Coming out of the closet - the life and adventure of a traditional project manager turned Agilist

I’m coming out of the closet today. No, not that closet. Another closet, the tabu closet in the Agile community. Yes, I was (and to a point still am) a control freak, traditional, command and control project manager. Yes, that’s right you read it correctly. Here’s why this is important: in 2003 when I first started to consider Agile in any shape or form I was a strong believer of the Church of Order. I did all the rites of passage, I did my Gantt charts, my PERT charts, my EVM-charts and, of course, my certification.

I was certified Project Manager by IPMA, the European cousin of PMI.

I too was a control freak, order junkie, command and control project manager. And I've been clean for 9 years and 154 days.

Why did I turn to Agile? No, it wasn’t because I was a failed project manager, just ask anyone who worked with me then. It was the opposite reason. I was a very successful project manager, and that success made me believe I was right. That I had the recipe. After all, I had been successful for many years already at that point.

I was so convinced I was right, that I decided to run our first Agile project. A pilot project that was designed to test Agile - to show how Agile fails miserably (I thought, at that time). So I decided to do the project by the book. I read the book and went to work.

I was so convinced I was right that I wanted to prove Agile was wrong. Turned out, I was wrong.

The project was a success... I swear, I did not see that coming! After that project I could never look back. I found - NO! - I experienced a better way to develop software that spoiled me forever. I could no longer look back to my past as a traditional project manager and continue to believe the things I believed then. I saw a new land, and I knew I was meant to continue my journey in that land. Agile was my new land.

Many of you have probably experienced a similar journey. Maybe it was with Test-Driven Development, or maybe it was with Acceptance Testing, or even Lean Startup. All these methods have one thing in common: they represent a change in context for software development. This means: they fundamentally change the assumptions on which the previous methods were based. They were, in our little software development world a paradigm shift.

Test-driven development, acceptance testing, lean startup are methods that fundamentally change the assumptions on which the previous software development methods were based.

NoEstimates is just another approach that challenges basic assumptions of how we work in software development. It wasn’t the first, it will not be the last, but it is a paradigm shift. I know this because I’ve used traditional, Agile with estimation, and Agile with #NoEstimates approaches to project management and software delivery.

A world premier?

That’s why me and Woody Zuill will be hosting the first ever (unless someone jumps the gun ;) #NoEstimates public workshop in the world. It will happen in Finland, of course, because that’s the country most likely to change the world of software development. A country of only five million people yet with a huge track record of innovation: The first ever mobile phone throwing world championship was created in Finland. The first ever wife-carrying world championship was created in Finland. The first ever swamp football championship was created in Finland. And my favourite: the Air Guitar World Championship is hosted in Finland.

#NoEstimates being such an exotic approach to software development it must, of course, have its first world-premier workshop in Finland as well! Me and Woody Zuill (his blog) will host a workshop on #NoEstimates on the week of October 20th in Helsinki. So whether you love it, or hate it you can meet us both in Helsinki!

In this workshop will cover topics such as:

• Decision making frameworks for projects that do not require estimates.
• Investment models for software projects that do not require estimates.
• Project management (risk management, scope management, progress reporting, etc.) approaches that do not require estimates.
• We will give you the tools and arguments you need to prove the value of #NoEstimates to your boss, and how to get started applying it right away.
• We will discuss where we see #NoEstimates going and what are the likely changes to software development that will come next. This is the future delivered to you!

Which of these topics interest you the most? What topics would you like us to cover in the workshop. Tell us now and you have a chance to affect the topics we will cover.

