Lissa Adkins - Agile team coaching. A Guide for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition
Being a humanist to the marrow of my bones, could I ever think that I would be seriously interested in learning practical developments from the IT field?
But life is changing so rapidly that there is nothing left but to accept its challenge and try new approaches not only in optimizing production, inventing new technologies, products and services, but also in effectively managing people.
Increasingly, managers have to admit that the classic methods of working with employees are failing. Of course, there are a lot of factors that affect the effectiveness of management.
However, modern realities of life, such as multitasking, requirements for speed of execution, work in conditions of uncertainty, creation of innovative projects and products, require a clear, well-coordinated and efficient work from the manager and the project team, which is often only possible using new approaches to managing such a project. group.
And despite the fact that the agile approach originated and is actively used in the IT industry, its principles can be perfectly integrated into the work of any project teams that are working on solving new, non-standard tasks. But first things first.
How did the agile approach appear and what is it?
Often, software developers have a hard time, especially if the product is not standard. This means that development requirements can change throughout the product development process. And if they are not taken into account, then the result may not be the result that the Customer will like.
A few years ago, the term for developing a software product could be 3 years, while now it is 3 months! The task of modern business is to implement projects quickly and efficiently! How can this be achieved? Development teams had to reconsider the approaches in which they worked. The fact is that the development was carried out before certain stages on the principle of cascading project implementation. Until one stage was completed, it was impossible to move on to the next.
It was not possible to constantly test and improve the product already in the process of developing the project, because everything rested on the original TK. This approach was not at all flexible and was associated with bureaucracy and a lot of documentation being developed, which often became irrelevant by the time the project was completed. That is why, instead of the classic ones, flexible approaches to project management were invented that do not require long-term coordination regarding the slightest changes in the project.
Thus, the concept was born agile as a philosophy, which combines the principles of all flexible software development methodologies. These include Scrum, Kanban, etc.
In 2001, thanks to a team of developers who realized that living and creating as before is becoming inefficient, the Agile Manifesto was born, containing the basic principles of working in the Agile approach.
The key ones were:
1.
People and their interaction is more important than technology. And the most effective method interaction and exchange of information is a personal conversation.
2.
The finished product is more important than the written documentation for it. It is important to deliver fully working software to the Customer every few weeks
3.
Constant dialogue with the Customer in the process of product development is more important than the strict restrictions prescribed in the contract
4.
Being responsive to change is more important than sticking to the original plan of action
As we can see, readiness for change, the value of people and a focus on results can be traced in these principles.
Moreover, the highest priority is the satisfaction of the customer / user through frequent and continuous supply of a product that is valuable to him, so that he can receive feedback for future developments of the project.
Isn't that what any team working on a project is aiming for?
Thank you, dear IT people, now we can safely learn from your experience!
Let's see what this approach looks like in practice. And what about coaching?
As we know, coaching is always work on building the desired future and always work for results. In the process of coaching, as a rule, asking questions are used, which allow a person to better understand the task facing him, see the resources and ways to achieve it. And if in the classic version coaching is individual work coaching with a client, then team coaching is used in the context of project development, which is very similar to facilitation. Also, agile coaching usually requires the coach's expertise in the area where he helps the team achieve results, so sometimes the agile coach can also act as a mentor and mentor.
The agile coaching process allows you to make the work of the team transparent, well-coordinated, and at the same time focused on specific goals.
Example 1
Imagine a work day morning that starts every day with a 15-minute Daily stand-up sessions. This is such a mini-meeting of all team members, where everyone stands. Yes, it's uncomfortable. On the other hand, the risk of delaying the event is reduced Therefore, only the most important things that will move the project implementation process forward are discussed.
Namely, each team member answers each other 3 questions:
1. What I did for the project
2. What do I plan to do
3. What is stopping me from moving forward?
Such a short meeting helps to detect parallel processes, understand the stage of the project, the difficulties that need to be solved, and also increase the responsibility of each employee to other team members.
It is important that the solution of the voiced problematic points will occur later, not at the stand-up session itself.
The purpose of such a meeting is to keep the focus on the current stage and at the same time look into the future. That is, to see how what the team is doing now affects the implementation of the project in the future, and, if necessary, adjust the action plan in time.
Example 2
To visualize the process of running tasks, you can use a tool such as Kanban board.
It can be in the form of a real board with stickers on which tasks are written, or in a virtual form, in case the team works remotely.
