Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the
Agile
Alignment
Trap with
DevOps
Mike Long
@meekrosoft
Chief Technology Officer
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Agenda:
Modern agile is rubbish
We are all doomed
Save yourself (with devops)
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Modern agile is rubbish
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Todo DoneDoing
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Full
Safe!
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Well that
escalated
quickly...
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
“It's like
déjà vu all
over again”
Yogi Berra
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
“...the implementation
described above is risky
and invites failure”
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
This is why we
can’t have
nice things!
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
http://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Badly!
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
This.
Is.
Rubbish.
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Modern agile is rubbish
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
We are all doomed
Modern agile is rubbish
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Alignment and Effectiveness
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Align
ment
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
The Alignment Trap
● Published in 2007
● Investigating corporate
IT performance
● Based on surveys of more
than 500 senior business
and technology
executives world-wide
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
In the path to IT-enabled
growth, the first move is
critical….
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Maintenance Zone
● Majority of responses in
this category
● Spending focuses on
“keeping the lights on”
activities
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Well-oiled IT
● IT not aligned with
business goals
● Cheaper and more
effective than average
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
IT-enabled Growth
● The pinnacle
● IT -> Business
Performance
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
The Alignment Trap
● Business alignment traps
the IT from investing in
improvement
● companies ... almost
always find it better to
move downward and
rightward into “well
oiled” terri-
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
The Alignment Trap
● Business alignment traps
the IT from investing in
improvement
● companies ... almost
always find it better to
move downward and
rightward into “well
oiled” terri-
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
“Aligning a poorly performing IT organization
to the right business objectives still won’t get
the objectives accomplished”
Richard F. Connell, CIO of Selective Insurance Group
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
“Aligning a poorly performing IT organization
to the right business objectives still won’t get
the objectives accomplished”
Richard F. Connell, CIO of Selective Insurance Group
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Modern agile is rubbish
We are all doomed
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Modern agile is rubbish
We are all doomed
Save yourself
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Modern agile is rubbish
We are all doomed
Save yourself (with devops)
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
● Annual survey of thousands of IT
professionals
● Questions designed to test various
hypotheses about DevOps
● Statistical analysis published in free
report, and follow-on peer-reviewed
journals
● Authors: Puppet & DORA
Data Gathering
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Data Gathering
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Establishing Cause and Effect
with Performance Drivers
https://puppet.com/resources/whitepaper/state-of-devops-report
Transformational
Leadership
Lean Product
Management
Test and deployment automation
Continuous Integration
Trunk-based development
Shifting left on security
Loosely-coupled architecture
Empowered teams
Continuous Delivery
Deployment
Pain
IT
performance
Organizational
performance
Non-commercial
performance
Personal Recognition
Supportive Leadership
Intellectual stimulation
Inspirational communication
Vision
Team experimentation
Working in small batches
Gathering and implementing
customer feedback
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Establishing Cause and Effect
with Performance Drivers
https://puppet.com/resources/whitepaper/state-of-devops-report
Financial
Outcomes
Practices and Tools
Transformational
Leadership
Lean
Continuous Delivery
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
https://www.scaledagileframework.com/blog/assess-your-devops-health-with-the-safe-devops-radar/
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
“It's like
déjà vu all
over again”
Yogi Berra
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Mentimeter: Measuring culture
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Culture matters
Westrum culture models, Table 3.1 Accelerate
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Culture matters
“investments in technology are also investments in people”
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
In the title, I refer to people
as “components”. That is
how people are treated ...
The mistake in this
approach is that “people”
are highly variable and
non-linear, with unique
success and failure modes.
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Problem 1. The people on
the projects were not
interested in learning our
system.
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Problem 2. They were
successfully able to ignore
us, and were still delivering
software, anyway.
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
● Almost any methodology can be
made to work on some project.
● Any methodology can manage to
fail on some project.
● Heavy processes can be successful.
● Light processes are more often
successful...
