Gunther Verheyen presented "Empirical Management" in the executive track of the first edition of the Scrum Days Poland in Warsaw.
The presentation unites Gunther's views on management, the organization and leadership in an Agile context with his experience and expertise in Scrum. It is an exploration of how to apply evidence-based managing of software.
This is the full version of the presentation. Time was too short to go through it completely. Highest value was still delivered.
Gunther shepherds the Professional series at Scrum.org and is Ken Schwaber's partner for Europe.
1. by Scrum.org – Improving the Profession of Software Development
Empirical Management Explored
Evidence-Based Managing of Software
Gunther Verheyen
Shepherding the Professional series
Scrum.org
Scrum Days Poland
Exec Track
May 29, 2015
Warsaw
Short Abstract
Many organizations demonstrate a compelling desire to become Agile. Where the Agile movement, sprung from the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, focuses on software development, management might feel left out. But is that really the case?
One of the core objectives of the agile movement was to shift the focus of software development to creating more valuable software, frequently. It can be expected that the act of managing in an agile environment therefore puts value at its heart; over holding on to old, ‘industrial’ parameters like scope, budget, time. In a value-centered environment, informed management decisions to maximize value cannot be made without transparency over the question whether the software is indeed valuable; valuable to the organization, its users and the wider ecosystem. There is absolutely value in applying the Scrum Stance in the managerial domain. Indicators of value become the primary source for inspection, in order to adapt how the software is being produced. Enter a new management culture, Empirical Management, thriving on evidence-based decision-making.
Gunther explores the idea of Empirical Management through the lens of Scrum’s history and the current, compelling desire of many organizations to scale Scrum.
Gunther shepherds the Professional Series at Scrum.org and is a partner of Ken Schwaber.
“If no evidence is collected on the value of software, informed management decisions to maximize it cannot be made. Software development deserves a professional way of managing, a way of managing that is more than mere intuition, opinion and position.”
Learning Objectives
Inspire by challenging some common understanding of ‘agile’
Participants will be challenged on their understanding of agile, and the purpose of agile at a business and management level.
Participants will be challenged to shift their focus from how the development work is done, to the outcome of the work, and its impact on the market.
Participants will get an insight into a possible future of agile, the future of agile in its next decade of existence.
Audience
For: Decision makers, leaders, managers looking to reground themselves in a context of 'agile'.
Typical Elapse Time
1 hour
Indeed, the Agile movement promotes emergence. Indeed, Agile thrives on self-organization. Indeed, Scrum has no defined role of ‘manager’.
But is that sufficient to label managers as useless or not needed?
The Agile movement successfully established a set of values and principles that better fit the creative and complex nature of software development. The focus is on teams, collaboration, people, self-directed discovery. The Scrum framework provides a great foundation for organizations to grasp ‘Agility’.
The adoption of the Agile thinking via Scrum represents a major and on-going shift in our industry. Even without Scrum having prescriptions for management, it is clear that the self-organizing fundaments of Scrum have a profound impact on the role, approach and act of managing. The challenge is to discover and implement the new needs and demands for managers.
Self-organization requires boundaries, and shared goals and objectives. Self-organizing teams benefit from the provision of information on the market and company strategie. Self-organizing teams benefit from facilitation with standards, expectations, infrastructure and tools.
Agile became a success through the adoption of the methods/processes for Agile Software Development.
Agile is not “do anything you want”.
March 18th, 2014 article.
Author: Jurgen Appelo (Management 3.0)
Not forgetting the other principles, specifically those focusing on emergence (as opposed to up-front planning) and bottom-up knowledge creation (treating ALL co-workers as knowledge workers).
The Agile movement successfully established a set of values and principles that better fit the creative and complex nature of software development. The focus is on teams, collaboration, people, self-directed discovery. The Scrum framework provides a great foundation for organizations to grasp ‘Agility’.
The adoption of the Agile thinking via Scrum represents a major and on-going shift in our industry. Even without Scrum having prescriptions for management, it is clear that the self-organizing fundaments of Scrum have a profound impact on the role, approach and act of managing. The challenge is to discover and implement the new needs and demands for managers, and organizations aspiring to be Agile.
Scrum, ultimately
can only be fully comprehended when its rules and roles are read as an expression of the values and principles of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
is an operating system for the values and principles of the Manifesto. The kernel of the OS is the Scrum Stance.
Scrum, ultimately
can only be fully comprehended when its rules and roles are read as an expression of the values and principles of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
is an operating system for the values and principles of the Manifesto. The kernel of the OS is the Scrum Stance.
Professional Scrum:
Any Scrum instance that implements Scrum’s mechanics, its values and principles, and technical excellence.
An activity without value. The ideal victim for cost cutting.
About Gunther Verheyen
Gunther Verheyen (gunther.verheyen@scrum.org) is a seasoned Scrum professional. He works for Scrum.org, the home of Scrum. He represents Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber and Scrum.org in Europe.
Gunther ventured into IT and software development after graduating as Industrial Engineer in 1992. His Agile journey started with eXtreme Programming and Scrum in 2003. Years of dedication followed, of working with several teams and organizations, of using Scrum in diverse circumstances. Building on the experience gained, Gunther became the driving force behind some large-scale enterprise transformations.
Gunther left consulting to partner with Ken Schwaber, Scrum co-creator, at Scrum.org in 2013. He is Professional Scrum trainer, directs the ‘Professional Scrum’ series and co-created the framework for Evidence-Based Management of Scrum.org. He shepherds classes, trainers, courseware and assessments for the programs of Professional Scrum Foundations (PSF), Professional Scrum Developer (PSD), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), and Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO).
In 2013 Gunther published his highly appraised book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide,” a ‘smart travel companion’ to Scrum.
Gunther lives in Antwerp (Belgium) with his wife Natascha, and their children Ian, Jente and Nienke.
Find Gunther on Twitter as @ullizee or read more of his musings on Scrum on his personal blog, http://guntherverheyen.com/tag/scrum/.