Agile hold a minimum set of values and principles,
following them, will allow taking the agile almost anywhere. Once we get
the grip of that, we can implement agile, its tools and mindset almost for
anything. Only fine tuning and modifications
will be required.
Post takeaways:
·
An overview over the agile values
·
How to translate those to
your own context
·
How was it translated to
family context
·
How was it translated to schools
context
·
Try yourself check list
First, Let’s dive in to the original agile values.
Agile is an empirical process based on the principles of
delivering working items and continues improve by continues adopting an
awareness to problems and solving them within. It is a method of adapting to
complex and constantly changed systems.
Agile is not one methodology, it’s actually a set of tools,
values, principles, a collection of mindset beliefs that helps getting things
done. In agile, like in agile, you can never implement the exact same framework
in two organization. You will always need to adjust, be agile, and refine your
activities and tool. This is because agile relays on people and effectiveness
of processes and each group of people so deferent, even if they are
manufacturing the same product.
Agile is Based on the mindset and psychological aspect, where
teams are self-organizing and self-directed. It holds more than just few
mindsets approaches related to empowered individuals, self motivate individuals
and Creativity and innovation are highly appreciated and encouraged. When those
individuals are part of a group with a common goals (let’s say, school for
example) the agile method proves to get things done faster than any other
method; the agile method will also facilitate the grows of the group and
individuals within and though grow the outcome of a group for better
performance.
It’s a way to improve and get things done. It’s a light
designed frame work, easy to adapt even in partial aspects, where all of these
can happen regardless the type of area of which we wish to evolve to agile.
The agile software development manifesto.
Initially, the agile as a method and its values and the
principles behind it were mostly fit to the IT and software engineering
industry. You can find them all here.
Lets dive into them a bit and reappear back and see how we
can take those into “everyone’s” world
“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”
We believe that effective communication
may drive a group of people toward better efficient and effective performance.
We employ a vast set of communication tools to make sure it happens, and we
demand the same from team members and management.
We believe that face to face communication
is a key for success. We believe that using frequent communication is even
better. And we make sure direct communication is kept as a key using various
tools such as a daily standup meeting, retrospective, talking about planning,
visualizing our work to our team members and stakeholders. And we prefer doing
that face to face over communicating using several of tools. It’s just doesn’t
work when we have so many mediators (phone, applications, reports). After all
we are people, working together.
We believe then in:
·
Frequent , direct
communication
·
Transparency and truth in a
communication that leads to trust
·
Transparency toward
decisions, toward impediments
We strive to coach and lead
individuals and group to follow the communication set of behaviors.
For example, isn’t it better for a
teacher to hold a close communication with a child parent then keep all her
feedback to the last moment before giving the grade? Isn’t it easier to get
early feedback from the teacher, besides only via a tool (grade) and then get
the opportunity for early improvement and early feedback once again? After all,
we all know the grade are just a tool, there is a lot going on beyond the
grades.
Inset it better to talk to the
teacher then get her feedback via email? Wouldn’t it give us the opportunity to
react, and get feedback?
“Working software over
comprehensive documentation”
This is our deliverables.
We deliver working outcome as set of intervals
each holding a value. Instead of long month of planning, design, developing and
testing an entire system, we do this more frequent, with smaller portions and
each portion is a working software.
We make sure everything we do that
we want to deliver holds its definition of done. Meaning, what will make this
task complete.
In order to deliver something bit
that works, we believe that dividing it to smaller portions that each works and
holds a value is better than building in parallel many parts and try to shamble
them at the end. The effort to build it up , correct and change is huge
, sometime needs getting back to the core developed framework , the
amount of errs are out of control. The feedback is sometimes too late and the
changes will be build ad plasters over a non working product.
This is a mindset change statement.
It allows as at early staged give and get early feedback over our work. And we should
be open to that feedback.
Lets say , we are building a car ,
so we better not check at the last moment that the wheel is working as part of
assembling and testing the entire product. We will probably build the wheel as
a separate mechanism, test it (reuse it), then connect it to other working items
such as the wheels and retest them. Errs will the be easy to detect and solve.