Contact us at vasco.duarte@oikosofy.com and tell us. We will reply to all emails, even flame bombs! :)

You can receive exclusive content (not available on the blog) on the topic of #NoEstimates, just subscribe to the #NoEstimates mailing list below. As a bonus you will get my #NoEstimates whitepaper, where I review the background and reasons for using #NoEstimates

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Picture credit: John Hammink, follow him on twitter

We want to make Agile Finland even better, who wants to join? A platform for 2014-2015

The ideas below reflect the discussions we (Maaret Pyhajärvi, Martin von Weissenberg, Vasco Duarte) have had while reflecting on our Visions for Agile Finland. We hope these ideas are discussed and developed within the Agile community in Finland, and end up in a set of actions for the Agile Finland Executive Committee 2014-2015. We also commit to present ourselves as candidates for the Agile Finland executive committee in the next Annual Fannual meeting and are open to you joining our group to be part of the next executive committee.

If you share our ideas, get in touch and join us for the Agile Finland board. If you don’t share our ideas, please join the debate! Publish your ideas, volunteer for the next Agile Finland board on your own or as part of our list. Our goal is to spark debate and ensure we will have a strong group of committed individuals to continue the work that we feel Agile Finland needs to complete.

Read our ideas below, and let us know what you think.

Community services

Agile Finland needs to take a role in the progress of software industry in Finland. One way in which we can do that is by cooperating more closely with the companies that identify themselves as Agile companies, both consulting and product/service production.

We want Agile Finland to be a platform for all members of the Finnish Agile Community, be they individuals or other organizations (for profit or not). As an example of this cooperation, we want to establish a yearly market research process financed by Agile Finland that would deliver a yearly “state of Agile in Finland report” and distribute it to the companies in the Agile community as well as to the media and individual Agile Finland members. This report can include topics such as:

• Market size for Agile contracts
• Market size for Agile software development (revenues, number of jobs, etc.)
• Key trends from the Agile market in Finland (topics of interest, business models, etc.)

The full list of topics to cover is to be decided by the group that will create the report.

Sponsorship and funding for Agile Finland

Over the past years, conferences (especially Scan Agile) have been a major funding component for Agile Finland. We want to propose some changes in this respect. We recognize that it is today unclear for Sponsors to know which events to participate in as sponsors. If you support Tampere Goes Agile does it make sense to support another major conference like Scan Agile? How about conferences that happen at similar times? Which one to choose?

We find these choices confuse sponsors and do not adequately serve our present Agile Finland members either. Therefore we propose a change in model for 2014-2015. We propose that companies interested in sponsoring Agile Finland be able to sponsor the whole year of events (several major events are held by Agile Finland every year) and be allowed to choose which ones they participate in. For example, if Company A purchases a yearly sponsorship from Agile Finland they could be features in Scan Agile, Tampere Goes Agile and local events that will happen during the year.

Alternatively, companies could still purchase sponsorship packages for specific events just like they did until now.

Additionally we want to propose a change in the Agile Finland bylaws to allow corporate membership. This membership would allow companies to have access to services such as market research, recruiting communication and other services that Agile Finland may want to develop in support of the Agile business community.

Sponsoring local events

Agile Finland wants to support local Agile communities around Finland, therefore we will commit a minimum amount of money to self-organized community events. All that is needed is a request to the board and the funding will be approved provided we stay within the agreed limit. If you have an idea to support your local community we want to help you without a long wait for either practical or financial support. We want to help local communities get more active, and our support (advertising and financial support) will make it easier.

Developing a future for the Finnish software industry

In 2014-2015 we want to start what we hope will become a trend for the future of our industry. We want to support events designed to support future professionals get familiar with what it means to work in a software organization. For that we will organize events with school-age children on topics such as what the “maker” community already supports all over the world. Creating projects that young Agilists could work on, from concept to execution. But we will also try to grow partnerships with student organizations, universities and companies to have a mentorship program started to help integrate students in the software industry easily.

Major events for 2014-2015

Events such as Turku Agile Day (which we want to support actively), Tampere Goes Agile and Scan Agile are events that attract a large audience and spreads knowledge and awareness of Agile within our community, but also helps establish strong links to other communities.

