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Aligning Realities
Ovidiu Suta – QA Manager ISDC
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Understand the impact of “a few, minor” differences in
interpretation on the way we work.
• Have some examples of what you can do to increase
alignment and common understanding within your
team / organization
• “How to” gather lessons
learnt, good practices
and spread them within
the organization
PERCEPTION VS REALITY
A BIT OF CONTEXT …
•
Service Company Environment
• Around 200 operational staff
•
Stable “core” teams
•
Fast changing “pace”
•
No product development
•
Each customer has a different “view” of Agile
(Scrum/Kanban)
CHALLENGES
• Although we agree on the principles and theory the
small differences in interpretation can cause major
impediments during practice
• “Loose” definition of terms and actions cause
differences in interpretation and implementation
• Terminology such as “self-organizing, cross-functional,
empowerment” are interpreted differently at different
levels (developers, team leaders, managers, clients,
etc.)
• Principles often in the shadow of WOW frameworks
• Very technical people that see Agile as a waste of time
APPROACH
• IDAM community focused on:
• Identifying proven practices
• Ensure common understanding
• Help define way-of-working
• Customer “education/coaching”
RESEARCH TOPICS
• How to use Function Points in Agile?
• Non-Functional Requirements in Sprints?
• Using Measurements to achieve
predictability in Scrum
• Continuous Delivery in Agile
• Drafting “agile” contracts
• Agile Project Management
CONTESTS
• The best (planning/grooming/retro/demo/etc.) contests
where teams self-enroll and invite us to observe a
series of actual scrum ceremonies.
• 1 winner per contest (some consolation prizes though)
• Winners usually got team buildings (1 weekend at…)
HELP POINT
• 41 Sessions
• 310 participants
• 34 expert colleagues
AT THE “COFFEE TALK” / “WATER COOLER”
• Ideas and misconceptions about Agile usage in
projects appear everyday in an organization
• Discussing them openly is the first step towards
solving them.
MYTH BUSTERS
•
•
•
•
“We do not need project managers in Agile Projects”
“We do not need processes in Agile”
“Agile is the cancer”
“Developers develop, testers test”
ADVISORY PROGRAM
•
Main goal is to advise projects in order to improve way-ofworking
•
A sub-set of community members are invited to observe
project’s ceremonies, have discussions with team members
and access project documentation for 2-3 Sprints
•
Feedback is given on the spot or during retrospective
sessions.
• Provides a different approach and point of view into the
project’s specifics and impediments.
•
Allows for proven practices to be shared across organization
ROI – HOW DID IDAM HELP YOU?
“I will be better prepared to work in the future in the agile
environments.​”
“I expect better results regarding software development
and a better working environment in teams.”
“​I will be able to apply better the Change Management in
projects; also the concept is better defined and more
palpable therefore easier to work with.”
“Applying best practices in real projects by adjusting them
to the ISDC working environment and concepts”
Q&A