“Customer collaboration over
contract negotiation”
Collaborating with our stakeholders
When the stakeholder is involved, he
feels more in control, anxiety reduced and communication flows better. We don’t
have to wait a long period of time till the end of a project finding out we
didn’t develop what the customer wanted. And, god, how often did this happen?!
Almost 90% of the times!
We need to have the ability for early
feedback.
In school as an example, I tend to
consider the teachers as the principle customer and vice versa. Therefore,
sharing your plans and outcomes in an early stage, while at the same time having
a hart bit of healthy feedback may empower the entire system toward better
ideas, better cooperation and better performance. Everyone feels they have a
share. And agile does exactly that.
“Responding to change over following a plan”
We leave in a very small world,
communication is faster and changes are all over. In the industry of software
development change is a reality. And we may better understand it and adapt. It’s
not only that the technology is changing all around, it’s also our need to
develop over these technology frameworks (such as develop over iphone , tablet,
PC , Mac) it’s also the frequent of changes in what we develop may change. People
may also change their priority for variety of reasons , especially customers.
People are not born to forecast the future (well at least most of us), so it
may be that we want something develop today and change our mind in few weeks.
Agile holds a set of rules and behaviors
allowing us better to react to the changing environment , weather with hard strict
rules (“The sprint is the team safe zone”) or with soft skills supplied (frequent
communication) or tools (standup meeting).
Same goes to all of us, the non
software world residents. We need to embrace change first, acknowledge that
changes are fact of life, and embrace the tools that will allow us better
accept a change and grow to take advantage out of it.
We may hold a yearlong curriculum plan
for our class, but then comes an event , that make us change. We want to be
able to embrace change, understand the we are working according to the value of
each deliverable holds and we may leave a side other deliverable and artifacts
as a result of a change. We are not expected to toe everything at once , but we
are expected to be agile enough to leave in this fast changed reality.
That is, while there is value in the
items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
The software development Principles
behind the Agile Manifesto
These reflecting the values above in a more
practical sense.
We follow these principles:
1.
Our highest priority is to satisfy
the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome
changing
requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change
for the customer's competitive advantage.
3. Deliver
working software
frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference
to the shorter timescale.
4. Business
people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build
projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and
support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
6. The
most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within
a development team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Working
software
is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile
processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and
users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous
attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity--the art of
maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
11. The
best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing
teams.
12.
At regular intervals, the team reflects
on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly.
The first thing will be to try and understand those
values and principles to fit to a more common ground then just software.
Remember: these are not lip service, we need to understand
each of them and follow them.
Well, mainly when taking it to the common ground of practice
agile principles are about:
Individuals and interactions over
process and tools
Communication is a key , we can’t skip
it. We live in a world of constant and fast communication using tools. Face to
face communication cannot be skipped and its proven to be effective than any
other tool.
Getting things done over measures of
behaviors
Stop concentrating over measures, grades.
It’s not that it is not important, rather than it should not be the scope of
evaluating yourself. Achieving a true progress a long with mindset change is
the true goal.
We better deliver 100% of 80% then 80% of 100% , its better to stick to the important then
just do things we don’t need; understanding what is important is an art.
Stakeholder’s collaboration over lack
of feedback
Involve others that have interest, get
early feedback. Its always better to do small mistakes then big last minute big
mistakes.
Responding to change over following a plan
Changes are part of our day to day
activities; we better accept it and adapt to change all the time. Changing I a
potential for growth; staying in one place will get you stuck. Change and adapt
all the time
Self organization leads to prosperity
Take decisions; Fail; Learn to grow for
your mistakes; is a key to success
Then, the next step should be, to try and fit those
values to the one , you are trying to
evolve to agile.
For examples, when we came to implement the agile into a
family and with kids , we initially defined some of our values as guidelines:
The Agile@Home Values and principles:
That is, while there is value in
the items on the right, we value the items on the left more
We also took the principles behind the values and translated
them to what we believe in to be our agile way.
