2. www.luxoft.com
Introduction
Svetlana Mukhina
ICAgile ICP, ICP-ATF, ICP-BVA, PSM I, CSPO
Agile and Career Coach at Luxoft Agile Practice
Experience: 12+ years in IT, Project and department management,
Computer Linguistics, Technical Writing, Quality Assurance
Interests: Project management, Agile transformation, Career and
performance coaching, Psychology
Hobbies: Horse riding, music, poker, travelling
3. www.luxoft.com
Session Plan
Learning objectives
What is facilitation and who is facilitator
Agile Facilitator
Designing a Meeting
Warmup to brake the Ice
Brainwriting to gather ideas
World-café to explore opinions
Five and fist to evaluate opportunities
Pro-Con analysis to make a decision
Meeting minutes to summarize and define next steps
Facilitating Group Dynamics
Recommended materials and further education
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Definition of Facilitation
Facilitation
is a set of activities that helps a
group of people to understand their
common objectives and assists
them to achieve
it within a reasonable time box
and without
destructive confrontations.
Facilitator
is someone who helps a group of
people understand their common
objectives and assists them to plan
how to achieve these objectives; in
doing so, the facilitator remains
"neutral" meaning he/she does not
take a particular position in the
discussion
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Warmup
to Brake the Ice
What
• Short informal sharing of personal facts. e.g.
about your weekend
Why
• In order to find out more about the people you
work with and to create open atmosphere
When
• On Monday, before standup, Planning, Product
Backlog Refinement session
Time
• 5 min for a team of 8-10 people
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Warmup
Gather your team
A team member come in front and says what
she/he did during the weekend
If anyone did something similar this
person/people come to the speaker and hive
him/her high-five
Then the next person does similar actions,
in turn all team members should share their
weekend experience
Use on practice
Tip: use warm-up while waiting all participant
to join the meeting
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Brainwriting
To gather ideas
What
• Brainwriting is used to gather ideas on individual basis
Why
• In order everybody think about the question/problem and has a chance to
contribute a solution
When
• When it is necessary to gather all opinions and ideas for discussion.
Whenever you see that only a few participants are active, while you need all
the team to be involved
Time
• 10 min for a team of 8-10 people
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Brainwriting
Define a case for opinion gathering, e.g.
necessity of auto-tests on the project
(possible improvements for next Sprint,
responsibilities with Scrum team, etc.)
Provide stickers and pens to the group
Ask everybody to write 2 pro and 2 contra
opinions on auto-testing. One opinion per a
sticker
Gather ideas or ask participants to put ideas
to “ideas box”
Use on practice
Tip: In case someone has problem with ideas generation,
ask them to focus on the task and avoid doing side-
activities (mobile use, whispering with neighbors). Ideas will
come for sure, if remain thinking on the issue. There can be
more and less productive periods during brainwriting.
16. www.luxoft.com
World-Café
To Explore Opinions
What
• The technique is used to explore various
ideas in groups during a reasonable time-box
Why
• It helps to get familiar with lots of ideas and
enrich your understanding of the issue
When
• In case there are lot’s of options to explore or
one, but very complex option
Time
• 20 min for a team of 12-14 people
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World-Café
Define a topic for discussion
In our case it is necessity of auto-testing on the project
Ask participants to form group of 3-5 people
Each group discuss the topic
In our case people share their pro/con ideas
Each group has 4-5 min for discussion
When you say “Go”, people switch tables, remaining one of
them to welcome the coming group. The host should be
chosen by participants on voluntary basis
Continue the exercise till all groups are at default tables, give
them 5 min more to share the ideas they heard with their host
Use on practice
18. www.luxoft.com
Five-to-Fist
To Evaluate Opportunities
What
• It is a group voting procedure
Why
• To understand distribution of voices for/against idea
in a team
When
• Whenever a evaluation is necessary
Time
• 1-5 min. depending on quantity of evaluating items
19. www.luxoft.com
Five-to-Fist
Use on practice
Speak aloud some idea/suggestion
In our case it is a benefit or disadvantage of auto-
testing for the project
Ask participants to vote for it using fingers
Write down voting results for the idea
E.g. auto-testing will reduces manual work, 3 people
voted with 4 fingers, 1 with fist (zero), 3 with 2 = 18
Calculate the champion
In our case the biggest disadvantage and the best
benefit
Tip: use this approach to see the distribution in
voices, when there is no 100% “yes” and “no”
answers.
