A recent survey shows that birds don’t bother singing in towns and cities because their song cannot be heard. Their country cousins, on the contrary, sing to their hearts’ content even though there are fewer humans around to share their song. What makes your heart sing?

‘The team remains agile after the coach is gone.’

This is my ultimate acceptance test for effective Agile coaching. True Agile Enablement endures.

Whose line is it anyway?

I come across a number of Agile coaches who talk a lot about Agile. Agile is hard because it’s the doing that accompanies the saying that makes a person agile. Nine out of ten coaches I meet are those who live by the mantra of Do-As-I-Say-Not-As-I-Do.

Most important of all, their kind of Agile doesn’t stick. Teams may think they’re agile for the duration of such a coach being onsite, but when the coach is gone, teams are left to make-do and make-believe a fuzzy, undisciplined and/or enforced form of Agile (originally adopted to appease a forceful coach) all on their own.

Give me an example

I recently met Rupert, a charming and personable Agile coach who prides himself on being a doer. He told me that because he was having difficulties with the testers in his client organisation, he had written a code of conduct for the testers so they can work with the rest of the team. A few weeks before that he’d been preoccupied with composing a code of conduct for the business analysts. ‘And these are the rules for developers to follow,’ says Rupert as he proudly points to a flipchart among the numerous flipcharts of commandments that now cover the team wallspace. Eat your heart out Laura Ashley. Forget floral, swallow those words.

Words, words, words

What about Rupert’s team, I found myself wondering with mild anxiety. In my experience, a team has to come up with its own guidelines or manifesto through a collaborative effort. It’s part of the initiation process towards becoming a team. What happens next is the enforcement of the manifesto which should come easily – so long as it originated from the team. Otherwise, the manifesto is yet another group of words with no more meaning than a company’s mission statement, created by a small clique in a galaxy far, far away from the people who deliver business value.

Sock Shop

When coaching, I compare Agile with a pair of socks. The notion of a good pair of socks is likely to vary from person to person. Some prefer pink and others blue while the chaussettes conoisseurs among us might wear Santa socks 365 days of the year. Nonetheless, one thing is certain: we all have a common understanding of what makes a good pair of socks. For instance, most of us would agree that a good pair of socks keeps both our feet warm and dry. Once we understand the purpose of something, it’s easy to distinguish genuine function from fancy form.

Genuine Agile has collaboration built-in to make it last. If you’re living the Agile Values, trust your instinct when it’s telling you your Agile coach is wrong.

Why Exoftware?

So that on a beautiful summer’s day I find myself cycling along the low road on one of the Aran Islands to spend time with the most diverse, smart, nice and fun bunch of Agilistas I know.

The 9th conference on Agile Processes and XP will be taking place from 10 – 14 June in Limerick, Ireland this year. The programme has an interesting mix of Agile management techniques and technical practices.

Recommended Highlights

• Mapping the Value Stream by Mary and Tom Poppendieck – because they’re always a treat to listen to
• Overcoming Resistance to Change by Dave Nicolette and Lasse Kosela – because I’ve heard much about both of them and have yet to attend a session of theirs
• Test-Driven Enterprise Code by J B Rainsberger – because Joe’s well-known on the Agile track and I would like to see Joe present
• Coaching Self-Organising Teams by Steve Freeman and Joseph Pelerine – because Joseph’s a great speaker and it’ll be great to see Steve and Joseph pairing on a session
• Open Spaces – because you never know who’ll show up and how the sessions will turn out

Beautiful Ireland

I’ve already committed to presenting at a number of other Agile conferences this year, so unfortunately won’t be able to attend this one. June’s a lovely time to visit Ireland, so I hope you get to make the most of your stay!

Three Interesting Facts

1. If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.
2. Most people spend more time with their colleagues in their lifetime (by being at work that is) then they will with their own family.
3. Most people’s decision making is based on what they want most rather than what they fear most.

Plus Two Questions

1. How much do you care about what you’re going to do today?
2. And what about tomorrow?

Il fait très beau et chaud à Londres aujourd’hui. Le beau temps m’a fait penser à XPDay France.

What went well

• Rencontré des agilistes français sympas et accueillants
• Joué le jeu d’espace de Real Options avec une soixantaine participants
• À la recherche du temps perdu et l’avoir trouvé: FIAP me rapelle mi école mi auberge de jeunesse
• Le dîner avec les programmeurs Erlang
• Être invité à presenter l’année prochaine – l’ultime test de recette!

Énigmes

• FIAP est entouré par un beau quartier même s’il n’est pas évident tout de suite
• Les glaces me manquent pour tous les participants pour mieux fêter l’arrivée de l’été

Mon XPDay France idéal

• Plus d’actions, moins de discours pendant les séminaires
• Plus d’exercices pour encourager la création des réseaux parmi les participants
• Avoir les salles plus grandes et mieux amenagées
• Voir des OOMPs (Official One Minute Presentations) inventifs

Mille mercis aux organisateurs d’eXtreme Programming France pour une conférence chouette!