1.
Our highest priority is our
family and our children. Our children go through childhood once, and we are the
ones responsible for it.
2.
We believe that the parent
is the key to family growth and should be coached to be the role model for any
required changes.
3.
The family must work
together as a team in order to enhance its communication, achievements
and abilities, including the children regardless of their age.
4.
Investing constantly in our
family, even for brief periods of time and regardless of negative or positive
events, will bring about good results.
5.
The parents must supply the
family with the right tools to succeed, and trust them that they will know best
how to use them for their needs.
6.
We believe that face to
face communication is the most effective form of communication.
7.
The most effective family
empowerment and growth will come from the ability of parents and children to
have an open dialog.
8.
Simplicity is an art.
Dividing big issues into small chunks will bring the best results. Doing 'just
enough' from these chunks will bring about the best results. An effective
change is one that is done gradually, so it is quantifiable and manageable in
real time, while at the same time the entire family is responsible for the
change.
9.
The best outcomes come from
children and families that manage themselves effectively.
10. we believe that enhancing one’s strengths also enhances his
weaknesses. Therefore we prefer to focus on the strong and positive over the
weak and negative.
11. We believe that all family members must evaluate their actions
constantly, not just when a crisis emerges.
12. Visibility and openness is the key to family empowerment.
13. We believe that fun, rather than ‘serious’ takes us further.
Therefore, we will make sure that everything we do will involve the element of
fun, although we will insist on making it fit to the spirit of the events.
It’s that obvious!
I’m amazed at how easily it translates to education if you
are applying scrum in schools for example:
I have encountered this article of a very talented teacher stating the agile values as he sees
fir to the education arena (contact him)
About the Author
Steve Peha is
the President of Teaching That Makes Sense,
an education consultancy in Carrboro, NC specializing in literacy, assessment,
and school leadership. Since 1995, he has taught in thousands of classrooms and
hundreds of schools across the United States and Canada. Prior to that he was a
software entrepreneur
The Twelve
Principles of Agile Schools
We follow these
principles:
- Our highest priority is to satisfy the needs of children
and their families through early and continuous delivery of meaningful
learning.
- Welcome changing requirements, even late in a learning
cycle. Harness change for the benefit of children and their families.
- Deliver meaningful learning frequently, from a couple of
days to a couple of weeks, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
- School and family team members work together daily to
create learning opportunities for all participants.
- Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them
the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
- The most efficient and effective method of conveying
information to and within a team is face-to-face conversation.
- Meaningful learning is the primary measure of progress.
- Our processes promote sustainability. Educators,
students, and families should be able to maintain a constant pace
indefinitely.
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good
design enhances adaptability.
- Simplicity-the art of maximizing the amount of work not
done-is essential.
- The best ideas and initiatives emerge from
self-organizing teams.
- At regular intervals, teams reflect on how to become
more effective, then tune and adjust their behavior accordingly.
Here again, we find
a blueprint for better schooling.
Now it’s your turn:
Individuals and interactions over
process and tools
…………
Getting things done over measures of
behaviors
……..
Steak holder’s collaboration over lack
of feedback
……..
Responding to change over following a plan
……
Self organization leads to prosperity
…….
- Our highest priority is ….
- Welcome changing ……..
- Deliver meaningful …...
- …….. Team members work together daily ……..
- Build projects around motivated individuals……….
- face-to-face communication is………
- Meaningful outcome
is the primary measure of progress….
- Constantly invest in….
- Continues improvement is……
- Simplicity-the
art of maximizing the amount of work not done-is essential…..
- The best ideas and initiatives emerge from
self-organizing teams.
- Simplicity is an art…Dividing
big issues into small chunks will bring the best results. …
- The best outcomes come from ….. that
manage themselves effectively.
- Visibility and openness is the key
…...
- We believe that fun, rather than
‘serious’ takes us further……
- And more……
