"I Like that Old Time Rock 'n Roll"

I'm am constantly amazed with the power of first impressions. As much as we may try to avoid it, the initial impressions we get when we're first introduced to a person, place, or idea tend to stick with us for the rest of our lives. This sentiment is embodied in the classic Bob Segal hit, "Old Time Rock and Roll". The song starts with its thesis:

"Just take those old records off the shelf, I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself. Today's music ain't got the same soul; I like that old time Rock 'n Roll"

This same phenomenon happens in Agile as well. When people think of Agile Transformations being hindered by first impressions, they usually jump to those who "didn't do it right", who failed and were left with a bitter taste in their mouth. I would argue that, in the long-term, the more hazardous first impression comes from those who have greater-than-anticipated success with the first thing they try. From that point on Agile is defined solely by what they did the first time.

Let's say your first approach was Scrum - and I mean by-the-Scrum-Guide Scrum. It works so well for you that you scoff at Kanban, DevOps, or anything else that violates your 5 ceremony, 3 role, pure and holy Agile approach. Nevermind that you are supposed to be looking for ways to improve every Sprint. Nevermind that the best way to improve team performance is adjustments to the process, not the people. "I'm sorry, you don't use time boxes?" "How do you plan without using User Stories?" "Clearly you don't know what Agile means."

I find it telling that the first line in the Agile Manifesto states that "we are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it" (AgileManifesto.org, emphasis added). They didn't say that they had uncovered the best way of developing software, they were in the never-ending process of uncovering better ways. They didn't come up with the Manifesto by getting doctorate degrees and jumping into a think tank, they came up with it based on their experiences in doing it and helping others.

I find it highly narcissistic for anyone to have claimed the best way to do anything. Given how long mankind has been on the earth and the fact that nothing has yet been proven beyond improvement, saying that you've "figured it out" means you're either selling something, deluding yourself, or both. Those who really get Agile know that it's about the journey, not the destination. If you keep reliving the glory days of your first Scrum team then you'll never give proper attention to challenging the status quo and innovating the next big idea for delivering software in a better way.

I know, I know, it's hard to give up those first impressions, the glory days, the golden years when everything was perfect and your selective memory hadn't kicked in yet. But you have to if you want long-term success. It's risky business, but somebody's got to do it.

Introspective: Follow-up to Kaizen Questions

I recently wrote a blog post about Asking Kaizen Questions. I saw an example of what may be considered Kaizen Questions on our KAT Board the other day. Let me explain.

We have a large glass board furnished with neon dry erase markers on one of our hallway walls. I don't know what it's official name is, but I call it the KAT Board because it is periodically erased and seeded with one or more questions from our CIO, Karenann Terrell (or KAT for short). Here's the question she posed earlier this month:

"What do you hope to accomplish in 2014?" -- KAT

Once the question is posed, everyone is encouraged to grab markers and write their responses. The other day I walked by and saw this:

"Excellence always. If not excellence, what? If not excellence now, when?"

I saw that and thought, "What excellent examples of Kaizen questions!" They provided a challenge to the status quo and some sense of urgency. I liked it, but I thought it was missing something. I'll come back to that.

Over the past week, I've seen varying levels of engagement at the personal, team, and domain levels, particularly with regard to Agile. As thrilling and exciting as it is to see someone pick Agile up and own it, it is equally frustrating to see someone wait for the organization to transform around them before they decide to act. To take it a step further, it is necessary for each person within a company to own the company's success. If they don't feel that they have a voice or don't see the importance of using that voice, they will eventually outlive their usefulness. Companies with engaged and empowered associates will pass up those whose employees are just there to take orders and get a paycheck.

So I went back to the board and added another question to help deepen both the sense of urgency and personal accountability.

"If not us, who?"

Asking Kaizen Questions

If you've read my previous material you already know that I'm a big proponent of questioning everything - getting to the "Why?" of what we do. What I've realized lately is that simply asking "Why?", though a good start, is not as effective as asking the right "Why?".

We get better by asking questions and acting on the answers. The better the questions, the better the answers. I'm going to refer to the right kind of "Why?" question as Kaizen questions (full disclosure: I don't know if this is already a thing or not, but a basic Google search tells me it's at least not widely used).

Let me give you an example. One question I get a lot from those resistant to Agile is, "Why should I give up Waterfall?" or "Waterfall's always worked for me; why should I stop?" A slightly more open-minded derivative to this question is, "Why should I try Agile?" If we were to take the Kaizen approach and recognize that perfection is unattainable but improvement is always possible, we would ask, "Why should I continue using Waterfall?" or "What other approaches could I use to deliver quality and value to my customers?"

The Kaizen Question doesn't ask how well the current approach is working because there is an inherent understanding that it could be better. It focuses only on the alternatives to what is currently being done. This type of question is crucial for those adopting Agile to ask themselves as they transition. Otherwise, they risk simply moving from a poor status quo to a better status quo.

If you move to Scrum because you asked yourself, "Why should I try Scrum?" then you are more likely to stick with Scrum and never try something new than if you'd started your journey by asking, "Why should I stick with what I'm currently using?" Do you see the distinction?

I would hope that those who try Scrum eventually adopt a Kaizen mindset and continue to evolve regardless of what question originally got them there. Unfortunately, I have seen too many teams move to Scrum, settle in, and fight against later suggestions of Kanban, DevOps, and other emerging practices and processes. The way I see it, any status quo is a bad status quo and should, therefore, always be challenged. What do you think?

