Agile for Agencies Leanne Page, Project Manager
2nd April 2014
How to apply agile principles to the agency model.
COMMON THOUGHTS OF AGILE
We can only do water-‐gile in agencies as clients always want dates and
costs.
COMMON THOUGHTS OF AGILE
Agile is for soBware development houses, not for agencies.
COMMON THOUGHTS OF AGILE
It’s a challenge to be fully agile.
COMMON THOUGHTS OF AGILE
OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES
ADOPTED AGILE
How did you go about introducing the methodology? “About two years ago, we used Agile on a project developing func8onality for our website, with a small team of about seven or eight people. The project didn’t go exceedingly well for a number of reasons. We certainly weren’t focused enough on business value, and we didn’t get the right customer engagement. We hadn’t changed the mindset of the business to match the culture of Agile so they were s8ll thinking in a more tradi8onal way, even though we were trying to put itera8ve development in. We learned a lot from that project, about Agile and about how to get the business engagement we needed. At the end of the pilot we decided that Agile was the thing for us but that we hadn’t executed it very well.” Mike Croucher – Head of IT Architecture and Delivery, BriTsh Airways Source: Informa/on Age
Learnings
AGENCY
SUBSIDIARY
A ROAD OF SUCCESS
LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR EVERYONE
INFORMATION
EMPOWERMENT
COLLABORATION
CONSUMERS
MARKETS
BRANDS AGENCY
PRINCIPLES AND VALUES
STANDARDS AND IDEAS
PROMISES
CREATIVITY OWNERSHIP
VELOCITY
RESEARCH
MONEY
IDEAS
OPPORTUNITIES
PEOPLE
PROCESS
CONTROLS
PERCEPTION
POSSIBILITIES
ENERGY INNOVATION
GOALS
OUTSIDE
INFORMATION
EMPOWERMENT
COLLABORATION
DOERS
THINKERS
IDEA GENERATORS COMMON GOAL
INSIDE
INFORMATION
EMPOWERMENT
COLLABORATION
DOERS
THINKERS
IDEA GENERATORS
COMMON GOAL
EDUCATE
ACHEIVEMENT
BUSINESS BOND
INSIDE AGILE
WAYS OF HOW WE DID IT
SENIOR ENGAGEMENT
§ Issued an agency wide survey/interview – drove transforma/onal change
§ Flipped the focus from ‘Command and Control’ to ‘ Climate Control’
§ Introduced monthly company updates, that would share the agencies metrics, profit and loss.
§ Shared passions that were separate to the business.
GEAR SHIFT
SENIOR ENGAGEMENT
§ Improved business alignment – Enhanced ability to manage change
§ Greater sense of teams being heard
§ Investment in training and support
§ Introduced a lab, that business ideas could be built and tested
§ Providing condi/ons to which people can thrive.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER
§ Showcases of peoples work became agency wide and not just kept within the project teams
§ Introduced a quarterly coding events for staffs children – so they can begin to learn
§ Socials that exposed and promoted other talents within the agency – e.g.. Music
§ Created and built their own tools to deliver their products – which was shared with the client.
SMALL ACTIONS
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER § Improved team morale, increased mo/va/on
to ‘shine’ and project visibility across the agency
§ Wider spectrum of achievement and collabora/on -‐ more oXen
§ Celebra/ng various talents of the individual
§ People expressing themselves with new technology.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT
LEARNINGS ON THE BIG STAGE § Retrospec/ves were turned into agency wide
events – a weekly event held by different parts of the agency to increase the flow of informa/on and insight
§ Release sessions were held so business/agency would know what is being released next.
§ Innova/on workshops were created for business and technology synergy. IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE
LEARNINGS ON THE BIG STAGE § Created curiosity within the agency and
sparked learning
§ Agency embraced trial and error § People can provide feedback and ask
ques/ons more oXen § Enhanced project visibility and shared
knowledge
§ Reduced Cost//me as risk mi/ga/on across the agency was stronger at responding to change.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT
WHAT WE SAW HAPPENING
THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR § Mastered the flow of relevant data and
informa/on which improve user and client experience
§ Planning and Resource planning is never rushed
§ Balance and breadth of peoples skills exposed -‐ inves/ng in people becomes a business priority
§ Re-‐evalua/ng project success metrics regularly -‐ increased visibility of the roadmap
ROAD TO MASTERY
EVERY SMALL ACT PUTS SOMETHING BIG IN MOTION
3 THINGS WE CAN DO
Design an operaTon that can test the following aXributes.
CLEAR VISION AND BUSINESS GOALS FOR EVERYONE
PROMOTE EMPOWERMENT
ENABLE CONSISTENT COLLABORATION CREATE OPPORTUNITIES