A Return To First Principles

It's always good to go back to first principles occasionally so let's take a look at the agile manifesto. How does it go again? Processes and tools over individuals and interactions... No wait, that's not right. It's the other way around. But anyone observing the agile community over the last few years would be excused for thinking otherwise. For a group that follows a manifesto that explicitly prioritises individuals and interactions above processes and tools, we certainly get very hung up on processes and tools.

Be warned...this is a bit of a rant so you might want to stand back to avoid getting any on you.

AgilityDave Martin24 May 2016frameworks, anti patternsComment

Why I Don't Like The PI

Probaly the most iconic feature of the SAFe model is the Program Increment (or PI). The PI (for those who have never seen SAFe before) is a larger, release level timebox, usually 4-6 sprints long starting with a 2 day, all hands planning event. The PI is also the feature of SAFe that I like the least. Proponents of SAFe will, quite rightly, point out that the PI planning event is a highly effective way to plan a release and is great for getting a large team of teams aligned and motivated around a goal. And indeed it is. I still don't like them though. As effective as they are, the PI planning session, and the PI in general, have some unintended consequences that far outweigh the benefits.

The goal of agile is to enable organisations to respond to changing conditions quickly and at the team level, for teams to get stuff out to customers as fast as possible. The PI breaks this in a number of ways. It breaks flow into batches, encourages queueing and reduces the ability of teams and the organisation to respond.

AgilityDave Martin15 March 2016frameworks, anti patternsComment

SAFe SPC Course

A few weeks ago, I went on the SAFe SPC course, and passed the exam which means I'm a fully qualified, newly minted SAFe Program Consultant. I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of the course and my impressions of SAFe now that I'm apparently some kind of SAFe Jedi master.

For those who have been living under a rock for the last few years, SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework For Enterprises) is, as the name suggests, a scaling methodology for enterprise agile adoption. It is, to put it mildly, somewhat controversial, with many deeply in love with the methodology and some very strongly against it for many reasons. In the interests of full disclosure, I should say at the outset that I went into the course as someone pretty much on the anti-SAFe side. There were many things about the methodology that I didn't like, but I'm a big believer in giving things a fair go, so when the chance came up to go on the course, I figured I'd give it a go and let the other side have its say. So... what was it like?

AgilityDave Martin2 September 2014frameworksComment

Organisational Change With Beer

I do a lot of coaching at large companies. Big, monolithic, and often very conservative organisations. Organisations like that are very difficult to change. They have become big and successful by being conservative and risk averse. There is a lot of resistance and inertia. They may recognise the need to change. They may recognise the benefits of change. Actually making that change though, means taking risks and they just can’t quite take that step. They will fiddle around at the edges and do some cosmetic stuff, but actually changing into an organisation that embraces innovation and risk is just a step too far.

AgilityDave Martin17 December 2013frameworks, organisational change, enterprise agilityComment