Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar, Again - David Hussman - Agile SG 2013

Presented in Agile Singapore 2013 Conference

History repeats itself as people once again become addicted to process. Today’s difficult problems call for a renaissance of agility, drawing on past success as we invent the future. Real value lies in intentional and contextual selection of agile tools instead of the noise associated with calls to practice “pure agile.” It is time to replace process-based thinking with outcome-based thinking. It is time to stop talking about process adherence and start focusing on product delivery. David Hussman calls on us to heed the audacious Frank Zappa’s challenge to “Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar.” David speaks to selecting tools that foster measurable outcomes like product sales or market change. Topics covered range from product thinking to regression deficit to building teams and connecting programs to portfolios. Warning: If you are looking for an agile love-in, steer clear of this talk. If you are looking to be challenged, show up ready to play yer guitar (metaphorically speaking, of course).

Transcript

1. Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar ( again ) David Hussman will be standing in for Frank Zappa
2. DevJam produces products and … … helps others learn to do so
3. We host a “maker space” @somakers
4. We sponsor communities of learning First Lego League: Kids programming robots
5. They are loosely based on Fight Club We host jam sessions
6. Frank hosted jam sessions! Zappa was a maker (producer)
7. Frank was A Mother (of Invention)
8. Frank was a rebel (with a cause)
9. Frank was a not afraid to offend
10. Most Important, Frank Produced player, composer, engineer, leader
11. Are you a producer?
12. How well do you find balance? process (docs) vs experience (playing)
13. What would Frank say about this doc? What do you say about it?
14. How does your process help you produce? How does it help learn about your product?
15. Producing over Production
16. V= W H How much process is enough? Dude’s Law: Value = Why / How
17. Outcome Based Selections Does your process produce learning?
18. This is learning about progress
19. This is learning about product
20. thinking in product over thinking about progress
21. eliminate uncertainty - validate learning minimum viable product (MVP)
22. How do you eliminate uncertainty? How do you reduce epistemic arrogance?
23. Who needs what and why? Maps help surface “product arrogance”
24. Maps promote journeys Where are you going to take your users?
25. Journeys improve conversations How will we take them there?
26. Journeys cut across specializations
27. Journeys help with scale Produce more learning, not more process
28. Distributed journeying exists
29. Distributed discovery tools exists
30. Here’s a real world example of discovering a customer journey
46. This journey was produced in California
47. This journey produced in Kiev
48. What journey can you take? ( how can you shut up and play )
49. How can you measurably improve? Becoming antifragile by being a subtractionist
50. What journey can we take? We have XP, Scrum and Kanban How can we subtract and improve?
51. NonBan “the least amount of process with the most real and measurable value” nonban.org Because process is only part of the meal
52. www.devjam.com / @davidhussman If you are still hungry, try out some DevJams
53. Shut Up and Play Your Guitar … … or Frank will haunt your dreams