Help, the hippies have taken my team to play games... or let’s get real we have a business to run...

Scrum Sponsor Rela0vely successful at Scrum and Agile -‐  Visa are excited about agile -‐  Responsible for a product that Visa acquired -‐  Built it by being painfully rigorous about scrum – playing by the rules Defender of the Realm -‐ Hired a CST in training Agile adventurer -‐  Never done it -‐  Never proved it -‐  Didn’t believe in it -‐  But now my dad’s even a believer J

And yes oHen to my team – I am “The Business” and I am conflicted -‐  I am a senior exec at Fundamo (strategic role player) -‐  I ac0vely par0cipated in the bid and acquisi0on by Visa -‐  I ac0vely sell our product -‐  I work with partners (in the channel and technology) -‐  I chair product investment commiQee (yes – the one the product managers come

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Product SteerCo Clue #1Go tell those people to stop playing games Every 0me I come to a demo you show me new tooling, new infrastructure Don’t those people know we have a business to run – some0mes I think they just come to work to play games

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Embraced agile Allowed me the space to introduce scrum Watched us develop a commercial product in less than a year Allowed me to defend the team But – he’s driving revenues, and he is the consummate entrepreneur – innova0on above process And…he has a business to run

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•  What’s this about gatherings? [conference or a mee0ng] •  Lightning spot •  Stand up •  Open space? [ •  Retrospec0ves [ •  Value the items on the right vs the leH •  What mind altering trip are these people on? •  Calm steadiness to our teams •  NO sense of urgency?? I am encouraging us all to think like business leaders – like managers

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-‐  S0cky notes (of different colours) -‐  FedEx day -‐  (all these I sponsor) -‐  Poker cards -‐  Chickens, Pigs -‐  New tooling -‐  New frameworks -‐  This trust thing – hey man, we trust the team -‐  How can you trust these people?

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To all you scrumdamentalists out there (with your games, your gatherings, your retrospec0ves, your s0cky notes and your fancy marker pens We are in the business of soHware because we are capitalists – not because we want you to feel comfortable at your R20,000 chair, your chill room, the blackjack table in the corner of the dev room, your two 21” screens, sifng on your beanbag, scribbling on a random post it note! Do you understand we need to sell this stuff to people who want to use it, like to use it and want to buy more of it? You know what – I think the teams do – most developers know why. And the business grudgingly accepts we know how to develop soHware. This is a tough one: -‐  They want scope, features -‐  Commit to less work that expected

Now of course these are all valid reasons why we adopted agile and scrum (BUT SOMETIMES WE SUCK AT COMMUNICATING THAT) -‐  We know that there are many unknowns -‐  We know that if we priori0se we will do the most valuable stuff first -‐  We know that the team will work as hard as they can

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See we come to our gatherings We priori0se our workload We con0nually improve We need to remember why we do this – the challenge is to remind the business (ME) We are changing the world – from Africa – for real people The why we do things – is known to us in the detail of the business And you know what bugs me -‐  We always have an answer -‐  The team will know -‐  We’ll drop some scope -‐  The Product Owner understands -‐  We’ll just ask the Steering CommiQee for more 0me -‐  We do a spike (spike – what’s that? – oh yes – we’ll experiment, play games)

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Is this a lifestyle thing rather than a business thing? How can I respond?

Is our business more profitable because of scrum? What do those games mean Is this some way we aQract the underworld (hidden community of geeks) Are they games?

Business value? Scrum rituals Gatherings Retrospec0ves Ceremonies (what happened to mee0ngs) A fantasy world for geeks? Are the metrics right? How do I jus0fy using scrum? Did I really have to say that?

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-‐  Do we have? -‐  Unhappy clients, bugs, more demand than supply – normal business pressure -‐  Also a company divided in some senses – and I think you will find this common -‐  A voracious appe0te for more features (hey – that’s why we do this Scrum thing,

right?)

We also have -‐  Teams organised -‐  Scrum masters, PO per team -‐  Regular cadence -‐  Some-‐what groomed backlog -‐  Regular releases -‐  Happy clients So YES

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License sales growing Content of product – is relevant Ongoing support is gefng beQer For all of you the same is probably true

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-‐  TDD -‐  Design experience -‐  Extreme Automa0on -‐  Story grooming -‐  Granularity of stories -‐  Assign a PO to each team -‐  Kanban for support

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Like hippies – pursuing love – not meaning for the customer We can become too inwardly focussed – on the good things -‐  Improving our quality -‐  Predictability -‐  Stories -‐  Epics -‐  Features

-‐  And for Fundamo Visa teams – we are far from the end user:

-‐  Dev -‐> BD -‐> SI -‐> Customer -‐> Consumer -‐  That’s tough to be sure we are doing the right things

