10 Agile Phobias,and how to conquer them…

GlobalLogic Agile Community Event, Noida,

7th July, 2011

Viresh SuriProject Manager, GlobalLogic

Viresh.suri@gmail.com

Agile Scrum – Revisited 10 Phobias, are each of these justified ??

It’s a Revolutionary Change Loss of Accountability Leads to Micromanagement There is no Commitment Short Cycles don’t help Insufficient Design, Documentation Everyone is a Generalist It is Anti-Management Doesn’t work will in a Distributed Environment Requires Automation, which is not my core requirement

Agenda

Agile Scrum - Revisited

Then why fear Agile?

Phobia # 1

Switching to Agile is a Revolutionary

change!

• Shifting to Agile requires too much change

• Make the “revolutionary” change ”evolutionary” by taking one step at a time

• Start with long iterations

• Have a planning week in every iteration

• Meetings will Stretch initially

• Track the Burn-down chart rigorously in the beginning

• Keep a cushion while estimating

• Aim for gradual velocity increase in subsequent iterations

Is changing to Agile too difficult?

• Shifting to Agile requires too much change

• Understand the benefits of Agile

• Agile acknowledges Emergent Requirements, Customer Feedback

• Highest Business Value delivered first

• Impediments systematically removed

• Removes management pressure – improved quality of life for developers

• Workable Software most important

• The investment done in change is worth it!

Is changing to Agile too difficult?

Phobia # 2

Agile means loss of Accountability

• No Work Accountability, as far as team’s deliverables are concerned

• Following ensure Accountability of work:

• Iteration Review – Demo of working software

• Automation : to check regression

• Unit Testing, TDD : to ensure bugs caught early

• Retrospection : to learn from mistakes

• Real-Time project status availability: Using Burn Down Charts

• Strong Requirement Traceability: Using tools like Velocity Platform components

Does Agile lead to lost Accountability?

• No Estimation Accountability – Estimates are done best by Managers

• Estimates from the team are a result of collective wisdom

• Values imbibed in Agile culture :

• Mutual Trust

• Focus on High Performance

• Sense of Urgency

• Strive to achieve more

• Work with minimal supervision & maximum self-drive

Does Agile lead to lost Accountability?

Phobia # 3

Agile will lead to Micromanagemen

t

• Drivers of Micromanagement :

• Daily Stand-Up

• Continuous Builds, Automated Tests

• Daily Metrics

• Daily Stand-Up fosters coordination, communication, help team handle impediments

• Product Owner may “not” attend the Daily Stand Up meeting

• The burn-down chart makes the current health of the project visible

• Who is “Micromanaging”? The team itself !

Is Agile Micromanagement?

Phobia # 4

There will be No Firm Date or

Commitment

• Changes any time, everytime..

• Always under-commit, then deliver more than expected ?

• No change allowed in scope or timelines during the iteration

• If changes occur, Agile manages them best !!

• Agile acknowledges :

• Importance of Customer Feedback

• Existence of emergent requirements

• Customers control the scope/time trade-off

• Fixed-Scope or Fixed-Date Planning can incorporate Risk Management

Is there No firm date, commitment ?

Phobia # 5

Short Development

Cycles will lead to chaos

• Not much gets accomplished in a 2-4 week duration

• Focus only on functionality, not on quality

• Too many meetings due to short development cycle duration

• Periodic Customer Review ensures undoing a “bigger” chunk

• Ensures changes in business environment are incorporated

• Bugs are addressed ASAP in the same iteration

• Incomplete Releases are bad.

• All “must-have” requirements (includes quality, usability, performance) should be satisfied

Do Short Cycles lead to Chaos ?

Phobia # 6

Agile = Insufficient

Design, Documentation

• Sufficient time not given for design

• Lack of documentation means lack of structure, undefined processes

• Incremental design with aggressive refactoring can lead to better design

• Design enhanced after better business understanding

• Much of the documentation prescribed by other methods is never used !

• Agile focuses on deliverables that are actually needed

Is Design & Documentation insufficient?

Phobia # 7

In Agile, everyone needs

to be a Generalist

• Everyone should know “everything”

• Isn’t cost effective

• Not good for projects that require specialization

• Not everyone should be generalist. There is a need to balance specialization

• I am a “blue” specialist, but may also work on “purple” and “black”

• Leads to :• Specialization used only when

required

• Opportunity to have multiple specializations

• Members focus on specialization as long as it creates value

• Mismatch in skills automatically generates learning

Should everyone be Generalist ?

Phobia # 8

Agile is Anti-Management

• Agile means that the manager is left to do nothing !

• Managers focus on “more important” tasks, while the team manages itself !!

• Manager responsibilities :• Managing People

• Resource Management• Performance Management

• Managing Investments• Training, Infrastructure

• Managing the Environment• Partner Management• Supplier Management• Outsourcing

• Meta-Competency• Organizational Changes,

Initiatives

Is Agile Anti-management ?

Role of the Agile Manager

Phobia # 9

Agile can’t work in a Distributed

Environment

• Agile doesn’t work in a distributed environment

• Communication Challenges

• Project / Process Management Challenges : Synching between locations

• Culture clashes prevent self-organization

• Use Real-Time collaboration tools, enhance communication

• Information Radiator : Project Status Dashboard

• Continuous Integration

• Implement the Scrum-of-Scrums concept

• Let the teams self-organize in the way they think best

Will Agile always fail in distributed environments ?

Phobia # 10

Requires Automation,

which isn’t our priority

• We have no plans to implement Automation

• It affects the QA team’s testing capacity

• Difficult to find Automation skills

• Understand that Automation plays a significant role in iterative development processes

• This investment is a necessity in the long run

• 3 step process to Automation:

• End current iteration with less manual testing than what we started with. Go after low hanging fruit.

• Implement all new features with automation

• Finally, everything has an automated test

Is it OK to be Agile without Automation?

Agile shouldn’t be treated like a Dogma, a system of prescribed principles

It is about delivering Value to the Customer Discipline, Passion to Communicate is the

Key There will always be criticism, but judge if

you’re seeing some real advantage !

Summary

http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/system/presentation/file/69/ADP2007_WaterfallaciesAndAgilephobias.pdf

http://blog.adsdevshop.com/2010/03/22/3-reasons-your-manager-fears-agile-and-doesnt-need-to/

LinkedIn ScrumAlliance Community Post (29th June)

http://www.scrumalliance.org/articles/103-the-managers-role-in-agile

References

Thank You !

viresh.suri@gmail.com