#9 Implementing agile

Bottom up Vs top down

While the top down sponsorship is important for implementing agile, implementation has to be bottom up. Start with smaller teams with a need of change. Pick up projects which are in the start up stage, or look for projects which are almost failures, and then implement agile as a recovery strategy. The key is to look for teams with a need for agile, and create early success stories around them which will make scaling agile easier.

Indian in India

It was fun roaming around in Chennai with friends from Germany and Australia, whose skin colour was different from mine. To my surprise, within India, all of a sudden I was getting a different type of treatment from fellow Indians, which I was experiencing for the first time.

One day we were all getting into the same taxi, suddenly the security guard stopped me and asked me alone whether I am also staying with them. On another occassion I saw a beggar and while I was reaching out to my purse to get some change, the beggar started chasing my friend Thomas, expecting dollars !. Last but not the least was when the dinner was served 90 minutes later than the desired time; the excuse being "We were busy making food for others!".

While these things were happening on one end, my friends were embarassed by the special VIP treatment meted out to them where ever they go. When all the Indian nationals are waiting in the immigration que at the airport, these friends were asked to by pass the que, by the officials. In the airline, they were given free upgrade to the business class....and obviously they were quite suprised and embarassed.

I recollect my brother Paul narrating another incident where his doctor friend (an Indian living in America), came to India (Kerala), heading a delegation of american doctors and to his and others surprise people were only talking and taking advice from his juniors, ignoring him !.

When will India and Indians get real freedom? !

#3 Implementing Agile

Cultural synchronization

Very often we get to work in teams where multiple cutures are involved, which if not understood well can lead to politics and improper teaming. There could be 'Iam Ok, You are not OK', 'I am Ok, You are Ok', 'I am not Ok, You are Ok' and 'I am not Ok, You are not OK' attitudes. This need not be at individual levels. It can exist at My culture Vs Your culture, My country Vs Your country, 'My office Vs Your office', 'My team Vs Your team' levels. To deliver as a team, all of us need to have 'I am Ok, You are Ok', 'My Culture is Ok, Your culture is Ok', 'My country is Ok, Your country is also fine' attitude. Team socializing is a must to break the ice, and it has to be a continuous process. In my view, there should be atleast one celebration during every sprint....and it has to happen naturally - not as a programmed activity. Cut loose and celebrate, whenever there is an opportunity...or rather create those opportunities to celebrate :-)

Fun and Work

Greetings from Bangalore.....

I am sitting in the conference room of Chancery hotel, amidst a bunch of brilliant youngsters from HP, mastering the project management skills. For a change, this three day workshop is designed around hands on exercises only and all of us are really enjoying it. In this training I have borrowed some concepts from SCRUM. The entire team is really developing a deliverable within 45 minutes, and time is non negotiable. The result is very positive. Just the introduction of a tight non negotiable target and the freedom to execute alone improves productivity.

Implement tight deadlines, freedom to choose and execute work, write the acceptance criteria first, introduce daily stand up meeting... these alone improves teaming and productivity.

Give it a try...

Bottlenecks for knowledge sharing within agile teams (India centric)

Performers Vs Non performers 

Whenever I conduct the SCRUM workshops within India, one regular 
question I have to address consistently is about 'What to do with non- 
performers within the team?'. For me, the whole corporate system or as 
a country itself, everything is tuned to protect the weak. Thanks to 
the democrats and the communists. The entire system is built around 
protecting the weak. Hence I am able to empathize with the project 
managers when he is more worried about the non performers in the team 
rather than the performers. We must understand the fact that SCRUM 
teams must comprise of performers (mentally and physically fit). 
Marcus Buckingham in his book 'First break all rules' says very 
clearly that the best of the managers worldwide are biased towards 
performers and in fact they spend more time with the performers rather 
than non-performers. It does not mean that non-performers must be 
ignored. They must get the support and the consideration they deserve, 
and it must not be at the expense of performers. Let us all admit the 
fact that corporate life is all about capitalism and capitalists not 
socialism. 

Individualists Vs Team players 

Since most of the management wisdom within India is borrowed from the 
west, 'Team work is always promoted'. An Indian Psyche is always 
'Individualistic' while whatever is promoted within the corporates is 
'Team work'. So every Indian acts like a team player to gain 
acceptance, while actually he is not. In India, even to get a seat in 
a bus, we have to struggle, rather we have to compete. Naturally we 
are tuned to compete with others, where as the organizational cultures 
within India are blind copies from the west, which promotes team work. 
What must be really promoted within teams in India is 'Team work of 
the Individually competent'. First of all everyone has to prove their 
mettle individually, and after that we can talk about team work. 

Parenting attitude of the managers 

Most of the Indians like to go to beaches, and at the same time 
majority of the Indians do not swim in the sea. Thanks to the highly 
protective parenting prevailing within India. The highly protective 
parent do not allow the kid to experiment, rather they are driven 
through the least risky- proven paths. This leads to lack of 
innovation, poor risk taking and underdevelopment of potential and 
skills. Once these kids graduate as managers, they also start 
exhibiting the 'parental traits' while managing the teams, leading to 
under development of skill sets. Actually they are damaging the teams 
and at the same time they believe that they are building the teams. 
This is very dangerous. 

These are some of the burning points coming to my mind while thinking 
of the cultural issues in agile teams within India. India is the 
country where the maximum lines of software code is written, and at 
the same time not many killer products have come from India ... may be 
these could be some of the real root causes.