This is a presentation that Allison Pollard and I have been delivering because of our desire to see communities of practice flourish as vehicles for improvement

1. Creating Strong and
Passionate Communities
of Practice
Allison & Ty

2. Today’s Backlog
What do we mean by
Community of Practice
How to get started
What to expect

3. What is a Community of
Practice?
? A group of people with
a common interest
A group of people
with a common goal of
improving
A group of people who
share experiences
Domain Community Practice

4. The First Agile Community of
Practice…
What did the agile manifesto signatories
want to do by gathering?
Find out the things we have in common.
Discover our strengths. Leverage our
skills.
What can we take away from them?
How to do work better…

5. The Evolution of
Communities of Practice
Product Based
User Groups
Center of Excellence
CoPs
Open Space

6. CoP Events
Solve a problem
Workshop
Collaboration
Presenters from
outside our
wheelhouse
Sage on stage
Community
presenters
Social Events

7. The Community Extends
Outside of the Meeting
A lunch room conversation
Crowdsourcing your problem
Small Groups
Study Buddies

8. Why Have a Community of
Practice?
? What does the
individual
receive?
What does the
organization
receive?
What does the
community
receive?

9. Who is Your Community ? For?
Who is the target?
Who presents?
ACTIVITY
ScrumMasters Teams Managers Organizations

10. ? What is Your Vision?
What state, context or situation
is your target in?
What is your purpose? What do
you do?
What makes this different from
other groups?
ACTIVITY

11. How are We Doing ? It?
The invitation matters
Pick a good location
Be happy with whoever shows
up
Don't give up too easily
I say that it's incredibly simple. Pick a
date, a time, a location, and invite people.
- Allison Pollard http://www.allisonpollard.com

12. What Type of Space is Needed
for the Community of Practice?
? Modular, open space
Big open wall space
Great lighting

13. ? How Much Does a
Community of Practice Cost?
$$

14. What Type of People are Needed to
Run a Community of Practice?
? ENTJ Extraverted
iNtuitive
Thinking
Judging
D I S C Sanguine
Choleric
Melancholic
Phlegmatic
Myers-Briggs
The Four Temperaments
Artisan
Guardian
Idealist
Rationalist
Keirsey Temperament Sorter

15. What will the Community ? of
Practice Need from Me?
It depends! What type of
community of practice…
You may start with shadowing for
ceremonies. Move on to cross team
facilitation.
You may start with sharing product walls.
Move on to prioritization styles.
You may start with TDD workshops.
Move on to code katas.
Presentations Community Connections Workshops

16. ? What Other Things Can a
Community of Practice Do?
C o P
Reveal organizational
impediments
Guide the organization
Raise the overall ability of the
organization

17. Now What? ? Possible futures
Stuff that needs
doing
What types of
people are
needed
People to serve

18. How Do We Create a
Backlog?
Backlog Doing ? Done
Value Stream
Don’t make long term plans
Reprioritize or recreate the
backlog every 6 months
Maybe 3 months
Try a Lean Coffee!
http://leancoffee.org

19. Did It Work??
They stayed
until the end
They stayed
after the
meeting
They showed
up

20. Lifecycle of a Community of
Practice
Freshman
Sophomore
Senior
Addressing the needs of the individual
who actively seek out the community
Addressing the issues of the
organization(s) that it exists within
Addressing the issues of the greater
community that its domain caters to

21. Community Growth Pattern
Agile Practice
Product Management Technical Excellence Scrum Master, Coaches
PO, BA, PM, UX QA, Automation, UX,
Architecture, XP, Specific
Languages: .NET, Java,
Cobol, Fortran, Pascal
Frameworks:
Scrum, Lean, Kanban;
Coaching/Mentoring,
Facilitation, Training, Tools
Locations

22. Resources
Agile Leadership
Network
PMI - Agile
Community of
Practice
Scrum Alliance

23. Theta Tau Fraternity Member
Allison Pollard
allison.pollard@improvingenterprises.com
@allison_pollard
Servant Husband
Father Ally
Artist
Agilist
Gamer
Scrum Master
Ty Crockett
tycrockett@tycrockett.com
ty.crockett@improvingenterprises.com
@TTcrockeTT
Agile Coach
Scrum Master
Project Manager
Glasses Wearer