If it is a physical task board, employees write their tasks on sticky notes and stick them in the appropriate columns, depending on the stage of the task. Thus, a general picture of the work on the project in the current period emerges, and an understanding arises at which stages of the project “bottlenecks” are observed, where, for example, the greatest accumulation of tasks occurs.
In the very simple form Project stages can be referred to as:
1. Need to do
2. In progress
3. Done
You can also break the processes down a bit, so the task board might look like this:
If necessary, you can visualize on the board other stages of the project that are specific to the activities of a particular team.
During the morning Daily stand-up sessions employees, talking about the work done and the upcoming work, paste the stickers from one stage to another and can more clearly see those moments that make their work difficult.
Based on such a visual analysis, “urgent tasks” can emerge that slow down the project as a whole. Such tasks are placed in a separate column on the visualization board.
This activity allows you to understand whether this project be implemented within the specified time frame or additional resources, including temporary ones, are needed. In this case, you can warn the customer in advance about the upcoming adjustment of the terms, and not report it at the last moment.
Example 3
Customer Requirements Prioritization Matrix
As mentioned earlier, it is very important for the project team to maintain constant contact with the customer. Customers, in turn, can quite actively offer a lot of ideas for implementation, not all of which are expedient or can be immediately implemented. In addition, the implementation of some ideas may require additional costs.
Therefore, it is necessary, together with the customer, to clarify the value of each task for his business.
Working with values and priorities is also a coaching approach that can be easily implemented using a special customer requirements priority matrix. Tasks are spread over all quadrants of the matrix, depending on their value to the customer and the estimated costs. After that, there is an analysis of which tasks we leave to work (these are tasks that fall into the high value quadrant at minimal cost), and which ones need to be thought about in terms of increasing value or reducing the required resources.
So, if suddenly one of you, reading this article, opposed the idea of constant interaction with the next Felix Sigismundovich from the ranks of your customers in order to make new adjustments to the project, then do not worry! These meetings will not exhaust your nerves, because, using this tool, you will not need to blindly rush to execute any new crazy idea out of 1000 similar ones ... Working with this matrix at meetings with the customer will help make your communication as productive and truly engaging as possible .
What do our customers want? High-quality and timely implementation of the project, as well as attention to your wishes.
What do project team leaders want? So that all team members, in addition to professionalism, have a high degree of responsibility for the result and be involved in the project implementation process. This will ultimately lead to well-coordinated work and the creation of a product that can satisfy the wishes of the customer, and possibly surpass them.
Agile approach allows us to achieve both the first and second.
However, it is important to understand that in this case Agile becomes your management and communication style. And just like traditional management styles have their benefits and risks, agile management has its bottlenecks.
When we talk about coaching style management, we mean that the team we are dealing with is quite mature. This creative people who initially have an interest in the matter, a desire to realize themselves, a certain sense of responsibility and involvement.
We say that coaching is always work with awareness and with a 100% sense of responsibility. And if these qualities of your employees are not yet on right level, then it will be quite difficult for you to apply Agile coaching in its purest form. Therefore, you can use mixed management styles, gradually "growing" your team to a level where you can safely use the Agile approach to management.
And this will undoubtedly lead you and your team to new heights! And your satisfied and grateful customers will never want to trade you for anyone else!
Ekaterina Kudryavtseva, business coach, coach
Lots of trendy words. They come as names for something very new and become fixed in our minds as symbols of a breakthrough. Symbols of a global change in thinking. But is what is hidden under the terms a real breakthrough? Or is it just that we again consider the well-forgotten old to be new?
coaching
Once I had a conversation with one of my business partners.
I worked with a coach. For big money. In general, I was pleased. But then I went to a good psychologist and did not understand the difference. Both of them asked me questions. Both of them talked to me about goals. Only a psychologist did it without pressure. More professional, right?
I wasn't too surprised. After all, coaching is just one of the technologies of working with a person. Just like a psychotherapy session. And the difference between a coach and a psychotherapist is most often that the former owns one method, and the second a set of methods and tools. But they have the same basis.
So why introduce a new term?
And everything is simple. In order for a person to be able to conduct a therapeutic reception, he must receive the appropriate education. Very serious. And then call their services completely unfashionable word "consultation". And in order to declare yourself a coach, short courses are enough. And even then, not necessarily.
