Repeat of Think Like an Agilist for the Sydney Agile and Scrum Meetup

1. Think Like an Agilist: Practicing
Agile culture using difficult scenarios
Jason Yip
jcyip@thoughtworks.com
j.c.yip@computer.org
@jchyip
http://jchyip.blogspot.com

2. Raise your hand if you believe
culture is important for Agile

3. Think about what how you
understand what is meant by
“culture”.
Raise your hand once it’s clear in
your head.

4. Keep your hand up if you believe
that your understanding is the
same as everyone in the room

5. “BUT we definitely
consider culture
important”
“We don’t have a clear
understanding of culture.”
“We don’t have a shared
understanding of culture.”

6. Edgar Schein: 3 Levels of Culture
Artefacts
Espoused
Values
Underlying
Assumptions
Visible organisational
structures and processes
Strategies, goals,
philosophies
Unconscious, taken for
granted beliefs, perceptions,
thoughts, and feelings

8. IF the foundations of “culture” are
assumptions…
THEN in order to understand Agile
culture, we need to understand the
underlying assumptions of Agile

10. So how might we engage with our
“shared, tacit assumptions”?

11. Effective tactical leaders think
differently about situations than
ineffective ones
“What are their interests?” “They’re all out to get me!”

12. Run students through very difficult
scenarios to expose and correct
weaknesses in their thinking
processes
Think Like a Commander

13. Think Like an Agilist is an
approach I’ve created to expose
how we think about a situation in
order to allow us to practice Agile
culture

14. THINK LIKE AN AGILIST

15. Let’s try it!

16. Thinker:
Respond to the scenario using
think-aloud
Scribe (1 or more):
Capture the thoughts; remind
Thinker to think-aloud

17. Think Aloud Protocol
• Describe what you are thinking, feeling,
noticing, questioning so that the Scribe
can capture it
• What do you notice? want? suspect?
• What questions do you have?
• What actions would you take?
• What else is passing through your head?

18. But if you were thinking aloud, we
can see that you didn’t think of
that and didn’t consider it

19. Warning! Scenarios may will be
more unfair than reality
• No body language to read
• No other background available
• Not allowed to ask for clarification
(you can actually ask, but I likely
won’t clarify)

20. SCENARIO ONE

21. Think Aloud Protocol Template
• Describe what you are thinking, feeling,
noticing, questioning so that the Scribe
can capture it
• What do you notice? want? suspect?
• What questions do you have?
• What actions would you take?
• What else is passing through your head?

22. DISCUSSION ONE

23. Assess the response
• What do the Thinker’s responses communicate about his/her
underlying assumptions?
• For example,
• What factors are important when addressing a problem?
• Who should be involved in problem-solving?
• Etc.
• What would you have done differently?
• Why? What is different for your assumptions?

24. END SCENARIO ONE

25. Did you learn something about your
underlying assumptions that you did
not previously know?

26. Scenario
What do I think?
Why do I think
that?

27. What are Agile assumptions?
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

28. Other potential assumptions
1. The people closest to the problem should be involved in the
problem-solving
2. Smaller steps are better than bigger steps
3. Don’t take a step until you know how to validate it
4. It’s better to clean up as you go then it is to make a big mess and
fix later

29. SCENARIO TWO

30. DISCUSSION TWO

31. Assess the response
• What do the Thinker’s responses communicate about his/her
underlying assumptions?
• What would you have done differently?
• Why? What is different for your assumptions?

32. END SCENARIO TWO

33. Overall impressions?

34. REPLAY

35. Underlying assumptions are the
essence of culture

36. Consider how you think and what
you believe (aka foundation of
culture) not just what you do (aka
artefacts of culture)

37. You can practice culture using think-
aloud scenarios

38. Adjustments if you do this yourself
• Use small groups (3 – 4)
• Use your own scenarios
• Focus on the culture you want

39. THE END