Why We Like Love Agile Selena Hriz Melissa Branam

Why We Like Love Agile

Selena HrizMelissa Branam

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Agenda

• Agile Overview – What it means to us

• How to develop a scrum team in healthy and trusting environment– Actors – Roadblock • Language• Perception• Commitment • Co-location

– Benefits of Overcoming your Roadblocks• Consistently moving forward adding business value

– Walmart Agile Summit

PMI Presentation June 16, 2014

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Agile Manifesto

Value Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Overall:• We do care about processes and tools. We just value individuals and

interactions more!• Inner Team: Much easier, but still challenging• External Teams: Riddled with obstacles due to paradigm of Waterfall versus

Agile within the organization

Specifically:• Establish a belief system• Every individual must be fully committed to being open minded• Interaction must occur on an unprecedented level (frequent & ad hoc)

Benefit:• In the end, individuals interacting in this manner will build better, more

efficient and successful processes and tools.


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Agile Manifesto

Value Working software over comprehensive documentation

Overall:• We do care about documentation (and do a LOT of it), but we value working

software more.• Inner Team: Critical for self-esteem, motivation, and passion.• External Teams: Excessive documentation brings about deluded goals and

missed opportunity for transparency and achieving business value.

Specifically:• Important to document purposeful project information• Documenting unused information merely clouds the overall goal and

obscures otherwise obvious collaborative opportunities• Wasted time on documentation that only enhance ambiguity

Benefit:• We do have documentation to lead the project to a successful end, AND

when that end comes, the software works! Best of both worlds


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Part of the Picture


6 PMI Presentation June 16, 2014

Evolution


Evolution


Evolution

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Agile Manifesto

Value Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Overall:• Contract negotiation is important, but customer collaboration is imperative• Inner Team: Hard• External Teams: EXTREMELY HARD

Specifically:• Most important piece of the puzzle• Engagement issues due to Waterfall mentality• Important to establish partnerships • Use/respect methodology to facilitate customer interaction

Benefit:• Success!


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Why Collaboration with ALL Matters

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Agile Manifesto

Value Responding to change over following a plan

Overall:• Plans set the vision, but failure to see change indicates lack of valuable

feedback and failure to respond to change means lack of collaboration• Inner Team: Easy once communication barriers are down• External Teams: Difficult due to rigidity inherent in certain methodologies.

Specifically:• Change is a force for good and should not be seen as failure or poor

planning• Change represents progress• Responding to change requires selfless and a desire to do what is best for

the business

Benefit:• Added value and minimize waste


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Players (Actors)

• Business Customer• Business Analyst• Product Manager• Product Owner• Scrum Master• Technical Lead• Developers• Quality Assurance• Architects (Consult)


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The Journey


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Roadblocks - Language

• Start simple: Greet each other and smile!• Be respectful. Leave your biases at the door• Listen, but don’t be afraid to speak• Use pictures and examples when words fail• Don’t give up!

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.” ― Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Roadblocks - Perception

• Respect Differences• Acknowledge strengths• Unify and move forward• Use each person’s strengths

“Every (person) takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer


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Roadblocks - Commitment

• No one left behind: They will do you no good standing on the shoreline!

• Everyone working toward the same goal• Bickering is counter-productive

• Do not blindly follow; now is the time to bring everything you have to the table

• Think outside the box and innovate

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”

― C.S. Lewis


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Roadblocks – Co-location

• Collaboration can only be established through co-location

• These are HARD concepts to build and deterring avoidance is essential to success

• Perception is difficult to change in the best of circumstances

• To tear down the barriers, the team must interact with each other on a personal level

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” ― Wayne W. Dyer


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Benefits to Overcoming Roadblocks

• Trust• Informed decision making• Good project management• Joint ownership• Working software• Foundation for change• Self-esteem• Mutual respect

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

― Henry Ford


Documents

Why We Like Love Agile Selena Hriz Melissa Branam