CTO Universe Leadership Series: More Effective Agile Leadership
- 1. Construx® More Effective Agile Leadership Steve McConnell Brittany Shear With: Moderated by: TO USE YOUR COMPUTER'S AUDIO: When the webinar begins, you will be connected to audio using your computer's microphone and speakers (VoIP). A headset is recommended. Webinar will begin: 9:30 am, PST TO USE YOUR TELEPHONE: If you prefer to use your phone, you must select "Use Telephone" after joining the webinar and call in using the numbers below. United States: +1 (213) 929-4232 Access Code: 341-034-951 Audio PIN: Shown after joining the webinar --OR--
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- 3. About The Speaker Steve McConnell is an internationally recognized thought leader on software development best practices. He is the author of several best-selling books, including the highly influential "Code Complete," often cited as the most popular software development book of all time. His books have sold more than one million copies and have been translated into 20 languages. His books twice won the Jolt Excellence award for outstanding software development book of the year. His most recent book is "More Effective Agile: A Roadmap for Software Leaders" (2019). In addition serving as CEO of Construx Software, Steve has served as Editor in Chief of IEEE Software magazine, on the Panel of Experts of the SWEBOK project, and as Chair of the IEEE Computer Society’s Professional Activities Board. About The Moderator Brittany went to Emmanuel College, where she majored in Writing, Editing, and Publishing and minored in Marketing, Psychology, and Communications. She now works with Aggregage as an editor and webinar host on sites including CTO Universe, Product Management Today, and Project Management Update.
- 4. More Effective Agile Leadership Steve McConnell Construx Software
- 5. Construx® These presentation materials are © 2019-2020 Construx Software Builders, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of the contents of this presentation may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Construx Software Builders, Inc. Copyright Notice
- 6. Construx® [email protected] Construx 10900 NE 8th Street, #1300 Bellevue, WA 98004 +1 (425) 636-0100 www.construx.com Steve McConnell
- 7. Talk Focus This talk focuses on you as the leader The gist of the talk is that Agile work in most organizations sorely needs leadership, and it is imperative that you actively lead the work
- 8. Talk Roadmap Brief History of Agile Common Agile Pathologies Agile Ground State Agile in Your Organization Leading Agile Work in Your Organization
- 9. POLL Where does your staff get its definition of “Agile”? ¡ Official organizational definition ¡ Your personal definition as leader ¡ Specific online source ¡ Social media generally
- 10. Brief History of Agile Development
- 11. Meilir Page-Jones People often ask me: “Would you say that software development is more an art or a science?” I reply: “Neither, it’s a branch of the fashion industry.” From the foreword to How to Engineer Software, by Steve Tockey
- 12. Useful Practices History of Agile Development 2001 2020 Rhetoric 2010
- 13. Useful Practices History of Agile Development 2001 2020 Rhetoric: “Language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.” 2010
- 14. This is your leadership context
- 16. Healthy Implementation Your staff’s interpretation of Agile is aligned with your business needs Staff interpretation of Agile Business needs
- 17. #1 Your staff’s interpretation of Agile is different than what your business needs Staff interpretation of Agile Business needs
- 18. #2 Your staff’s interpretations of Agile vary Staff interpretations of Agile Business needs
- 19. #3 Your staff actively disagrees with one another about their interpretations of Agile Staff interpretations of Agile Business needs
- 20. #4 Your staff agrees in a general, vague way with the Agile direction, but doesn’t really understand the purpose or details Staff interpretations of Agile Business needs
- 21. #5 Your staff agrees with the Agile transition, but they are overconfident in their Agile skill set Staff interpretations of Agile Business needs
- 22. #6 Your staff says it can’t adopt Agile unless the whole organization goes Agile Staff interpretation of Agile Business needs
- 23. #7 Your staff adopts Agile culture/rhetoric without adopting Agile practices Staff interpretation of Agile Business needs
- 24. Your Leadership Role You lead in your organization You also lead in an industry context An effective leadership approach must consider issues arising from the software industry at large as well as from your organization
- 25. Agile Ground State What You Need to Know as a Leader
- 26. There is a software-industry-wide mismatch between Agile Practices, Business Objectives, and Some Agile Culture (Rhetoric)
- 27. How Companies Measure Success with Agile Initiatives Source: 13th Annual State of Agile Report, CollabNet VersionOne
- 28. How Companies Measure Success with Individual Agile Projects (Top 10) Source: 13th Annual State of Agile Report, CollabNet VersionOne
- 29. So far so good, right?