Introspective: Moist Robots

I liked this book so much I bought it
for my brother's graduation gift!

One thing you need to know about me is that I'm a huge fan of Mr. Scott Adams of Dilbert fame. Sure his Dilbert comics are funny, but I'm much more fascinated by his non-Dilbert writing. I'm over halfway through his latest book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, and it's a fascinating read. One concept that he's hit on multiple times, both in his book and in past blog posts, is the concept that humans are much more like moist robots than logical, rational beings. What we believe to be free will doesn't actually exist; all choices are determined by a combination of previous experiences, our body's current chemical makeup, environmental conditions, etc.

While I don't fully agree with Mr. Adams on the matter of free will, his hypothesis has tuned me into things that are easy to control and also lead to good decision making (versus leaving choices as hard and having to exert willpower, which is unsustainable). I was able to flesh these thoughts out a little more when a co-worker of mine asked me to revise one of our proposals to Agile2014 in response to the reviews we were getting. Our proposal, entitled "The Secret Sauce of Agile" (I'm open to alternative titles, by the way), builds on Mr. Adam's hypothesis that we are moist robots. I'd love your feedback on it.

Now let's switch gears and talk about how hard it is for lifelong fat people (such as myself) to lose weight. This is another topic that Mr. Adams covers in his book (though I haven't gotten to that part yet). I've had periods of relative health, but it's only considered health relative to the rest of my life. Compared to people who are actually healthy people, I don't think I can say I've ever been healthy. So I've been trying to get healthy by using the concept that we are moist robots. I have been on the lookout for things around me that are easy for me to control which will, in turn, make it easier to make healthy choices.

A lot of the things I am doing are just good sense: don't buy unhealthy food at the grocery store; don't go shopping when I'm hungry; don't carry change and small bills for vending machines; pack my breakfast and lunch; carry a water bottle; keep gym clothes in my vehicle; etc. The idea is to not focus on changing the hard things. I'm not going on a grapefruit juice diet. It's just not going to happen. But I can change a bunch of little things quite easily so that, when the time comes to choose between healthy and unhealthy, I can pick healthy choices while expending the least amount of willpower. After all, we humans have limited willpower to expend daily (some more than others).

This is applicable to everyone and everything. Use this with your Agile teams. What problems are the team having? What small, simple things can be done to prevent those problems from surfacing? What tweaks in the way your team runs can be applied to make it easier for each person to make more Agile choices? Seriously, what? Bring this concept to the table and let me know how it goes!

First (Legit) Introspective: Social Time vs. Quiet Time

Time Vortex, or Arctic Vortex?

The first couple of days this week were surprisingly productive for me. I say surprisingly for two reasons: 1) the "Arctic Vortex" (which totally sounds like something out of Doctor Who) caused school cancellations, along with reduced attendance at work and cancelled meetings; and 2) I still ended up spending almost all day Tuesday in meetings. This means that I was improvising on Monday and having my day planned out for me on Tuesday, neither of which have very good track history for me.

A couple of things made these days productive. First, my team spent some time on Friday to populate our backlog, which was in serious need of grooming. Having work ready for me to pull made it so much easier to fill my time productively. Please note that I'm not saying I'm not productive without a well-groomed backlog of work to do, just not as productive. Second, I had a nice balance between time to work with people, socialize ideas, and have healthy debate, and time to sit quietly at my desk and knock out work that needed to be done.

SERENITY NOW!!!

I've spent the better part of the year encouraging people to work together more: increased collaboration, co-location, pair programming, and the like. So the thought that I needed time to myself to be productive never crossed my mind. It was a weird realization to have, to say the least. I'm glad I had this experience (and even more glad that I took the time to reflect on it) so that I can more easily relate with those who raise concerns about the lack of personal space and private time as their team transitions to Agile. I also need to brainstorm ideas for creating a quiet, private space in the midst of a chaotic, Agile team environment. Any suggestions?

Introspective addendum

As I started today's Introspective I realized something important: Fridays won't work for Introspectives. For starters, I've only had a few days to reflect on this year. Also, I'm much more likely to be off work and/or unfocused on Fridays.

So I'm failing fast and moving my Introspectives to Wednesdays. Now I just need a volunteer to come to my desk each Wednesday and say, "Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike! What day is it?"

New Year's Resolution: Kaizen!

If old acquaintance be forgot and never thought upon then you're not holding retrospectives correctly.

I've never been a fan of making New Year's Resolutions - their short life spans are clichéd for a reason. I've also been reading Scott Adam's new book "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big", and one of the major themes in the book is that goals are for losers; winners use systems. This resonates with the Agile principle of continuous improvement through inspecting and adapting.

So my New Year's Resolution this year is not a goal, but truly a resolution. I resolve to exercise personal Kaizen. Continuous improvement has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember, but it hasn't always carried the urgency associated with Kaizen. I'm going to experiment more so that I can fail more so that I can learn more. I'm going to schedule Introspectives (1-person Retrospectives) on a regular basis whereby I can challenge my own personal status quo.

I wouldn't be an Agile Coach if I didn't encourage each of you to adopt Kaizen as a New Year's resolution as well. If you don't like the commitment associated with that term, can you commit to trying it just for January? Each Friday in January, I challenge you to hold your own Introspective. Ask yourself what you did well and what you could have done better. You may have made good decisions, but did you make the best ones? Did you have an answer for each time you were asked "Why"?

