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Agile Transitions as Self-Sustaining Reaction

Weird confession time? I used to be a little dubious about the long-term role of coaches and even of Scrum Masters or equivalent in an Agile organization. Once you’ve taught people the rules, what else is there to do? People are smart, and Agile methods as a rule aren’t complicated. I wondered—how could it possibly take more than a year or so to get this thing going? Then I spent several years observing an Agile transition from its initial push phase through to a kind of equilibrium, and I have gained a different understanding of the roles and the process in such a transition. I’m going to call these roles Primary Agile, because their work centers on fostering agility— and nothing else . Agile transitions can be thought of as something like a chemical reaction. The system starts in one state, and by adding some ingredients and – most importantly – energy, the system changes into a different state. For most organizations, that end state is going to be very different from whe
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Shu Ha Ri Skeptic

Last year it seemed like I couldn't turn around without hearing someone talking about shu ha ri and its applicability to Scrum (it was usually Scrum, probably because other Agile techniques are less ceremonial). There's a good summary here . Although I don't practice martial arts, I do meditate and practice yoga, which I feel gives me a way toward understanding how the idea is supposed to work. When you first start practicing, after all, it takes all of your attention just to get into the poses or to glimpse a moment of still attentiveness. Why you're supposed to do a specific pose or follow a particular sequence won't fit in there until you've been doing it for a while, until the physical part has become automatic. That said, something about that metaphorical connection, about the idea of "just do the Scrum ceremonies as prescribed, and why will come later" didn't sit well with me. After a fair amount of rumination I've finally identified wh
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Developments in My Agile World

It's the end of another work week, and while the weather has been grim and blustery for days, things are very shiny indeed in my life right now -- two developments in particular. First, I'm going to be doing content management and editing for the Women in Agile organization. I'm extremely excited about this. I have long been hoping to find a venue where I can put my writing experience to work in support of the agile community, so this looks perfect. I've started reaching out to people who might be willing to add some content to the site while I think about what I might contribute myself -- tons of fun! I've also started taking a coaching class with the inimitable Damon Poole . It's a significant investment of time and money, but I'm trying to move in the direction of what causes me genuine excitement, and this is it. I took a short class with Damon prior to this and have encountered him at various Agile New England events, and I can recommend his traini
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Why am I Here?

I signed up for one of those WordPress "how to blog" classes in hopes that I will learn something and get a little bit more disciplined about this! The first assignment is to write a "who I am and why am I here" post. As good a place to start as any. (This blog isn't on WP but one of my other ones is, and this blog needs more attention, so.) Who am I, though? I'm a mid-life wanna-be career changer. I'm fascinated by everything I've come into contact with since my introduction to agile practices three years ago. I don't know if they can save the world, but they can certainly make us less miserable while we go about our work, which is a step in the right direction. I'm a very reserved person and don't share myself easily, which can come across as being detached or diffident, but is really just a reflection of the fact that I'm very introverted and have a degree of social anxiety; trust is a slow process for me. I have a family and a
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Checking in on the Experiment

I just started re-reading How to Change the World , and was reminded that part of the cycle is "check." I planned my brown bag series, I did the sessions -- three times now -- so what's happened? Nothing. Attendance is non-zero, but there doesn't seem to be any particular level of interest, either. Although managers have indicated that they are interested in attending every time, they have not actually done so for any of the three sessions so. No follow-ups have been generated.  The next session on the schedule is a challenging topic: Improv games. This won't work if just a few people show up. Since one of my colleagues is leaving, there's an excellent chance of only one person showing up. I've tried to head this off by asking for volunteers up-front to work on it, and gotten no response. So I'm feeling a bit discouraged about this effort, and also am pondering what I could do to be more effective. I suspect that the answer is "do more marke
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Handling Meetings with Remote Attendees

This is the third session in my brown bag series. It's not an "agile" topic really, but it was one of the things people requested a session on.  I hoped that people would bring their questions and be willing to discuss them. There were four topics proposed, and some conversation although it was mostly people in the room. Here is the outline:  Day before, set up a Trello board as an option for people to raise topics and added a link to the invitation. Recruited a co-pilot who would watch the WebEx chat and bring up anything that came in through that.  Five minutes before the session, dial in to WebEx, start camera, ensure that screen sharing is set up and the projector is working.  Noon - official start time. 
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Ten-Minute Conversations

This is a follow-up to my previous post about getting the offshore and local teams to work together. Armed with the results of my brainstorming session with the team, I met with a representative of the offshore group. I was prepared to bargain, to set limits, to look for a way to help them move forward without jeopardizing my team's sprint backlog.  What I heard, in the course of ten minutes, was that the offshore group only has 2-3 stories every sprint that might benefit from our attention, and that while they do occasionally get stuck, mostly they want up-front guidance and code reviews -- things that can easily be scheduled and shouldn't, if all goes well, take more than a few hours of team from one or two people in a given sprint.  That's what the big deal was? I thought as I jotted notes.  More often than not, I have found that problems are not complicated to resolve if people just take ten minutes to discuss the situation.  
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