- 30. Top Challenges to Adopting and Scaling Agile Practices Source: 13th Annual State of Agile Report, CollabNet VersionOne
- 31. Top Challenges to Adopting and Scaling Agile Practices
- 32. Which of these criteria for overall success of an Agile initiative (aka “organizational culture”) are at odds with Agile values?
- 33. Which of these criteria for success on individual projects (aka “organizational culture”) are at odds with Agile values?
- 34. Why is there a perceived mismatch between organizational culture and Agile values?
- 35. Could it be that software staff do not like Agile?
- 36. Reasons for Adopting Agile Source: 13th Annual State of Agile Report, CollabNet VersionOne
- 37. Reported Benefits of Adopting Agile Source: 13th Annual State of Agile Report, CollabNet VersionOne
- 38. +30% +23% +22% +20% +19% +14% +13% +10% +9% +7% +4% -11% -13% IMPROVE TEAM MORALE IMPROVE PROJECT VISIBILITY REDUCE PROJECT RISK BETTER MANAGE DISTRIBUTED TEAMS IMPROVE ENGINEERING DISCIPLINE IMPROVE BUSINESS/IT ALIGNMENT INCREASE SOFTWARE MAINTAINABILITY INCREASE TEAM PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCE PROJECT/DELIVERY PREDICTABILITY ENHANCE ABILITY TO MANAGE CHANGING PRIORITIES ENHANCE SOFTWARE QUALITY ACCELERATE DELIVERY SPEED/TIME TO MARKET REDUCE PROJECT COST Underperform / Overperform Expected Benefits vs. Actual Benefits of Adopting Agile
- 39. Once more: Why is there a perceived mismatch between organizational culture and Agile values?
- 40. Agile Rhetoric There are people on Twitter who are trying to be as radical as possible with Agile Your staff is reading them and, possibly, following them instead of following you
- 41. Some Agile practitioners are trying to see how far they can push the “Agile” envelope, including ► Eliminating requirements work ► Eliminating design work ► Eliminating estimates ► Eliminating management work ► Eliminating managers ► Eliminating budgets ► Eliminating deadlines ► Eliminating commitments ► Eliminating documentation Whether any of this has anything to do with “Agile” in your organization is up to you, as a leader.
- 42. Leadership Reflection Who’s leading your software organization? You, or Twitter? How can you take charge of the interpretation of “Agile” in your organization?
- 43. Agile Development Is An enormous “n-space” of technical and management practices, strategies, values, philosophies, from which, Your organization chooses a subset that are well-suited or not-so-well- suited to the business needs of your organization
- 44. Agile Development Is Not a ‘1’ or a ‘0’ Agile is not a binary property where you are either Agile or you are not
- 45. Agile Development Is Not A Scalar Property Agile is not a simple number line where you are more or less Agile Less Agile More Agile
- 46. Agile Development Should Not Be Anchored by the 20-year old Agile values or the 20-year old Agile principles
- 47. Common Sentiments in Agile Rhetoric Undue fixation on these 20-year-old artifacts gives rise to non- practical considerations that have little to do with business and engineering work: “How well do you adhere to the Agile values?” “Do you truly follow the Agile principles?” “How faithful is your Agile implementation?” “Do you always capitalize the word Agile?”