I'll be sharing the results of my own Introspectives every Friday this year. What I share may not be comprehensive, seeing as how I don't have the time to write out all the context for my results, but I'll share as much as I can within reason. I'll also work hard to blog frequently between Introspectives in an attempt to get more of a dialogue going than I've been able to in the past.

If you decide to take on my challenge, please share your results with me. You can comment on my blog, message me on LinkedIn, or tweet me @MLCarey321. I'd love to see the effects of personal Kaizen in your life!

Agile Complements

I was recently asked to explain the relationship between Agile and Innovation. I was intrigued by the question as I've never really tied the two together. In thinking about it, I've concluded that Agile complements many things, but it doesn't necessarily drive any of them.

The Role of Practices

The Agile Manifesto clearly states that one who considers themselves Agile values "Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools". However, we know that there is some value inherent in Processes and Tools, primarily in the behaviors that they reinforce. Given it's popularity, let's take Scrum as an example. Scrum has a highly prescriptive process that still manages to leave a lot up to the team. Sprint Planning reinforces commitments and transparency; the Daily Scrum reinforces face-to-face communication and self-managing teams; Sprint Reviews reinforce feedback loops within the team, as well as with stakeholders and customers; Sprint Retrospectives reinforce continuous improvement; the Sprints themselves reinforce small time-boxes; and on and on and on.

If you want to reinforce something positive at work, whether it be innovation, elimination of waste, any of the items listed below, or pretty much anything else, you can find an Agile process, tool, or practice that will reinforce it. With Innovation, you can take the practices of Capacity Allocation and Spikes to explicitly include time and effort for innovation into your process. This is assuming we're talking about developing innovative things, in addition to a Retrospective or other feedback mechanism for innovating the process and team themselves.

However, it is possible - and happens all too frequently - that teams adopt these processes, tools, and practices superficially, thus obtaining little, if any, of the intended benefit. In order to effectively reinforce behaviors, those behaviors have to already exist as part of your culture.

The Role of Culture

I've blogged multiple times about the difference between doing Agile things and "Being Agile" ("Agile: The Book vs. The Movie", "Understanding the 'Why?'", "Descriptive versus Prescriptive", "I Madge I'll - Agile Posers", etc). To deliver the best results possible, your team has to be Agile - they can't just superficially adopt an Agile implementation. When asked to explain Agile, they should go to the manifesto first and the day-to-day second. At the risk of getting too theological, Agility is a state of being and influences all aspects of a person's life (at least at work). Simply put, you have to establish a culture of Agility, where the principles are embedded in your company's DNA.

The same is true of Innovation or anything else. When people think of innovative companies they think of companies that have a culture of Innovation. Innovating isn't something you do as much as it's part of who you are. Of course their processes, tools, and practices reinforce Innovation, but that's a byproduct of something deeper.

As I said before, you can use tools from the Agile toolbox to help drive Innovation, but it can't just be lip service. If your company was built on Innovation (and it probably was) then get back to your roots and tell that story; remind people where they came from. Make Innovating seem natural, like coming home and eating comfort food.

No Silver Bullet

I'm going to be going more in-depth in the coming months on the idea that no one Agile implementation should be seen as a Silver Bullet. Before you implement anything, ask yourself "Why?"; what result or behavior are you hoping to get from it? Understand that different Agile processes, practices, and tools have their own strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes you'll have to blend different solutions to make something new that fits your needs. Sometimes you'll have to invent something that hasn't been done before. Most importantly, you will always have to examine what you're doing and ask what you need to change to be better. Keep the mantra "Never Perfect; Always Better".

Can Agile help drive Innovation? Sure. But some approaches will do that better than others. Begin with the end in mind, but remember that this is a journey and you don't know what you don't know. Be willing to adapt, but don't lose sight of your vision. If it sounds hard, that's because it is; if this were easy then we wouldn't be having this conversation!

What do you think?

Seriously, what do you think? Please tell me! I really don't like the "thought leader in a vacuum" setup. What I've shared here is the result of my learning and experience, but I recognize I don't know everything. I crave the perspectives of others. I want your insights, suggestions, criticisms, reinforcements - all of it. Leave a comment or tweet me @MLCarey321.

The Best Lesson I Learned the Hard Way

Let me preface this by saying I do not recommend learning lessons the hard way. There's a wealth of human experience out there to learn from before you go off and make the same bone-headed mistakes. However, bone-headed mistakes will be made regardless of how cautious you are. In those cases, please go into it with a Fail-Fast, Kaizen mindset so that the mistake becomes a short-lived learning experience.

The Almighty PM

I've made a lot of mistakes in life, which means I've learned a lot of lessons “the hard way”. The one such lesson that has had the most impact on my current work life took place my senior year of college. I was in a capstone class where we were to organize ourselves into a real software team to develop a real-life application on top of a new API that we had Beta access to. We were given a little guidance, including how previous classes and many companies organize themselves, but told we could do whatever we wanted. We ended up with a very “traditional” model of a few Dev teams, a few Testing teams, an Architect, and the one Project Manager to rule them all.

I was eager to prove myself, so I went for the PM position (oddly enough, I didn't really have any competition from my obviously more self-aware classmates). The problem is Computer Science majors in their fourth (okay sixth) year of study haven't usually had any PM classes or experience. My architect laid out the architecture, lots of open source Java, wikis, subversion, etc, and the class was excited to get started. However, I was concerned about how to manage the work, as well as expectations. I started demanding individual Gantt charts up-front for the duration of the semester. I was asking each team lead to compile the Gantt for their team and report that to me so I could put it all together.

