Agile Everywhere! ​ Henrik Kniberg talks about how his journey implementing agile & lean methods at Spotify and Lego helped him apply agility in new & unexpected fields. Henrik will share his vision on how agility may evolve in the future and affect various areas of our lives. About Henrik Kniberg Henrik Kniberg is an Agile/Lean coach at Crisp in Stockholm, working primarily with Lego and Spotify. He enjoys helping companies succeed with both the technical and human sides of software development. During the past 15 years he has been CTO of 3 Swedish IT companies and helped many more get started with Agile and Lean software development. Henrik is former board member of the Agile Alliance and works regularly with Mary Poppendieck, Jeff Sutherland, and other thought leaders. He is the author of “Scrum and XP from the Trenches” and “­Kanban and Scrum, making the most of both” and “Lean from the Trenches“. These books are available in over 12 languages, have over 500,000 readers, and are used as primary guide to Agile and Lean software development by hundreds of companies worldwide.­ Henrik also created the viral animated videos “Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell” and “Spotify Engineering Culture“.

1. Author
Dad
Organizational coach
& Change Instigator
www.crisp.se
Consultant
Henrik Kniberg
henrik.kniberg@crisp.se
@HenrikKniberg
Agile Everywhere!
Keynote, Agile Tour Montreal
Nov 16, 2016

2. Is Agile just a Software thing?
www.agilemanifesto.org
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work 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.

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6. Recruitment team
Henrik Kniberg

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Recruitment team

8. JAS 39E Saab Gripen
Henrik Kniberg
Agile practices implemented at every level and in
every discipline: software, hardware and fuselage
design.
Pilots on the same site as
development teams.
Direct feedback provided
every sprint.
Compared to F35 joint strike fighter,
Gripen 39E has:
• 50x lower development cost!
• 10x lower unit cost!1500 people, all
co-located in
Linköping, Sweden.
World’s most cost-effective
military aircraft
($4700 Cost per Flight Hour)
Sources:
• http://www.stratpost.com/gripen-operational-cost-lowest-of-all-western-fighters-janes
• Personal visit to SAAB Linköping
• Research paper “Owning the Sky with Agile”

9. Henrik Kniberg
Pair programming
Product Owner role
Physical tools
Process tools
a.k.a. ”organizational patterns”
Thinking tools
a.k.a. ”mindsets” or ”philosophies”
Lean Agile Toolkits
a.k.a. ”frameworks”
Scrum XP
Visualize management
To do Dev Release
H C
2
Test
35
Done!
3
D
G
K
A
B
FLOW
Kanban
Systems Thinking
Queuing theory
SAFe
Tool
”anything used as a means of
accomplishing a task or purpose.”
- dictionary.com

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Lean Agile

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Lean Agile

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Agile Manifesto
www.agilemanifesto.org
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work 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.
products
feedback
solutions

14. Agile is not new
Henrik Kniberg
Buzzwords will come and go,
but the underlying ideas and
principles are timeless

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• 2.3 million blocks
• 6 million tons
• 140 meters high
• Tallest man-made structure
for 3800 years

16. Iterations, Continuous Improvement,
Pull, Single-piece flow 4500 years ago
Henrik Kniberg
2.5 – 15 tonsVelocity of Khufu’s pyramid
construction:
1 block every 2.5 minutes
... for 30 years!!!

17. Beware of Tool Misuse
Henrik Kniberg
Abraham Maslow
If all you have is a hammer,
everything looks like a nail

18. Misguided
Lean
Photo: http://leanactionplan.pl/o-nas/artykuly_lean/Lean-Office;183.html
Henrik Kniberg
Revealing the
right problem
Solving the
wrong problem

19. SAFe
LeSS / SAFe
The Agile ”umbrella”
Scrum
XP
DSDM
FDD
Crystal
Kanban
Henrik Kniberg
Using an agile framework
doesn’t automatically make
you agile!
You can be agile
without using ANY of
these frameworks
Daily
Scrum
Sprint Product
Owner
Continuous
Integration
WIP Limits
Big Room
Planning
Program
board
Pairing
Agile Values & Principles

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21. Pixar
Henrik Kniberg

22. Example: Pixar
Henrik Kniberg
That's a blunt assessment, I know, but I choose that
phrasing because saying it in a softer way fails to convey
how bad the first versions really are.
Our job is to make them go from
Suck to Not-Suck.
Ed Catmull
President of Pixar & Disney Animation Studios
Early on, all of our movies suck.