- 48. Agile Rhetoric and the Emperor’s New Clothes
- 49. Be an Agile Heretic! “Some Agile practices don’t work some of the time, and it’s because of the practices, not the use of the practices” “Some Agile practices work fine when they’re used well, but they’re hard to use well, and aren’t used well most of the time” “Some Agile practices don’t work most of the time” “Some organizations will not benefit from use of most Agile practices” None of these statements change the fact that the Agile toolbox provides some incredibly useful and effective tools
- 50. Leadership Reflection How can you model treating Agile as a set of technical and management practices whose properties can be understood in technical and management terms?
- 51. Agile In Your Organization
- 52. Agile Development Is Not A Goal In Itself Your business’s specific objectives are the goals; Agile development is a means to an end; it is not the end
- 53. Leadership Reflection Does your organization exist to serve Agile practices and philosophy, or do Agile practices and philosophy exist to serve your organization? Have you been clear about that in your leadership?
- 54. Key Principle Model Agile Behavior Model treating Agile as being in service to your organization, not the other way around
- 55. More on the Agile Ground State
- 56. Less than 1/2 our teams are agile NoAgile More than 1/2 our teams are agile All of our teams are agile Source: 13th Annual State of Agile Report, CollabNet VersionOne Extent of Agile Adoption 4% 48% 26% 22%
- 57. NoAgile ConsideringAgile Experimenting with Agile in pockets Use agile practices, but still maturing Highlevelofcompetencewith Agilepracticesacrossthe organization Agilepracticesenablegreateradapt- abilitytochangingmarketconditions Source: 13th Annual State of Agile Report, CollabNet VersionOne Agile Practice Maturity 4% 21% 53% 12%5% 6%
- 58. How Effective Are Most Agile Implementations? Less than 1/2 our teams are agile NoAgile More than 1/2 our teams are agile All of our teams are agile Extent of Agile Adoption NoAgile ConsideringAgile Experimenting with Agile in pockets Use agile practices, but still maturing Highlevelofcompetencewith Agilepracticesacrossthe organization Agilepracticesenablegreateradapt- abilitytochangingmarketconditions Agile Practice Maturity 4% 21% 53% 12%5% 6% 4% 48% 26% 22%
- 59. Leadership Reflection What do you need to do to take responsibility for the effectiveness of the Agile work in your organization?
- 60. Top Challenges to Adopting and Scaling Agile Practices
- 61. What Happens if You Don’t Take Responsibility? Stupid Smart
- 62. What Happens if You Don’t Take Responsibility? Industrious Lazy Stupid Smart Misguided
- 63. Leading Agile Work in Your Organization
- 64. POLL How clearly have you defined your vision for Agile in your organization? ¡ We don’t have a vision ¡ Leadership has a vision, and it’s communicated to staff occasionally ¡ We have a joint leadership/staff vision, and everyone knows it ¡ We have a joint vision, and our progress toward our vision is monitored and measured quantitatively
- 65. My Unbreakable Rules of Leadership (2010) Leadership Rule Be Sure You’re Going Somewhere Take Responsibility Make Decisions in the Face of Ambiguity Put the Organization First Be Passionate about Your Company’s Business Become a Student of Communication Treat Your Staff as Volunteers
- 66. My Unbreakable Rules of Leadership (2010) Agile Leadership Gap Analysis Leadership Rule Important for Agile? Common Gap? Be Sure You’re Going Somewhere Yes Yes Take Responsibility Yes Yes Make Decisions in the Face of Ambiguity Yes Yes Put the Organization First Yes Yes Be Passionate about Your Company’s Business - - Become a Student of Communication Yes Yes Treat Your Staff as Volunteers Yes -
- 67. Leadership Reflection How clearly have you communicated your vision for where you want to lead your organization?
- 68. Define a Clear Vision You must express clear vision (“Commander’s Intent”): ► Publicly define the desired end state ► Describe the purpose of the change ► Identify key tasks to be accomplished vs.