The Blind Leading the Competent

Basically, I was trying to command-and-control manage a team of part-time team members, all of whom were taking at least 12 hours that semester and had limited time to spend on this class. Of that limited time, I was asking an unreasonable amount of time on administrative work. My architect was an excellent “Yes Man”, which made it difficult for me to see what I was doing wrong. The tipping point came when we weren't getting the information we were asking for from the teams and we were way behind where we expected to be on the application. Our professor was pulled away for a class and gave me the option of keeping the class time or giving everyone the day off. My architect decided, with my blessing, to use that time to express our mutual disappointment with the team and shame them into getting their act together.

I knew it was all over when the architect started his oratory with something to the effect of “By the time I finish talking you should all be mad at me, and that's okay because I'm mad at you.” It was a horrible hour and ended with our organization in shambles. I was a broken, broken man who was certain I was going to fail the class.

A Lesson in Servant Leadership

Then one of the testing team leads asked if he could meet with me to talk through things. He kindly and patiently explained why what we did was so stupid and counter-productive. He told me that the teams needed a cheerleader, not a dictator. He asked me to spend time with the individuals on the teams. He wanted me to spend more time in face-to-face conversations instead of mass emails. He wanted me to understand how hard the class was working to accomplish a common goal so that I would stop wasting their time with unnecessary busy work. He wanted me to focus on listening and removing roadblocks. He is now, unsurprisingly, a manager at Amazon, and someone I still hold in high regard.

I didn't fail the class because the objective of the class wasn't to develop a fixed scope within fixed time and budget. My wise professor wanted us to experience real-world project work as best we could in an academic setting and learn from it. He saw me try to turn things around at the end and knew that I had seen the error of my ways. He knew that I had learned my lesson, albeit the hard way.

Lesson Learned

So what lesson did I learn? To be honest, I initially thought that the lesson I was supposed to learn was that I suck at Project Management. I could not be trusted with leading a project to completion. I could code well and kinda sorta test, but the realm of Project Management was beyond my grasp.

This lesson was reinforced when I entered the workforce a few months later and saw command-and-control PMs leading projects “correctly”. These were professionals who did not go on rants against their developers and testers. They were not perfect, but they did their best to make things work in alignment with the command-and-control, iron triangle, Waterfall-driven style they were trained to use. Despite their best efforts, I found myself in War Rooms quite frequently, and my wife learned to not expect to see me in the months surrounding a Production install. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was living through the hell that I had just put my classmates through.

Of course, that wasn't the PM's fault. As I said, they were doing the best they could, and we were doing the best we could. The problems were much deeper than any one individual. We had to change the way we work, starting by not only recognizing but emphasizing the human element of software development.

The real lesson is that command-and-control Project Management doesn't work. Had I taken the time to understand Lean/Agile development processes and practices, I could have done a decent job as a Scrum Master or Agile Servant Leader in my capstone class. I might have even done some coding and testing alongside my cross-functional Agile development team(s). Even before I learned that lesson, I learned the importance of being a cheerleader. I have always striven to let the teams I've worked with know what a great job they're doing and how much I appreciate them. I haven't always succeeded, but that pep talk I received my final year of college never left me.

Once I realized that what I was experiencing in corporate life was essentially the same as that capstone class, I vowed to change things. I delved into the world of Lean and Agile and brought the things I learned back to my area. To many people it looks like I've picked it up extremely quickly; in reality, I've been learning this lesson for at least six years. If anything, I'm ashamed it took this long to finally “click”.

Muscle Memory vs. Muscle Confusion

The most popular Agile methodology in practice today is Scrum, which relies heavily on ceremonies. Any decent Agile coach working with a new Scrum team will drill these ceremonies into them in an effort to get the most out of the framework. They drive cadence, alignment, continuous improvement, transparency, etc. One of the big benefits of doing this is that it becomes a part of their routine. They no longer have to figure out how they're going to align on a daily basis; plan their work; communicate with their customer; inspect and adapt; etc. All of those things are "baked in" to the framework. Because there's so little prescribed, it's easy to pick up and repeat forever. By making those things rote, you develop a sort of Agile "muscle memory".

Wax on, wax off, stand up for 15 minutes

Muscle memory is a condition where a task is repeated so frequently that it can be performed unconsciously. Just think of Mr. Miagi and Daniel-san in The Karate Kid. Mr. Miagi had a lot of landscaping work to be done, and Daniel wanted to learn Karate. As luck would have it, the motions required of a Karate black belt are the same as sanding decks, staining fences, and washing cars - who knew? Right as Daniel is ready to throw in the towel, Mr. Miagi attacks him Daniel's muscle memory kicks in to save himself from being pounded by a Karate master. Likewise, those Scrum ceremonies become reflexive and help new Agile practitioners focus on the hard task of developing new software instead of thinking about how they're going to go about "Being Agile".

However, too much of a good thing can be bad. Once that muscle memory kicks in, it makes it harder for our Agile "muscles" to grow. The body has optimized how to do the repetitive thing, and doing it more doesn't really result in any added strength. This is a problem that strength trainers and body builders are familiar with. Your workout routine can't be too routine or you'll plateau. You have to introduce what's called "muscle confusion".

