This week I had the chance to facilitate an Agile 101 course. For me this is always the chance to reflect on what I think starters should know – at best before starting an agile initiative, deciding on an agile framework to use or even worse after having implemented an electronic tracking system first. Of course – like in so many other cases – decisions had been made. Still I was thankful that this group wanted to go back to basics. They gave me 3 hours of their time.
Giving the participants the possibility to experience what we want to talk about, was one of my main goals. For this I played with them the Magic Ball Game without using any hint to Scrum. This fosters usually insights coming from the participants that I can come back to over the whole workshop – as well this time. After debriefing the game I deepened the picture with the Deming Cycle: Plan-Do-Check-Act. For me this is the magic formula for finding your own path. The question why they should bother with all of this I talked about my car issues of last week visualised with the Cynefin Framework. Again combined with the insights of the Magic Ball Game they played before.
Another emphasis lay after a short break on the Agile Manifesto. We read it together + the principles. To spark a discussion they got the task to build an Agile Clock. In my understanding the importance of these 4 values and 12 principles can’t be overstated. I have seen so many projects stuck by just doing – sometimes only parts – of the practices. For me this is like doing science without understanding the theory.
To close the workshop I drew a version of the Agile Umbrella, let the participants add the frameworks they knew under it and ended with a statement by Henrik Kniberg who pointed out, that “using an agile framework doesn’t automatically make you agile” and that “you can be agile without using any (…) framework”. In this moment I could feel their confidence vanish. What was left to hold on to? Of course the Agile Manifesto and the assurance that they are absolutely capable of finding their own way – others did it too!
Last but not least I made a validation of the workshop by letting the participants fill out a ROTI (Return On Time Invested) plus post-it feedback for “What was good? and What would make it even better?”. This way I got valuable feedback and proofed them that I eat my own “dog food”.
What do you think? What are your experiences?
Should you be in or around Nuremberg I would be delighted to meet you – maybe on the next Agile Open Space, or any other agile community.
Thank you for your time!
Tom
tomzigan.de 