Doomed to Fail

Doomed to Fail: Why the Enterprise Needs to Stop Writing Checks that Can’t Be Cashed

Presented at #Agile2014

From the marketing materials:
Departments and teams are told what to deliver and when it will be done. They are there to meet the expectations set upon them (including those they haven’t yet been told about). Unfortunately, they often miss their deliverables and it’s getting in the way of expanding agile across the enterprise. Is it any wonder why some agile implementations struggle? The existing culture sets us up for failure!

It does not have to be this way. The problem isn’t your lack of control over other work groups, it is how they are treated. There are big differences between what a group promises to deliver and when they are voluntold to deliver. Every one is committed at some level, so stop treating other groups like chickens.

Using interactive exercises, we will demonstrate common situations and discuss how these problems look from multiple sides. Additionally, we will discuss the tools needed to deal with others who have a low reputation and what it takes to improve your own track-record.

Come to “Doomed to Fail” and learn how to recognize critical difference between prescriptive processes and managing promises between different groups in an organization. Learn how to ask for explicit promises so you can navigate through the enterprise maze to success.

Aside... If you're really curious, I am taking the concept of [Promise Theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promise_theory) and applying it to anti-patterns for enterprise-wide agile.

Transcript

1. Doomed to Fail Why  the  Enterprise   Needs  to  Stop   Wri1ng  Checks  that   Can’t  Be  Cashed  
2. Scene #1  Imagine  this…  
3. Are we Doomed to Fail?
4. @JeffreyGoodReq   goodrequirements.com  
5. Problem !=  Employees  
6. Problem Culture  
7. Problems Independence  
8. Problems Common   understanding  
9. Problems Trust    
10. Problems Poor   expecta1ons  
11. Problems Bad   agreements  
12. What’s a promise?
13. Promise I  am   autonomous  
14. Promise Specific  
15. Promise Understood  
16. 2 Parties Promise   Maker   Promise   Holder  
17. Promise Holder Accept   Ignore  
18. Scene #2  Re-­‐imagine…  
19. Before the promise
20. Promise Maker
21. Promise Maker Capability  
22. Promise Maker Capacity  
23. Promise Maker Sphere  of   control  
24. Promise Maker Desires  
25. Promise Maker Important  
26. Promise Maker Burden  
27. Promise Maker Explicit  
28. Promise Maker Publish?  
29. Promise Maker Reputa1on     &  value  
30. Promise Holder    
31. Promise Holder Safe  
32. Promise Holder Sphere  of   control  
33. Promise Holder !=  Voluntold  
34. Promise Holder Explicit  
35. Promise Holder Wri1ng?  
36. After the promise
37. Promise Maker
38. Promise Maker Understand   expecta1ons  
39. Promise Maker Over-­‐ communicate  
40. Promise Maker Deliver  
41. Promise Maker Withdraw  
42. Promise Holder
43. Promise Holder Verify  
44. Promise Holder Consider   reputa1on  
45. Promise Holder Plan   con1ngencies  
46. Promise Holder Determine  if   promise  kept  
47. Promise Holder Invoke   con1ngencies  
48. Practice Your  turn  
49. Practice Weak   Broken   Malicious   Unknown   Ignored   Kept  
50. In real life . . .
52. •  Mark  Burgess,  In  Search  of  Certainty     •  Kent  McDonald,  beyondrequirements.com     •  Jeff  Sussna,  blog.ingineeringit.com     Resources  are  gathered  at:   •  h[p://goodrequirements.com/pt   References
53. Doomed to Fail