I don’t get to go to Paris as often as I’d like, so it’s a real treat to be off to Paris this weekend to present Real Options: l’ultime frontièreat XPDay France on 5 – 6 May. J’espère que vous allez nous rejoindre. À très bientôt.

* In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past

Many thanks to the 28 individuals who chose to play the new Real Options Space Game at the Agile North Mini Conference last Saturday. Based on the retrospective feedback, we left folks with much food for thought. As usual, Pascal and I found that each time we play the game it makes us think more deeply about what Real Options really means.

What are Real Options?

Real Options is a decision-making process for managing uncertainty and risk. It’s a simple and powerful approach that helps us make better informed decisions,as individuals and in groups, by understanding and responding to the psychological effects uncertainty has on our behaviour.

Real Options means:

1. You don’t have to decide now (aka ‘Decide at the last responsible moment’)
2. But you know when to decide
3. Keep as many options open for as long as possible
4. Actively gather information until you have to make the decision
5. Only commit when you must or when you have a good reason to.

A Real Option:

• Has a value
• Has an expiry date or condition
• Costs: cost of buying the option + cost of exercising the option.

You exercise an option only when its value is worth more than its cost. That’s where the similarities of the metaphor between Real Options and financial options end.

Isn’t that just common sense?

Yes it is! The problem is that common sense doesn’t make it common behaviour. Take a look around you. How does your team or manager make decisions under pressure? How do you make decision at times of intense stress?

Uncertainty makes people impatient and afraid. Under pressure, people tend to 1) make the right decision, then 2) prefer to make the wrong decision rather than 3) postpone the decision until the last responsible moment which leads to ill-informed decisions that create problems later on.

Real Options reminds us that waiting is an option, too. The trick is to spend the waiting time on gathering as much information as you possibly can to better understand your options and, where possible, create new ones.

Real Options is difficult because it’s an information hungry process. It requires effort and that’s one reason why many people don’t do it even though they know it’s the best way to make optimal decisions.

How much is an option worth?

The value of an option varies and depends on time as well as context. Its value is what it’s worth to you at different points in time. The key is knowing the relative value of an option in comparison to the other options you currently hold.

Give me an example

The Agile North mini conference is a good example of a Real Option.

• Option value = conference for learning new stuff
• Expiry date = deadline by which you have to sign up for the conference
• Cost of buying the option = effort required to register (conference entry was free)
• Cost of exercising the option = effort for travelling to the conference and giving up a Saturday afternoon to go on a space adventure

Real Options is not nonsense

Real Options is an optimal decision making process. Even though it’s common sense, it’s surprisingly hard to do. It sounds simple, but isn’t easy in practice.

One participant said, ‘The game reminded me about the importance of a lesson I learnt 10 years ago on an orienteering course but never really sunk in.’ To find out what that lesson is, come play the Real Options Space game (version français) at XPDay France next week.

Real Options is very simple in theory, but difficult to put into practice – especially at work or when people are placed under pressure. How can you use Real Options to make better decisions?

Imagine: You nip to the loo in an office building you’re visiting for the first time. After washing your hands, you look into the mirror and what do you see? A see-through sticker with white writing.

‘Bullying. Let’s Cut It Out’

Five simple words. Words that send so many alarm bells ringing. Who let the bullies in? Are they still here? Which teams do they work in? Do people take notice of the message? What difference does that one sticker make?

That’s when I notice there are more stickers running along the wall of mirrors, each aligned above a corresponding sink so you can’t ignore the problem. Or so you would think.

Cultural or Cuisine Differences?

It’s lunchtime. I ask about the stickers as I tuck into the tasty weekly Indian meal. It turns out most people around the table don’t really know what bullying means. So I change my question to one of the developers.

‘Does Candy respect you?’ I venture, bold and plain as the nose on my face.
She’s nice. She answers my questions about requirements,’ he replies with a tired but sincere smile.

I meet Candy for the first time that afternoon. Candy’s friendly enough. She smiles back, teeth clenched.

Communication without respect is worse than not communicating at all

In my experience, respect is the hardest value of all to live by, partly because you have to dig extra deep as it forms the foundation for the other four values. The main reason it’s the toughest to live by is because it’s usually the first thing that most people abandon when the going gets tough.

What does respect mean to you? How would you rate yourself in terms of respect on a scale of 0 – 5 from lowest to highest? Respect begins by recognising, appreciating then leveraging the value each individual brings to a team. How would your team rate you on the scale of respect?

Question: What could be more enticing than learning and gaming with a bunch of friendly Agile folks on a Saturday?
Answer: The fact that entry’s free! Sign up for your place here.

Agile North Mini Conference

The Agile North mini conference is this Saturday. Why am I looking forward to it?

1. I get to play the new interstellar space game ‘Real Options: The New Frontier‘ with co-host Pascal Van Cauwenberghe and Agilistas up north.
2. I will hear the latest stories on Kanban implementation from David Anderson.
3. I will learn about Kanban, Cadence and Flow from Karl Scotland.