Agile Management: Leadership in an Agile Environment

193 Pages·2012·1.491 MB·English

by  Medinilla, Ángel

Agile Management
.
´
Angel Medinilla
Agile Management
Leadership in an Agile Environment
“The J-Curve” – hand drawing by the author at an Agile seminar
A´ngelMedinilla
Proyectalis
MairenadelAljarafe,Seville
Spain
ISBN978-3-642-28908-8 ISBN978-3-642-28909-5(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-28909-5
SpringerHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
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Preface
Thisbookisbasedonmyownexperiencewhileworkingwithcompaniesas
an external Agile consultant. I have been helping all kinds of companies,
from 12 to 500 employees, to successfully implement Agile frameworks,
and I have trained several thousands of managers and developers on topics
likeScrum,Kanban,Agilemanagement,teamcoachingorchangemanage-
ment.Clientprofilesincludetelco,banking,videogames,softwarefactories,
mobile applications, government, logistics, retail, dot-coms, on-line
services,start-upsormediacompanies.AlthoughIhavemetreallyskeptical
people, I have never been at a place where I thought ‘It’s impossible to be
Agilehere’.ThatiswhyIaskyoutobeopen-mindedthroughthereadingof
thisbook:rememberthatthemindislikeaparachute;itonlyworkswhenit
is open.
Nevertheless, most of my Agile ‘book of tricks’ is based on other
people’sresearch,books,blogsandotherformsofworkthatIhavestudied
andusedmyself.Ihavetriedtogivecredittoallofthem,althoughthismay
notbealwayspossible,assometimesIcannotdistinguishbetweenmyown
ideas and the ones I am borrowing from somebody else. Innovation, I
believe, is achieved by constant re-combination of ideas, so I just hope I
introduce some new approaches to the field of Agile management by
combining the several sources I usually integrate on my daily practice. If
allIendupwithisalistofinterestingresources,IreallyhopeIcansaveyou
some time and guide you to the useful ones.
This book is aimed at Agile managers, team leaders, change agents,
evangelists and anyone trying to push Agile further in his or her organiza-
tion. Enterprise agility and general resistance to change, both by manage-
ment and the organization as a whole, are recurrent memes in the Agile
community,andIhopetotriggerinterestingconversationsonhowtomove
Agileoutoftheteam’senvironmentandtothewholesystem,thusbuilding
better companies to work in.
As this is a book about Agile from a management perspective, it has a
strongbiastosoftwaredevelopment–rememberthatthewordAgilecomes
v
vi Preface
fromtheManifestoforAgileSoftwareDevelopment.Anyway,themethods
describedaresuitableandusefulforanycompanythatreliesonthetalentof
theiremployeesandoperatesonacomplexandchangingenvironment.But
this is not a book about Agile or Lean. I will dedicate a whole chapter to
introduce some basics about these frameworks and recommend a compre-
hensive list of great resources for readers who want to learn about them.
Again, you do not need to be a Lean or Agile expert – or even want to
implementAgileatyourorganizationtoobtainsomebenefitfromthemany
ideas proposed in this book.
Managementisafuzzyarea.Ihavetriedtobeaspracticalaspossibleand
proposeactualthingsyoucantryatyourworkplace,butofcoursea5-person
start-upwillnotneedthesametoolsorpracticesasaFortune500.Itisupto
you to decide how to use the numerous principles enlisted in this book to
better suit your environment.
Overall,ifyouwanttochangethewayyoumanage,youhavetochange
yourparadigmsetofwhatmanagementisabout.FromanAgileperspective,
wehavelearnedthatmanagementisnotaboutdecidingonyourown,telling
people what to do and then supervising and controlling them until they
achieve the desired results. We live in a different world from the one that
most of the management experts of the twentieth century experienced, and
companies that strive for success and excellence will need a new kind of
managers.
Agile Managers
Acknowledgments
Toallofyou,readers(andspeciallybuyers:-)ofthisbook.Notonlyareyou
making this book possible, but you are also showing your commitment to
changetheworldto a betterplace,startingwith theplace youareprobably
spending most of our life: your workplace.
ThankstoRalfGerstner,fromSpringer,whocontactedmeaftermyAgile
ManagementtutorialatXP2011andbelievedthatitwouldmakegoodcontent
forabook.Youwouldnothavethisinyourhandsifitweren’tforhistrust.
ToallthegoodmanagersIhavemetinmylifewhotaughtmehowjoyful
work can be when you feel part of something great. You took a stand and
demonstrated that management is not a zero-sum game of survival, power
harvesting and blame avoiding. While other managers were making their
employees’ lives miserable, calling them “resources” and treating them as
mindless drones, subordinates, inferiors, commodities or expendable
materials, you considered them colleagues in the challenge of succeeding.
Now I know that this was not something natural, but the consequence of
years and years of constant fight against a cruel juggernaut called The
System. For me, that’s what life’s about.
To a whole bunch of Agile writers, many of whom I have met over the
years, who have taught me so much about howthings can be more natural,
stress-less,efficientandfun.SpecialthankstoMaryandTomPoppendieck,
MikeCohn,HenrikKniberg,LyssaAdkins,JurgenAppelo,JeffSutherland,
Ken Schwaber and Jeff Patton.
Tomyclients,speciallythosewhotrustedmewhenIstartedandnoone
knewwhatthisAgilethingwasabout.Specialthankstoallthedevelopment
teams I have been coaching since I started my Agile career. You rock!
To my Aikido Senseis at Kisei Dojo, Antonio and Marcos Pen˜a, for
bringing balance to my life. Domo Arigato Gozaimashita.
To my wife, who has made my life so full of joy and love that it almost
hurts (and I love the way it does).
Tomy son who,at the age of five,learned thatthere is nothingimpossi-
ble, maybe just very difficult, and constantly reminds me about it.
vii
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Contents
Part I The Agile Manager
1 A Brief History of Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Leaders and Managers . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3
Leadership Among Apes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Feudalism,Empires, and the Origin of Hierarchies . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Taylorism and Fordism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Machine That Changed the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Rise of a New Species: Knowledge Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Taylor’s Fateful Heritage: Dilbert, the Office, Office Space,
and Other Cubicle Nightmares . .... .... .... ..... .... ... 15
Summary .. .. ... .. ... .. .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. .. ... .. 16
Things to Try . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Recommended Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 Lean and Agile in a Nutshell .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 19
Agile and Lean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Japanese Revolution . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . 20
The Five Principles of Lean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
The 14 Principles of the Toyota Production System . . . . . . . . . . 26
Kanban Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The NUMMI Experiment: Lean Everywhere . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . 33
Lean in a Nutshell . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 34
The Pre-Manifesto Years: Agile Genealogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Agile Manifesto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Principles of Agile Development . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 40
Again: From Values and Principles to Practices and Tools . . . . . 43
Some Agile Practices and Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Agile in a Nutshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
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