- 69. Your “Clear Vision” must overcome the ambiguity present in the definition of “Agile” at the industry level
- 70. Sample Landing Zones for Defining and Monitoring an Agile Rollout 85% 90% 95%75% 85% 90% 95%75% 50% 65% 75%40% 90% 95% 100%80% Scale Complete Scrum role assignments by YE Complete Agile training by YE Scrum support in place by YE Adopt Agile release and gating process by YE Executive leadership training complete by YE 5 6 64 % of _staff informed of their Scrum roles % of _staff who have gone through the _AgileTrainingProgram % of _InhouseCoaches who have completed the _AdvancedTrainingProgram % of teams using the _ReleaseAndGatingProcess (self-reported) _ExecLeadershipTeam members who have completed _AgileLeadershipWorkshop
- 71. Sample Detail Obj: Complete Scrum role assignments by YE Scale: % of _staff who have been informed about their Scrum roles and team assignments by YE Meter: Reports from Scrum masters on a wiki _staff = { software dev, SDETs, content developers, POs, interns, leaders } includes headcount on board as of YE Survival: 75% Minimum: 85% Target: 90% Stretch: 95% Wish: 100%
- 72. Sample Landing Zones for Monitoring Development Work With an Agile Focus—Ongoing 135 60 30180 2 4 5? 45% 30% 20%80% 4.3 4.6 4.84.2 Business days from _Ideation to _Production Total _LargeAndXLTShirtValueItems per sprint _StakeholderSatisfactionScore Rework % 4 5 63 Number of _SprintRetrospectiveActions implemented per quarter Scale Customer Responsiveness Business Value of Delivered Work Stakeholder Satisfaction Quality Continuous Learning
- 73. Define a Clear Vision You must be specific You must not over-constrain how the work is performed Command & Control Leadership is inconsistent with Agile practices (Not to mention, just bad management)
- 74. Guard Rails for Leading Agile Work in Your Organization Key Principles
- 75. Key Principle Tighten Feedback Loops
- 76. Leadership Reflection What aspects of your environment lengthen feedback loops? l Offshore work? l Long development cycles? l Approach to testing?
- 77. Key Principle Increase Team Capacity by Building Individual Capacity
- 78. Leadership Reflection Do your teams and individuals have the skills they need to perform the work? l In high-leverage roles, such as Scrum Master and Product Owner? l In individual contributor roles? l For changed skill sets, such as integrating development into test?
- 79. Key Principle Commit to High Quality*
- 80. Leadership Reflection Does your leadership provide clear guidance on the importance of quality? Does your measurement program support that?
- 81. Key Principle Develop a Business Focus
- 82. Leadership Reflection How much attention have you seen your staff pay to business focus in their discussions of Agile? How much attention have you seen your staff pay to business focus in their conduct of Agile?
- 83. Key Principle Fix the System, Not the Individual
- 84. Leadership Reflection If your Agile initiative is not meeting expectations, how much of that can be attributed to your leadership?
- 85. The Two Most Important Key Principles
- 86. Key Principle Develop a Growth Mindset Inspect and Adapt Almost everything else in Agile can be inferred from these two principles
- 87. Leadership Reflection Does your implementation of Agile practices support a continuous learning environment?
- 88. Conclusions
- 89. Conclusions You lead in both an organization and an industry. Consider both in your approach to leadership.
- 90. Conclusions Most Agile implementations are nowhere near as effective as they could be.
- 91. Conclusions Leading an effective Agile initiative requires active leadership in some unexpected areas: especially the definition of Agile and the purpose that Agile is intended to serve in your organization.
- 92. Conclusions General leadership practices matter too.
- 93. Construx www.construx.com We believe that each and every software team can be successful. We believe that developing the professional skills of organizations, teams, and individuals is the best way to make software projects more successful. For information about our consulting and training services, contact [email protected] or [email protected]
- 94. 95 Q&A Brittany Shear With: Moderated by: CEO, Construx Software Linkedin page: /in/SteveMcc Twitter ID: @SteveMconstrux Email: [email protected] Website: construx.com Steve McConnell Editor, Aggregage Linkedin page: /cto-universe Twitter ID: @CTOUniverse Email: [email protected] Website: CTOUniverse.com www.ctouniverse.com/webinar-series/cto-universe-leadership-series/