h1. When where what who?
*Time:* Exceptionally: Tuesday January 12th 2010 18:00
*Place:* [Restaurant Baker's|http://www.ravintolabakers.com], Helsinki
*Theme:* Views on resolving organizational impediments
*Organizer:* Ari Tanninen at iki dot fi, Phone 0400 400 470
h1. Views on resolving organizational impediments
Scrum assumes that teams make organizational impediments (problems the team cannot solve by itself) visible and then have ScrumMasters solve them by any means possible. The resolution process may become political if ScrumMasters try to influence things outside of their immediate control. At its worst, something akin to guerrilla warfare may ensue.
The agile community sees this as a good thing, with ScrumMasters doing their jobs properly. But that is an indication of lack of buy-in. Perhaps we should consider that these problems will surface, and it would be beneficial that the people who set up teams (managers hopefully) have an idea on ways to anticipate and resolve these problems.
The dinner will start with a short preamble, followed by discussion and discovery of ways to handle org impediments.
h1. The aftermath
The topic of the dinner was intentionally narrowed down to "Tools & experiences on resolving organizational impediments" since the goal is to provoke discussion, not solve world-peace. Furthermore, we will focus on "Bottom-up" or "commando agile" and organizations where the agile initiative started with IT. That is where most companies and problems seem to be.
Background for discussion:
Impediment: anything preventing or slowing down work
Evolution of impediments:
* Bootstrap - the problems every team faces to get the basics up and running
* Team internal
* Team external - organizational impediments
** Culture
** Organization structure
** Policies & processes
The first exercise was simply to list org impediments on post-its to provoke thought. Not all post-its were organizational problems, but here they are:
* Osa-aikaisuus
* Disagreements about technical policies & standards inside a team
* Tiimin jäsenille erilaiet toimintatavat
* Unclear business case, no PO, no motivation
* Työ silppua (tunti/2h)
* No biz case
* Pienet tiimit (1-2 henkeä)
* Power is also elsewhere
* Team has to use tools decided by someone else
* Lack of comopany
** Vision
** Mission
** Strategy
** Why are we doing things?
* Change management by branching of software
* Overspecification of org roles
* Problemtatic database for the curent implementation target (not responsible...)
* Problems with user stories
* Unclear requirements
* Getting a PO or anyone to continuously work on the user's view of reqs
* Difficulties in co-operation between departments (sales and R&D for example)
* Platform
* Not knowing the dev tools which means have to spend time learning the tool which is not billable time
* No GUI design skills in team
* Tiimin jäsenillä eri tavoitteet (esim. koodaaja ja testaaja ymmärtävät asiat eri tavoin)
* Rewarding
* Investment policy
* n people in the sw team, n products, n islands, n platforms
The second exercise was to list tools and solutions you have found useful in resolving impediments. The goal is to give people new ideas and perhaps something to look up when they go home.
Background:
The goal is to fix impediments, not bitch about them.
You probably want to identify, track, manage, measure and remove impediments.
Here is the list:
* Make it public
* Statistical control
* Use company level tools for company level impediments
* Definition of ready and done
* A3
* Scrum master task board
* Tobacco breaks with management
* Get a new job and quit!
* Value-stream mapping
* Think!
* Group impediments:
** Decisions not made
** Incomplete work
** Interruption
** Waiting
** ...
* A4 with "I'm working on this impediment" on every managers door
* Identify if it's illusionary
* Find a patron
* Communicate interest not position
* Learn talk at the level of management
* Wear a suit :)
h1. Registration
{rsvp:admin=arit}
*Time:* Exceptionally: Tuesday January 12th 2010 18:00
*Place:* [Restaurant Baker's|http://www.ravintolabakers.com], Helsinki
*Theme:* Views on resolving organizational impediments
*Organizer:* Ari Tanninen at iki dot fi, Phone 0400 400 470
h1. Views on resolving organizational impediments
Scrum assumes that teams make organizational impediments (problems the team cannot solve by itself) visible and then have ScrumMasters solve them by any means possible. The resolution process may become political if ScrumMasters try to influence things outside of their immediate control. At its worst, something akin to guerrilla warfare may ensue.
The agile community sees this as a good thing, with ScrumMasters doing their jobs properly. But that is an indication of lack of buy-in. Perhaps we should consider that these problems will surface, and it would be beneficial that the people who set up teams (managers hopefully) have an idea on ways to anticipate and resolve these problems.
The dinner will start with a short preamble, followed by discussion and discovery of ways to handle org impediments.
h1. The aftermath
The topic of the dinner was intentionally narrowed down to "Tools & experiences on resolving organizational impediments" since the goal is to provoke discussion, not solve world-peace. Furthermore, we will focus on "Bottom-up" or "commando agile" and organizations where the agile initiative started with IT. That is where most companies and problems seem to be.
Background for discussion:
Impediment: anything preventing or slowing down work
Evolution of impediments:
* Bootstrap - the problems every team faces to get the basics up and running
* Team internal
* Team external - organizational impediments
** Culture
** Organization structure
** Policies & processes
The first exercise was simply to list org impediments on post-its to provoke thought. Not all post-its were organizational problems, but here they are:
* Osa-aikaisuus
* Disagreements about technical policies & standards inside a team
* Tiimin jäsenille erilaiet toimintatavat
* Unclear business case, no PO, no motivation
* Työ silppua (tunti/2h)
* No biz case
* Pienet tiimit (1-2 henkeä)
* Power is also elsewhere
* Team has to use tools decided by someone else
* Lack of comopany
** Vision
** Mission
** Strategy
** Why are we doing things?
* Change management by branching of software
* Overspecification of org roles
* Problemtatic database for the curent implementation target (not responsible...)
* Problems with user stories
* Unclear requirements
* Getting a PO or anyone to continuously work on the user's view of reqs
* Difficulties in co-operation between departments (sales and R&D for example)
* Platform
* Not knowing the dev tools which means have to spend time learning the tool which is not billable time
* No GUI design skills in team
* Tiimin jäsenillä eri tavoitteet (esim. koodaaja ja testaaja ymmärtävät asiat eri tavoin)
* Rewarding
* Investment policy
* n people in the sw team, n products, n islands, n platforms
The second exercise was to list tools and solutions you have found useful in resolving impediments. The goal is to give people new ideas and perhaps something to look up when they go home.
Background:
The goal is to fix impediments, not bitch about them.
You probably want to identify, track, manage, measure and remove impediments.
Here is the list:
* Make it public
* Statistical control
* Use company level tools for company level impediments
* Definition of ready and done
* A3
* Scrum master task board
* Tobacco breaks with management
* Get a new job and quit!
* Value-stream mapping
* Think!
* Group impediments:
** Decisions not made
** Incomplete work
** Interruption
** Waiting
** ...
* A4 with "I'm working on this impediment" on every managers door
* Identify if it's illusionary
* Find a patron
* Communicate interest not position
* Learn talk at the level of management
* Wear a suit :)
h1. Registration
{rsvp:admin=arit}