Perception is reality

In teams as well as in organizations, perception is reality. If they are using an Agile tool like storymapping, the way it's done in their organization is their reality. 

Can you blend the techniques of storymapping and into a waterfall process? While my gut immediately say "no" it's not pure Agile it will fail. Why would it fail?

The storymapping would include working software, development and testing in the same story thus removing the sequential nature of the develop, then test in a waterfall scenario.

I'm exploring the why behind the "No" it won't work...It's an innate gut reaction from me...here's some questions, but not too many conclusions

- Organization could experiment with it and see what comes out of it. This experiment will expose what the team doesn't see, doesn't know about what they are doing. It will highlight gaps, even having the whole team in the room revealed the unknown which is a step in the right direction. 

- Blend it into their waterfall process, right in between the high level sizing and "Doing" the work...bit will it help?

- Can it work if they aren't in sprints?

- If they do not execute the stories as planned out in the storymapping excercise, will it fail?

- Is the mindset shift trully there from the team?

-  Can the teams perform the work and  make the switch that quickly if their organization hasn't fully committed to transforming the entire organization.

The reality is when organizations tiptoe into Agile, using parts of it and different techniques without committing to it completely, they normally fail. Then their perception becomes, Agile won't work in our organization. Their exposure and experience become fragmented to actually seeing it work well. 

Product Owner and Scrum Master....why both are valued and necessary.

In my recent experiences, I'm asked about the role of the product owner and Scrum master....why are they separate. My first reaction is...what do you mean? They do distinctly different roles. But in  a place where resources are leaned out so much...are these two roles a luxury? I must admit...I've always valued these roles as a coach...As a mentored the team giving them the reasons why...it's so important to have these roles with such different focuses...I wondered..

In my explanation I use focus as the driver of the discussion...where is the focus placed?

• For the Scrum Master, the focus is inwards...on the team and the process.

• Is the sprint going well?

• Is the team happy?

• Are they learning what they desired to learn?

• Are they focused?

• Can they accomplish their goal? When they do, do they feel a sense of accomplishment?

• Are they empowered?

• Do they have autonomy to make their own decisions?

For the product owner, the focus shifts outward...toward the business and the stakeholders with the primary focus being around creating the stories for the team. 

• Their focus is on the customer and the folks using their products

• Getting feedback from the users

• Writing incremental user stories based on input from users and stakeholders

• Doing User research

• Preparing experiments

• Collaborating with the team during the sprint rituals.

There's so much value that both roles add to the mix of the team, the collaboration of the team and combination of skills. 

What are your thoughts?

Yogagility Mindset

Whistler, BC

The Yogagility Mindset:

Yogagility is a mindset of building on skills piece by piece, learning and failing, falling on your face, it's a push and a pull to explore your body to discover what's possible. In the same ways, Agile is a mindset shift from ways from past thinking of the "Iron Triangle" to turning it on it's head to form a more nimble and easily adaptive system. The flip of the triangle and the shift of the mental model to change the inputs into the system brings new possibilities. How flexible is your mind to change? In yoga we challenge our body, can you challenge your mind to be just as flexible?

What is your organizations attitude toward change? Can your team adapt? Are they empowered to be creative in their environment. Using Lean technique, teams can... Get out of the building and do customer interviews. If your organization doesn't value customer feedback or doing interviews enough to let employees spend the time, companies can offer the same user experience and never change or evolve into a learning pattern.  and simply makes decisions from above, what's their aptitude toward change?

Playing with Creativity

Being Creative 

Being Creative within a space, exploring getting in a dancer pose, explore it but don't go beyond that space...stay in it...How many different ways are there to get in and out of that pose?

Can you stay in it much like staying within the context of a feature, explore it...build something, learn from it...fail...produce something rad and then in some time revisit it. In this ever-changing world, what the customer wants today will change tomorrow.

In yoga, your poses progress, what your dancers pose will look different in a few months from the way it does today. 

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