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In the early stage of making a movie, we draw
storyboards (a comic-book version of the story) and then
edit them together with dialogue and temporary music. The first versions are very rough, but they give a sense
of what the problems are, which in the beginning of all
productions are many.
We then iterate, and each version
typically gets better and better.

24. The further you are from software development,
the less likely that any of the popular frameworks will
fit 100%
Henrik Kniberg
Agile Values & Principles
SAFe
LeSS / SAFe
Scrum
XP
Kanban

25. Continuous
Integration
XP
Henrik Kniberg
User stories
Definition of
Done
Scrum Master
Sprint
TDD
Velocity
Pair
programming
Cadence
Daily standup
Retrospective
Value stream
mapping
Understand the Why of each tool
Story points
Cross-functional
team
WIP limits

26. Example: Why Sprints?
Henrik Kniberg
Too much
“stability”
Too much
“flexibility”
Sprint =
stability + flexibility
Compromise between stability & flexibility.

27. When is Agile most needed?
Henrik Kniberg
What to
deliver
Unclear/unstable
Clear & stable
How to
deliver it
Clear & stable Unclear/unstable
Any process
works here
Agile is optimized
for this
Predictive process doesn’t work here.
Need an adaptive process.
(feedback loops rather than detailed plans)

28. Why is Agile spreading so fast?
Henrik Kniberg
What to
deliver
Unclear/unstable
Clear & stable
How to
deliver it
Clear & stable Unclear/unstable
Any process
works here
Agile is optimized
for this
Predictive process doesn’t work here.
Need an adaptive process.
(feedback loops rather than detailed plans)

29. The role of copy-paste
Henrik Kniberg
Scrum and XP from the Trenches Spotify Engineering Culture
AdaptCopy Paste
Copy Paste

30. Strategies for applying agile in other contexts
Henrik Kniberg
Implement method X
“by the book”,
then customize it
Cherry-pick
specific practices
Apply agile ideas directly,
without using any specific
framework
Implement method X
“by the book”, and
follow the rules
religously

31. Strategies for applying agile in other contexts
Henrik Kniberg
Implement method X
“by the book”,
then customize it
Cherry-pick
specific practices
Implement method X
“by the book”, and
follow the rules
religously
Apply agile ideas directly,
without using any specific
framework

32. Example: Big Family Trip
Henrik Kniberg

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Vision
Motive
Must Do
Departure Date: Oct 1
Should Do
Could Do
Preparations

34. Travel “spike”
Henrik Kniberg
Small Family Trip
London, 4 days
Big Family Trip
Round the world, 6 months

35. Peru
Japan
New
Zealand
West Indies

36. On-the-road schooling
Henrik Kniberg
using velocity, cadence, and burnup chart

37. “School” is every day after breakfast, regardless of location
Henrik Kniberg

38. On-the-road schooling
Henrik Kniberg
Travel days
School points “done”
using velocity, cadence, and burnup chart
“On track” = bottom bar is
ahead of top bar

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Back home from the trip...
Why is the kitchen
always such a mess
suddenly?
We didn’t have that
problem when
travelling. Why?

40. 8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
16
160+

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1
Mon 7:00
2
Mon 11:00
3
Mon 22:004
Tue 22:00
1-2
days!
Root cause:
Dishwasher!

42. 8
8
8
8
8
8
16

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1 Mon 7:00
2Mon 7:30
< 1
hour!

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47. Worked like a charm!
Henrik Kniberg
but did we keep doing it?

48. Sometimes agile practices don’t stick.
That’s Fine.
Explanations:
• The practice was only needed for a specific situation
• The practice didn’t work too well
• The practice was a stepping stone until a better practice
was found
• The practice was only needed to learn & internalize a new
behaviour
Henrik Kniberg

49. Pattern: Go all-in first, then go pragmatic
Henrik Kniberg
1 2
3
“Good enough” test coverage.
Tests & code in same commit
TDD when needed
3
No personal sets needed
“Wash my own dishes” attitude internalized
Dishwasher used sometimes
1
Dishwasher
2
No batching
No dishwasher
WIP limit
Personal sets
Batching LeanKitchen
No tests
Full TDD
Test automation

50. Example: Using a practice only when needed
Henrik Kniberg
Spotify Engineering Culture video – part 1
• Expected production time: A few days
• Actual production time: Several weeks!
Whoa! That took MUCH
longer than I expected!
Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell
• Production time: 2 days
Takes a couple of days to
make a cool animated
video
How can I avoid the same
problem for Part 2?