Muscle confusion is the concept of varying the types of exercises you do, as well as the number of sets and reps of those exercises, to avoid muscle memory and keep building muscle by tearing it and letting it repair stronger. If muscle memory kicks in then it becomes harder to tear the muscles. You see this concept manifest in workout regimens such as P90X and Cross Fit. One of the difficult things to get right, though, is the right amount of muscle confusion. Switching 100% of your exercises 100% of the time won't get you optimal performance.

I liken muscle confusion to a Kaizen mindset in Agile. You have to have an urgency about change, but it has to be small, incremental change in order to be effective. Change too little and muscle memory sets in - boring scrums, useless retros, tedious planning, etc. Change too much and the disruption causes everything to start falling apart.

P90X and Cross Fit are not for everyone. You will have to determine as a team how much change you can handle on a sprint by sprint basis. Some will change almost daily, others will be lucky to successfully adapt on one thing per sprint. As long as you're being honest with yourselves, that's fine. Just beware of muscle memory and muscle confusion. Optimize the change, and there are no limits to how much you can grow your Agile strength.

I Madge I'll - Agile Posers

When I meet someone who wants to talk about Agile I start by asking, "What do you know about Agile?" Most of the time I begin to hear those key buzzwords the newly indoctrinated are so proud to spout off: "It's where, instead of Waterfall," said with a grin and a wink, "your scrum has sprints and they stand up and there's no requirements and you demo and it's amazing!" I often think to myself, "Seriously? Why do these people think this?" So recently I decided to apply Occam's Razor and ask what the simplest answer is. My conclusion? Somebody told them this.

Consultant Speak*

Okay, so I don't think anyone told them something quite so incoherent as what I put, but they definitely started out with 1) a specific methodology in mind, almost certainly Scrum, and 2) an unholy amount of buzzwords and Agile vocabulary to accentuate just how different Agile is from the dreaded Waterfall. I get it - you're probably (relatively) new to Scrum and you're super excited about it and want the whole world to know how it changed your life. Unless, of course, you're a consultant who's trying to confuse a potential client into throwing money at you to turn their IT shop around. Tsk, tsk.

"...It's Not What You SAY, It's What You HEAR!"

The problem is these people don't know what Agile is. They don't fully understand what it is they're saying. All they know is that if they keep saying certain words with enough conviction then people will think they know what they're talking about. It reminds me of the game "Mad Gab". In case you're not familiar, players in the game read words on a card that don't really make any sense. They're not supposed to. The words on the cards, said with the correct inflection and pacing, are supposed to sound just like a commonplace phrase that your team is trying to guess. For example, these new, hopeful, and largely ignorant future Agilists are saying "I Madge I'll" in hopes that you'll hear "I'm Agile"! The problem is they aren't.

Agile Posers

I was recently working with a fellow Agile Coach (I know, I don't care for the term, either, but I'm not sure what else to call him) and we were collaboratively taking notes via Google Docs. On occasion we would have an impromptu discussion in the document due to a tangent that our notes took us on. One such tangential conversation was about Agile Posers. It went a little something like this:

"‘how to spot an agile poser’ (consultant-speak?)

1.one who pretends to be someone who's not. 2. who tries to fit in but with exaggeration
urban dictionaryl33t speakpwned you, you poser

'5. Someone whos acts like someone they’re not,but not realizing that there being fake, basically a loser trying to fit in.' - UrbanDictionary.com

'6. A poser is someone who tries hard to be something they arent. Usually, posers call other people posers because they are jealous that the person they called a poser is more skater/stoner/goth/punk/rocker/grunge/Agile/etc. than they will ever be.' - UrbanDictionary.com

posers often fool themselves first.  they aren't always (deliberately) not

ask probing questions.  why do you like it, what was good, test their belief."

On the off-chance any of my readers are Trekkies...

Our conversation went on to include things such as mining for conflict and Open Space sessions as means to help draw out and coach Agile posers. Take another look at definition #5. These are the people I'm talking about here. Those who want to be Agile, who hear about it and crave to belong. They'll ask anyone who claims to be Agile what that means and they'll cling to whatever they're told. So what's the take-away here? Tell them the right thing!

Being Agile vs. Doing Scrum

When people ask me what Agile is, I always go to the Manifesto and backing Principles first. I emphasize over and again that Agile is a way of thinking, a paradigm, a perspective, an approach. Yes, there are implementations and yes, Scrum is the most popular by far and yes, there are those who will tell you that the definition of Agile is Scrum. I'm here to tell you that it's not.

So what's the harm in people thinking Agile is just Scrum? Scrum's not all that bad. Of course it's not. I love Scrum, it's helped my organization tremendously. The problem with believing that Agile is just Scrum is it sends you on a quest to be the best implementer of a set of practices. Your Retros will eventually dry up because you can't get any more Scrum-like. But you'll keep doing them because "that's Scrum." You have to understand why Scrum is set up the way it is. Why you're asked to perform certain ceremonies. You have to know in what direction to Adapt when you Inspect in your Retros. And, most importantly, you have to be willing to break the rules like an artist once you've mastered them. You have to be willing to try things that are not in the Scrum Guide. You need Kaizen!

I'm Right!.. Am I Right?

As per usual, I don't have much to go on here other than my experiences and the stories I hear from others. So I want to know: What does being an "Agile Poser" mean to you? Have you experienced those "Mad Gab" Agile enthusiasts? Have I hit the mark on being Agile versus doing Scrum, or am I way off base? I want to know what you think, and I want to use your ideas to make myself better (being completely transparent here). Please leave a comment or shoot me a message on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from you.