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I cannot emphasise the importance of on-‐going communica0on –talking the language of the business When I am most successful I reflect the business picture of our roadmap (not a burndown – a roadmap) Yes – it’s up there in the agile manifesto We favour conversa0on over documenta0on But – there are many stakeholders out there -‐ be sure your PO or PM is having those conversa0ons -‐ be sure the conversa0ons are consistent -‐ be sure the context is always there -‐ return to the beginning, refine the picture, show how it changed -‐ in the heat of the sprint or release, we some 0mes forgot how we re-‐priori0sed -‐ If we did our stakeholders certainly did (moving priori0es of stories)

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The prac0ces of scrum help us -‐  that’s where the games come in -‐  That’s where the discipline comes -‐  It’s management

Don’t think it will solve your basic stakeholder management issues – it will only expose them -‐  Status repor0ng -‐  Change management -‐  Infrastructure management -‐  Some0mes documenta0on is necessary -‐  We neglected our roadmap –what stuck was the 12 month old roadmap (what

about x y z)

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Projects became the enemy They needed project managers, and they do waterfall They needed scope, and signing in blood And so we have this backlog thing -‐  A hiding place for many evils (a joke)

I suggest the structure of a project is not evil -‐  It gives execu0ves big chunks to decide on -‐  A simple project charter confirms value and cost -‐  It defines priori0es -‐  It defines scope boundaries -‐  It defines terminology -‐  It reduces complexity -‐  It integrates with the rest of the business (charge codes, status reports,

investment themes, stakeholders) -‐  It is not waterfall

Instead of a great big backlog – an ordered grouping of projects

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It’s so temp0ng We have two areas of the business -‐ 1 scrum, one not -‐ very different pressures I honestly observe -‐ the team could work harder -‐ the team does work hard -‐ we do not burn people out (this is the development mindset I started in) Yes the team can work beQer – that’s why we adopt agile -‐ when they have, the bugs go up and I measure that in ZAR Make sure you have a response – mine is NO – they are working harder. Judge that on: -‐  Commitment -‐  Quality -‐  Stability (aQri0on)

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Responsible – actually doing the work Accountable – approve or disapprove it – this is not the team -‐ and some0mes it is not the PO, who is already under a ton of pressure -‐ be sure you define in your business who is accountable (a single wringable neck – the manager) -‐ for my business that is the product manager -‐ make sure the V-‐Model is defined for your organisa0on (we lost our way a liQle) Let the team take resonsibility – trust them, remind them [I trust you to commit, improve, add value è you trust me to protect you and give you a great place to work]

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Agile coach Scrum coach As a business leader – reality check -‐ why are you saying that Double check -‐ are we too theore0cal -‐ can I inspect and adapt I have had a couple -‐ some on the team -‐ some external -‐ keep checking yourself as an execu0ve

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Think about growing in teams (one team at a 0me) Grow the whole team (PO -‐> Dev -‐> Tester) Think abut the overheads -‐  Architecture -‐  Code complexity

Don’t think it will solve your basic stakeholder management issues – it will only expose them -‐  Tes0ng -‐  Code quality -‐  Secure coding prac0ce -‐  Status repor0ng -‐  Engineering prac0ce (XP) -‐  Infrastructure management

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Yes – because we have order -‐ higher engagement -‐ flexibility (my boss even thinks so) -‐ reality (we build what we can) -‐ predictability -‐ honesty -‐ reliability – release plan PLAYING GAMES? NO!

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We have to be clear abut common measures with the business This needs a lot of work That the business understands -‐  Not just our internal scrum measures (RTF)

Measure the roadmap -‐ how did you s0ck to it (so I suggest using RTF, but call it roadmap execu0on) Measure how well the priori0sa0on works -‐ a simple c-‐sat with your customers (Sales, Execu0on) -‐ How oHen did you get what you needed just in 0me Quality -‐ use bug trends Cost -‐ show the cost of support -‐ show the cost of a team Revenue -‐ the toughest of all -‐ I use this for the team

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A toothless wimp? I think he needs to give more direc0on We need to balance this servant leader with real deliverables If your scrum master does not have clear responsibili0es -‐  Give them deliverables (metrics, improvement, goals) The SM role is not a hiding place The SM needs to in0mately know what the team is doing, understand it, test it

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-‐  talking, gathering, s0cky notes, marker pens -‐  All is good. We do play games…

-‐  Some0mes I think the success of scrum is gefng started and then doing – report on success, keep shou0ng out, keep communica0ng

-‐  So use your gatherings, your retrospec0ves

-‐  Remember to get real – talk to business people like business people -‐  All important stuff we do -‐  But we need to ground ourselves in the reality of running a business

-‐  Revenue -‐  Quality -‐  Communic0on

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Help, the hippies have taken my team to play games... or let’s get real we have a business to run...

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Transcript of Help, the hippies have taken my team to play games... or let’s get real we have a business to run...