Vision Statement
As an Agile Guild, we want to engage, excite and educate Agile Coaches, so that Agile flourishes in [corporation X].Implementation
Iterating down from the Vision to a proposed implementation plan in support of the vision, there are three parts (engage, excite, educate):-1. Engage. Create a sub group within the Guild who will undertake to:
• Identify Agile Coaches and stakeholders, within [corporation X] and within vendors and suppliers, onshore and (if required) offshore.
• Connect with them. Construct an informal hierarchy or pathway that allows vision and strategy to flow from the Agile Guild to vendor coaches and and (if required) offshore coaches and development teams. This structure should allow goals to flow out and team-proposed implementation details/impediments to flow back. Follow the basic Agile principle - goals from the business, implementation details from the team.
• Identify potential Agile projects at [corporation X] and ensure that [corporation X] stakeholders, vendor and (if required) offshore coaches (identified above) are engaged and connected.
• Ensure that vendor coaches are involved in planning, retrospectives, education sessions etc. Ideally, the vendor coaches need to be so engaged that they identify themselves primarily as part of the [corporation X] Agile Team, not as part of the vendor team.
2. Excite. Create a sub group within the Guild who will undertake to improve engagement…. by exciting our stakeholders.
In order for people to buy in, we need to “sell” Agile. This means we need to answer the “What’s in it for me?” question for a variety of audiences/stakeholders. I’m not a sales person, but here are some answers I use for a few different types of audience:
• What is in it for developers – A level of self-determination, control and success. You get to decide your own actions and estimates, while ensuring that your customer is happy with the decisions.
• What is in it for upper management – This one is a no-brainer. Numerous studies from Gartner, Forrester, IBM, etc have shown that Agile gives them a Competitive Advantage. If they do not go down this path they give the competitive advantage to their competitors. Most of them would rather disembowel themselves with a spoon than give an advantage to the competition.
• What is in it for Vendors. This is a tougher sell, as you are outside of your organisation. The contractual model really needs to support your story. Split Contracts (a fixed price “Discover” phase followed by a Capped T&M “Evolve” Phase) or a “Pipeline” style contract, combined with the knowledge that other vendors are going down the same path, will strongly encourage the right behaviours. Within your vendors, make sure you form very close ties with your vendor coaches, and encourage them to do a lot of the “Selling” at the various levels.
• What is in it for Middle Management… Demonstrating self-interest for the “Frozen Middle” is difficult. I try to hit two points. Firstly, they get to do something new and exciting. Secondly, Agile is currently hot in the market. So the skills they develop are very “marketable” either within [corporation X], or outside. Make sure you form very close ties with your vendor coaches, and encourage them to do a lot of the “Selling” at the vendor middle manager level.
3 Educate. Create a sub group within the Guild who will undertake to:
• Find out what our coaches are good at. We need experts in the nitty-gritty of Agile - Kanban/Scrumban, Lean, XP Technical practices (CI Automated Regression Testing, TDD, etc) and supporting tools, BDD, Backlog generation, etc, etc. And we need experts in the more esoteric or theoretical side of Agile – Queuing theory, the Theory of Constraints, Systems Thinking, Scaling Agile, Complexity Theory, Vanguard, etc.
• Schedule Cross-Training based on the list developed above. Everybody has something to give and everybody has something to learn.
• Find out who is coming out for Agile Coferences and find Corporate Sponsors who will get them to come into [corporation X] and speak.
• Make sure Vendor coaches are invited and/or recordings of the sessions are shared with them – your Vendor Coaches need to feel like involved equal partners.
• Connect people up with Special Interest Groups, Meet Up groups, Conferences, etc. Get our people recognised as experts, so that we can attract the best.
• Develop standard packages for running repeating task and ceremonies (such as Discover Workshops and even Retrospectives). This is intended for inexperienced practitioners - encourage experienced practitioners to improvise and adapt, as Retrospectives and similar ceremonies get boring and unproductive if you always follow the same pattern. The standard packages should include instructions and a physical package of things they will need (sharpies, paper, etc).
• Develop minimum standards for developers involved in Agile Projects – run courses. These standards apply to Vendor developers too!!!! Get your vendor coaches to develop courses, or do a “Train the Trainer” course for them, and let them use your course. The course needs to be run just before the project starts. Earlier than that, and the developers forget.