There are no approved and agreed criteria for the quality of a coach's work. So, there is no liability. In fact, customers simply pay for the conversation. And, quite frankly. And often with those who have no idea how to prevent serious consequences for the client's psyche. And with those who cannot figure out whether their client has an everyday problem or a pathology that needs to be treated with drugs. Well, it goes without saying that coaches are not available to medical ethics commissions.
So, the fashionable concept in this case helps amateurs, sectarians and many others to promote their name and earn money.
Does the technology work? Of course it works. Like any other methods, when they are used by professionals. Technology is not to blame for the fact that its name has become fashionable and hit the covers of amateurs.
And here is what many of them arrogantly state: “Psychologists cannot work with people normally. Now only coaching” - shows that they have no idea about either psychology or coaching as a technology.
Agile
This word burst into our reality like a whirlwind. And it has become a symbol of modern business. More precisely, those who believe that they are related to modern business. And, interestingly, everyone has heard about Agile. But what it is, imagines quite a few people. So, gentlemen, this is not technology. An agile manifesto is a set of values and principles that are important for developing technology under conditions of uncertainty. That is, when there is no clear vision of the final result. Principles on which many good tools can be developed.
Does agile work? Of course it works. Like any other values and principles, it guides decisions made in a team along a certain path.
Is there something revolutionary new in this? Not at all. Special groups were created long before that. And every entrepreneur dreams of employees working in teams and being customer-oriented. For the fact that the developers and methodologists have brought these principles into a single document - respect to them. For those who understand how a workflow is built on the basis of principles, they can help. Especially if he works in software development.
But dragging these principles into any business is stupid. But fashionable. And profitable. After all, any fashion serves as a reason to bring an educational product to the market. And if the word is heard, then it is perceived as new Magic wand. And it costs more than a set of conventional tools that has already bothered everyone. True, it does not seriously differ from it, but the label is different, which means it sells better.
SCRUM
Simply revolutionary! Nightmare revolutionary! Coordinating work in progress is new and fresh. Working in short bursts is… well, cool, I guess. And most importantly, no one has ever done this. Not architects or designers who present the sketch to the customer many times before the final decision on the application. Nor hardware manufacturers. Not to mention the software developers themselves.
Well, and of course, no one has ever held production meetings. And did not conduct cyclical control. And did not create interdepartmental commissions.
Is scrum necessary and does it work? Needed. And working. Because these are the principles of normal working group management. Whatever you call them. And when reading or listening about a cool person - a SCRUM master, we notice that in some ways he looks like an ordinary professional moderator and administrator working group. But, damn it, SCRUM, and even a master, sounds cooler. So for a diploma with such an inscription, the dough will give the teacher more.
So... does it work? Of course! Is it new? In no case. This is a common management practice. And examples of “revolutionary achievements” achieved with the help of Scrum are mostly the practice of rocking over-bureaucratic systems. Which would be updated anyway, because they lost their effectiveness.
And by the way, if we leave the banter over our translators and take the original title of the book that has become the bible in this area, then “doing twice as much, spending half the time” is possible without new technologies. You just need to learn how to work normally, and not squabble and not let personal ambitions affect the deliberative and labor process.
Turquoise... turquoise...
“First, we decided to build turquoise company and then decided to make money and hired single mothers with mortgages.”
Need to update something? Repaint!
So do food manufacturers, offering us "new" colored packs. So do the makers of countless "overmanagement" theories.
They assign color differentiation to long-studied phenomena.
Gref read a book and suddenly "turquoise" filled the front pages of all business publications. And the brains of those who are trying to somehow establish their business. And the thoughts of numerous gurus, pulling money out of the latter for "supertechnologies".
A lot has been painted. And typification of personality, and emotions. and stages of personal development. And even taste preferences (I somehow saw a color differentiation of coffee tastes). And as soon as the fashion for yellow-red-blue-something else there types of behavior has departed, colored types of organizations burst into our lives. At the same time presenting the next typification as a stage of development. Which is fundamentally wrong. And they want to prove the opposite - let them force a large machine-tool plant with thousands of employees to become "turquoise".
When I first heard about spiral dynamics, I said only one thing with a curse: “Someone will definitely drag this into the business. And will present another revolution. It hasn't even been a couple of years since it happened.