51. Video storyboard (rough sketches)
Henrik Kniberg

52. “Pointifying” the work
Henrik Kniberg

53. Pomodoro Technique
Personal Scrum with 30 minute sprints
Henrik Kniberg
Decide
what to
focus on
100% Focus!
No interruptions!
Measure:
• How much can I get done in one Pomodoro?
• How many Pomodoros can I execute per day / week?
Pomodoro 1
25 minutes
5minutebreak
Pomodoro 2
25 minutes
Decide
what to
focus on
100% Focus!
No interruptions!

54. Used Yesterday’s Weather and burndown chart to
reliably forecast when the video would be done
Henrik Kniberg

55. Strategies for applying agile in other contexts
Henrik Kniberg
Implement method X
“by the book”,
then customize it
Cherry-pick
specific practices
Apply agile ideas directly,
without using any specific
framework
Implement method X
“by the book”, and
follow the rules
religously

56. Robit
Henrik Kniberg

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2 kids & rookies with very
little robot experience...
... vs ten teams of
adult geeks and
programmers

59. Step 1: Set a clear goal (define “success”)
Henrik Kniberg
Let’s build a robot
that at least can put
a fight....
No! We’re going
to WIN!

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Agile

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Step 2: Build a Minimum Viable Robot
(Earliest Testable Robot)

62. Aim for the clouds,
but deliver and test in small steps
Henrik Kniberg
Can stay
in the ring
Can find
opponent

63. Step 3: Build an opponent to practice against
Henrik Kniberg

64. Field test, Field test, Field test
Henrik Kniberg
Can stay
in the ring
Can find
opponent
Can get to
opponent
Can budge
opponent
Can win match
against a static
opponent

65. Aim for the clouds,
but deliver and test in small steps
Henrik Kniberg
Can stay
in the ring
Can find
opponent
Can get to
opponent
Can budge
opponent
Can win match
against a static
opponent

66. Lifter? Or no lifter?
Henrik Kniberg
Hypothesis:
- Mechanical Lifter can help us win
Experiment:
- Build a simple lifter and try
Learning:
- Works as designed...
- But too weak to lift opponent
- ... so it doesn’t help us win!
Options:
- Keep it cuz it’s cool (who needs to win anyway)
- Improve it
- Remove it, try a different approach

67. Simpler was better
Henrik Kniberg

68. Field testing =
Success by
100 failures
Henrik Kniberg

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73. How could they win?
Building skill? No.
Programming skills? No.
Luck? Partly, but not entirely.
Henrik Kniberg
1) Clear goal
2) Low self-confidence
3) Emergent design
4) LOTS of field testing!

74. 01:39
Some tips when
applying agile in
<insert domain here>
Henrik Kniberg

75. Don’t inflict help on people.
Pull works better than Push
Henrik Kniberg
Sure, I’ll show
you how we
work, and why.
Sure. Tell me more about
your domain, and we’ll
figure it out together.
Hey, your way of working
looks interesting. Think
something similar might
work for us?
Hey we’re using
Scrum here, you
should too!
...
Push
Invites resistance and
“not invented here”
syndrome
Invites
collaboration
I like it! Can you help
us get started?
Pull

76. WARNING
2 slides full of bullet points coming up
sorry...

77. Agile in Domain X requires a collaboration
between people who understand Domain X, and
people who understand Agile.
Step 1: Understand the context
• What do you do?
• Who are your stakeholders?
• What is a unit of work?
• What does Done mean?
• What does Success look like?
• Who is need to get things to Done?
• What do you want to improve, and why?
• How will you know if you’ve improved?
Henrik Kniberg
Step 2: Understand the tools
• What is Agile? Scrum? Kanban? XYZ?
• Which principles and practices are most
applicable in your context?
Step 3: Get Buy-in
• Who needs to be involved to make the
change happen?
• What’s in it for them?
Step 4: Start experimenting
• When in doubt, start by making work
visible
• Find some early wins to build trust

78. Take-aways
• Agile is not new, and not going away
• The word may go out of fashion, but the ideas are timeless
• Agile can be useful in just about any context, not just software
• But Agile or <insert framework here> is only a means, never a goal
• Distinguish between Principles and Practices
• Practices are more domain-specific and need to be adapted or replaced
• Copy & Paste & Evolve
• No need to reinvent the wheel
• Use the appropriate language for the domain
• Don’t unnecessarily alienate people with strange words
• Don’t inflict help on people
• If they are happy with their current way of working,
then don’t bother trying to change it.
Henrik Kniberg