Agile is a team sport

Agile in the City: Bristol November 2017

Transcript

1. Agile is a team sport Matt Jukes
 
 

2. Agile is a team sport Matt Jukes
 
 

3. These are my lessons learned.
4. 2. Hiring 3. Culture 1. Agile 4. Questions
5. 2. Hiring 3. Culture 1. Agile 4. Questions
6. @jukesie Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer
 through early and continuous delivery
 of valuable software. Welcome changing requirements, even late in 
 development. Agile processes harness change for 
 the customer's competitive advantage. Deliver working software frequently, from a 
 couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a 
 preference to the shorter timescale. Business people and developers must work 
 together daily throughout the project. Build projects around motivated individuals. 
 Give them the environment and support they need, 
 and trust them to get the job done. The most efficient and effective method of 
 conveying information to and within a development 
 team is face-to-face conversation. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development. 
 The sponsors, developers, and users should be able 
 to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence 
 and good design enhances agility. Simplicity--the art of maximising the amount 
 of work not done--is essential. The best architectures, requirements, and designs 
 emerge from self-organising teams. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how 
 to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts 
 its behaviour accordingly. Principles of the Agile Manifesto
7. @jukesie Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer
 through early and continuous delivery
 of valuable software. Welcome changing requirements, even late in 
 development. Agile processes harness change for 
 the customer's competitive advantage. Deliver working software frequently, from a 
 couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a 
 preference to the shorter timescale. Business people and developers must work 
 together daily throughout the project. Build projects around motivated individuals. 
 Give them the environment and support they need, 
 and trust them to get the job done. The most efficient and effective method of 
 conveying information to and within a development 
 team is face-to-face conversation. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development. 
 The sponsors, developers, and users should be able 
 to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence 
 and good design enhances agility. Simplicity--the art of maximising the amount 
 of work not done--is essential. The best architectures, requirements, and designs 
 emerge from self-organising teams. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how 
 to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts 
 its behaviour accordingly. Business people and developers must work 
 together daily throughout the project.
8. @jukesie Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer
 through early and continuous delivery
 of valuable software. Welcome changing requirements, even late in 
 development. Agile processes harness change for 
 the customer's competitive advantage. Deliver working software frequently, from a 
 couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a 
 preference to the shorter timescale. Business people and developers must work 
 together daily throughout the project. Build projects around motivated individuals. 
 Give them the environment and support they need, 
 and trust them to get the job done. The most efficient and effective method of 
 conveying information to and within a development 
 team is face-to-face conversation. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development. 
 The sponsors, developers, and users should be able 
 to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence 
 and good design enhances agility. Simplicity--the art of maximising the amount 
 of work not done--is essential. The best architectures, requirements, and designs 
 emerge from self-organising teams. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how 
 to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts 
 its behaviour accordingly. Build projects around motivated individuals. 
 Give them the environment and support they need, 
 and trust them to get the job done.
9. @jukesie In 2011 the Government Digital 
 Service (GDS) was founded.
10. @jukesie GDS implemented spend 
 controls on all digital projects..
11. ..and introduced the ‘Service Standard’ against which all projects would be assessed.
14. Choose your own adventure.
15. VS Steve Jobs Peter Drucker
16. 2. Hiring 3. Culture 1. Background 4. Questions
17. The biggest digital transformation challenge is people not technology. Me.
18. Hiring the best is your most important task. Steve Jobs
19. When I’m hiring.., my strategy is to surround myself with the strongest, most knowledgeable people I can find and give them a lot of room to express themselves. Phil Jackson
20. Leave the rockstars to the Pyramid stage.
21. @jukesie Research your job titles. Don’t get cute. Don’t be clever. 
 Do be clear. Do be honest.
22. @jukesie A/B test the job titles. Use free job boards, social media and mailing lists and track which work best.
23. @jukesie Write real job descriptions. Get people doing the jobs to help. It is OK to be 
 aspirational but don’t ask for the world.
24. @jukesie Ask the community for help. Draft job descriptions on Hackpad. Twitter polls on 
 job titles. Feedback on interview processes.
25. @jukesie Make the case for joining. Job descriptions are not enough. Write blogposts, 
 speak at meetups, sponsor unconferences.
26. @jukesie Play to your strengths. If you can’t compete on salary talk about other benefits.
 Not the foosball or the game nights. 
 The challenge. The mission. The team.
27. @jukesie Tap into your network. You are probably only one or two degrees of seperation
 from the best candidate. Build and nurture networks.
28. @jukesie Take interviews seriously. Use consistent questions. Never interview alone. Agree with 
 other interviewer what you are looking for in a successful
 candidate. Specialist interviewers for specialist roles.
29. @jukesie Be willing to wait. There is often pressure to fill a vacancy. Waiting for the
 right candidate rather than the available candidate saves
 time in the long run.
30. @jukesie It doesn’t end at the interview. Give useful feedback to unsuccessful candidates. 
 Keep communicating with the successful candidate.
 Just sending an offer email and a start date is not enough.
31. @jukesie Introductions over induction. Plan the first week or two for any new hire carefully with a 
 mix of the mundane and the interesting. 
 Don’t overwhelm them but get them involved asap. 
 Make them feel welcome and wanted.
32. 2. Hiring 3. Culture 1. Background 4. Questions
33. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Peter Drucker
34. ..my goal has always been to foster an environment where players can grow as individuals and express themselves within a team structure. Phil Jackson
35. @jukesie Culture isn’t imposed it emerges. You cannot create a postive culture by top down edict. 
 It can be aspirational and ambitious but it emerges from
 behaviours already existing.
36. @jukesie Have the team prepare principles. Encourage the team(s) to come up with principles to work
 towards. Then reinforce them by making them a part of
 how you work every day.
37. Culture is more than posters on walls…but visibility is vital.
38. @jukesie The details matter. Make sure people have the hardware and software they
 need to do their jobs. Make training available. Give staff
 time to experiment and learn.
39. @jukesie The environment is important. Seat the team together. Speak to the team about desk layout
 if possible. Walls, walls, walls. Quiet spaces. Meeting rooms.
40. @jukesie The maker vs manager schedule. If you haven’t read this and work in a team with designers,
 developers & managers —> 
 http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
41. @jukesie Trust the team to make decisions. It is easy to talk about empowering staff but you have to
 100% follow through. Read ‘Turn the Ship Around’ about the 
 leader/leader approach.
42. @jukesie Leaders need to be umbrellas. You have to protect the team from the HiPPO sh*t. Give them
 the space to do the work but don’t isolate them. Often their
 opinions will carry the most weight.
43. A cultural anecdote.
44. Culture seemed to be something to be actively avoided in big organisations. James Darling http://abscond.org/2014/09/25/culture-stories-milk.html
45. @jukesie Corporate subcultures are hard. You can spend time building a team culture but your 
 wider organisation has a culture of its own and they may 
 not coexist comfortably.
46. @jukesie Culture can be fragile. Especially in the early days. You have to be careful not to
 damage it with poor behaviours or bad decisions.
47. Remember that scene in the first Indiana Jones movie when someone asks Indy what he’s going to do next, and he replies, “I don’t know, I’m making it up as we go along.” That is how I view leadership. Phil Jackson
48. 2. Hiring 3. Culture 1. Background 4. Questions
49. Thanks. Matt Jukes http://productforthepeople.xyz