Manifesting Business Agility

When you describe yourself, you should be careful about whether you are describing yourself according to your career or according to a path in that career. For example, to say "I am a doctor" or "I am a PMP" makes sense. That provides some identity of your goals, values and knowledge.

In the Agile space, however, we often hear people identify with a particular approach to a larger goal. For example, Scrum is one path to being an effective team coach. ACP is another one. Kanban yet another. Identifying with a path to a goal is not a good thing - it limits your possibilities and can create dogma and tunnel vision.

There is a big difference between saying "I am a Certified Scrum Master" and "I have been certified as a Scrum Master." One is an identification of who you are, one is a statement of knowledge you have. I prefer someone who says "I have an ACP" over "I am a Certified Scrum Master" because it's easier to learn something new than to change your identity.

I recently joined the PMI with two of my Net Objectives teammates, Scott Bain and Jim Trott. The three of us have joined the core team of Disciplined Agile – Mark Lines, Scott Ambler and Klaus Boedker – as well as the already formed Agile team at the PMI. It’s a pretty exciting, passionate group.

We each have our own vision and approach. And we each respect each other. I can already tell this is an amazing group, unlike any other I have worked with. While I don’t speak for the group, I have my vision, as do each of the others, and I wanted to present that here. It’s cool to see that our team is already working on manifesting it and even cooler that I’ve had nothing to do with that – that I just walked into a home.

I started Net Objectives with the tag line – “Effective software development without suffering.”  I might now dare to say “effective software development with joy.” I’ve been doing software development in one form or another for almost half a century. I see a lot of passion and accomplishment but I also see a lot of suffering. Suffering doesn’t occur because things are difficult. It occurs when we become victims or martyrs – when we don’t have or take responsibility for our plight.

Much of this occurs when people are forced into difficult situations from which they see no escape. I believe the world of software development is doing this to many people. With software being integrated into virtually all services and products, it is a critical part of virtually all value delivery these days. 

While the Agile Manifesto has changed the world, it has brought us to a new set of problems. I believe now is the time to go beyond it. To be clear, Agile has not lost its value. But what started out as a team approach for software product development has spread into all areas of an organization. In the 20 years since Agile’s initial ascendance, we have learned many things – using Theory of Constraints in Software, Flow-Thinking, Lean-Thinking, Systems-Thinking, Lean-Management and more. Unfortunately, much of this has been obscured by what could graciously be called Agile’s over-zealousness. I believe it is time to move forward.

I see five major areas of improvement:

1. Improving our development methods by taking a scientific approach
2. Closing the gap between what we know and what is used
3. Creating a community to both create and distribute new concepts and practices
4. Using scaled learning methods to close the gap between what is known and what is applied
5. Shifting from a one-size fits-all to tailored solutions

Improving our development methods by taking by taking a scientific approach.

A scientific approach means putting forth an hypothesis on something you believe to be true and to request evidence to invalidate it. This is how we learn. We create a model, a theory if you wish, to better understand what is happening around us and how we can improve it. Unfortunately, this attitude is uncommon in the more popular approaches to Agile. Each major approach resembles a bastion of thought based on a few principles and more practices that are presented as is, without discussion as to their validity. Science suggests looking at evidence, not eminence or which train of thought is more popular.

Closing the gap between what we know and what is used.

While there is always a lag between learning and applying that knowledge, the Agile community has not been quick to embrace new concepts. Scrum, often identified as the epitome of Agile, is little changed in its 2+ decades of existence.

Systems-thinking, Lean-Thinking, Lean-Management, and Theory of constraints have been around before Agile existed and still have been only slightly incorporated into the more popular Agile methods. Flow thinking, over a decade old, fairs only slightly better – but, I’m sad to say, this has been more because of its marketing appeal than because of a true understanding of its value. While often touted, it is rarely truly incorporated.

Much of this has been due to a tight control of training and certification by a few key players and the lack of methods to disseminate this knowledge. These are the topics of the next two areas of improvement.

Creating a community to both create and distribute new concepts and practices.

In the Cathedral and the Bazaar – Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary, Eric Raymond, co-founder of the open source initiative, discussed how open source was a more effective way to solve the software development communities’ challenges. Raymond likened the Cathedral to Microsoft – a monolithic organization controlling both the creation and marketing of software development tools and applications. Open source was the bazaar – a place where anyone meeting certain standards could work and create value. What open source has done for software development tools, I believe can be accomplished in the community of consultants providing services to businesses. The PMI, with its global network of chapters and Registered Education Providers (REPs) is uniquely capable of accomplishing this.

Using scaled learning methods to close the gap between what is known and what is applied

Most training today is still intensive on-site training. While this is often the right approach, particularly in technical training, it is often both expensive and  ineffective – especially if it mostly involves an instructor at the front of the room. Modern training methods allow for a more inclusive experience as well as distributed, online training. This later is critical as it enables bringing the training into the workplace and allows people to continue with their day job. Most online training today doesn’t incorporate modern training methods which allow online training to be as, or more effective than onsite training.

As Agile has spread throughout the organization, reaching more people at a lower cost is imperative.

Shifting from a “one-size fits-all” to tailored solutions

While it is true that people need a well-defined starting point, it is possible to create one that is well-suited for the organization adopting it. While this takes a little more experience to accomplish and well-architected frameworks, both of these are now available.

Flow, Lean, ToC, organization development, patterns thinking and other methods enables a new type of framework – one that the PMI is currently building through the integration of Disciplined Agile and FLEX. This is one that is readily customizable to the organization adopting it. This allows for a set, well-defined starting point while facilitating further improvement as the organization becomes self-sufficient.

In conclusion

I don’t mean to imply getting rid of Agile. That’d be throwing the baby out with the bath-water, so to speak. But we must remember the first line of the Agile Manifesto is its most important "We are uncovering better ways"

If you are interested in learning more about what the Disciplined Agile Learning Team is doing at the PMI, please connect with me and send me a request to be put on a newsletter we are creating.