May 6, 2009 by Andrew Shafer
I am pleased and excited to announce what promises to be an insightful journey. Israel Gat presenting ‘Four Principles, Four Cultures, One Mirror’:
The principles articulated in the Agile Manifesto make a lot of sense to the software craftsman who dreams in code. They can, however, be quite puzzling to executives who consider Agile software in the context of their company’s established norms and patterns. Assumptions embedded in a business design with respect to customer relationship, competitive differentiation and value capture are not necessarily aligned with the principles advocated in the manifesto. Moreover, the core culture of a corporation might not be hospitable to Agile principles. Corporate culture basically specifies “how we do things around here in order to succeed.” Agile Principles challenge these norms.
The path an Agile roll-out should follow depends on the core culture of the corporation: control, competence, collaboration or cultivation. Irrespective of the specific culture, the Agile roll-out invariably tests cultural integration, wholeness and balance. In particular, it exposes inconsistencies between approach with customers versus approach toward other constituents of the corporation such as partners and employees. Consequently, corporate reactions to Agile often express the disappointment of an organization when it is forced to take a good look in the mirror.
Grass roots Agile initiatives can propel a company a long way. However, the creation and capture of long-term value is invariably linked to successful business design and coherent corporate culture. To succeed on a large scale, bottom-up Agile initiative must be complemented by top-down commitment to learn, change and keep a living company. It is the combination of the two, the willingness to apply Agile practices in an indivisible manner that will fulfill the premise of the manifesto.
Israel Gat is probably the most reflective executive I have personally had the pleasure of exchanging ideas with. If you don’t believe me, you can simply google his name and start reading to convince yourself from his interviews and writing. Or you can save time, and go straight to his blog. I recommend you start with ‘The Agile Leader‘ (and specfically ‘A Social Contract‘), because that is really what Israel embodies to me. Even with Israel’s accomplishments he remains extremely humble, approachable and willing to share.
We are excited to have the world’s foremost authority on the fusion of artisanal retro-futurism with team-scale anarcho-syndicalism presenting what everyone knows is the best of all possible methods for producing software.
A problem with the word “Agile” is that everyone already thinks they understand it at a gut level. Worse, everyone already thinks they’re agile in spirit. (After all, the thesaurus tells us the alternative is to be clumsy, stiff, slow, and dull.) So it’s too easy for people to feel free to launch into “doing Agile” without ever having a serious conversation about what that actually means.
This problem is easily fixed. We’ll just stop talking about “Agile” and start speaking of “artisanal retro-futurism crossed with team-scale anarcho-syndicalism.” There is, I think, no danger that anyone will reflexively say, “Yes! That’s just what I’ve been wanting to do all along!”
The new name does more than just encourage conversation. It encourages conversation about those very properties of Agile that have become obscure as Agile has been commodified. In this session, I’ll unpack the meanings of the new phrase and encourage you to rediscover what’s been lost.
Brian Marick (@marick) is an instigator and a dynamic speaker. He was one of the authors and signatories of the Agile Manifesto, was instrumental in the creation of the Gordon Pask award and is the author of three books (_The Craft of Software Testing_, _Everyday Scripting with Ruby_, and _RubyCocoa_).
Hopefully, he won’t leave us all hanging this time…
April 26, 2009 by Andrew Shafer
You have a blog, and your blog needs more badges… (Insert Blazing Saddles Joke Here)
Speakers
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Attending
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Sponsor
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April 26, 2009 by Andrew Shafer
Agile Roots is honored to announce Diana Larsen will be doing a work shop on Reflection.
This will be a short workshop to unpack and examine the myriad ways team members can reflect, tune & adjust individual and team behavior: e.g., PDCA, retrospectives, Agile Artifact Review, Stand-ups, Pair debriefing, peer feedback, and more.
We will create new activities to help teams look at their behaviors, tune their teamwork, and practice or support their adjustments.
Diana Larsen (@DianaOfPortland) is the author of ‘Agile Retrospectives‘, a senior partner at FutureWorks consulting, and the chair of the Agile Alliance Board of Directors. I’m certain she has done some reflecting on Agile along the way (and was one of the only submitters that listed the principles that applied to each of her submissions without any prompting).
I’ve long held that true reflection is the key to a high functioning Agile team… simple, but not always easy. A practical workshop I’m looking forward to for sure!
April 16, 2009 by Andrew Shafer
Agile Roots is excited that we will be joined by James Shore, who will lead us through the ‘Secret Sauce’ of simultaneous phases:
Short iterations (as in Scrum / XP) or even continuous flow (as in Lean / Kanban) are an essential part of Agile planning. And yet there’s rarely much discussion of how these short iterations can actually be accomplished. Teams struggle with finding time to understand requirements, finish testing, and perform adequate design. They often have trouble getting work to “done done” and ready to release as a result.
This session reveals the secret sauce of Agile development: simultaneous phases. These techniques have been part of Agile from the beginning, but few teams are aware of them and even fewer practice them. In this highly interactive session, come experience how simultaneous phases allow you to avoid hacks like “requirements iterations,” “testing iterations,” or “refactoring stories,” and make short iterations and continuous flow possible.
James was an inaugural recipient of the prestigious Gordon Pask Award for Contributions to Agile Practice. He lives and breaths Agile and we are looking forward to learning how to finally avoid ‘Scrummerfall™’.
