agile transformation - challenges on Epic to User story creation
Denathayalan RamasamyChief Technology Officer| Atal Incubation Centre -CIICChennai, Tamilnadu, India
One of my clients faced issues during projects migration with the agile principle; where the product owner was unable to write user stories from EPIC. it took almost 6 months for us to stabilize the process, yet we feel that we are not mature.
what kind of training/checklist PO should follow in transformational projects? Saving Changes...
Epics are not a "must have". Many teams choose to jump right from high-level themes or capabilities into user stories or other types of small work items.
At the end of the day, an epic is just a really big story, so any time a team recognizes they need to split a story to make it smaller, they had an epic before.
6 months is not a long time for some teams. Depending on the level of coaching and organizational support they are receiving, that might be a very short time to get them to where you'd like them to be.
Kiron
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1 reply by Denathayalan Ramasamy
Apr 21, 2022 12:47 AM
Denathayalan Ramasamy
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Agreeing with you Kiron. Sometimes team feels strongly that requirements are not consistent. which leads on loosing motivation for the team
Denathayalan RamasamyChief Technology Officer| Atal Incubation Centre -CIICChennai, Tamilnadu, India
Apr 19, 2022 7:36 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Denathayalan -
Epics are not a "must have". Many teams choose to jump right from high-level themes or capabilities into user stories or other types of small work items.
At the end of the day, an epic is just a really big story, so any time a team recognizes they need to split a story to make it smaller, they had an epic before.
6 months is not a long time for some teams. Depending on the level of coaching and organizational support they are receiving, that might be a very short time to get them to where you'd like them to be.
Kiron
Agreeing with you Kiron. Sometimes team feels strongly that requirements are not consistent. which leads on loosing motivation for the team Saving Changes...
Hello Denathayalan
I would not lose too much sleep on this. One of the basic concepts of Agile is that we don't need to have everything planned and accounted for right at the beginning. It does allow us to figure things out as we go. Not to use it as an excuse to not work optimally, but as some replies have rightly mentioned, we can keep breaking the stories further till we are able to form a stable work unit.
As far as the 6 month duration is concerned, this is subjective to the team size, project complexity and a lot more factors. There is no standard duration to stabilise a process. All that matters is that we improve on our understanding of these processes and align productively.
Hope this helps.
Nidhish
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1 reply by Denathayalan Ramasamy
Aug 26, 2022 12:30 PM
Denathayalan Ramasamy
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I agree with you w.r.t agile principles and coaching guidelines.
The real challenge comes when the product owner estimates the cost, time, and risk to product/project completion so that the Portfolio governance body should make the decision accordingly to continue or suspend or cancel the product otherwise to update the ongoing strategies.
Balancing Agile principles to adapting PMO governance & templates is challenging during transformation
Six months is pretty young for a team. I had a three-year project and the teams still felt like they had a lot more learning and growing to do!
Don't forget that we choose to focus on people more so than processes.
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1 reply by Denathayalan Ramasamy
Aug 26, 2022 12:32 PM
Denathayalan Ramasamy
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Thats valid point Stephane. Agree with you.
I realized in the meantime that Reverse coaching on governance bodies is also equally important.
Saving Changes...
Denathayalan RamasamyChief Technology Officer| Atal Incubation Centre -CIICChennai, Tamilnadu, India
May 23, 2022 3:07 AM
Replying to Nidhish Raj
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Hello Denathayalan
I would not lose too much sleep on this. One of the basic concepts of Agile is that we don't need to have everything planned and accounted for right at the beginning. It does allow us to figure things out as we go. Not to use it as an excuse to not work optimally, but as some replies have rightly mentioned, we can keep breaking the stories further till we are able to form a stable work unit.
As far as the 6 month duration is concerned, this is subjective to the team size, project complexity and a lot more factors. There is no standard duration to stabilise a process. All that matters is that we improve on our understanding of these processes and align productively.
Hope this helps.
Nidhish
I agree with you w.r.t agile principles and coaching guidelines.
The real challenge comes when the product owner estimates the cost, time, and risk to product/project completion so that the Portfolio governance body should make the decision accordingly to continue or suspend or cancel the product otherwise to update the ongoing strategies.
Balancing Agile principles to adapting PMO governance & templates is challenging during transformation Saving Changes...
Denathayalan RamasamyChief Technology Officer| Atal Incubation Centre -CIICChennai, Tamilnadu, India
Six months is pretty young for a team. I had a three-year project and the teams still felt like they had a lot more learning and growing to do!
Don't forget that we choose to focus on people more so than processes.
Thats valid point Stephane. Agree with you.
I realized in the meantime that Reverse coaching on governance bodies is also equally important. Saving Changes...
Vijay SuryavanshiProject Manager - Engineering| RECARO Aircraft SeatingPlantation, Fl, United States
It is not necessary that the Product owner alone has to write user stories. Any team member can.
If there is transformation going on, you must stop thinking Agile principles for a while and come up with a strategy for a change management to do the transformation. There might be some collateral damage in terms of loss of productivity while transformation is going on. Any team goes through four stages during transformation - Shock, Anger, Acceptance and Commitment. You have to assess where exactly the team is. And must have lot of support from upper managment.with a strong leadership.
Because the agile philosophy works well when product owner, scrum master or project manager and the team are all on board. Besides that, it must be done in iterations. (Monthly preferable) without any change transformation going on.
According to Head (1997), transformational change refers to change in the structure, culture and key processes of an organization.
As per Chapman (2002), transformational change requires changes in the attitude, beliefs and values of the employees.
As per Stace and Dunphy (2001), transformational change involves a redefinition of the overall organization’s strategies, gaining the employees commitment towards the process of transformation and reorienting the culture of the entire organization.
In the view of Nadler and Tushman (1989) transformational change is a time-consuming process and requires comprehensive coordination and complete support from the management for effective outcomes.
Ten Pre-Requisites for Transformational Change
Ensuring the commitment of the senior management towards the change, which should even be visible to all the organizational members. Producing a written mission statement and the futuristic vision/direction of the organization which may provide guidance on the objectives, policies and values. Building a shared awareness and change in the perception of the employees regarding the need for change. Selecting a team of key managers and opinion formers who will be playing a crucial role in gaining the commitment of the employees towards the change and in disseminating the change widely across the organization. Generating an acceptance towards the overall process of change and the entire process of transformation. Developing an understanding that resistance to change is inevitable and it needs to be managed effectively. Educating and training the participants regarding the necessary competencies required for effectively overcoming the resistance towards the change and winning their commitment. Taking steps for avoiding the blames or any kind of negative behaviour which may generate any kind of resistance towards the change. Using appropriate resources for facilitating this entire process of transformation or change. Maintaining open channels of communication regarding the key processes, failures, challenges and the learning from the new initiatives. Saving Changes...
