Agile Advice - Working With Agile Methods (Scrum, OpenAgile, Lean)

Our new 3-Day intensive Agile methods course

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:18:45 +0000

We have made some changes to our already well-received Certified ScrumMaster training seminar in order to add more value for our customers. Beginning in September 2010, you will see the following:

- Our seminar is now a more effective, participatory 3-day seminar giving more value for your time by including OpenAgile and Kanban along with Scrum
- Our preparatory reading material replaces lecture-oriented course content to allow more effective use of classroom time
- The Scrum Alliance knowledge test helps you consolidate your learning of the core Scrum principles and practices
- Our seminar contributes towards three certifications all in one course: the Scrum Alliance’s CSM, the PMAC Agile Project Management and the OpenAgile Institute’s Team Member level

All these changes help participants to be more engaged in their own learning, and derive more value from this seminar. Our seminar combines with the real-life experience of our facilitators to provide some of the best training value available! We will show you how to radically improve the performance and quality of the work of your team and organization.

http://www.berteigconsulting.com/

Agility, the Age of Interactions, and the Military

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:50:18 +0000

The United States Department of Defense Command and Control Research Program has published a short (10 pages) paper on the concept of Agility (by David S. Alberts) and the need for Agility for Complex Endeavors. Lots of fabulous thinking has gone into this paper which is loaded with useful definitions, useful concepts and advice about where we need to go with research. I STRONGLY recommend taking twenty minutes and reading it right now.

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Now that you have read it… no? … go read it! You don’t have an excuse – you’re reading my blog aren’t you?!

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Okay, really. Here a couple of highlights:

The Age of Interactions

We are no longer in the Information Age. I _love_ this concept. It gels well with what I am doing with agile in organizations, it gels with what I am doing in my volunteer work as a Baha’i. It gels well with my limited media-filtered understanding of what is going on in the world of ecology, economics, and politics.

The Age of Interactions is characterized by

unlimited possibilities… unleashed for the ways individuals and organizations can connect and work with one another. These interactions have profoundly changed our world, presenting both a set of challenges as well as providing new opportunities.

This means that ways of working with these connections (skills, processes and technology) are going to become the keys to unlocking the potential of this Age.

I Disagree

Mr. Alberts claims “Agility is a latent property, a potential that remains dormant until it is manifested and its power released.” (p. 9). This is incorrect. Agility can be and is an active property, not latent. Agility is manifested actively by running short-term experiments, options analysis, executing work using just-in-time principles, and systematically incorporating experience into a body of knowledge and habits that further enhance Agility.

Thanks to Dan Mezick for the link to this excellent paper via the PMIAgile Yahoo! Group.

OpenAgile is a system that helps individuals, teams and organization deliberately build the capabilities to demonstrate Agility, regardless of industry, affiliation, or context.

Coaching is Accompaniment

Paul J. Heidema — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:53:04 +0000

I have been coaching an Agile-Lean team in Waterloo over the last month or so. It has been very rewarding for me (and the team I hope). I have learned that coaching is very much about accompaniment. To have a positive effect on the team that one is coaching, we need to walk shoulder to shoulder with them. The exhaustion of coaching (physically) is well worth the learning and advancement (mentally and spiritually). It is so valuable to witness the “a-ha” moments and have some of my own light-bulb insights. It is such an honour to serve as a coach for any team, especially if that team makes you feel like one of the team members. (Paul J. Heidema)

The Road from Project Manager to Agile Coach

Mishkin Berteig — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:56:20 +0000

This is an excellent series of videos by Lyssa Adkins:

Part One of Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvYqhYEaqMs

Part Two of Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9tSjpqeBa4

I highly recommend taking the twenty minutes to watch these two videos. Anyone who is a ScrumMaster, a Project Manager or an Agile Coach should take the time!

Case Study: Agile Process and a Twist on “20 Percent Time” for a Self-Organizing Volunteer Team

David Parker — Sun, 09 May 2010 23:36:04 +0000

Cross-posted from the personal blog of David D. Parker: A Changemaker in the Making

I am engaged in a learning process with a charity that has undertaken to implement a new model of volunteer coordination based on OpenAgile, an open source agile method. We recently held an orientation with our new volunteers. In the hopes that this information will be useful to others who are trying to innovate on their model of volunteer coordination, here are the instructions I shared with the volunteers. In summary, they cover our process for sharing tasks, the tools we use to communicate with each other, and our use of what we are calling “60/40 time” a twist on Google’s “20 percent time“.

