Let Go Knowing: How Holding onto Views May Be Holding You Back - Mile High Agile 2015

You undoubtedly have a firmly held set of convictions about what is necessary to do agile well. These convictions have served you well—your teams have delivered better products more quickly and more economically than before they were agile. But could some of your firmly held convictions be holding you back? And have you ever wondered why some of your most agile friends are similarly firm in their own opinions—even ones that are the exact opposite of your own?

In this session, you’ll see ways that biases may be preventing you from questioning your assumptions, why being open to new views is hard but vital, and why beginners so often think they know it all. After this session, you will know how to discern the inviolate rules of Scrum from its merely good practices. You’ll know why you feel certain of some aspects of agile, less so about others. You’ll leave with the confidence to let go of knowing. And when we let go of knowing, we open ourselves to learning, which is the heart of agile.

Transcript

1. Mike Cohn
   Mile High Agile
   April 3, 2015
   Let Go of Knowing:
   How Holding onto Views
   May Be Holding You Back
   

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2. Parametric Estimating
   Task Decomposition
   Story Points Ideal Days
   

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3. E xperienced
   S enior
   P rogrammer
   Days
   E S P
   

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4. 5 8
   5 8
   

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5. Parametric
   Estimating
   Task
   Decomposition
   Ideal Days Story Points
   

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6. Pages 238—40
   (and more)
   are wrong!
   

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7. Open-Minded
   Willing to consider
   new ideas
   

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8. 1-week sprints are
   the best
   Let’s include the
   product owner in
   the retrospective
   

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9. “We do waterfall,
   but we test all the
   time.”
   “We do waterfall,
   but we integrate
   weekly.”
   

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10. “I was wrong. The
    vastness of my
    wrongness was
    staggering.”
    

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11. Sprint retrospectives
    

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12. “A mind is like
    a parachute. It
    doesn’t work if
    it’s not open.“
    —Frank Zappa
    

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13. #ICouldBeWrong
    

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14. #QuestionYourAssumptions
    

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18. Loving father
    

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19. #QuestionYourAssumptions
    Confirmation bias
    Hindsight bias
    

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20. One-week
    sprints
    suck.
    1-week
    sprints are
    stressful.
    There’s no
    time for
    testing. +1
    

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21. #ConfirmationBias
    #HindsightBias
    

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22. 1. Question our assumptions
    2. Exhibit intellectual humility
    

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23. “Who does
    such-and-such
    in Scrum?”
    “When you’re teaching, always assume
    there is a silent student in the class who
    knows more than you do.”
    —Leo Strauss
    

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24. Dunning-Kruger Effect
    

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25. ComparativeAgility.com
    False
    Mostly
    False
    Not True
    or False
    Mostly
    True
    True
    Management sets
    goals but doesn't tell
    team members how
    to achieve them.
    All bugs are fixed
    during the sprint in
    which they are
    found.
    

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26. Seven dimensions
    • Teamwork
    • Requirements
    • Planning
    • Technical practices
    • Quality
    • Culture
    • Knowledge creation
    • Is the product owner
    involved in identifying
    acceptance criteria?
    • Are tests automated?
    • Are testers involved
    early?
    

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27. Quality
    False
    Mostly
    False
    Not True
    or False
    Mostly
    True
    True
    Timing
    2 years
    6 months
    Acceptance
    tests
    Timing
    Quality focus
    

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28. #AvoidBrandLoyalty
    

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29. #AvoidBrandLoyalty
    

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31. Sample Scrum rules
    • Sprints cannot be
    longer than a month.
    • Be done with something
    by the end of the sprint.
    • Meet at the start of the
    sprint to discuss what
    you’ll do during the
    sprint.
    Do these

    or else!!
    

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32. “If I’d
    followed all
    the rules, I’d
    never have
    gotten
    anywhere.”
    Marilyn Monroe
    

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33. Test-Driven
    Development
    Pair Programming
    Sprint 0
    Definition of Done
    User Stories
    Don’t Start Sprints
    on Mondays
    Product Backlog
    Refinement
    (Grooming)
    Practices
    Task Boards
    

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34. “I’m the world’s
    greatest
    ScrumMaster!”
    “I’ve never
    heard of pair
    programming.”
    “Hey, I could
    be wrong!”
    

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35. “In science it often
    happens that scientists say,
    ‘You know, that's a really
    good argument, my
    position is mistaken,’
    

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36. and then they actually
    change their minds, and
    you never hear that old
    view from them again.
    They really do it.
    

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37. It doesn't happen as often
    as it should, because
    scientists are human and
    change is sometimes
    painful.
    

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38. But it happens every day.
    

    I cannot recall the last time
    something like that
    happened in politics or
    religion.”

    —Carl Sagan
    

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39. Question your assumptions
    Exhibit intellectual humility
    Avoid brand loyalty
    To remain open-minded:
    

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40. #ICouldBeWrong
    #ThankYou
    @MikeWCohn
    mike@mountaingoatsoftware.com
    

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