And again we are offered something “new”. But the concept of value organization (which is the pinnacle of development) has been known since the beginning of civilization. Only then it was called "tribe", and then "sect". And they always kept on the presence of powerful ideologists in the system. And by the way, in form, Soviet state fits perfectly into the "turquoise" paradigm. It's funny, but it's true.
And the real value companies of our time, such as Black Diamond - Patagonia, live in the value paradigm exactly as long as their founder and ideologist is alive and active. Well, or while one family is engaged in ideology, as in Mars (although there are many questions about Mars).
Holacracy and flat structures
Another trendy theme. A company without leaders.
Well, it's generally cool - everyone works at the limit of their strength, no one bosses anyone, everyone is happy and all that.
Only now this ideology does not fit in with the fact that the companies themselves declare themselves that promote this approach. In one "beginningless" gang, the leader announces that there will be no more bosses. And who is he? And who did the shareholders trust with their money?
And we believe. We believe in all these beautiful signs.
And we start trying to copy.
And we even find our positive sides. For example, bosses can now be paid on a par with their subordinates. And live happily and amicably ... until the very moment when more or less high-quality organizers leave the company, tired of trying to restore at least some order among (attention, again a fashionable word) "millennials".
But in fact, the creation of flat structures does not work. This is against nature, which is based on a fractal. And which always builds a hierarchy.
In reality, in such companies, instead of department heads, “curators” begin to appear, and “mentors” instead of department heads. And they differ from their colleagues from the neighboring office only with a burning look at first and a lower salary.
Fashion is friend, fashion is enemy
Fashion is not so bad. Especially when we are talking about clothes.
But we must not forget that it is often impossible to walk the streets in what avant-garde designers show on the catwalks. Although, in their works there are useful elements. Which can be used in the production of a mass product. Fashion is good too. After all, after experts have discussed futuristic concepts, they begin to think about today (the key word is “specialists”). Of course, there is always a consumer who was convinced at the show that, for example, feathers in the ass are fashionable, modern, expensive and cool. And this consumer walks in this form through the streets, causing laughter from passers-by. And he is proud that he is not like the others.
You have already met Scrum, XP, Lean and Kanban, you know what they have in common, and you understand what problems they solve. If you're working on software development, you've noticed at least a few things (practices, ideas, attitude changes) that can help your team.
Now go and do it. Push your team to Agile now!
It seems like an almost impossible task, doesn't it? There is a difference between reading about values, principles, worldviews and practices and implementing them.
Some teams, after reading books about Scrum or XP, adopt these practices and get great results right away. All of the previous nine chapters are dedicated to making you understand why this is possible: such teams already have a mindset that is compatible with the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto and methodology. They adopt Agile with ease because they don't have to change their mindset. If things in your team are exactly the same, then you have a much better chance of success.
But what if your mindset is incompatible with Scrum, XP, or other agile methodologies? Does the environment in which you work prevent you from being successful in applying agile values? What if the contribution of each individual participant is valued above teamwork, and severe punishment is due for mistakes? What if the environment stifles innovation or your team doesn't have access to customers and other people who can help you understand what software you're making? All of these are barriers to Agile adoption.
That's when it's needed agile coach- a person who helps the team implement Agile. Thanks to him, each team member learns about a new attitude, worldview and overcomes the psychological, emotional and technical barriers that hinder the implementation of Agile. Coaches work with each team member so that they can understand not only “how” to apply new practice, but also "why" it should be used. They help the team overcome the natural resentment and even fear of change that comes with those who are asked to try something new at work.
There are many examples in this book of people getting better-than-nothing results: a team implements agile practices, but its members get only marginal improvements because they don't really change their minds or attitudes towards team building. software. In other words, the team needs an agile mindset to get good results from the agile methodology. The Agile values and principles described in the manifesto help the team to acquire the right mindset, and for the same reason, each methodology offers its own values and principles. A team gets the best out of implementing Agile when the mindset of each team member is consistent with the values and principles of agile development and the specific methodology they are implementing.
The goal of an agile coach is enable the team to gain a more flexible mindset. A good coach helps you choose the methodology best suited to your existing mentality and introduces the team to the values, principles, and practices of the methodology so that it works for those people. Together with the coach, the team will begin to implement practices and then use them to learn and assimilate values and principles, gradually change their attitude and acquire the right worldview, which will help to go beyond getting better-than-nothing results.
In this chapter, you will learn about agile coaching: how teams learn, how agile coaches help them change their mindset to make it easier to implement the Agile methodology, and how a coach can make your team more agile.
