Upgrade to Pro — share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …

Doomed to Fail

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.

Jeffrey

July 30, 2014
Tweet

More Decks by Jeffrey

Other Decks in Technology

Transcript

  1. Doomed to Fail
    Why  the  Enterprise  
    Needs  to  Stop  
    Wri1ng  Checks  that  
    Can’t  Be  Cashed  

    View Slide

  2. Scene #1
     Imagine  this…  

    View Slide

  3. Are we
    Doomed
    to Fail?

    View Slide

  4. @JeffreyGoodReq  
    goodrequirements.com  

    View Slide

  5. Problem
    !=  Employees  

    View Slide

  6. Problem
    Culture  

    View Slide

  7. Problems
    Independence  

    View Slide

  8. Problems
    Common  
    understanding  

    View Slide

  9. Problems
    Trust    

    View Slide

  10. Problems
    Poor  
    expecta1ons  

    View Slide

  11. Problems
    Bad  
    agreements  

    View Slide

  12. What’s a
    promise?

    View Slide

  13. Promise
    I  am  
    autonomous  

    View Slide

  14. Promise
    Specific  

    View Slide

  15. Promise
    Understood  

    View Slide

  16. 2 Parties
    Promise  
    Maker  
    Promise  
    Holder  

    View Slide

  17. Promise Holder
    Accept   Ignore  

    View Slide

  18. Scene #2
     Re-­‐imagine…  

    View Slide

  19. Before the
    promise

    View Slide

  20. Promise Maker

    View Slide

  21. Promise Maker
    Capability  

    View Slide

  22. Promise Maker
    Capacity  

    View Slide

  23. Promise Maker
    Sphere  of  
    control  

    View Slide

  24. Promise Maker
    Desires  

    View Slide

  25. Promise Maker
    Important  

    View Slide

  26. Promise Maker
    Burden  

    View Slide

  27. Promise Maker
    Explicit  

    View Slide

  28. Promise Maker
    Publish?  

    View Slide

  29. Promise Maker
    Reputa1on    
    &  value  

    View Slide

  30. Promise Holder
     
     

    View Slide

  31. Promise Holder
    Safe  

    View Slide

  32. Promise Holder
    Sphere  of  
    control  

    View Slide

  33. Promise Holder
    !=  Voluntold  

    View Slide

  34. Promise Holder
    Explicit  

    View Slide

  35. Promise Holder
    Wri1ng?  

    View Slide

  36. After the
    promise

    View Slide

  37. Promise Maker

    View Slide

  38. Promise Maker
    Understand  
    expecta1ons  

    View Slide

  39. Promise Maker
    Over-­‐
    communicate  

    View Slide

  40. Promise Maker
    Deliver  

    View Slide

  41. Promise Maker
    Withdraw  

    View Slide

  42. Promise Holder

    View Slide

  43. Promise Holder
    Verify  

    View Slide

  44. Promise Holder
    Consider  
    reputa1on  

    View Slide

  45. Promise Holder
    Plan  
    con1ngencies  

    View Slide

  46. Promise Holder
    Determine  if  
    promise  kept  

    View Slide

  47. Promise Holder
    Invoke  
    con1ngencies  

    View Slide

  48. Practice
    Your  turn  

    View Slide

  49. Practice
    Weak  
    Broken  
    Malicious  
    Unknown  
    Ignored  
    Kept  

    View Slide

  50. In real
    life . . .

    View Slide

  51. View Slide

  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

    View Slide

  53. Doomed
    to Fail

    View Slide