The art to facilitating great collaborative workshops - MYOB Brown Bag - 08_07_2015
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We can no longer afford to work independently of each other. In order for teams to deliver great outcomes we need to collaborate. Agile encourages collaboration via many different workshops. But, running these workshops can be hard. In order to ensure we don’t waste time, we need a strong facilitator. Today, I want to share with you some of the tips and techniques that I have learnt over the years when it comes to running great collaborative workshops. We will go through some of the key Agile workshops: Project Inceptions, Story Card Workshops, Story Kick-offs, Retrospectives and more. You too can learn the art to facilitating great collaborative workshops.
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The art to facilitating great collaborative workshops - MYOB Brown Bag - 08_07_2015
- 1. 1 The art to facilitating great collaborative workshops
- 2. 2 How has the way we worked changed? Collaborative Agile workshops Tips to facilitate great workshops Overview
- 3. 3 How has the way we worked changed?
- 4. 4 Back in 2001… something happened
- 5. 5 Agile Manifesto We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
- 6. 6 Agile Manifesto Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- 7. 7 We no longer work like this…
- 8. 8 We work like this…
- 9. 9 Or we work like this…
- 10. 10 Why did we have to change?
- 13. 13 Project Inceptions • Ice breakers • Project Overview • Scoping Workshop (In, Out, Unsure Scope) • To be process mapping • Story Card Identification • Non-Functional Requirements • Release Planning • Team Processes
- 19. 19 Tips to facilitate great workshops
- 20. 20 Be prepared
- 23. 23 Clear actions that get followed up
- 24. 24 The way we work has changed Collaborative Agile workshops Tips to facilitate great workshops Recap
- 25. 25 Thank you
Editor's Notes
- I sometimes feel like workshops are a waste of time. I sometimes wonder if we’re really doing real work in workshops. Do you feel the same? Talk about the art of facilitating great collaborative workshops. My hope is that workshops are not only time spent really wisely, but we do a lot of great work together.
- SEEK – Personalise a Message (PAM) Background I was working with a small team at SEEK to develop a new product – the ability for recruiters to target candidates and send a personalised message We wanted to release as quickly as possible to test whether the new product would be a success. What did we do? What is the Purpose? Started with Project Inception – 3 days – entire development team (Product Manager, Business Analyst, Developers, Testers). Every one was there from the start and gained a lot of context together. Build their shared understanding of the project together. This is the one of the purpose’s of Inceptions. The other purpose is to go from an idea or business case to a project plan and to delivery as quickly as possible. Why was it successful? As I mentioned, we did this in 3 days and really they were 3 half days. 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. We started very initial development and setup the next week. How did we do this? Everyone was there. There was no repeating of questions. Going over context again. Everyone responsible for delivery was there. The other was a tip that I want to share with you that worked really well.
- SEEK – Personalise a Message (PAM) Talk through what was covered in the Inception. How all of these activities got us to starting development soon. This was real work. It was hard work.
- SEEK – Personalise a Message (PAM) There were actually two things: A visible agenda that I walked the team through each time we go back together. A set time of when to get back from breaks. I noticed that people are not great at turning up on time for meetings or workshops, so I thought I’d try something out. Tell story of the timebox.
- SEEK – Personalise a Message (PAM) Background Continuing on from the same project incepted, we began to look at the requirements for each Story in detail. I used what I called a Story Card Workshop for this. Very similar to the Three Amigos catchup or Backlog Grooming. What did we do? What is the Purpose? In order for the team to quickly get a shared understanding of the work at a detailed level, I ran Story Card Workshops an Iteration or 2 ahead of starting development. At this point in the project, we were in a short Iteration 0. These sessions looked to look into the Story Card and understand what the Acceptance Criteria was by defining it together as a team. Why was it successful? This proved to be very successful as the team quickly understood what we were building it and why. The team delivered the project on time and delivery far beyond what was expected.
- UniSuper – Member Connect Background Currently working as a Business Analyst at UniSuper. Large re-platforming project for their member portal. What did we do? What is the Purpose? The purpose of the Story Card Kickoff is to get a shared understanding and answer any questions just before development starts. Started running Kickoffs by reading the scenarios from JIRA, but weren’t as effective. People weren’t always leaving with a shared understanding. It was hard to stay focused and understand detail one a screen. The facilitators (Business Analysts) changed this up by running Kickoffs on a Whiteboard. Draw up wireframes and write scenarios at a high level. Talk through the wireframe at a high level and then run through each scenario. Why was it successful? This proved to be very successful as the team quickly understood what we were building it and why. A lot more questions were being used using this format. Particularly from the Devs and Testers.
- UniSuper – Member Connect Background Continuing on from same story… What did we do? What is the Purpose? It’s easy to forget the purpose of Standup when we do them day in, day out. The purpose is to help the team plan on a daily basis. We do this by talking about what we did yesterday and what we’re doing today. One thing that has helped is as the facilitator of the Standup, realising that it’s OK to ask questions. This is something I didn’t always do… SUNCORP – LMS – Story about how I used to get frustrated about not following standup where everyone has their turn and ask all questions afterwards. Didn’t have the opportunity to ask questions. In saying that, you need to learn when to say when to say – Take the discussion offline.
- Realestate.com.au – Data Distribution
- Being prepared is a way to go from unproductive workshops to workshops that have a plan / focus Invest time in preparing – For every hour your workshop is, spend at least half the time planning Plan how the workshop will work (i.e. agenda, plan A/B) Have all materials ready (cards, post it notes, market pens)
- Facilitating a workshop well can mean that your workshops are no longer unproductive. How do you do this… Designated facilitator (preferably not a participator) Be clear and confident with instruction of how to run the technique – State your expectations of people Have enthusiasm! It’s important to bring energy to the room – Think about how you would normally facilitate or lead a meeting – Now take the energy up a level or two! Explain and enforce the agenda or if it is a Retro – the format chosen
- Enforcing the appropriate behaviour within workshops is important to ensures two things: 1. It ensures the Retro is respectful. 2. It does not turn into a blaming session that will not help anyone. Respectful Turning up on time – avoid distractions later Not talking over the top of eachother (VERY important in Distributed Retros) Including everyone – people in distributed teams & quiet people Positives Focus on the positives How we can help eachother (not just focus on our individual roles) How can we work together
- In order to avoid Actions constantly being ignore from your workshop it’s important to have clear actions: Should be achievable / have a clear outcome Needs someone to champion the action It is also important to follow them up Put them on your Story Wall. Perhaps in a different colour card. Follow them up during the Iteration/Sprint
- Re-iterate each point. End with… Hopefully you have learnt a few different tips and techniques that will help you to now run great collaborative workshops.