We want to continue to host and these events but also recognize that a voluntary-only approach has risks that must be tackled. We will consider how to support these events on a case-by-case basis and will work to make their organization a sustainable project that does not require heroic efforts from some of our members every year.

We recognize that each event has their own identity and we want to support that diversity.

As first actions we will:

• Reach out to the Turku Agile Day group and learn how we can further support their goals;
• Help find voluntaries to help host Tampere Goes Agile and Scan Agile;
• Work with each event to make sure they receive the support needed, including professional services for event organization, design, web-hosting, etc.

Do you want to help shape the next year for Agile Finland? Participate by sharing this blog, commenting or tweeting/blogging about the topic yourself! Be active, let's make Agile Finland even better!

Kicking up dust for the Agile Finland 2011-2012 season

A big moment for the Agile Finland community is approaching. On May 25th we’ll get together and select the new Agile Finland Board for the 2011-2012 season.

There are many reasons why it is a big moment. In my opinion it is a big point in our history as a community. Agile Finland was started when Agile was still the ghetto, now Agile is not only out of the ghetto, but it is becoming the dominant software development approach in Finland. Sure, many companies are still going old-skool with their software projects, massively outsourcing the testing function or trying to get huge changes in before releasing a single version, etc. But Agile Software Development is, unmistakably the dominant approach in software development in Finland today.

This leads to an important point for our community. We started Agile Finland as a way to spread knowledge of Agile and support the learning journey that we’ve all been through since 2000. That phase is over. Although we do need to continue to support the spreading of the knowledge about Agile to other communities (like in this example), I feel that this does not need to be our main focus anymore. So I’d like to propose a new focus, a new phase for our growing community.

Concrete proposals for the next Agile Finland Board season

I propose that the next Agile Finland board should focus on helping the community share, expand and develop new knowledge in the field of Software Development and Product Development with focus on some key areas of practice. For this I propose the following structure in the Agile Finland activities for the next year:

• Agile Finland must define what areas of focus it will have (see suggestion below) and arrange specific activities that emphasize those areas of focus. For that I propose the following areas:
  
• Programming and testing in an Agile Software Development environment. This area of focus would cover the technical development of our community in programming and testing tasks. The Software Craftsmanship movement is a good source of inspiration for the content to be shared and developed in this area, but we also need to create an atmosphere of cooperation and sharing with the excellent testing professionals we have in Finland and in the AF community. The technical area of focus is an area where there is clearly a need for a better offering in our community, and Agile Finland has the network and expertise to start that work.
  
• Project Management in an Agile Software Development environment. This area of focus would cover the Project concept, it’s applicability to different types of work and product development environments. We know that the traditional Project Management is not compatible with many Software Development environments, but we need to explore alternatives, share and expand our knowledge on what has worked in the past as well as the experiments that are going on right now. In this area of focus, I believe we must build a bridge with the already active Project Management communities(PMI, PRY). We have a lot to learn from each other.
  
• Leadership and Management. This area of focus was already in the activities started during last year (see ACLA), but we need to continue to develop those activities. Many of the challenges we face today are because the traditional leadership and management models have failed in the era of knowledge work (like software and other areas). We need to share what is being tested in the world, bring in some world-class thought leaders in this area to enlarge the pool of knowledge for managers and leaders in our local community.
  

Conclusion

By focusing on these three areas (Programming and Testing, Project Management, Leadership and Management) I am suggesting that Agile Finland should also focus on specific activities for it’s major interest groups. It is not enough to arrange one to three generic networking events during the year, we need to start taking concrete actions for the development of our community. I hope that this post contributes to a discussion around how we could do that.


Photo credit: Patrick Keogh @ flickr

ALE Network in active discussion in the Agile Finland mailing list

Last Friday looked to be normal day. Too much work, too little time. But then it got better.After I sent an email to the Agile Finland mailing list announcing the Helsinki event to discuss the ALE Network vision, a lot of replies came in. It was a very active discussion.