ORIENTATION INSTRUCTIONS:

I. Agile Volunteer Team Process

We are all here to support the charity. We are inspired by its mission and goals, and we want to help in a way that draws on all of our abilities, knowledge, skills, and creativity.

Our team uses a specific system for producing valuable results. We work in Cycles of 5 weeks. The charity’s staff talk with the stakeholders and decide what steps are necessary for accomplishing the organization’s goals. Each one of these steps, called Value Drivers, add up to providing value for the stakeholders once they’re delivered. The staff also decide the priority order for completing the Value Drivers.

In week 1 of the Cycle, there is a planning meeting with all the volunteers who are committed to doing work during the 5 week Cycle. All volunteers are urged to attend and participate.

The meeting begins with reflecting on the results of the previous Cycle. These observations and lessons are an important part of the planning process.
Next, the team of volunteers works together to create a Cycle Plan by taking the highest priority Value Driver and breaking it down into tasks. Tasks are represented by sticky notes on the wall.
Third, the volunteer team counts the number of tasks needed to complete the highest priority Value Driver. If the past Cycle showed that the team can complete more tasks, then the team takes the next Value Driver in the list and breaks it down into tasks. This process continues until the team makes a unified decision that it has taken on the amount of work it can actually accomplish.
The last part of the meeting is commitment. Everyone shares the responsibility for completing the Value Driver (represented by multiple tasks) by the end of the Cycle of work. Therefore each volunteer must truthfully commit to completing the work. If a volunteer is not comfortable committing to all the work on the task wall, then some tasks must be removed until everyone is able to commit.

In week 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Cycle, the team of volunteers complete the tasks in the Cycle Plan (aka “doing work”).

Volunteers are free to take whatever task is of interest to them. If they need more information about the task, they ask the other volunteers or the staff for details.
When a volunteer begins a task, they sign their name on the bottom of the sticky and move the task into the “in progress” column.
When a volunteer completes a task, they move the task into the “done” column.
There are weekly conference calls where all the volunteers check in. They answer 4 simple questions
1. What did I do last week?
2. What will I do this week?
3. What did I learn/observe?
4. What obstacles, if any, are affecting my ability to do work?
New tasks can be added to the wall based on any of the volunteers’ observations, obstacles, clarifications, questions, urgent new tasks, etc. If you add a new task to the wall, add your name to the bottom of the task, so that other volunteers can know who to go to for questions. Note that these new tasks must also be completed by the end of the 5 week Cycle.

At the end of the 5 week Cycle, the team presents the valuable results it has produced to the charity staff/stakeholders. Any insights, observations, corrections, etc. are factored into the next Cycle Plan.

II. Communication Tools

Over the time we have worked together, the volunteer team has decided to use a few tools to help us communicate. The main tool is the task wall and sticky notes. The secondary tool is a shared Gmail account.

NOTE: This list of instructions is a working, evolving document; it is not set in stone. Volunteers are encouraged to work together and adapt the way we do things to create a system that works well for all of us.

ACCOUNT INSTRUCTIONS:

Login and read new messages
Emails in the Inbox means there is work to be done (if the task is complete, archive the email to remove from the Inbox aka the To Do List)
Apply Labels – Gmail doesn’t use folders; it uses labels instead. Apply labels to emails to assist other volunteers with how to treat the content of that message.
Write up volunteer tasks for the task wall (Note: Label as “Task Written & Posted”)
Get work done:
Move the task on the wall to in progress
If the task came from an email, label the task with your name
When the task is complete, label as “Task Complete” and archive the email so it doesn’t appear in the Inbox

CURRENT LABELS:

??? – this means more information or context is required to understand the request –> ASK QUESTIONS, or get help, to complete the task
By Volunteer Name –> This means the task/email is in progress; A volunteer labels the email with their name when they accept responsibility for a particular task
FYI (For Your Information) – these are emails that contain information that is relevant to volunteers, but does not necessarily require action be taken. If action is required, write up a task and post it on the wall)
Task Complete – Use this to label When a task is complete; archive the email so it doesn’t appear in the Inbox
Task Written & Posted – apply this label after you write up the task and post it on the wall
Social Media – these are emails that apply specifically to social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Website – these emails are relevant to website updates

III. What is 60/40 Time?

There are many reasons why people volunteer. Here is a short list that comes from Molly Schar’s article Making the Most of Nonprofit Volunteers:

