Marudhamaran Gunasekaran Agile Coach / Security specialist

The Impact of Culture on Distributed Agileand what can we do?

WHY: SOFTWARE IS EATING THE WORLD

{forced} transforming into software

companies

WHY: SOFTWARE IS EATING THE WORLD

qualified software professionals

where are they?

CULTURE

… is the way we do things around here?

… is what we do when no one is looking?

PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT INDIA

PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT INDIA

ALL OF THESE PRECONCEPTIONS CAN BE TRUE !

Quality software delivery

Communication challenges

Saying Yes delivering No

Hierarchical; follow orderstaking initiatives

Loyalty

Indian software companies are Agile

COUNTRY CULTURE VS COMPANY CULTURE

Country culturepreconceptions

Company culture

Country culturepreconceptions

Company culture

THE WAY OF WORK AT PROWARENESS

People Practices Communication

Culture

PEOPLE: HIRE ONLY THE BEST

More than extra hands, extra colleagues that make you more Agile!

Some clients say....

Q: We hired a Product Owner/Architect/Scrum Master who did very well during an interview discussion, but

on the job he was very poor?

A: Design your interview procedure to simulate real world work, and involve stakeholders*

*stakeholders = people impacted by the the work of the interview candidate (eg: team mates)

PEOPLE: SAMPLE RECRUITMENT PROCESS – #1

HIRING

Recruiter’s telephone evaluation

Recruiter’s interview to affirm attitude, and initial culture fitment

Technical evaluation 1

Technical evaluation 2

Let them codeLet them present

their codeCulture fitment

round

Managing Director discussion

PEOPLE: RECRUITMENT PROCESS – #2 TRAINING

Some companies do excellent training for new joiners....

But how to validate learning?

Put them on the job

Support with regular mentoring and coaching

PEOPLE: RECRUITMENT PROCESS – # 3 VALIDATED

LEARNING

PEOPLE: ONBOARDING - PASSION

What do youdo when you aren’t at work?

PEOPLE: ONBOARDING - TEAM WORK

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Do all of these sound hard?

Do all of these sound hard to do?

Scrum puts stress in developing & managing products

PEOPLE: ONBOARDING - THE BEST TEAM

Final choice about the best team composition after the 30 day

induction program

Pay to quit program

PEOPLE: PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

Guess what Developers priorities are?

http://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2016#work-job-priorities

PEOPLE: PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

How do we make developers think about business value delivery rather than salary?

PEOPLE: TRANSPARENT SALARY & GROWTH

PEOPLE: iGROW – MAN WITH A PLAN – MONTHLY

FEEDBACK CYCLES

PEOPLE: COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS

PEOPLE: CELEBRATE OFTEN AS A HUGE BUNCH

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PRACTICES: SCRUM, EXTREME PROGAMMING

Daily

Scrum

2 week

Sprints

PRACTICES: WAY OF WORK – DEDICATED AGILE

COACH FOR TEAMS

Determine the current

state of WoW

Determine what could

be improved next Sprint

WoW Coaches

coaching the team

Define improvement

actions for next Sprint

Team works on the

improvement

Create Continuous Improvement Environment for teams

PRACTICES: CONTINUOUS COACHING

Give Intentions and principles

Being dogmatic?

PRACTICES: TECHNICAL DEBT RADAR & CONTINUOUS

DELIVERY

TECHNICAL DEBT RADAR TO KEEP QUALITY NEGOTIATIONS TANGIBLE

CONTINUOUS DELIVERY SO THAT RELEASE IS NOT A TECHNICAL DECISION

PRACTICES: BIG SPRINT DAY AND MORE CULTURE

TIME TO LEARN FROM EVERYONE

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PRACTICES: SCALING – PROGRAM TEAMS

COMMUNICATION: KICK-ON TO BRIDGE CULTURAL

DIFFERENCS AND UNDERSTANDING NUANCES

COMMUNICATION: ENVIRONMENT OF TRUST

COMMUNICATION: TRAVEL OFTEN

COMMUNICATION: BONDING

ALL OF THESE REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT!

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT!

Buy big TVs (touchscreen preferably)

Buy webcams for developer machines, IP cameras, and those giant Polycom devices

Build coaches dedicated for teams

Let teams solve organizational and distributed challenges

Promote Self Organization and allow mistakes

Buy time for coaching and continuous improvement

Bring distributed teams together often (travel during the beginning & at least during every quarter)

If contracts are signed based on fixed time, fixed scope, and fixed cost then traditional behavior is going to be expected.

AGILE CONTRACTING: SCALING & DOWNSIZING

So, What do you think?

MARUDHAMARAN

GUNASEKARAN

AGILE COACH / SECURITY

SPECIALIST

gmaran23

REFERENCS & FURTHER READING

Culture is the new Governance Rahul Sah Agile Coach Club Feb 20 2016 Prowareness -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbUU3OlCUq8

Continuous Delivery - http://continuousdelivery.nu/

Performance Appraisals in Agile Environment Nagesh Sharma - http://www.slideshare.net/gmaran23/performance-appraisals-in-agile-environment-nagesh-sharma

How to Kick Start a New Scrum Team - Agility and HR at Delft Netherlands 21 January 2016 -http://www.slideshare.net/gmaran23/how-to-kick-start-a-new-scrum-team-agility-and-hr-at-delft-netherlands-21-january-2016

The 2015 State Of Agile Development: Learn From Agile Expert Firms -https://www.forrester.com/report/The+2015+State+Of+Agile+Development+Learn+From+Agile+Expert+Firms/-/E-RES120445

Developer Survey Results 2016 - http://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2016#work-job-priorities

The rise of the chief culture officer - http://fortune.com/2012/07/30/the-rise-of-the-chief-culture-officer/

Scrum is Hard and Disruptive - http://www.verheulconsultants.nl/ScrumIsHardandDisruptive.pdf

What Can I Learn From You? - http://www.slideshare.net/gmaran23/what-can-i-learn-from-you