Agile Thoughts

In early August I was at the Agile2008 conference in Toronto, Canada.  I was privileged to run three workshops there, and in the process of writing up the sessions for the Agile2008 wiki, I decided to feed them into my blog.  My blog needs feeding.  This entry is the first of three.

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Scale Back: Small is Beautiful.  The full description/original submission can be seen on the Agile2008 submissions board, here.  The intent of this session was to have an antidote to all the “let’s scale agile up to the enterprise” submissions (there were many).  In all the bigger-is-better discussions an essential question was not being asked: Why?  If Agile is about simplifying software process, maybe making it bigger is the wrong approach.  How about we make it smaller?  This is our starting point for this session.

I chose the 30-minute time slot for this session, as it was the shortest available session slot.  If small really is beautiful, let’s put out money where our mouth is.  My intention for this session was to come up with The Proclamation of Small Ideas, a statement created collaboratively by all those present.  I expected maybe a dozen people to show.

In actuality we had about 30-35 people attend this session.  Can consensus work with such a large group in such a small space of time?  Well, surprisingly, yes.  And this is how.

Session Mechanics

1. Introduction   We are trying to scale Agile up, without first optimizing it at the single-team level.  This is a big mistake.  We end up with watered down, half-hearted Agile.  It would seem that our desire to complicate things and define futures that show how smart we are, overrides the common sense, keep-it-simple principles required by this new paradigm.  Let’s focus back on making one team the absolute best it can be, and then let scaling happen by itself, through emergence rather than by upfront design.  I wrote a blog post about this a few months previously:  Scaling Scrum: The Alcoholic Perspective.

2. Discovery — The Game “35”  Each person has an index card.  On the card they write down a single statement to express why keeping Agile small is important to them.  Once all have written we get on our feet (getting on our feet is a magical part of any workshop… it is an awakening).  Mill around the room, swapping cards as fast as you can until all the cards are effectively mixed up.  Then at the command of the facilitator, stop.  Find a partner (note: this exercise requires an even number of people; if you are the facilitator either join in or ask someone to drop out to make the number an even one).  In your pairs read the two cards you have and come to an agreement about which best expresses your own values.  Score the cards using a total of 7 points.  In other words, divide seven between the two cards, with the higher number going to the card that best expresses your values.  The division will either be 7/0, 6/1, 5/2 or 4/3.  There are no half values.  Write the appropriate number on the back of each card.  Once all pairs have done this, mill around again, swapping cards and on the “stop” command find a new partner.  Repeat this five times.  The highest score any card could receive is 35.  Hence the name.  After five rounds, have people add up the total  of the numbers on the back of the cards.  Then count down from 35.  We selected the top four cards and shared the contents with everyone.  This leads us into the next phase.

Writing The Proclamation  The room was naturally divided into five tables of around 6-7 persons at each.  In these groups, take the top four statements (which I have now transcribed to a whiteboard for visibility) and create a single statement that expresses these values.  Write this on an index card.  After 3 minutes, stop.  Pass your card to the next table (rotate all cards).  New table: rewrite the statement, fine-tuning and eliminating waste.  I’d have liked to have done this four times, but we were running out of time.  Instead we stopped after one pass, and a spokesperson read out the edited statement.  Then we voted.  Each table read the statement and each person (with eyes closed) raised their hand if it expressed their values.  Each person could vote multiple times.  I tallied the votes, and one of the five statements was a clear winner.  The Proclamation of Small Ideas: this was it…

keep agile small
because passionate
collaborative individuals
produce simple results

Everyone in the room agreed that this statement captured the intent of their own feelings.  There was consensus.  Each person copied the statement out twice, on separate index cards and committed to giving one away to a conference attendee who was not present.  Spread the passion.  The session took 30 minutes and 37 seconds.  James Lyndsay graciously gave us those 37 seconds from his part of the session.

It was encouraging to me how many people showed up to the workshop… how many had a genuine concern that Agile was becoming bloated.  I had a number of interesting conversations following this session, and I hope some of the participants will read this and add their thoughts.

Next up… Fashion Cycle: Agile 2008 meets Project Runway.