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Nurturing Self-Organizing Teams

Nurturing Self-Organizing Teams. Dr Rashina Hoda Leader, SEPTA Research The University of Auckland New Zealand. Who Is Rashina Hoda. Researcher, Lecturer, Consultant, Author, and Wannabe-Supermom twitter: @ agileRashina website: www.rashina.com email: rashina@gmail.com. On the Topic….

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Nurturing Self-Organizing Teams

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  1. Nurturing Self-Organizing Teams Dr Rashina HodaLeader, SEPTA ResearchThe University of AucklandNew Zealand

  2. Who Is Rashina Hoda Researcher, Lecturer, Consultant, Author, and Wannabe-Supermom twitter: @agileRashinawebsite: www.rashina.comemail: rashina@gmail.com

  3. On the Topic… Hot off the PressIEEE Software article “Power to the People”, March 2013 Not so long agoXP2011, “Supporting Self-organizing Agile Teams”, Madrid, 2011 Ah, and that too PhD Thesis, “Self-Organizing Agile Software Development Teams: A Grounded Theory”, 2011

  4. Power to the People

  5. What’s Going On? Inability of managers to adapt their style to the new age Desire of people to take matter in their own hands Fundamentally, A widening gap between the two. People no longer live – or want to live – under command and control. New age ‘management’ style Adaptive, supportive, and collaborative leadership Empowerment and Self-organization are here to stay

  6. Agile Teams and … The Self-organizing connection

  7. SELF-ORGANIZING TEAMSBrand new from ages ago Humble beginningsStudy of English coal miners, 1950s Self-Managing groups: 10-15 cross-trained people, autonomous, learning systems, assuming responsibilities of former supervisors Complex adaptations Complex Adaptive Systems,1990s Characteristics of Self-Organizing Teams: informal structure, strong sense of shared purpose, decide own affairs

  8. The Research • Industry-based, original PhD research, 2006-2011 • 58 Agile Practitioners from 23 Organizations • New Zealand, India, North America • Rounded perspective • Agile practices: Scrum + XP • Team size: 4 to 15 members • Project duration: 1 to 48 months • Organizational sizes: 10 to 300,000 employees • Semi-structured interviews and observations • Iterative rounds of data collection and analysis • Finding common concepts, patterns in data • Becoming self-organizing the biggest concern

  9. Participants

  10. Participants

  11. Implications for Software Engineering The Theory of Self-Organizing Agile Teams * “explains how Agile teams take on informal, implicit, transient, and spontaneous roles and perform balanced practices while facing critical environmental factors.” Main Findings • Self-Organizing Roles • Self-Organizing Practices • Critical Factors influencing self-organizing teams • Senior Management Support • Customer Involvement *Rashina Hoda, Self-Organizing Agile Teams: A Grounded Theory, PhD Thesis, 2011

  12. No, but really… What’s senior management got to do with it?

  13. Management Influence on SO Teams Organizational Culture “Resource” Management Contracts Customer Involvement Self-Organizing Teams Management

  14. Organizational Culture “a standard set of basic suppositions invented, discovered or developed by the group when learning to face problems of external adaptation and internal integration*” OR “The way we do things around here.” What organization cultural traits are desired? *Schein, E. H. Organizational Culture and Leadership, 1st edition ed. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Franciso, 1985.

  15. Building a Culture of Trust Calling all CTOs : Chief-Trusting-Officer Informal Structure Openness Free flow of communication Environment of Trust

  16. Building a Culture of Trust “don't expect that you're going to be in any other traditional hierarchical company...no matter if its 4 years or three years [of experience], they [team] can walk up to [CEO's name] and say `this what you did, is [rubbish]' (laughs) and [CEO] will say `Oh, okay fine, let's discuss what happened'. So people have that freedom to voice their opinion very clearly. At the same time people will [give] feedback to you.” - Senior Manager, India

  17. “Resource” Management Human-Resource [HR] : an oxymoron What are the benefits of a dedicated team? Why split people across projects?

  18. People Dedicated to Projects “What I think affected our project...[the developer] was working on another project, he didn't have enough time…space to chat with anybody, to discuss ideas…to work with anybody…that really impacted a lot of the work he did in the last few months ... When you're working in a team like this [Agile team] and you've got to work quite closely, the individuals in the team matter.” - Product Owner, New Zealand

  19. Contracts Fixed contracts do not help embrace change Who sets fixed contracts? Who needs to absorb change?

  20. Agile Contracts Encouraging flexible contracts Offering options buy per iteration, swap features, exit Adding a buffer to absorb change

  21. Encouraging Participation Software teams usually find it “demotivating to be given ridiculous deadlines” by managers who “don’t actually have a clue about the technical challenges associated with them”(Developer, NZ) Invite teams to provide estimates… when negotiating contracts.

  22. Customer Involvement On-board, off-guard Who sells Agile to customers? Do customers realize their role? Who suffers the consequences?

  23. Customer Involvement “The client reads [Scrum books] and what they see is client can make changes all the time and they think wow that sounds great! … They don't understand the counter-balancing discipline [customer involvement] ... Customer involvement is poor." - Scrum Trainer, India “Two of the [internal customers] responded lots and were very...complaining, and at the end of the project their business units loved it and the business unit that didn't give much feedback - when it went to a user - started complaining. And it's like well, if we didn't get any critique it's not really our fault!” - Developer, New Zealand

  24. Customer Involvement Selling the Full Story “In the sales room, even the way we work is Agile. We have two groups, one for marketing, one for sales. We have stages for each teams - we use kind of post-its and put them up. So even our sales is Agile.” - Sales Manager, India Offer Product Owner Training

  25. Back to conflicts… In the software engineering world

  26. The New Global Village • Unprecedented access to information • Unprecedented access to influence • Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime.

  27. The Same Old Office

  28. Time for an IT Revolution? WOAH!

  29. Lessons for Bosses Employ the hands-free, watchful-eyes management approach Teams are resources Sell customers Agile Expect your teams to perform their best. Expect Trust your teams to perform their best. Teams are resourceshumans. Treat them so. Sell customers Agilethefull story.

  30. Your Pick Awesome shoe-dodger Adored by millions

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