The art of facilitating great collaborative workshops Ryan McKergow

ryanmckergow

rmckergow

Overview

• How has the way we worked changed?

• Collaborative Agile workshops

• Tips to facilitate great workshops

How has the way we worked changed?

Back in 2001… something happened...

The Agile ManifestoWe are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and

helping others do it. Through this 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.

The Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

We no longer work like this…

We work like this…

Or like this…

Why did we have to change?

Reading documentation ≠ shared understanding

Com

mun

icati

on e

ffecti

vene

ss

Richness of communication

Reading a document /

stories

Refer to this article featuring @TotherAlistair: http://bit.ly/agilecomms

Talking to people = shared understanding

Com

mun

icati

on e

ffecti

vene

ss

Richness of communicationRefer to this article featuring @TotherAlistair: http://bit.ly/agilecomms

Face to face conversation

Face to face at a whiteboard

Collaborative Agileworkshops

Project Inception

Project Inception – Our agenda• Ice breakers• Project Overview• Scoping Workshop (In, Out, Unsure Scope)• To be process mapping • Story Card Identification • Non-Functional Requirements• Release Planning• Team Processes

Project Inception – Our agenda

Product Backlog Refinement

Daily Scrum (aka Daily Standup)

Story Kickoff

Sprint RetrospectiveWhat worked well? What didn’t worked well? What’s puzzling me?

How you can facilitate great collaborative workshops

Preparation

Facilitate with intent

Encourage appropriate behaviours

Retrospective Prime Directive

“Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time,

their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”

Encourage appropriate behaviours

Engagement from everyone

How you can facilitategreat collaborative workshops

1 Preparation

Encourage appropriate behaviours

Facilitate with intent

Engagement from everyone

3

2

4

Thank you