Earl Everett, Senior Agile Coach - PDF document

Who am I?  Earl Everett, Senior Agile Coach with Agile Velocity  Previously Director of QA & Agile Practices with HP’s Enterprise Cloud Services  Director, Manager, Developer, Tester  1 st professional software experience in 1971  1 st agile experience in 1973  Have rolled out Scrum and/or Kanban in four companies, and rebooted in one ( all achieved a hyper - productive state) Recovering PMI Member Class Warm - up Exercise Class Warm - up Exercise  Imagine you’ve just stepped out of a time machine.  It is 11:00 a .m. CDT, today, March 21 st , 2014 Korea, 1951 Vietnam, 1968 “The Green Spot” 30,000 ft. AGL 100 miles north of Las Vegas mid - 1950’s OODA Loop  O bserve  O rient  D ecide  A ct End of Sprint Deliverables Adaptive Teams are a main ingredient of Scrum’s ’secret sauce’ What are the signs of an adaptive Team?  The members of the team works together for long periods of time every day.  They are aware of what each one is doing from day - to - day and even hour - to - hour.  Members have no fear of asking for help and many times don’t need to ask, it just comes.  Members trust each other to do the right thing, feel able to honestly express problems and receive negative content in full assumption of positive intent.  New work is discussed and planned with the whole team involved.  If one member fails, the whole team takes responsibility.  If one member succeeds, that member will praise the team for the work. End of Sprint Deliverables Adaptive ( self - organizing, self - disciplined ) Teams are built and nurtured, not born. Have you ever been part of a retrospective that was:  Boring?  Repetitive?  A waste of time? Or a retrospective that was lacking in  buy - in?  focus?  participation?  meaningful insight?  follow - up or follow - through? Have you ever seen retrospectives designed to help the team actually think, learn, and decide together? A Retrospective Template 1. Set the stage / establish safety 2. Gather data 3. Generate insights 4. Consolidate and prioritize the ideas 5. Decide what to do 6. Appreciations 7. Close the retrospective Set the stage / establish safety 1. Establish safety as needed 1. The Retrospective Prime Directive The 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. -- Norman L. Kerth The Safety / Learning pyramid Set the stage / establish safety 1. Establish safety as needed 1. The Retrospective Prime Directive 2. Safety Exercise(s) Level Description Comment 4 Secure Everything is discussable without filtering 3 Safe Almost everything is discussable without filtering 2 Neutral Most things are discussable without filtering 1 Dangerous Many of my best ideas are not discussable 0 Treacherous Most of my best ideas are not discussable A Safety Check exercise See http ://stevenmsmith.com/ar - safety - check / for more information Description Comment Explorers Are e ager to discover new ideas and insights. They w ant to learn everything they can about the iteration/release/project. Shoppers They w ill look over all the available information, and will be happy to go home with one useful new idea. Vacationers They a ren’t interested in the work of the retrospective, but are happy to be away from the daily grind. Prisoners They f eel that they’ve been forced to attend and would rather be doing something else. ESVP Exercise Level Description Comment 4 Secure Everything is discussable without filtering XXXX 3 Safe Almost everything is discussable without filtering XXXXXXXX 2 Neutral Most things are discussable without filtering XX 1 Dangerous Many of my best ideas are not discussable 0 Treacherous Most of my best ideas are not discussable Description Comment Explorers Are e ager to discover new ideas and insights. They w ant to learn everything they can about the iteration/release/project. XXXXXXXXXXXX Shoppers They w ill look over all the available information, and will be happy to go home with one useful new idea. X Vacationers They a ren’t interested in the work of the retrospective, but are happy to be away from the daily grind. Prisoners They f eel that they’ve been forced to attend and would rather be doing something else. X Set the stage / establish safety 1. Establish safety as needed 1. The Retrospective Prime Directive 2. Safety Exercise(s) 3. Share the plan for the retrospective 4. Establish, review, or repurpose working agreements Gather data Record a shared set of data Consider objective and subjective data Separate facts / opinions The retrospective focus guides what data is relevant for the retrospective Generate insights  Purpose:  Move beyond habitual thinking  Observe patterns  Understand root causes and influences  Develop a shared awareness  Observe / understand systemic effects Consolidate and prioritize the ideas Decide what to do  Focus on what the team can accomplish  Determine one or two actions or experiments  Don’t necessarily focus on what is ”most important” Appreciations ”A simple thank you can make a difference; appreciation builds good will, and reminds people that they are valued as human beings, not just as CPUs (Code Producing Units) or FTEs (Full Time Equivalents ).” -- Esther Derby Close the retrospective  Purpose:  Recap agreed - upon actions, actors (if needed), and follow - up  Identify ways to improve the next retrospective (retrospect the retrospective) We’ve only got 30 minutes – 1. Set the stage / establish safety 2. Gather data 3. Generate insights 4. Consolidate and prioritize the ideas 5. Decide what to do 6. Appreciations 7. Close the retrospective Seriously, is all this ”stuff” really needed?  Some ineffective retrospectives start in the middle, asking the group what they did well, and what they should do differently.  ”What are we doing well?” asks for insights, in the absence of shared data  ”What should we do differently?” asks for conclusions in the absence of shared data or analysis Every retrospective should be unique  Choose a focus that represents what’s going on for the team  Identify data that will help the team sort through things  Select activities that will enable all members of the team to participate, and think, learn, and decide together  Learn from mistakes – regroup and forge ahead  Don’t get in a rut – switch things up  Provide sufficient time to think and innovate What are the signs of an adaptive Team?  The members of the team works together for long periods of time every day.  They are aware of what each one is doing from day - to - day and even hour - to - hour.  Members have no fear of asking for help and many times don’t need to ask, it just comes.  Members trust each other to do the right thing, feel able to honestly express problems and receive negative content in full assumption of positive intent.  New work is discussed and planned with the whole team involved.  If one member fails, the whole team takes responsibility.  If one member succeeds, that member will praise the team for the work. Retrospectives are not  The place for individual performance feedback  An answer for inadequate technical or collaboration skills Creating safety Much of creating safety is about not doing things:  Not using velocity as an assessment mechanism  Not adding pressure by blaming the team if they miss sprint targets  Not fostering a culture of competition within a team  Not rewarding individual achievement over collaboration Remember these folks? Teams may need a little help to make the jump into the second learning loop, As teams are examining their practices, ask questions that help teams surface assumptions and test them.  What would have to be true for [a particular practice] to work?  [practice or action] makes sense when ___________.  [practice or action] will work perfectly when _________.  [practice or action] will work well - enough when_________.  [practice or action] will be harmful when__________.  What do we know to be true? How do we know that?  What do we assume is true? Can we confirm that?  Why do we believe that?  What is untrue, based on our investigation?  What do we say our values are?  If an outsider watched us, what would he say our values are?  What is the gap? How can we make the gap smaller?  How could we make things worse ? We are the innovators of our process  Learn what works for others.  Prove it for ourselves.  Innovate beyond. Contact me?  e arl.everett@gmail.com  @ scrummeister on Twitter  Earl Everett on LinkedIn