* I received some feedback that this post was offensive to consultants. I would like to clarify that I am not trying to group all consultants together and say that they are all this way. I am basing this on conversations I've had with people who were introduced to Agile by these types of consultants; observations from a friend who is a former consultant; and my first-hand experience with sub-par consultants. I know there are amazing consultants out there - I've met them, too, and admire the work they do - but there are an alarming number of consultants out there who do fit this bill.

Descriptive versus Prescriptive

“Imposing an agile process from the outside strips the team of the self-determination which is at the heart of agile thinking.” -Martin Fowler, Agile Manifesto signatory, from his October 2006 blog post, “Agile Imposition”

As a member of the SAFe community, I've heard and experienced a lot of concern and displeasure with what is perceived as a highly prescriptive Agile framework. However, having actually met and worked with Dean, Colin, and Alex, I have never felt they were trying to shove a framework down my throat. To me it felt more like "your organization is new to Agile and we come with decades of experience; try this framework on, including all of these recommended practices, see how it fits, then tailor it accordingly." Granted, that vibe came from face-to-face conversations, not websites and white papers.

This problem is not unique to SAFe. Pure Agilists have always pushed for a more "hands-off" approach. It's interesting to me how married some of agilists become to a certain methodology - conversations with these people usually boil down to "you should let people do whatever they want, but if you're a good coach and they really get the principles then they're most likely going to go with my favorite methodology." This is often coupled with, "I also offer Agile Coaching services..." The problem is, they've got a point about the coaching. You can't leave teams all to themselves; you have to support them somehow. I'm not saying all Agile teams need a dedicated Agile Coach, but they need the resources necessary to ensure the direction in which they adapt is in accordance with Agile principles and the environment that will support them when (not if) they fail.

Many of my thoughts on this subject have recently been affected by the information I was recently exposed to at OpenAgileAdoption.com. One of the references cited is Martin Fowler's "Agile Imposition" - an article written nearly seven years ago and more relevant now than ever before. Of course, Fowler and Open Agile Adoption are both focused more on organizational transformation than prescriptive frameworks, but I think the principles still apply. It all boils down to enacting change through influence but without mandate. It's a principle that every good Scrum Master is already familiar with - Servant Leadership. You've got to not only lead the horse to water but get them to realize just how parched they are!

So how do you do this within the context of a framework? My opinion: change the way you say what you're trying to say. More specifically, make it clear why you recommend certain practices, when they're relevant and highly likely to improve results, and when it might make sense to try something else. You're still going to lay out the recommended practices, but you'll be taking a descriptive approach to explaining them rather than a prescriptive approach.

The Scrum Alliance uses the term "Common Practices" instead of "Best Practices" to describe what would traditionally be considered "Best Practices". By changing the term they change the reader's perception. They're not saying "you need to do this or you can't be considered among the 'best'"; they're saying "this is something that a lot of people do in this situation, and here's why." That's the approach the entire industry needs to be taking. I would bet that many framework authors already think that way. The problem is that way of thinking is not reflected in their writings.

What do you think? Does this resonate, or am I way off base? How would you expect websites and other communication regarding what are typically seen as "prescriptive frameworks" to change to be more in line with a descriptive approach?

Taming the Wild West: the Differences between Agile and Cowboy Coding

One of the strongest arguments for Agile is that it’s not Waterfall. However, not everything that isn't Waterfall is Agile, a fact that’s not always understood. This misunderstanding hurts the Agile brand when people familiar with only Waterfall begin associating all other methodologies, including a lack thereof, as Agile. I want to be very clear about this: Agile is not Cowboy Coding, and Cowboy Coding is not unique to Agile teams. It is important both to understand how Agile and Cowboy Coding are different and what Cowboy Coding looks like so that you can identify it on your teams (yes, even Waterfall teams).

The Loner

One of the easiest signs of a Cowboy Coder is that he’s a loner. He may be working under the name of Agile, but there are no Agile methodologies or frameworks I’m aware of that support such behavior. In fact, the backing principles of the Agile Manifesto state, “Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project”; “Build projects around motivated individuals”; “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation”; “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams”; and “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” The manifesto, its principles, and all Agile methodologies and frameworks I know of are very human-centered with an emphasis on collaboration.

If you have a loner on your team that insists on working in a silo, there’s a possibility that you have a cowboy in your midst. Try to rein them in using mandatory meeting/ceremonies that promote meaningful conversations and practices like Pair Programming. If they absolutely refuse then you will likely end up spending considerable time managing the work around them – holding ad hoc conversations, formal code reviews, knowledge transfer workshops, etc. – with diminishing returns.

Straight to Production

Working directly with Production code or with a source code repository that isn't versioned is a bad idea. Don’t get me wrong, I love Continuous Delivery and working off the trunk, but a software development team must be very mature and disciplined to make this work. They use feature toggles and branching by abstraction to protect code that isn’t ready for Production. They build test suites around the code so that each commit is verified against regression. They do their due diligence to make sure that a change isn't going to blow up if it’s pushed to Production. Cowboys, simply put, don’t.

If you find yourself consistently in a situation where the same person or people are making changes directly to Production without due diligence then you might just be working with Cowboys. Have them read up on DevOps and Continuous Delivery so they can learn the right way to get changes to Production quickly. Emergency situations that require quick, non-vetted changes to Production should be avoided at all costs.

