1. Beyond Agile Practices
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.
- W. Edwards Deming
Where Did We Go Wrong?
Troy Tuttle, KCP
Principal Consultant, Owner
KanFlow.com
troy@kanflow.com
@troytuttle
Rate This Talk!
http://spkr8.com/t/31661

2. Challenges to Agile Adoption or
Transformation
Silent Brainstorm on index cards:
In phrases (1 to 5 words) describe your current or
past Agile adoption challenges.
What is preventing “Agile Success?”

3. Sad Clown Agile Quotes
https://flic.kr/p/8M3zKf
“Lack of executive commitment”
“Our culture doesn’t support Agile”
“Inconsistent or missing retrospectives”
“Command and Control never left”
“Started with a tool instead of a mindset”
“Reverted to old habits when the coach left”

4. War Stories
“Cargo Cult Agile”
Many 1st generation Agile attempts simply installed recipes
Recipes lead to Cargo Cult Agile

5. The Practice and Theory Imbalance
Practice
Theory
Release Planning
Iterations
Retrospectives
Planning Poker
Continuous
Integration
?

6. Introducing Systems Thinking
Russell Ackoff, Systems Thinker
http://youtu.be/OqEeIG8aPPk

7. What is a System?
A system is a set of parts where:
The behavior of each part has an
effect on the behavior of the whole
The behavior of the parts are interdependent
Each part has an effect on the behavior of the whole
and none has an independent effect on it

8. What is a System?
The performance of a system is never the sum of
the performance of its parts;
it’s a product of their interactions.
- Dr. Russ Ackoff

9. Systems Thinking
PO / Analysts Developers QA
Corporate Structure
M M M
A
A A D D
D
D
T T
Customer Value
Performance of
the system is a
product of the
interactions.
What about individual performance reviews?

10. Systems Thinking
“To optimize the whole,
we must
sub-optimize the parts.”
If we optimize the parts of
the system, we will
sub-optimize the whole.
- W. Edwards Deming

11. A Particular System Condition
Microsoft’s Stack Ranking System …
20 – 70 – 10 rule - Vanity Fair: “Microsoft’s Lost Decade” Aug. 2012
How many system conditions are misattributed to “team dysfunctions”?
(Google “Microsoft stack ranking”)

12. Bad Systems, Good People
“I should estimate that in my experience most
troubles and most possibilities for improvement
add up to the proportions something like this:
94% belongs to the system, 6% special.”
“A bad system will defeat a good person every time.”
- W. Edwards Deming

13. Other Examples of System Conditions
-- Hermanni Hyytiälä, Reaktor
@hemppah

14. Complexity Theory: Cynefin Framework
Complex
Probe
Sense
Respond
Emergent Practice
Chaotic
Act
Sense
Respond
Novel Practice
Complicated
Sense
Analyze
Respond
Good Practice
Simple
Sense
Categorize
Respond
Best Practice
OrderedUn-Ordered

15. Nature of Knowledge Work
How does the work work?
Because we often work in the complex and
complicated domains,
our work is non-deterministic in nature
Ignorance about how the work works
is a systems condition

16. Culture Revisited
“Our culture doesn’t support Agile”
But we have other Lean-Agile experience reports from the field:
“We have experienced profound cultural changes”
But these companies weren’t
trying to change their culture.
They were just doing Lean-Agile
and the culture changed.
How did that happen?

17. What is Culture?
Culture is a pattern of shared tacit assumptions that was learned by a
group … that has worked well enough to be considered valid and,
therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to
perceive, think, and feel ...
--Schein, Edgar H.
The Corporate Culture Survival Guide

18. Schein’s Three Levels of Culture
Visible structures, behavior, language
Espoused values, goals, philosophies
Underlying beliefs, tacit assumptions
Group’s understanding
of their environment
To affect the visible aspects of culture,
we must change that understanding
We have to unlearn first as an organization
to affect our organizational culture.

19. Balance Practice and Theory
Practice Theory
Theory informs practice
Practice informs Theory
Do estimates really help us deliver predictably?
Why are retrospectives valuable for our organization?
Systems thinking and complexity theory
are examples of theory that inform our practices.

20. Agile’s Secret Sauce
Agile is not an “execution” strategy….
It’s a learning strategy
Balance your practices with a healthy dose of theory
Use that knowledge to affect your Agile adoption

21. Beyond Agile Practices
Thank You!
Where Did We Go Wrong?
Troy Tuttle, KCP
Principal Consultant, Owner
KanFlow.com
troy@kanflow.com
@troytuttle
Rate This Talk!
http://spkr8.com/t/31661