Writing a book by two people who never met each other face 2 face when they wrote, published and promoted the book is an amazing experience! Having it translated by self organized agile teams all around the world makes it awesome!!! Come and hear how we did this and what made it work, and learn how you can effectively work with people all around the world. In 2013 Luis Gonçalves and I wrote the book Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives. We did this by working together fully remote. We self-published it in December 2013 and gained many readers worldwide. We never met each other in person until April 2014, and are still collaborating to promote the book and helping teams worldwide to get more value out of doing agile retrospectives. In 2014 we started with teams of volunteers all around the world to translate our book. Working remotely with people that you don't know, from different cultures, with their own ways of working, and on different continents is certainly challenging, but it turned out to be an effective and fun way to do it! Join this session to learn: - how you can get to know people and work together remote, i.e. without meeting face 2 face; - which tools you can use to collaborate and communicate when working remote together; - how you can translate a book with self organized distributed agile teams of volunteers; - and how value, trust and respect can make it all possible.

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Valuable Agile Retrospectives: The Making ofXP Days Benelux, November 27, 2014
Ben Linders Advies

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The Making of …
A journey about writing and self-publicing books.
•How it all started
•Writing the book … remotely
•Tools for collaboration and communication
•Translating withs worldwide teams
•What we learned
Book about Valuable Agile Retrospectives

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

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Travel Partner
Meet Luis Gonçalves
Agile Coach, Co-Author, Speaker & Blogger
lmsgoncalves.com
@lgoncalves1979

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Publishing Partner
InfoQ.com
Facilitating the spread of knowledge and innovation in enterprise development
Minibooks
Editor on Agile

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Toolbox of Retrospective Exercises
•Teams are different
•Needs vary in time
•Deliver more value for Teams
You can plan a retrospective meeting, and think about the technique that you want to use, but be open to change it on the spot whenever needed.
Toolbox of Retrospective Techniques

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Retrospectives Book
Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives
By Luis Gonçalves & Ben Linders
1st edition: December 19, 2013: eBook on Leanpub & InfoQ
2nd edition: July 10, 2014: paperback on Amazon, Lulu, etc

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Book Facts
Leanpub subscribers: 500 in 3 months, 1000 in 5 months, now 1691
InfoQ downloads:> 5500++
Reviews: Goodreads 4,06 Amazon 4.8
Bestseller:#7 on Agile #3 on Business & Economics
Languages:English Nederlands Español FrancaisJapanese Italiano Chinese
Interviews:SPaMCAST Collaboration Superpowers

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How I met Luis

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Getting to Know Each Other
Connecting via Twitter, LinkedIn, email, and Skype
Our goals
•Share experiences with Retrospective
•Connect with peers all around the world
•Learn and discover new things and WoW
•Have fun 

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Plan & Contract
Minibook proposal:
•Target Audience
•What will the book bring them?
•Draft outline & blog posts
•Book Properties
•Author Bio’s
•Ok from InfoQ
•Memorandum of Understanding

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Timeline
Jan 2013: First ideas on writing a book
Feb 2013: Book proposal
Mar 2013: Proposal accepted, gathering blog posts
Apr-Jul 2013: Writing new blog posts
Aug 2013: Announcing bookconverting blog posts to book chapters
Sep 2013: Book cover, writing supporting chapters
Oct 2013: Foreword, book review
Nov 2013: Rework based on review, foreword by Esther Derby, final reviews
Dec 2013: Publication

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Writing Tools
•Leanpub: Book generation & publishing
•MarkdownPad 2: Editing
•Dropbox: Manuscript sharing
•Google Docs, Sheets: DoD, Terminology, etc

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Remote Collaboration
•Trello taskboard
•Asynchrone communication, mostly email & Google docs
•Skype calls
•Trigger if something is urgent
•Inform if (un)available
Luis and I met face 2 face only two times, first time was 3 months after book was published!

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What makes it work?
•Trust
•Openness
•Discipline
•Respect
•Gratitude
•Perseverance
•Value

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Translations
Help teams all around the world to do Valuable Agile Retrospectives
Available in:
•Nederlands: Waardevolle Agile Retrospectives
•Español: Obteniendo valor de las Retrospectivas ágiles
•Francais: Tirer profit des rétrospectives agiles
•Japanese: アジャイルふりかえりから価値を生み出す 日本語版
•Italiana: Ottieni il meglio dalle tue Retrospettive Agili
•Chinese: 从敏捷回顾中收获价值
Ongoing and future translations: Deutsch, русский and Português

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Translation Teams
•Volunteering professionals
•Self-organized (agile)
•Distributed – Remote working
Learn retrospective exercises
Work in a distributed agile team
Recognition
Translations of Getting Value out of Agile Retrospective

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Way of Working
•Invite via Social Media
•Emails & Skype calls
•Agree Conditions
•Definition of Done
•Trello board
•Terminology
•Do Retrospectives
Retrospective Findings
•Do a Kick-Off
•Supply tool info
•Start with terminology
•Virtual coffee machine

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Taskboard Translation team

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Time & Place Dispersed Team
•Kanban (no Sprints)
•Book author = Product Owner & Scrum Master/Coach
•Members contribute when they have time/energy
•Communication and teambuilding on Trello board
Core qualities NL team
•Helpful
•Aim for consensus
•Efficient
•Structured
•Innovative
•Service Oriented
•Dedicated

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Self-Publishing our Book
Get books into as many channels as possible – eBook and Paperback
•Increased royalties
•Have to do your own promotion

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Book Discounts
Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives
By Luis Gonçalves & Ben Linders
bit.ly/RetroValue
40% Discount eBook € 4.49
bit.ly/RetroValueNL
bit.ly/RetroValueFR
Paperback: €10,-

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

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Background Information

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Agile Retrospectives
Practice for teams to reflect on their way of working and to continuously become better in what they do.
Focus upon
•Team
•Self organizing
•Collaboration
•Direct Value
What is an Agile Retrospectives

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Why Retrospectives?
To help teams to solve problems and improve themselves!
•Becoming Agile and Lean
•Make existing processes more Agile
•Increase Value of Agile
•Less resistance to Change

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Capable Retrospective Facilitators
Effective and Efficient Retrospectives:
•Vital few improvement actions
•Keep the invested time low
Facilitation by capable people:
•Qualify and Authorize facilitators
•Train: Purpose, techniques, skills Agile Improvement
•Mentoring & coaching
•Share & discuss retrospective experiences

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Leading Retrospectives
Roles
•Facilitator – Servant Leader
•Coach – Support Change
•Manager – Arrange for Change
All roles are needed
Play the game together
Action is in the interaction

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Expectations for Retrospectives
•Effective Teamwork
•Better Collaboration
•Development Process
•Velocity / Productivity
•Product Quality
•Costs
•Lead Time

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Retrospective Exercises
•Asking questions
•One-word retrospective
•Root Cause Analysis
•Timeline
•Flow and Energy
•Asking Why?
•Strenghts (Solution Focused)
•Perfection game
•Action priorities
•Retrospective of Retrospectives
•Teams with multiple customers
Book with Agile Retrospective Exercises

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Dutch Team
Douwe Attema, Berend van Duijvenvoorde, Angelo Hulshout, Sabina Renshof, Jan Toes, Jacques van Vessem, Jelle de Vries

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Becoming Agile and Lean
Ask yourself:
•How Agile are you?
•Where do you want to becomemore Agile, and why?
•What can you do next?
Journey to Become Agile and Lean

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

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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?