For decades organizations are looking for the best way to do software development. Many methods have been explored and frameworks have been published to guide organizations on how to do it. Although our industry as a whole has improved, many organizations struggle. Delivering working software still seems to be hard. Agile takes a different approach to becoming the best in software development by stating “We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it”. Agile never promised to be silver bullet, it’s not a one size fits all approach and doesn't have all the answers. We hear from organizations that have become successful with agile, but there are also agile transformations that are not bringing the expected results. Better software development is not about implementing the the best framework or method throughout the organization to have everybody working in in the same way. What matters is that people, teams and organizations become flexible and able to adapt to the needs and situation at hand. Continuous improvement is what makes agile work. It’s at the heart of agile. In his keynote Ben Linders will show why continuous improvement matters in agile and what you can do to help your organization to really become agile.

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Ben Linders Consulting
The Need for Continuous
Improvement in Agile
Keynote QCon Beijing, April 23, 2015
Ben Linders

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Ben Linders Consulting
Agile, Lean, Quality & Continuous Improvement
Retrospectives Facilitator
Agile Coach/Mentor/Trainer
CMMI & People-CMM Assessor
Freelance Editor for InfoQ.com
Ben Linders
Co-Author Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives
English Dutch French Japanese Spanish Italian Chinese
Russian Polish German
Author: What Drives Quality
eBook: Download from Amazon, InfoQ or Leanpub
Print: Buy on Amazon or Lulu

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

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Ben Linders Consulting
Origins

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

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

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Ben Linders Consulting
Why improve?
• Not “one best way” of doing Agile – find your own
• First time right takes too long – need for early feedback
• Customers & Stakeholders needs will change
• Agile requires a change of mindset
• Self organizing is a team responsibility
• You don’t know what you don’t know
• …

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Ben Linders Consulting
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

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Ben Linders Consulting
Embedded Improvement
Agile principles, practices, and methods support
continuous improvement
• Scrum master guarding the process
• Stand-up, daily focus on impediments
• Inspect and adapt with retrospectives
• Agile coaches support your agile journey

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

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Ben Linders Consulting
How to Improve Continuously
You need skilled people with methods
and tools to do sustainable effective
improvements
Soft Skills Matter
Listening to deal with resistance
Teamwork: Feelings matter

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Ben Linders Consulting
Agile Coaching
Help people to improve
 Give Feedback
 Inspire People
 Establish Safety
 Support Experiments
Agile Needs Coaching
Develop Coaching Skills

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Ben Linders Consulting
Assessing yourself
• Readiness
• Agile / Scrum Practices
• Culture & Mindset
• Agile Fluency
• Roadmaps for Adoption
• Maturity
Agile Self-Assessment

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

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

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Ben Linders Consulting
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)

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Ben Linders Consulting
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

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Ben Linders Consulting
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

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Ben Linders Consulting
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

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Ben Linders Consulting
Agile Retrospectives
amazon.com/dp/B00SWJO1DI benlinders.com/exercises/

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Ben Linders Consulting
Kanban
 A way to do change
 Start where you are
 Experimenting with Change
Short Cycled Improvement
Learning from Mistakes

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Ben Linders Consulting
Agile & Improvement
 Continuous Improvement is essential if you want
to increase your agility
 Agile principles, practices, and methods support
continuous improvement
 You need skilled people with methods and tools
to do sustainable effective improvements

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Ben Linders Consulting
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

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Ben Linders Consulting
Background Information

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Ben Linders Consulting
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
The suggested price is $9,99 (excl. VAT); this is what we think is the real
value of this book. We leave it up to our readers to decide what they
would like to pay for the book.

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Ben Linders Consulting
Chinese Edition
从敏捷回顾中收获价值 回顾练习的工具箱
By Luis Gonçalves & Ben Linders
《从敏捷回顾中收获价值》包含可用于您
个人回顾工具箱的大量练习，可以帮助
您更有效地执导敏捷回顾并从中得到更
多收获。
Download from InfoQ or Leanpub

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Ben Linders Consulting
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?