Wastes of Time

The Cowboy will often refer to Testing and Documentation as a waste of time. They may even commit the cardinal sin of Agile, reciting the Manifesto blasphemously: “‘Working software is the primary measure of progress’; anything else is just a waste of time!” To those people, I would ask them to define “working”. Does it pass the Acceptance Criteria associated to the work (or did you even bother to ensure you had Acceptance Criteria)? Can anybody actually use it, or is it too buggy or complex? Is anyone other than yourself aware of the assumptions made around input, output, workflow, etc.?

Without proper testing and documentation, you can’t prove your software works nor can anybody understand how it works. With that being said, if your tests and documentation don’t contribute to the value and usability of the software then they are, in fact, a waste of time. Focus your testing efforts on tests that actually stand a chance of failing and finding vulnerabilities. Don’t spin your wheels creating “write-only” documentation. This is the approach that Agile espouses; anyone who says tests and documentation are altogether useless is operating with a Cowboy mindset, not an Agile one.

“Emergent Architecture”

One of the backing principles to the Agile Manifesto states “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams”. There are those who believe this means “just make it up as you go.” That’s not entirely accurate. There still needs to be intelligent design, and that design needs to make the software as easy to comprehend and maintain as possible. As another principle clarifies, “Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.” This means having a thorough understanding of the latest design patterns and practices. It means taking the time to refactor working code into something better. It means taking a little bit of time up-front to design what you think will work and adjusting as you go.

Agile developers do not shoot from the hip. They take pride in their applications; they have a sense of ownership. They will throw research spikes, read books, build proofs-of-concept, attend conferences – do what it takes to build the right thing in the right way. You’ll spot a Cowboy by their purposeful lack of direction, sticking code wherever they please with the sole purpose of “getting something to work” so they can move on to the next thing. If they do it in the name of “emergent architecture” then call shenanigans. That’s not architecture, it’s just reckless.

Somewhere to Hang their Hat

The good news is that cowboys can be tamed if they can come to appreciate the practices, tools, and frameworks that Agile provides. Cowboys won’t jump on the bandwagon just for the heck of it. There will always be some that refuse to be tamed, but many will see the benefits and forsake their wandering ways once you give them a safe place to hang their hat.

One of the great things about reformed Cowboys is they are used to developing quickly and cross-functionally. If you arm them with XP practices, Agile tools, a Kaizen mindset, and continued training and development, they can become model developers that contribute quality software time after time.

Just don’t make the mistake of trying to get them to do something for which there is no tangible benefit. They don’t take too kindly to that.

Understanding the “Why?”

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where –" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"– so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

I've written a couple of blog posts on understanding the principles of Agile, the “book version”, as it were, in order to achieve the success that is associated with Agile. If you've been in the Agile arena for any significant amount of time, you know there are a lot of disagreements as to the “How” of Agile. There are many different methodologies, frameworks, tools, and practices out there to support Agile teams. Some believe this is because people simply disagree on how to best implement Agile and, in some cases, this is true. Others understand Agile was never intended to be “One Size Fits All”. There are many options because there are many teams and each team must determine what solution works best for them – and evolve that solution over time in the spirit of Continuous Improvement.

This means you cannot determine “How” you want to implement Agile until you understand the needs of the team. “We need to have a Daily Scrum.” Why? If you can’t answer this then it’s not going to bring as much benefit as it should. If you understand the Daily Scrum as a touch-point to align across team members; identify risks and dependencies the team is encountering; and jump-start communication that will occur throughout the day then it becomes a stale and stagnant status update meeting.

My recommendation to Agile teams, and all human beings for that matter, is to not adopt something without understanding the “Why?” behind it. True Agile teams do not do things for the sake of doing them. They do them for a reason and nothing is sacred; if a tool or practice outlives its usefulness then it must be “put out to pasture” so as to not get in the way of the team’s continued growth. By regularly re-evaluating the usefulness of your current implementation, you also get the benefit of being open to new things. No matter how good your team is, they will never be as good as the team they could be.

People vs. Process ... vs. Principles

“Be firm on principle but flexible on method.”

-- Zig Ziglar

Until recently, I have observed the difficulties and issues manifested in the work environment and debated, both with myself and with peers, whether the root cause was the people being unskilled or unmotivated or the lack of a quality process. It was not until recently that I have come to realize that it is the founding principles on which we operate that makes the biggest difference in how successful we are.

When debating people versus process, the argument for people is that good people seem capable of producing amazing results regardless of process. However, I’ve seen great people time and again be suppressed by poor process, being forced into inefficiency for the sake of policy. In grass-roots meetings and informal conversations, both within my company and in conversations with others across the industry, I hear complaints of red tape, write-only documents, and wasteful tools and bureaucracy that dishearten and discourage talented people. At best, people are being forced to work below their capabilities. At worst, people are lost to another company that doesn’t include such roadblocks.

On the other hand, a good process can, ideally, bring a team to a hyper-performing state quickly and keep them there, while poor processes seem to only be good for shielding people from the ugly truth. Processes, policies, methodologies, and frameworks that emphasize value and seek to eliminate waste tend to bring out the best in people. The downside is that the best processes expose weaknesses within the team and force them to confront their demons. If the problem is the people are not skilled or committed enough then they may not be willing to put in the effort required to get the team to where they need to be. The best case scenario is the team members who are unwilling to change leave to free up the rest of the team to reach their potential, while the worst case is they stay and cause the team to drag and stagnate.