Below is my (necessarily) short summary of what I saw and learned from that discussion.

Many issues were discussed in that email exchange from Motivations to how it can help energize the Agile Finland community. Here's a summary of the topics discussed as well as my view on how ALE network can help us in the European context:

What are some of the motivations for ALE?

As is to be expected in any network or community of people, there are wildly varying motivations. As we start to discuss the importance/significance of ALE for each of the local communities as well as for the individuals many view points surface.

I'd like to express my motivations: I see that we have many thriving Agile communities in Europe. I've been in direct contact with some of the nearby communities such as Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Sweden as well as Spain and Portugal. I see the huge amount of energy and willingness to explore the Agile values and principles in real Software work.

I also see many people that are extremely eager to learn and have a lot to share. These same people, for many reasons, are not traveling around Europe and learning from others outside their local communities. They participate mainly in the local events, get together in User Groups or local Agile community meetings (like we have the Agile Dinners in some Finnish cities).

These are people that want to be in contact with people outside their local communities but cannot do so for a variety of reasons. ALE can help bring these communities together, help people bridge the border gaps and get in touch with other practitioners to share and learn about their different experiences.

In Agile Finland we have had the luck of having people who have successfully helped our community bridge this gap, specifically through organizing the Scan-Agile conference. Together as a Europe-wide network we can do the same for the other local communities. How? Here imagination is the only limit :)

What is ALE's Vision?

Right now there are many different Visions for what ALE should/could/must be. In Helsinki we will talk about these different views on April 20th. Check the info here and remember: RSVP is mandatory!

While I do believe that the main focus of ALE should be to help the local communities thrive, that can be done in many ways and with different Visions.
I explicitly choose to listen to how our community's Vision develops. My goal is to help us collect that as a common Vision, one that we all share to some extent. Hence why I've decided not to write about my Vision at this point. I will of course talk about it at the event on April 20th along with all of those that can make it.

What is the link between Agile Finland and ALE Network?

The links between these networks are people. The people that participate in both networks are the effective links between these two networks.

In my view Agile Finland (AF) has a place as a stand alone organization, it is not dependent on ALE Network, but the people in AF can actively contribute to the ALE Network in many ways, and some of us are already active in the European scene.

As far as I am concerned ALE is an independent entity from Agile Finland, but benefits from the effort and contribution of the Agile Finland members that participate in both networks.

Purpose of the Open Space session on April 20th

On April 20th, our goal is to stimulate a face-to-face discussion about the possible contribution we can make as a community to the ALE Network, as well as what we think ALE Network should focus on.
What I would expect to see after the April 20th session is a collection of ideas of what we want ALE to be as well as what we don't want to contribute to. These ideas will then be discussed by a group of people from all over Europe in Madrid during XP 2011, where the ALE Network Vision will be iterated.

Interlude

These were only some of the many topics we discussed in the Agile Finland mailing list. The discussion was long and active. You can check the full archive here.

No doubt we will talk more about ALE network and the role of Agile Finland community, that dialogue is needed. We are a community after all: "one for all and all for one"!

Photo: Achraf AMINE @ flickr

My Agile adoption story, and why it matters to you

Every person has their own different story of how they found out about Agile and how they came to experiment and ultimately adopt it in their projects.
Mine is also different than most, I started as a skeptic. I was one of those that said "it will never work". But I did come around. Here's the story of how it happened

The downfall of traditional waterfall

As many of the people that entered the software development industry during the 90's, I also had my first job in a small company. A start-up that was growing very fast and exhibited all the usual growth pains: more projects than people, lots of extremely hard-working but not experienced people, egos to match, etc.

As it happens, the typical way start-up companies deal with the growth pains is to hire a couple of experienced people that come in and "install the process" that will deliver us from all problems. And that's what happened to us. The company hired a few experienced project managers, they slashed the number of projects and created a process to structure and organize our work. We badly needed it.

