Agile Practices

Grant tells of Exygy of trying to do agile for their client services

• Hit some bumps. Focused too much on the practices instead of the principles.
• Tries pair programming, improved code quality but not value delivery
• Instead of code quality, talk about code scalability
• Developing a set of best practices to support agile principles
• Genevieve is working with nonprofits to focus on outcomes
• Creating an iterative process has been most impactful on project management
• When doing services, salespeople should sell the process not solutions
• Using pivotal tracker forces some process on you
• The concept of a backlog and working on the most important thing has been powerful
• What to do if the clients priorities don't make sense?
  • Clients jump to the very end sometimes.
  • Agile says that you should have a product owner
  • Exygy pairs one client representative with one staff guide
  • Mike thinks ownership is more about owning the process to build consensus
  • It really depends on the client
  • Tread lightly with people's emotions about their projects
• Agile is a toolbox, pull practices out as needed
• Have the designer talk to developers earlier in the process
• Screen early and often to identify problems when they are manageable
• Leading an org is like playing an organ, you need to move all the levers
• Micro and macro viewing is important
• Keep breaking things down as much as possible
• Mike likes using Epics in JIRA to break things down by area
• Kanban is a practice/philosophy. The source of active/backlog/icebox columns
• Your work in progress only has three things in it at a time
• Trello is a very simple implementation
• Lean Kit is a simple Kanban board
• Retrospectives are important. Review after every iteration.
• Ask yourself "is this working?"
• Ask the team for:
  • likes of what is working well
  • wishes for improvements
  • wonders / questions
• Wiping the slate clean is a huge benefit of iterations
• Product road maps are the worst. Projects are not a highway.
• Product terrain maps are better, list obstacles and destination but keep exploring
• Get a big win early to get people on board with an iterative process

Resources

No perfect tool, and even if there was it will not be when your process changes

• Reading: The Toyota Way says problems are useful
• Tool: Stories On Board helps break things down
• Reading: Personal Kanban to bring it into your own life
• Tool: Workflowy lets you drill down