Neither of these seems to get to root cause, so let us consider the principles that form the foundation for people’s decisions and behaviors. When considering founding principles as the root cause, it is necessary to start with two assumptions. The first is that the people doing the work are genuinely doing the best they can with what they have. It may be somewhat altruistic, but I believe it is true for most people. The next assumption is that these same people are working with a process and in an environment that allows for and even encourages continuous improvement. Whether it’s explicit or not, people tend to adapt the way they work over time, based on their experiences and their guiding principles.

If my assumptions hold true, and my experience tells me they do, then those guiding principles that determine in which direction the process evolves are the most important factor in driving productivity, efficiency, and morale. The founders of the Agile Manifesto understood this. They came from various backgrounds exercising various forms of what are now considered Agile Methodologies. They did not define any specific process for success – instead, they defined a mindset, a paradigm, for approaching Software Development. They backed this manifesto with 12 principles, only one of which pertains to the type of people that are needed to be successful:

“Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.”

The only qualification they state is that the individuals be motivated. Surely some people are inherently more driven than others, but, for the most part, motivation is something that can be fostered by the culture and environment that the individual is operating in. The other 11 principles provide great insight into how those people should work as well as what should be done to support those people in their pursuit of high quality Software Delivery. If people have learned and accepted these principles then they will recognize how important and urgent it is for them to improve individually, not just as a team. It is not a character flaw to admit imperfection – indeed; it is the manifestation of character that one can admit to room for improvement.

The Agile Manifesto is not the only source of correct principles. There are many books and courses in existence that focus on this very subject. The whole premise of Lean Six Sigma is there are solid principles that can be applied in any situation to eliminate waste and reduce delay. I think Lean, Agile, and Product Development Flow principles are the most crucial to our combined success, but I recognize that there are others. What I would like for you to ask yourself is, “What are my guiding principles? When things get uncomfortable, how do I evolve the way I work?”

Why is this important? Because too often we pick up a new process hoping it will be our Silver Bullet, the solution for all our problems, the answer to all our prayers. But we adopt these processes without taking the time to understand the principles on which they were founded. As a result, we bend the process to fit what we are comfortable with and lose much, if not all, of the benefit the process could have afforded us. This mistake of adopting a process without adopting its defining principles is what I’ve referred to previously as the “Movie Version” of that process as opposed to the “Book Version”, and the book is always better than the movie.

Only by taking the time to understand correct principles will we be able to govern ourselves most effectively. As Blaine Lee said, “The principles you live by create the world you live in; if you change the principles you live by, you will change your world.”

Bottlenecks: the Enemy of Agility

I am the Release Train Engineer for one of my company’s first Release Trains. One of my early struggles when we first adopted the Scaled Agile Framework was understanding what the responsibility of the System Team was and how to concisely articulate it to others. That understanding finally came during the Quick Start event where I heard Alex Yakyma say the System Team identifies, manages, and eliminates bottlenecks. What a powerfully simple mission! I’ve since dedicated time to understanding and helping the team understand what that means, and this is what I’ve come up with so far.

First, how do you identify a bottleneck and what does it mean to be a bottleneck? Sometimes this can be rather obvious, but often it is difficult to separate the symptoms from the root cause. This can be a process, practice, culture, etc. I have come up with a process to help myself and my System Team identify bottlenecks.

First, envision what it would be like if we could deploy to Production a dozen or more times per day. Not that we would, necessarily, but what would it take to be able to roll new functionality to Production the same day we get the request? Second, document our current process and lead time from conception to Production. Third, identify the gaps between our current process and the ideal of Continuous Delivery.

If you find yourself defining symptoms and not the root cause, start using a Lean perspective and start asking “Why?” For example:

“It takes too long to get a package to Production once it’s been approved.”
“Why?” “Because we have to find someone who has the bandwidth to get it deployed.”
“Why?” “Because we do not have an automated deploy process in place.”
“Why?” “Because our application runs on WebSphere in a Mainframe environment, and we can’t set up auto-deploy until it’s migrated to a Linux environment.”

Here we have identified the primary bottleneck – the environment on which our application lives in Production – by asking 3 “Why”s. Expect to ask as many as 5 “Why”s before getting to root cause.

Next, we need to time box the bottleneck. This basically means you’re going to work with what you have for the time being and basically “deal with it”. This is a temporary phase until you are able to eliminate the bottleneck. You should have a timeframe for how long it is acceptable to manage a given bottleneck and hold yourself to that timeframe. You may not always meet your goal, but time boxing is the first step in giving the bottleneck some form of finality.

Last, we need to eliminate the bottleneck. The easiest solution is to just do away with it – stop doing it outright. This is also usually the least feasible. The best solution is usually automation, simplification, or combination. If you can automate it, automate it! This way you’re not diminishing the task, you’re making it take less time. If you can’t automate it, see if you can apply Lean thinking and simplify it somehow. Can you get what you really need with less? Agile encourages just-in-time and just-enough to limit the amount of waste we allow in the software development process. One of the backing principles to the manifesto states “Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential”. Finally, if you can’t automate or simplify the task, see if you can combine it with another task to “kill two birds with one stone”. Pair Programming, an XP practice, is a great example of this – you’re essentially rolling your development, code review, and knowledge sharing all into one activity that typically doesn’t take any longer than development normally would.

Once you’ve eliminated one bottleneck, repeat the process indefinitely. Kaizen mindset tells us there’s always room for improvement and it’s always urgent that we improve. By all means, take the time to acknowledge and celebrate your improvement, but don’t get complacent.