Description: A team working on a mobile phone camera application for an organization bought by a large and multi-disciplinary internet company
Katherine is the first developer
Lissa Adkins
Agile team coaching. A Guide for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition
Published with permission from Pearson Education (Addison-Wesley Professional)
We thank ScrumTrek represented by Alexey Pimenov and Anatoly Korotkov for their help in preparing the publication.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.
Authorized translation from the English language edition, entitled Coaching Agile teams: a companion for scrummasters, Agile coaches, and project managers in transition, 1st edition, ISBN 978-0-321-63770-4; by Adkins, Lyssa; published by Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley Professional.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system, without permission from Pearson Education, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Inc.
© Translation into Russian, edition in Russian, design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2017
* * *Foreword by Mike Cohn
The hype at the 2008 Scrum Forum in Chicago was associated with a speaker who took part in the event for the first time. On Monday afternoon, she hosted a session titled "The Journey from Project Manager to Agile Coach." And already on Tuesday it was actively discussed.
The reason is that the speaker, Lissa Adkins, whose book you now hold in your hands, created this stir herself, delivering her talk on agile coaching with passion, skill, and remarkable erudition. trained in classical style project manager and manager of a large corporation at the time of her introduction to Agile, Lissa is the perfect mentor for those who want to become a qualified agile coach.
Watching a highly skilled agile coach is as interesting as watching a magician. And no matter how attentive you are, you will still not be able to understand how he does it. In this book, Lissa takes us behind the scenes and reveals the secrets of her magic. But the most surprising thing is that it's not about sleight of hand or a card up your sleeve. Instead, you'll discover great practices that will increase your team's success. Lissa divides the magic of coaching into certain concepts. It not only explains the difference between training, coaching and counseling, but also shows when and how to move from one to the other. Lissa is ready to help you choose between coaching a single person or a whole team, as well as determine the chances of coaching to have a strong impact on the team.
Leading us like a magician past white rabbits and black hats, Lissa demonstrates how to start a difficult conversation by using specially designed questions to get team members to talk constructively about an issue. This is one of my favorite parts of the book. The author shares practical advice on cooperation. This is one of its main achievements, because numerous works on this topic only state that cooperation is necessary, but are silent on how to implement it. An equally important tool offered by Lissa is the ability of the coach to be consciously passive, observing the team and allowing it to solve problems on its own.
But sometimes agile coaches fail too, so Lissa outlines eight difficult situations we can get ourselves into. At the beginning of my career, being in the role of an expert and a "nodal component of the system", I often made mistakes.
I can honestly say that these situations have done no harm, but I still struggle with my evaluative work style.
Perhaps you, too, sometimes turn out to be a "spy", "seagull" or "butterfly" or suffer from other actions that lead to failure, which Lissa describes. Luckily, Lissa offers eight successful behaviors. Read Chapter 11, Agile Coaching Failures, Recovery, and Successful Behaviors, to find out where you might find yourself.
True agile coaches and scrum masters help their teams achieve more than they can on their own. Becoming a qualified agile coach is like mastering the magic, and you need to start by learning certain techniques. Therefore, the main thing is practice. It's up to you to decide which practice to choose, of course, but this book will get you started in the right direction by showing you how master agile coaches perfect their craft.
mike Cohn,author of Scrum. Agile Software Development»
Foreword by Jim Highsmith
First of all, this is a great book! I have read a lot of books about Agile, plans for future work, manuscripts, etc. They had a lot of good ideas, but there was no solid contribution to the development of this methodology. Lissa Adkins' book is not like that.
In the Agile papers, I seek answers to four questions. Does the book encourage new ideas? Does it help to streamline existing ones? Does it expand them? Is it well written? For example, Kent Beck's pioneering book Extreme Programming brought together new ideas and redistributed existing ones.
Some argue that Agile is nothing new, but the combination of specific practices and values in Kent's version looks original. When I first read Mike Cohn's Agile Estimating and Planning, I thought, "How can you write an entire book on this? Didn't Beck and Fowler cover the whole topic in Extreme Programming? I quickly realized, however, that Mike's book expanded on existing ideas and took them down a different path, as well as adding new ones.
Coaching Agile Teams provides an effective platform that organizes existing ideas and practices. In addition, it stimulates the expansion of the boundaries of knowledge within existing ideas. Finally, it is written in a very persuasive manner, with practical ideas and experiential examples.