However after a while we figured out that the new process was not helping us finish projects on time or with the right features or quality. It was better than chaos but not really that good. At this time I got interested in processes and organizational issues. My thinking was: "there must be a better way".

Re-discovering the wheel

What followed was something many of us in the industry have gone through and will continue to go through in the future. I started reading about other companies that had faced the problems we faced and discovered that it was not only us, and especially it was not only the software industry that was trying to apply the same old ideas and finding that they failed when applied in real projects.

I discovered Deming first, then Toyota, Six Sigma, the whole nine yards. I started understanding some of our problems: focusing on schedule and forgetting that quality is more important; separating work and creating handovers architects to designers, to developers, to testers, etc.

It was clear that what we were doing at that time (Rational Unified Process) was not a good option for us. That's when I started experimenting with different approaches.

My Path to Agile

I started by using simple RUP and focusing on managing the scope, but this not your garden variety of scope management. This was aggressive scope management, negotiated from start to finish of the project. The whole idea was to plot the progress against expected progress and remove content every time we saw a deviation.

This solution was OK for schedule-driven projects, but we still had the same basic problems of leaving risky or valuable things to later in the project, our teams were still very much silos working on partial features which lead to a lot of work partially done. This was not the droid solution we were looking for.

Agile appears on the scene

At that time a local research institute was pushing for more research on Agile Software Development projects. As luck would have it I was switching projects and the new project was selected as one of the pilots. Now, keep in mind that this was 2004, not the heyday of Agile yet, and I was a skeptic. I decided to take the project and prove conclusively that Agile was not the success story we were being told it was. Boy, was I wrong!

The Agile pilot project

We decided to do everything by the book to ensure that we really learned from the project execution and would then be able to find better ways of working based on that experience. A new team was hired, and we started slowly designing the process based on Scrum. Other teams were using XP for comparison's sake.

Then, a funny thing happened. As I read more and more about Agile, I started to find similarities between Agile and what I had read in Deming and Jeff Liker's work. There was the uncompromising focus on the customer, the respect for people, the empowered team with a Product Owner to steer the scope (which I had learned could work well), and more.

I was starting to feel that Agile was no longer a small thing to improve a dead wrong process. It was much more. It was, and is a paradigm shift the consequences of which are still dawning on me today, a good 5 years after the first project.

This is my story

I wanted to share this story with you because I know that many have had similar experiences or are going through that transformation right now. There are a lot more of us, going through the evolution and learning from our application of Agile. That collected knowledge and learning will hopefully improve our industry in the long run.

Agile Finland, a Finland based non-profit association wants to support more of these transitions and that's why we put together a program to support those of us that have started the Agile transition process.

Agile for the experienced

Myself and a group of other Agile Finland members decided that we would create a program to support those of us that have started the transition to Agile and are at a cross-roads, looking for improvements that cannot be found in the available literature. We also don't want to visit every single conference on Agile Software Development we can find. We want to learn from each other and from the top practitioners and researchers in the industry.

The Agile Coaching and Leadership Academy was created from this cooperation. But this is no longer a project by a small group of Agile practitioners. Agile Finland was able to attract a much bigger training institution to help us and vouch for the curriculum that we are putting together.

University of Helsinki joins the effort

Together with the Computer Science department at the University of Helsinki we created the basic program for the course, but now we need the most important ingredient: you, the people who want to learn and improve the performance of your organizations. We want to offer this opportunity to 15 people interested in not only listening to the best minds in the field, but also actively contributing by sharing your experiences and learning from other's experiences.

Check out the program and the details of the training program here and join us in improving our Agile knowledge.

Photo credit: jillclardy @ flickr

Agile Finlandissima is organizing another great gathering, don't miss it!

Agile Finland will organize another cool gathering for the community. This time we have Marko Taipale and Jeff Sutherland plus a cool dinner with the most agile people around in the country!

Check out the announcement and registration form