Keynote Need for Continuous Improvement - Agile Tour Kaunas 2016 - Ben Linders

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Ben Linders Consulting
The Need for Continuous
Improvement in Agile
Keynote Agile Tour Kaunas
Lithuania, October 13, 2016
Ben Linders

Agile, Lean, Quality & Continuous Improvement
Trainer / Coach / Mentor / Writer / Presenter
Recognized Expert on Agile Retrospectives
CMMI & People-CMM Assessor
Freelance Editor for InfoQ.com
Ben Linders
Co-Author Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives
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Author: What Drives Quality & Continuous Improvement
eBook: Download from Amazon, InfoQ or Leanpub
Print: Buy on Amazon or other bookstores

Continuous Improvement
Continuous Improvement is the
act of continuously doing
whatever helps to become better
and thus more valuable.
Ben Linders

Origins

Agile Manifesto
“We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it”

Agile Principle
“At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to
become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly”

Why improve?
• No “one best way”
• No “first time right”
• Things will change
• Self organization,
empower your teams
Mindset: Continuously look for improvements

You need to improve!
Continuous Improvement is essential
if you want to really become agile!
The Impact and Value o
Agile Value Creation
Business Value of Agile

Embedded Improvement
Agile values, principles, practices, and methods
support continuous improvement
• Frequently Inspect and Adapt
• Scrum master, focus on process
• Stand-up, deal with impediments
• Agile Retrospectives
• Coaching & Mentoring

Unfinished User Story
1 hr of work left, not finished
• Problem clearly visible
• Address in Stand-up, Review,
Retrospective or by Coaching?
Best thing coach can do
Agile has built-in improvement opportunities

How to Improve Continuously
You need:
• skilled people
• methods and tools
to do sustainable improvement
Soft Skills Matter
Listening to deal with resistance
Teamwork: Feelings matter

Agile Coaching
Help people to find and do improvements
 Give Feedback
 Provide Ideas
 Inspire People
 Establish Safety
Agile Needs Coaching
Develop Coaching Skills

Agile Retrospectives
amazon.com/dp/B00SWJO1DI benlinders.com/exercises/

Process Improvement
CMMI Roadmaps
Business Focused CMMI
Agile SPI
SPI, the Agile way
ITMPI Webinar
Better Improvement
Agile/Lean Improvement

People over Processes
People CMM Roadmap
 Work Environment
 Compensation
 Staffing
 Competency
Development
 Communication & Coord.
 Participatory Culture
Agile People (AC 2011)
Implementing Agile
SQP Paper Agile-PCMM

Golden Rules for Improvement
• Dare to share, early and frequently
• Result depends on team, not individuals
• The one who checks out a task is not necessarily
the one who has to finish it
• The one’s working on a task are the right people
• You may critique anything,
but never criticize anyone
BenLinders.com/GoldenRules

Measuring Improvement
Assessments Done SD Trend 12 months
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mrt
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
Dep8
Dep7
Dep6
Dep5
Dep4
Dep3
Dep2
Dep1
Unit
SDfinished
Robust
Stretch
Commit
SDOpen
Improvements Done SD Trend
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mrt
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
Dep8
Dep7
Dep6
Dep5
Dep4
Dep3
Dep2
Dep1
Unit
Closed6Months
Robust
Stretch
Commit
OpenSD
Making Improvement Visible – ICSPI 2006

Root Cause Analysis
Analyze major and repeating problems
Find Root Causes
Preventive Actions
 Problem Selection
 Knowledge & Skills
 Action Visibility
Keynote QA&Test 2011
Key Success Factors
Business Value RCA

Kanban
 Start where you are
 Pull based change
 Experiment
Short Cycled Improvement
Learning from Mistakes

Agile & Improvement
 Continuous Improvement is essential if you want
to increase your agility
 Agile values, principles, practices, and methods
support continuous improvement
 You need skilled people with methods and tools
to get sustainable effective improvement done

Take a first step
 Think about a problem that needs to be solved,
 pick one practice or idea,
 think of a practical way to do it,
 start doing it!
First Agile Step
Every journey for agility and
continuous improvement
starts with a first step!

Continuous Improvement
Become aware of importance of
continuous improvement,
Explore how it’s engrained in agile
software development
Suggestions that you can use in your
daily work to improve continuously
Increase your organization's agility!
Leanpub.com/continuousimprovement
“Continuous Improvement is the act of continuously doing
whatever helps to become better and thus more valuable”

Questions?Questions?
Ben Linders
Independent Consultant Agile, Lean,
Quality & Continuous Improvement
info@BenLinders.cominfo@BenLinders.com
@BenLinders
www.linkedin.com/in/benlinderswww.linkedin.com/in/benlinders
www.facebook.com/BenLindersAdvieswww.facebook.com/BenLindersAdvies
www.benlinders.comwww.benlinders.com

Background Information

Getting More out of Agile & Lean
Practices for teams and stakeholders to develop the right
products, deliver faster, increase quality, and create
happy high performing teams.
Full Day Workshop:
Deploying practices effectively
Improve Collaboration
Tips & Trick for Agile & Lean
Improve Continuously
Increase your organization's agility!
BenLinders.com/agilelean

Retrospectives Book
Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives
By Luis Gonçalves & Ben Linders
Download from InfoQ or Leanpub
Buy on Amazon or Lulu
amazon.com/dp/B00SWJO1DI
leanpub.com/gettingvalueoutofagileretrospectives
Mailinglist: eepurl.com/Mem7H

Retrospectives Book Bundle
Six successful retrospectives books
• Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives
• Fun Retrospectives
• Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your Retrospectives
• The Retrospective Handbook
• Retrospectives for Organizational Change
• The Retrospectives Kickstarter
These books will make your agile retrospectives rock!
Teams will love to do them :-).
leanpub.com/b/agileretrospectives
Discounted price: $30,48 (excl. VAT)

Assessing your Agility
Over 40 tools:
• Self-Assessment checklists
• Readyness checks
• Maturity assessments
• Agile health checks
• Measurements
• And much more!
Agile Self-Assessments

Measure & Control Quality
Project Defect Model:
• Inserted & detected defects
• Improve reviews,
inspections & testing
• Prevent defects
 Design & Test Collaborate
 Visible Improvement
 Business case support
PDM (SEPG Europe 2003)
Project Performance (PQS
Monte Carlo (SEPG 2009)

Articles on Effective Agile
• Self-assessing how Agile you are
• Sustainable Improvement through Agile Retrospectives
• Working in a Sustainable Pace
• Becoming Agile and Lean
• Succes Factors for Using Scrum and Getting Benefits
• Process Improvement: The Agile Way
• Golden Rules for Agile Process Improvement
• How to deal with Resistance when Implementing Agile
• Managing Projects with Agile Teams
• Agile Project Management
• Establishing and Maintaining Stable Teams
• Getting Business Value out of Agile Retrospectives
• Sharing Knowledge is Power
• Are your Professionals Empowered?

Keynote Need for Continuous Improvement - Agile Tour Kaunas 2016 - Ben Linders

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Keynote Need for Continuous Improvement - Agile Tour Kaunas 2016 - Ben Linders