One of Lissa's ideas that resonates with mine is that coaching is defined by multiple roles: teacher, mentor, problem solver, conflict navigator, performance coach.
Differentiating roles gives depth to the coaching work. For example, mentors teach the subject - agile practices, and coaches encourage the team and its individual members to learn their own. inner peace. Lissa's experience as a personal growth coach brings this rich dimension to her work and book. Many so-called agile coaches turn out to be just mentors teaching agile practitioners. The book will help them become effective performance coaches.
For those who consider themselves an agile coach, trainer, mentor, or facilitator, this book offers valuable insights, practices, and interesting approaches to help you improve. For example, here is one of Lissa’s statements that stimulates the work of thought: “A scrum master who goes beyond the implementation of agile practices, faced with a conscious and inspired desire of the team for high performance, this is the agile coach.” In Chapter 10, "The Agile Coach as Collaboration Conductor," Lissa explores collaboration and collaboration, valuable distinctions for improving team performance. Each of these ideas adds depth to the role of an agile coach.
The second category of readers for this book are those in leadership positions in an agile organization—a manager, product owner, scrum master, coach, project manager, or iteration manager. Although coaching is the main job of a coach, all leaders find time to do it. A lot has been written about self-organizing teams, but there is too little information on how to truly become such a team or help one emerge. Leaders have a great influence on those around them, so Lissa's book will help them ease the process of transforming into a self-organizing team, because they themselves are more flexible.
Finally, anyone who aspires to become an effective team member will benefit from this reading. I'm a fan of Christopher Avery, author of Teamwork Is an Individual Skill. He writes: “To improve teamwork, I must improve myself” and “I am responsible for all relationships within my project community.” This means that improving team performance is not only the responsibility of the leader or coach, but of any team member. Lissa's book will help everyone become an agile coach for themselves - improving the team through self-improvement. Chapter 3, “Teach Yourself,” is relevant for both individual team members and agile coaches.
Agile Agile Management Methods (Agile) how to start implementing
The idea of an agile development methodology (agile) is that employees and managers can very quickly find new solutions and, if necessary, create new products to increase the company's profits and its overall competitiveness in the market.
But it’s impossible to say that the Agile business methodology will work in 100% of cases, there are a number of reasons for this: your employees, their level of education on agile management issues, and many external factors, ignoring which will lead to hidden risks that are possible when using Agile.
The leaders of many Russian companies are interested in new methods of flexible management, and this interest is not without reason, since it is Agile that allows you to find new ideas and solutions in a crisis and high uncertainty, in which the leaders of many companies have to work.
Building Agile
The Agile Manifesto, created in February 2001, was signed by leading IT companies and agile has spread to all business processes and business areas in almost 15 years, which actually emphasizes the flexibility and adaptability of the methodology itself.
Agile creates an atmosphere effective interaction between employees, which contributes quick search solutions, creating new products and generating new ideas. Agile teams are multi-functional teams that resemble players in football or hockey:
On the one hand, the game is general, and on the other hand, there is a defender, semi-defender, forward and goalkeeper - this is a good analogy that allows you to understand what Agile is in business.
After all, it immediately becomes clear how responsibility is distributed and who can lead the team to success, but on the other hand, each player is an individual and this should be remembered.
Agile teams unite
Agile teams can combine a sales manager and a programmer, a marketer, and a service engineer, it all depends on the goals and objectives that you set for your company, in terms of applying flexible management methods.
Sprints: Agile Time Management
Of course, I would like to say that short sprints, assigned as needed or according to a set schedule, can compensate for planning meetings and approvals, but this is not so, especially at the initial stage. Implementing Agile is quite a lengthy process and is mostly about changing the mindset of the employees as well as shaping a different attitude towards accountability, keep that in mind.
Agile methods allow you to quickly make adjustments to a product or service, in terms of a concept or idea, but it is one thing to introduce and completely another thing to put into practice, because in most cases the adjustment of production is a rather lengthy process.
One of the common misconceptions is that Agile is designed to adjust a product or business process to the needs of consumers, and this is far from the case.
And this is very important to consider, and not blindly follow the wishes of your customers. Remember that any change does not require a quick response and product adjustment, but an analysis of the need to make these changes.
What companies use Agile?