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Pro-con Analysis
To make a decision
What
• Decision-making mechanism
Why
• To summarize evaluated information, to visualize decision-making
for all team members
When
• Whenever there is distribution in opinions over an idea/issue
Time
• 5-10, depending on quantity of items
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Pro-con Analysis
• Auto-testing is executed by tools, so it is
faster than a manual approach 16
• It is more accurate and reliable 12
• Anyone can rut auto-tests 12
• Auto-tests can be re-used 11
51
Use on practice
• Investment is required for testing
frameworks, cost, time 12
• It can’t help to improve usability 10
• Auto-test should be kept up-to-date on
regular basis 18
• It requires accuracy of test data 6
46
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Meeting Minutes
To summarize and define next steps
What
• Summary on meeting decisions, way forward, action items
Why
• To summarize decision(s), share information with all interested parties,
integrate meeting results on practice
When
• During or at the end of a meeting
Time
• 5-10
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Meeting Minutes
Use on practice
What Who When
Setup next meeting on our progress with auto-testing
implementation
Mike by Aug 31
Investigate popular frameworks, present the results Ann by Sep 4
Explore company trainings on auto-testing, share info Olga by Sep 4
Discuss auto-testing experience on other project within
the company, summarize it for our team
Mike by Sep 08
Identify critical parts of our app to cover in first turn Alex and Ivan By Sep 11
Present our approach on auto-testing to stakeholders Mike By Sep 15
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FORMING
Unclear Goals
Low level of commitment
Vаgue communication flow
Responsibility is mostly avoided
Absence of prominent leaders
Build a common purpose
Identify expectations
Encourage for leadership and motivation
Inspire to take responsibility
Support contribution and collaboration
Team characteristics Facilitation approaches
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STORMING
High level of independence
Communication gaps
Misunderstanding
Uncertainty
Dysfunctional behavior
Differences and struggles
Reduce toxic communication
Invite different opinions and approaches
Recognize tolerance and loyalty
Define ground rules
Develop common goal
Involve everyone in discussion
Team characteristics Facilitation approaches
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NORMING
Confidence and clarity
Relevance
Defined communication flow, goals, rules, roles
Built relations
Understanding of interdependence
Develop process of information sharing
Build feedback loops
Use sharing format frequently to track progress
Discuss discipline distribution
Support negotiation and consensus
Team characteristics Facilitation approaches
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PERFORMING
Responsibility over tasks and relations
Stable progress and results
High level of proactivity
Self-organization and self-facilitation
Collaboration
Retrospect and seek for improvements
Celebrate success
Test and question habitual patterns
Evaluate results against purpose
Remember about rules, processes and focus
Team characteristics Facilitation approaches
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ADJOURNING
Lack of interest
Irrelevant goals
High level of predictability and competence
Satisfaction
Stability
Increase complexity and unpredictability
Restructure the process
Discuss team dissolving/rotation
Transform to network/community
Remember success and results
Team characteristics Facilitation approaches
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Recommended Materials
Greatest book on facilitation, applicable not only for Agile team, it’s #1 to read for any facilitator -
http://www.amazon.com/Facilitators-Guide-Participatory-Decision-Making-
Kaner/dp/0787982660
Retromat – cookbook on Retro facilitation, they provide step-by-step scenarios for Retros
facilitation - http://plans-for-retrospectives.com
Video to learn graphic facilitation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5DJC6LaOCI
Post about tools (not techniques) for distributed teams
facilitation http://www.luxoft.com/blog/smukhina/tools-for-collaboration-in-distributed-teams
Video on empathy that is one of the Servant Leader qualities -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw
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Recommended Materials
Recordings and presentations of my webinars on facilitation:
How to facilitate product backlog refinement sessionshttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/recording-webinar-how-facilitate-product-
backlog-svetlana
How to facilitate meetings, Scrum events and group discussions https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-facilitate-meetings-
scrum-events-group-svetlana
Agile Team Facilitator Mindset & Behaviour https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/recording-webinar-agile-team-facilitator-mindset-
svetlana
Facilitation and Facilitator Stance https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/recording-webinar-facilitation-facilitator-stance-svetlana
The Power on Visualizationhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141202230246-48371619-follow-up-on-the-webinar-the-power-
on-visualization
Designing Meetings for Collaboration https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-required-effective-collaboration-svetlana
Silent voting technique https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140415193826-48371619-easy-way-to-make-a-discussion-effective
Facilitating decision-making and feedback gathering https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/decisions-valued-feedback-remembered-
svetlana
34. www.luxoft.com
Way Forward – ICAgile Agile Team Facilitation
ICAgile Certified Professional - Agile Team Facilitation
Description - https://icagile.com/icp-agile-team-facilitation