From Coach to CEO, Music City Agile 2016

Presented August 17, 2016, at Music City Agile 2016 at Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN

Transcript

1. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Music City Agile 1 From Agile Coach to CEO, Should I Follow My Own $%*!@ Advice? Anthony W. Montgomery amontgomery@cuprodigy.com
2. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Review a real life transformation… WHAT 2
3. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com …through interactive decision point analyses… HOW 3
4. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com WHY 4 …so that you can receive practical takeaways for when you’re in charge.
5. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck The Journey Day 1 Day 3 Week 2 Week 4 Week 6 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Day 0 9 Decision Points
6. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by goodgerster - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/86745603@N00 Created with Haiku Deck 50 Minutes
7. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com DISCLAIMER 7 Just because something worked in this case study, doesn’t mean it will work in your situation.
8. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com §  Ed.D. (ABD) in Leadership, M.B.A., B.S. – Finance §  CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, PMI-ACP credentials §  5 Years of agile implementation experience ANTHONY W. MONTGOMERY 8 amontgomery@cuprodigy.com @SocialAgilist www.linkedin.com/in/anthonywmontgomery
9. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com 9 Situation Traditional, plan-driven, software firm led for 25 years by a command and control CEO.
10. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Goal: increase profits and customer value by improving the culture, people, process and software quality. 10
11. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Agile is not a goal, but a means to an end. An agile transformation is a means to improve culture, people, process and quality in order to grow profits and create more customer value. 11
12. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck DEFINITION Describe the differences between A and B. A.  Positional, legitimate and formal authority B.  Referential, expert and personal power
13. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Day 0 Day 0 Decision Point
14. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Approach? 14 As the CEO and the agile expert, have a choice to use positional authority or personal power.
15. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck APPROACH As compared to a typical agile coach, should a CEO use more or less positional authority? q More q Less
16. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck APPROACH Less, but why?
17. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Photo by Hammerin Man - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/53022549@N04 Created with Haiku Deck 17 Use positional authority sparingly to create empowerment and respect. Take away
18. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Day 1 Day 1 Day 0 Decision Point
19. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Decision Day 1 – First day as CEO. 19 What do you say? Why?
20. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Actual 20 Announced that we will be agile, and talked about culture and servant leadership.
21. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com The goal was to set a clear vision and create concrete expectations. 21
22. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com But…
23. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Did NOT present a plan to achieve agility. 23
24. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Because… 24
25. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Photo by reallyboring - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/26582481@N08 Created with Haiku Deck 25 Presenting your detailed plan may make you look competent and decisive, but…
26. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away …setting a vision and letting the team emerge on a plan helps the organization become competent. 26
27. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com And… 27
28. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by "JT" Taylor - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/42928188@N02 Created with Haiku Deck 28 Creating a waterfall plan to go agile doesn’t make sense.
29. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Use an agile approach to grow agile. 29
30. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Decision Day 3 – The first agile ceremony was introduced. 30
31. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Day 3 Day 1 Day 3 Day 0 Decision Point
32. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck DAY 3 What was the first ceremony introduced? q Backlog Refinement q Sprint Planning q Daily Stand Up q Review q Retrospective
33. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by olmed0 - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/52170719@N08 Created with Haiku Deck Actual 33 Started with an all-staff Retrospective on Day 3.
34. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com And… 34
35. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com 35 Early retrospectives give staff a voice and uncover what they think should be changed.
36. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Photo by Thomas Leth-Olsen - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/54712044@N03 Created with Haiku Deck Use a Retrospective as the first ceremonial step. Demonstrates leadership while fostering bottom up change. 36 Take away
37. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Week 2 Day 1 Day 3 Week 2 Day 0 Decision Point
38. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com 38 A roadmap was needed!!! Warning: Large projects ahead!
39. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com And…
40. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com In the past, a technical lead did all of the estimating. 40
41. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com So…
42. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Decision Week 2 – Whole team relative estimation was introduced. 42
43. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com A team approach would create a backlog quickly. 43
44. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com And…
45. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Create empowerment, cross- talk, and shared accountability. 45
46. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Photo by WinterStephan - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/84929570@N00 Created with Haiku Deck 46 Estimates are the first stage of commitment; let teams create estimates so they own them. Take away
47. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck WEEK 2 There is also an important technical benefit that can be gained from whole team estimation, what is it?
48. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Diversity of role and thought often leads to better solutions. 48
49. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Use whole team estimation to create a holistic decisions on what and how to build. 49
50. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Next…
51. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com …we ordered white boards to setup team spaces. 51
52. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Week 4 – White boards arrived en masse. 52
53. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Decision 53 As an agile coach, had significant experience in setting up team boards.
54. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com But…
55. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Week 4 Day 1 Day 3 Week 2 Week 4 Day 0 Decision Point
56. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck WEEK 4 How should setup of team boards be approached? Hands On Hands Off Visualize Existing Process A B Change the Process C D
57. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Actual 57 §  Didn’t dictate; gave hints. §  Volunteer committee modeled the existing workflow as a Kanban Board. §  The team refines the workflow continually. B
58. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com The more positional power you have, the less frequently you should use it. 58 Take away
59. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by fancycwabs - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/36818084@N00 Created with Haiku Deck Allow the teams to grow... …but 59 ...within constraints Take away
60. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com By Week 6, we had team boards, a team room with visible artifacts, and a product backlog. Now what? 60
61. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Decision Week 6 – Time to add another Scrum ceremony. 61
62. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Week 6 Day 1 Day 3 Week 2 Week 4 Week 6 Day 0 Decision Point
63. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck WEEK 6 What was the next Scrum ceremony introduced? q Backlog Refinement q Sprint Planning q Daily Stand Up q Review q Retrospective
64. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Actual 64 Sprint Planning.
65. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com It was time to put the various pieces together and attempt to deliver value inside a Sprint. 65
66. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com But…
67. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com 6 We delivered a whopping 6 points of value in our first two week Sprint. 67
68. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com UGH…
69. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mondopiccolo - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License http://www.flickr.com/photos/12028171@N00 Created with Haiku Deck Add ceremonies slowly, expect them to be imperfect, and improve them over time. 69 Take away
70. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com By Month 2, it was time to move to the next level. 70
71. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Decision Month 2 – Fundamental agile training occurred. 71
72. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Month 2 Day 1 Day 3 Week 2 Week 4 Week 6 Month 2 Day 0 Decision Point
73. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by katerha - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/8489692@N03 Created with Haiku Deck Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck MONTH 2 Who participated in this training?
74. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Actual 74 Attendance was broad based with every available role. q Development Staff q Management q Support Staff q Admin Staff ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
75. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com And…
76. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by bareknuckleyellow - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/35045382@N00 Created with Haiku Deck 76 Expanding attendance creates multiple footholds in an organization that ultimately enable faster transformation. Take away
77. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away If you want a holistic agile adoption, have holistic organizational training, and make it fun! 77
78. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Fun leads to engagement… 78
79. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com And, more fun… 79
80. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Make transformations fun. Make work fun. 80
81. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com By Month 3, we were sprinting and a majority of personnel were trained. Backlog Refinement, Sprint Planning, Standups, and Retro were in place. Now what? 81
82. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Decision Month 3 – Time to add another Scrum Ceremony. 82
83. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Month 3 Day 1 Day 3 Week 2 Week 4 Week 6 Month 2 Month 3 Day 0 Decision Point
84. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck MONTH 3 What was the next Scrum Ceremony introduced? q Backlog Refinement q Scrum of Scrums q Sprint Review
85. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Actual 85 Sprint Reviews.
86. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com It was horrible. Burdensome. The team didn’t think the product was complete enough. 86 Photo by gerlos - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/12033805@N00 Created with Haiku Deck
87. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com So…
88. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck SPRINT REVIEW What should we do to counteract the concern that the team couldn’t get enough ready for the Sprint Review?
89. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Actual 89 Moved to one Sprint Review per week instead of one Review at the end of a two week Sprint.
90. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Photo by Koji Kawano - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/80405115@N00 Created with Haiku Deck 90 If Sprint Review expectations are too high, have Reviews more frequently to create realistic expectations. Take away
91. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com It took several weeks, but it started to click. 91
92. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com We ultimately changed our mindset. From: “We don’t have enough to present!” To: “We can present this much.” 92
93. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Now…
94. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Attendance is strong with valuable feedback. 94
95. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Early on, err on the side of too frequent feedback. Adjust your formal feedback loops as informal collaboration increases. 95
96. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com By Month 4, we were making progress in Sprints. 96
97. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com But…
98. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com 7of 1 1of 7 98 Teamwork and quality were less than desired. We had 7 teams of 1 person versus 1 team of 7 people.
99. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com So…
100. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by practicalowl - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/55046645@N00 Created with Haiku Deck 100 We directed an experiment in the next sprint.
101. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Decision Month 4 – a big change in engineering happened. 101
102. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by mdalmuld - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/61063858@N02 Created with Haiku Deck Month 4 Day 1 Day 3 Week 2 Week 4 Week 6 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Day 0 Decision Point
103. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00 Created with Haiku Deck MONTH 4 What engineering change was prescribed? q  Behavior Driven Development q  Test Driven Development q  Pair Programming q  Sustainable Pace
104. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Photo by alxhe - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/36330084@N03 Created with Haiku Deck 104 Pair Programming.
105. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com We believed that pair programming would increase teamwork, cross-training, and code quality. 105
106. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Take away Photo by Jordi Payà Canals - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/24630636@N03 Created with Haiku Deck 106 Intense collaboration is expensive but reduces risk (single threaded dependencies) by growing learning. Take away
107. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com 1.  Agile is a means to improve culture, people, and process. 2.  Use personal power; let teams make decisions within constraints. 3.  Use retrospectives as the first ceremony to foster bottom up, emergent change. 4.  Let teams create estimates so they own them and can propose better solutions. 5.  Manage process change from the present forward. 107
108. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com 6.  Add ceremonies slowly, improve them always. 7.  Have holistic training early. 8.  Have lots of fun. 9.  Start with frequent, structured, collaboration early; adjust as ad-hoc collaboration, and pairing, grows. 10. Use agile to grow agile; remember you are never done. 108
109. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Yes Be emergent Be imperfect Be personal Have fun Let go 109
110. Anthony W. Montgomery | amontgomery@cuprodigy.com Music City Agile Anthony W. Montgomery amontgomery@cuprodigy.com From Agile Coach to CEO, I Follow My Own Advice