilateral Control …. decides how the future unfolds. 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 32
- 33. iSkra How to Implement and Measure the Effective Dialoguing Process? Effective Dialoguing Implementation Methodology: • Meeting leads (planning, daily scrum, retrospectives etc.) to be suitably trained on the ‘Mutual Learning Model’ of effective dialoguing • The last 5 minutes of each agile team conversation should be dedicated to a yes/no/why/why-not check-list process on the 9 effective dialoguing strategies • Value/Waste created during/after the team conversation should be assessed with reference to the ‘Mutual Learning Model’ of effective dialoguing strategies as a lessons learned process • Above steps to be repeated in perpetuity as if its an Agile process Effective Dialoguing Measurement Metric: • Dialoguing Index (a tool to measure dialoguing effectiveness) • Adherence to the 4 Agile Values & the 12 Agile Principles • The metrics for any business outcome that depends on an agile development methodology is the metrics for measuring success of effective dialoguing (it’s a means to an end…) 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 33
- 34. iSkra Delivering on the Agile Promise 4 Agile Manifesto Values + 12 Agile Principles + 9 Dialoguing Strategies 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 34
- 35. iSkra About the Speaker… Milind Agnihotri is an Independent Organization Development (OD) consultant with over 27 years of industry experience, spanning IT and OD Consulting. The first phase of his professional work life of about 20 years was in the IT industry with Wipro, Fujitsu ICL, Tata Elxsi and later as an entrepreneur in setting up two technology startup ventures as the Founder CEO. The various roles played by him as an IT practitioner include - software design & development, project management & delivery, pre-sale technical consulting, front line sales & marketing, product management, business development, creating and managing alliances with global technology companies, business unit head, founding two technology startups (product led services companies) through private equity support. For the last 7 years Milind has been an independent OD consultant in practice areas of – Organization Culture, Change Management, Executive Coaching and Leadership Development. Email: milind@iskra.in Blog: http://milindagnihotri.wordpress.com 2 February 2013 Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing 35
- 36. iSkra Agile & The Imperatives of Effective Dialoguing. Thank you. 2nd February 2013 © 2013 iSkra milind@iskra.in