Belief in the mission of the charity
Desire to “give back”
Meet new people
Make new business contacts
Invited or inspired by another volunteer or staff member
Improve resume
Learn new skills
Benefits such as free events

We want all of our volunteers to get the most out of their experience here. Rather than insisting that every moment of a volunteer’s time be spent on completing tasks on the wall, we ask you to split your time 60/40. We want to give our volunteers freedom to spend a large portion of time doing things that satisfy their motivations while still providing value to the organization. For example, if someone has an interest in building skills in using social media, but there aren’t currently any tasks on the wall related to social media, the volunteer would be encouraged to use 40% of their time using social media to benefit the charity. The remaining 60% of the time is essential for delivering other important results to the organization. We aspire to having a trusting environment, so it is up to you to monitor how you’re spending your time. During progress updates, all volunteers are encouraged to share what they’ve accomplished during their 40% time. This will help other volunteers to learn what motivates their teammates and will give the team information that can be integrated into future Cycle Plans.

More Agile Practices for Social Innovation, Non-Profits, Charities and Volunteer Organizations

David Parker — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:48:05 +0000

I have started composing a series of articles on my blog A Changemaker in the Making that are intended to briefly explain how to apply different agile practices to the work of social innovators, non-profits, charities and volunteer organizations.

The first article covers Self-Organizing Teams an important consideration for organizations that want to use their people resources more efficiently and to create a culture of empowerment.

The second article explores The Agile Workspace and ways to create an environment that is conducive to fruitful interaction.

Enjoy!

Agile for Social Innovation and Volunteer Organizations

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:28:45 +0000

A close associate, David Parker, has written a great little article about the use of agile methods in volunteer management.

Case Study: OpenAgile for Charity Volunteer Management

David Parker — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:01:39 +0000

Cross-posted from my personal blog: A Changemaker in the Making

For the past several weeks, I have been helping a small charity solve a dilemma. Because the charity is well-recognized for their good work, they regularly attract volunteers who want to help. Unfortunately, the two overworked staff members are too busy to recruit, train, and manage them. My approach has been to use OpenAgile, an open source system for delivering value to stakeholders, to implement a few simple techniques to help them.

There are several aspects of OpenAgile that fit very well for managing volunteers:

1. Self-Organizing Behavior

This means people “volunteer” for tasks instead of doing them based on a tightly defined role or having someone tell them what to do. This frees the staff from having to assign work. Instead, they identify priorities and rely on the volunteer’s creativity and personal motivation to do the task in their own way.

2. Shared Responsibility for the Workload

When there is more than one volunteer, they work in a team and share the responsibility for the workload. The team of volunteers discuss the priorities of the organization, and decide among themselves what tasks need to be completed. Then, they create and commit to a 1-2 week short-term plan that will deliver those results. Finally, they come back after the 1-2 week period and reflect on what they accomplished. This pattern of action, reflection, learning, and planning is one of the Foundations of OpenAgile.

3. Visible Tasks

This means that all people doing the work should be able to see what tasks needs to get done, what is in progress, and what tasks are done. One technique that co-located teams often use is simply posting tasks on a wall using sticky notes. (Check out my OpenAgile Task Wall Prezi) Another cool idea is Card Meeting which works on the same principle, but it can be useful for distributed teams.

4. Learning Manifesto

The emphasis on learning is perhaps the most important aspect of OpenAgile that aligns with the needs of volunteer management. The Learning Manifesto states that “Learning is the key that unlocks human capacity.” Volunteers are drawn to an organization because of its vision but can get pushed away when they feel they’re underutilized or not able to contribute in a meaningful way. By making it explicit that the volunteer is primarily accountable for learning, the organization creates a safe space for experimentation and innovation.

Great Article on Shu-Ha-Ri

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:38:51 +0000

Christian Gruber, a Googler, an agile guru and an Aikido practitioner clears up some important mis-understandings about Shu-Ha-Ri as applied to both learning Agile and learning Aikido: http://bit.ly/bqgvZS . Strongly Recommended!

Agile is Not Communism – Repost

Mishkin Berteig — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:35:08 +0000

“Last week I taught an introductory course on Agile Work. Normally this is pretty easy stuff. However, I was teaching this course in Bucharest, Romania (cool), and I have come across a substantial, strong and vigorous objection to agile (also cool, but challenging too). Several people in my class are asserting that agile is just like communism and since communism failed, agile is not likely to succeed either. I’m looking for help on this! …”
Read the original article!