Technical Leadership in an Agile World

Software development process has changed dramatically since the advent of Agile methodologies. The fast pace of change of Agile has introduced a number of challenges that the industry has been having a hard time to overcome. Although technical leadership is not part of Agile, the role of technical lead is present in many companies organizational charts. The goal of this presentation is to discuss that role and how it can align with Agile values.

Transcript

1. Technical Leadership in an Agile World Marcelo Benites
2. Agile Manifesto Timeline • 1999 - Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (Kent Beck)
3. Agile Manifesto Timeline • 1999 - Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck)
4. Agile Manifesto Timeline • 1999 - Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Refactoring (Martin Fowler)
5. Agile Manifesto Timeline • 1999 - Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Refactoring (Martin Fowler) • 2001 - Extreme Programming in Practice (Robert Martin)
6. Agile Manifesto Timeline • 1999 - Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Refactoring (Martin Fowler) • 2001 - Extreme Programming in Practice (Robert Martin) • 2001 - Agile Manifesto
7. Agile Manifesto Timeline • 1999 - Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Refactoring (Martin Fowler) • 2001 - Extreme Programming in Practice (Robert Martin) • 2001 - Agile Manifesto • 2003 - Domain-Driven Design (Eric Evans)
8. Agile Manifesto Timeline • 1999 - Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Refactoring (Martin Fowler) • 2001 - Extreme Programming in Practice (Robert Martin) • 2001 - Agile Manifesto • 2003 - Domain-Driven Design (Eric Evans) • 2006 - Behavior-Driven Development (Dan North)
9. Agile Manifesto Timeline • 1999 - Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck) • 2000 - Refactoring (Martin Fowler) • 2001 - Extreme Programming in Practice (Robert Martin) • 2001 - Agile Manifesto • 2003 - Domain-Driven Design (Eric Evans) • 2006 - Behavior-Driven Development (Dan North) • 2008 - DevOps (Patrick Debois and Andrew Shafer)
10. Agile Manifesto Values • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools • Working software over comprehensive documentation • Responding to change over following a plan • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
11. Paradigm Shift
12. Linear Nonlinear Before Agile
13. Linear Planned Nonlinear Reactive Before Agile
14. Linear Planned Discrete Nonlinear Reactive Continuous Before Agile
15. Linear Planned Discrete Isolated Nonlinear Reactive Continuous Collaborative Before Agile
16. Linear Planned Discrete Isolated Written Nonlinear Reactive Continuous Collaborative Verbal Before Agile
17. How about the roles?
18. Business Analyst Before
19. Business Analyst Software Architect Before
20. Business Analyst Software Architect Programmer Before
21. Business Analyst Software Architect Programmer QA Specialist Before
22. Business Analyst Software Architect Programmer QA Specialist Project Manager Before
23. Software Engineer Before Agile Business Analyst Software Architect Programmer QA Specialist Project Manager
24. What are the skills of a Software Engineer?
25. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication.
26. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication. • Easily switches between different levels of abstraction. ◦ Discuss Story/Behavior with Product Manager. ◦ Discuss Technical Details with other Software Engineers.
27. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication. • Easily switches between different levels of abstraction. ◦ Discuss Story/Behavior with Product Manager. ◦ Discuss Technical Details with other Software Engineers. • Collaboratively breaks high level Features into independent Stories.
28. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication. • Easily switches between different levels of abstraction. ◦ Discuss Story/Behavior with Product Manager. ◦ Discuss Technical Details with other Software Engineers. • Collaboratively breaks high level Features into independent Stories. • In programming-time translates a Story to Technical Requirements.
29. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication. • Easily switches between different levels of abstraction. ◦ Discuss Story/Behavior with Product Manager. ◦ Discuss Technical Details with other Software Engineers. • Collaboratively breaks high level Features into independent Stories. • In programming-time translates a Story to Technical Requirements. • Writes the minimum amount of code that delivers the Story.
30. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication. • Easily switches between different levels of abstraction. ◦ Discuss Story/Behavior with Product Manager. ◦ Discuss Technical Details with other Software Engineers. • Collaboratively breaks high level Features into independent Stories. • In programming-time translates a Story to Technical Requirements. • Writes the minimum amount of code that delivers the Story. • Practices Incremental Design over Upfront Design.
31. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication. • Easily switches between different levels of abstraction. ◦ Discuss Story/Behavior with Product Manager. ◦ Discuss Technical Details with other Software Engineers. • Collaboratively breaks high level Features into independent Stories. • In programming-time translates a Story to Technical Requirements. • Writes the minimum amount of code that delivers the Story. • Practices Incremental Design over Upfront Design. • Practices Continuous Refactoring.
32. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication. • Easily switches between different levels of abstraction. ◦ Discuss Story/Behavior with Product Manager. ◦ Discuss Technical Details with other Software Engineers. • Collaboratively breaks high level Features into independent Stories. • In programming-time translates s Story to Technical Requirements. • Writes the minimum amount of code that delivers the Story. • Practices Incremental Design over Upfront Design. • Practices Continuous Refactoring. • Writes different layers of Automated Tests so he/she is not afraid of the code.
33. Software Engineer • Has excellent Verbal Communication. • Easily switches between different levels of abstraction. ◦ Discuss Story/Behavior with Product Manager. ◦ Discuss Technical Details with other Software Engineers. • Collaboratively breaks high level Features into independent Stories. • In programming-time translates a Story to Technical Requirements. • Writes the minimum amount of code that delivers the Story. • Practices Incremental Design over Upfront Design. • Practices Continuous Refactoring. • Writes different layers of Automated Tests so he/she is not afraid of the code. • Easily switches between different platforms/programming languages to deliver the Story.
34. Software Engineer Maintains a cohesive and clean Architecture.
35. "Most programmers are less than 6 years of experience." Robert Martin
36. Few Senior Software Engineers must guide many Junior Software Engineers through Technical Leadership.
37. What is NOT Technical Leadership?
38. What is NOT Technical Leadership? • Budget Management.
39. What is NOT Technical Leadership? • Budget Management. • Expectation Management.
40. What is NOT Technical Leadership? • Budget Management. • Expectation Management. • People Management.
41. What is NOT Technical Leadership? • Budget Management. • Expectation Management. • People Management. • Career Management.
42. A great company needs Engineering Management as much as it needs Technical Leadership.
43. Engineering Management Technical Leadership
44. CTO VP of Engineering Software Engineer Engineering Manager Technical Leadership Engineering Management
45. What is NOT Engineering Management?
46. What is NOT Engineering Management? • Software Architecture.
47. What is NOT Engineering Management? • Software Architecture. • Project Management.
48. What is NOT Engineering Management? • Software Architecture. • Project Management. • Technical Decisions.
49. What is NOT Engineering Management? • Software Architecture. • Project Management. • Technical Decisions. • Team Assembling*
50. Technical Leadership X Abstraction Level
51. High Level
52. High Level External Interfaces - Android - iOS - Web - MacOS - Windows - REST API
53. High Level External Interfaces - Android - iOS - Web - MacOS - Windows - REST API Application Business Rules - Logic for a specific application. - Irrespective of technology.
54. High Level External Interfaces - Android - iOS - Web - MacOS - Windows - REST API Application Business Rules - Logic for a specific application. - Irrespective of technology. Enterprise Business Rules - Cross- Application Logic - Infrastructure - Security
55. High Level Chief Architect
56. High Level Backlog Chief Architect Product Director
57. Full-Stack Teams
58. Team Assembling Chief Architect Architect Architect Architect Product Director Product Manager Product Manager Product Manager
59. Delegation Chief Architect Architect Product Director Product Manager Delegates Architecture Decisions Delegates Product Decisions
60. Autonomy
61. Alignment
62. High Level Architect ?
63. High Level Architect Senior Software Engineer
64. High Level Chief Architect Architect ? Senior Software Engineer
65. High Level Chief Architect Architect Really Senior Software Engineer Senior Software Engineer
66. High Level Chief Architect Architect Architect Architect Technical Leadership Mentorship Architecture Consistency Guidance Software Culture Software Practices Decision Making
67. Low Level
68. Backlog Refinement Architect Product Manager Software Engineer Software Engineer Software Engineer Designer
69. Low Level Architect Software Engineer Software Engineer Technical Leadership Mentorship Architecture Consistency Guidance Software Culture Software Practices Decision Making Software Engineer
70. Technology Specialists Android Specialist React Specialist QA Automation Specialist
71. Technology Specialists Software Practices Software Architecture Technology
72. How many levels?
73. How many levels?
74. How many levels?
75. How many levels?
76. CTO How many levels?
77. There is a limit for parallelism. Sometimes more people will just make the company slower, not faster.
78. How about the managers?
79. Engineering Management Engineering Director Engineering Manager Engineering Manager Engineering Manager
80. Collaboration Engineering Director Chief Architect Product Director
81. Thanks!