Agile Management: The Challenges, Dilemmas and The Ways Ahead

Doing More With Less

Introduction

The Scope of this Presentation

1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Why we need another methodology How agile help us to solve existing issues ? From Push Strategy to Pull System Constraint Management Bringing Lean thinking to agility Lean Principles Lean Software Development How to motivate people The Science of Self Organization Recommendation So What's Next? Finish

Why we need another methodology ?

Why we need to change our process ? What are existing issues ? Invalid Assumption

Why we need another methodology ?

The Traditional Model

Why we need another methodology ?

Invalid Assumption behind Model

1. 2. 3. 4.

The clean requirements are exist and we can gather them easily in fixed time span The changes are very minor and exceptional, so we are able to manage them easily Big design up front (BDUF) works for us It is possible to test and integrate system in final phase

Why we need another methodology ?

Our Assumption is far away from reality

1. 2. 3. 4.

The Requirements are not exist in clean format, we need to discover them during learning process The changes are large and continuous We need to analysis and design the system in an incremental manner Testing and Integration are the basic elements of our production process not a separate phase

How Agile Help us to Solve existing issues ?

Remove invalid assumption The Problem with Sequential Model Empirical Model - Learning from Mistake The Solution: Iterative Model

From Push to Pull System

Push System

Resources are provided to the consumer based on forecasts or schedules. A method of controlling the flow of resources by replacing only what has been consumed.

Pull System

Constraint Management

What is the Constraints Management ? How Constraints decrease our productivity Introduction to Theory of Constraints How to Manage System Constraints

Constraint Management

Im so glad to introduce you my team members

Constraint Management

Constraint Management

Constraint Management

Constraint Management

Constraint Management

It seems we have a critical problem in our system Final product is not completed And even worse we lost one of our team member

Constraint Management

The theory of constraints (TOC) adopts the common idiom "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link" as a new management paradigm. This means that processes, organizations, etc., are vulnerable because the weakest person or part can always damage or break them or at least adversely affect the outcome.

Constraint Management

Pragmatic Approach for solving system constraints

Identify constraints Analysis the constraints and effects Gather idea and find a solution Apply solution Measure the system flow and outcome Repeat the process continuously

Constraint Management

Identify The Constraint in System

Constraint Management

Manager opinion: I think we have a resource limitation in our team, so just add another one

Constraint Management

Manager opinion: Now we are stronger so start the engine again !

Constraint Management

But the issue is still exist in our system. The constraint just moved And the manager just feel

Constraint Management

Constraint Management

Solution: Limit Your Work In Progress (WIP) Identify and Control your system constraints Result

The feature list will be completed Manager and team members are happy

Constraint Management

The well-known triple constraint

Bringing Lean Thinking to Agility

Learning form Past Experience The Success Story of Lean What are we trying to accomplish ?

Lean Principles

Value and Waste Value Stream Map Pull System Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)

Lean Software Development

Defects Over Production Over Processing Create Knowledge Respect People

How to Motivate People

How to Motivate People

Motivation Theories Motivator and de-motivator The lean way

The Science of Self Organization

Misunderstanding of Self Organization

Self-organization does not mean that workers instead of managers engineer an organization design. It does not mean letting people do whatever they want to do. It means that management commits to guiding the evolution of behaviors that emerge from the interaction of independent agents instead of specifying in advance what effective behavior is. - The Biology of Business
Commitment Motivation Swarm Intelligence Better Decision Making Less management more value

Advantages:

How to act like an Ant Colony

The Science of Self Organization

And the answer is a simple norm in Japanese culture

Recommendation

XP and Scrum are a good start point for bringing agility to your team Try to use Lean principles and concept in your organization Ask why behind everything. It is a key success for process improvement Try to create the lean culture in your team: respect, trust, ask why, root cause analysis and kaizen

Recommendation

Simple Tools like Excel and stick paper are best things to manage tasks Tangible and visible task board are more effective than software for managing task board Try to involve people in decision making and process improvement Dont forget to manage system constraints Eliminating wastes is the most effective way for process improvement

Recommendation

Pair Programming is the agile way for knowledge management Try to use system-thinking and value stream map for process improvement Visualize everything by using Kanban Boards, Burndown Charts and other tools

So What's Next?

If you are interested about agile management, you will find these books useful

Changing Software Development: Learning to be Agile by Allan Kelly Wiley 2008 Scaling Software Agility, Best Practices for large enterprises by Dean Leffingwell - Addison Wesley 2007 Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders by Jurgen Appelo - Addison-Wesley 2011 Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde - Addison Wesley 2008 The Art of Lean Software Development by Curt Hibbs, Steve Jewett, and Mike Sullivan - OReilly 2009

Finish

I would be happy to hear your opinion

Email : Blog : Twitter: Personal Page:

alireza.haghighatkhah [at] gmail.com myopendraft.blogspot.com @ahaghighatkhah haghighatkhah.com