Agile methods are very popular in IT companies: Google, PayPal, Facebook, which is quite logical, since agile came from IT, in Russia the first projects in the field of Agile began to be implemented by Sberbank, there are my articles on this issue:
But now almost any company is interested in Agile management methods, which, in conditions of high uncertainty, one might say crisis, seeks to find new ideas and solutions, and flexible management methods are literally created to solve such problems.
Who is an Agile Coach?
Just recently I wrote an article about how to choose an Agile trainer, you can read it:
It describes in some detail the issues of choosing an Agile coach, which allows you to see the process of implementing Agile from the outside.
Agile team in Russian business
Small companies have a very big advantage when implementing Agile, since Agile is designed for small teams: 7-10 people is the ideal composition for an Agile team.
Of course, most Russian companies that use Agile are related to IT, but according to many experts, and I agree with this, the situation will change in the near future and almost all companies focused on growth and development will use Agile. Flexible control methods allow you to separate bulky project teams for small groups and a short time 4-6 months to move the current project from chaos to a manageable stage.
Result: you have a lot of teams, but the staff does not increase, while it starts working non-material motivation personnel and a completely different attitude to responsibility in the performance of work.
The use of Agile practices allows you to find new ideas in a short time, develop new and adjust existing products, and the successful implementation of Agile requires a new flexible management style, which is reflected in the general management style of the company.
Agile changes mindsets and mindsets to focus on getting things done using communications rather than a command and control structure.
But in my opinion, this is a pretty strong illusion: getting rid of the hierarchy is pretty hard, one might say impossible, so the best solution would be to combine agile and your personal management style.
It is also a mistake to believe that Agile can increase the performance of your company instantly, it all depends on two factors:
- from your employees
- and your business processes
and they are unique in each company!
But at the same time, I emphasize that for small Agile companies this is perfect solution to achieve results, but in large companies, you need to think about how to properly integrate Agile, since hierarchy and bureaucracy play their role quite strongly.
4 prerequisites for implementing Agile
Why Implement AgilePrerequisite 1. If you are looking to change the approach to production, focusing on urgent strategy and the production of complex solutions.
Prerequisite 2. You strive to release and develop minimum viable products to "patch holes", the so-called MVP products, then we begin to improve as necessary based on the analysis of feedback from customers.
By the way, light industry in China developed according to this principle.
Premise 3. Increasing the speed of developing new ideas and implementing new solutions, if you have problems with deadlines, then Agile will provide you with the opportunity to organize corporate time management in a different format.
Of course, in order to identify problems, it is necessary to conduct an audit, within which you will most likely identify the following typical problems:
- low attitude to the need to satisfy the client, the work of employees according to the “quickly done and forgot” model.
- lengthy approval process and excessive bureaucratization through correspondence and meetings.
Prerequisite 4. Change in attitude towards work. As you know, the attitude determines the result, and therefore, by changing the attitude, you can organize the work differently and implement the planned projects, using the strategy: “quickly make a pilot project, launch and test”, receiving feedback, you can improve your product in the process of work, precisely by This principle is organized by the release of information solutions by Microsoft.
Agile center
The typical structure of Agile centers, whose tasks usually include the development of new solutions, as well as the search and adaptation of new ideas, is as follows:
- several teams 3-4.
- in each team from 7 to 12 employees.
- Separately, we allocate a coordination department in the amount of 3-4 people.
- reporting directly to the owner or CEO.
Agile team feature
One of distinctive features Agile teams - responsibility, turns into the main key performance indicator.
It should be understood that Agile participants work in the same room and actually observe each other's work, creating an atmosphere of an effective working environment or???
It should be understood that Agile rooms are not only the walls of an ordinary office, it is a kind of source of ideas, knowledge, projects, and therefore all elements of interior design should predispose to creativity.
Advantage of Agile Centers
The undoubted advantage of Agile centers is simplification of the financing procedure, as there is an understanding not only of what the money will be spent on, but also who is responsible for it.
Of course, it should be remembered that you cannot transfer all employees of the company to Agile, on the contrary, you should focus on pilot projects and gradually spread successful approaches to the entire organization, adapting to each business process. And there is a simple rule here:
Work on projects associated with high risks and high financial costs should follow the “waterfall” principle.
Agile as a competitive tool
Very often we are faced with an insidious situation:
We cannot compete in the market in the current economic conditions, and therefore we need to act differently, here Agile methods of flexible management make it possible to find the answer to the question how to act?