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
...in front of us all the time,
which we are not seeing:
people. People’s
characteristics are a
first-order success driver,
not a second-order one
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Defence Innovation Board: Competence trumps process
https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/09/2002049591/-1/-1/0/DIB_DETECTING_AGILE_BS_2018.10.05.PDF
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/09/2002049591/-1/-1/0/DIB_DETECTING_AGILE_BS_2018.10.05.PDF
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Defence Innovation Board: Bonus Article!
https://media.defense.gov/2018/Apr/22/2001906836/-1/-1/0/DEFENSEINNOVATIONBOARD_TEN_COMMANDMENTS_OF_SOFTWARE_2018.04.20.PDF
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Autonomy.
Mastery.
Purpose.
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Autonomy?
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Mastery and Purpose
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Mastery and Purpose
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
Modern agile is rubbish
We are all doomed
Save yourself (with devops)
Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap @meekrosoft
The Continuous Delivery and DevOps Company

Avoiding the agile alignment trap

  • 1.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Avoiding the Agile Alignment Trap with DevOps Mike Long @meekrosoft Chief Technology Officer
  • 2.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 3.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Agenda: Modern agile is rubbish We are all doomed Save yourself (with devops)
  • 4.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Modern agile is rubbish
  • 5.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 6.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 7.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Todo DoneDoing
  • 8.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 9.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 10.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 11.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 12.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 13.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Full Safe!
  • 14.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Well that escalated quickly...
  • 15.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 16.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 17.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft “It's like déjà vu all over again” Yogi Berra
  • 18.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft “...the implementation described above is risky and invites failure”
  • 19.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 20.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 21.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 22.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft This is why we can’t have nice things!
  • 23.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 24.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft http://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts
  • 25.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 26.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Badly!
  • 27.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft This. Is. Rubbish.
  • 28.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 29.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 30.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Modern agile is rubbish
  • 31.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft We are all doomed Modern agile is rubbish
  • 32.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Alignment and Effectiveness
  • 33.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Align ment
  • 34.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft The Alignment Trap ● Published in 2007 ● Investigating corporate IT performance ● Based on surveys of more than 500 senior business and technology executives world-wide
  • 35.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft In the path to IT-enabled growth, the first move is critical….
  • 36.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Maintenance Zone ● Majority of responses in this category ● Spending focuses on “keeping the lights on” activities
  • 37.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Well-oiled IT ● IT not aligned with business goals ● Cheaper and more effective than average
  • 38.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft IT-enabled Growth ● The pinnacle ● IT -> Business Performance
  • 39.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft The Alignment Trap ● Business alignment traps the IT from investing in improvement ● companies ... almost always find it better to move downward and rightward into “well oiled” terri-
  • 40.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft The Alignment Trap ● Business alignment traps the IT from investing in improvement ● companies ... almost always find it better to move downward and rightward into “well oiled” terri-
  • 41.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 42.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft “Aligning a poorly performing IT organization to the right business objectives still won’t get the objectives accomplished” Richard F. Connell, CIO of Selective Insurance Group
  • 43.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft “Aligning a poorly performing IT organization to the right business objectives still won’t get the objectives accomplished” Richard F. Connell, CIO of Selective Insurance Group
  • 44.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Modern agile is rubbish We are all doomed
  • 45.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Modern agile is rubbish We are all doomed Save yourself
  • 46.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Modern agile is rubbish We are all doomed Save yourself (with devops)
  • 47.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft ● Annual survey of thousands of IT professionals ● Questions designed to test various hypotheses about DevOps ● Statistical analysis published in free report, and follow-on peer-reviewed journals ● Authors: Puppet & DORA Data Gathering
  • 48.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Data Gathering
  • 49.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Establishing Cause and Effect with Performance Drivers https://puppet.com/resources/whitepaper/state-of-devops-report Transformational Leadership Lean Product Management Test and deployment automation Continuous Integration Trunk-based development Shifting left on security Loosely-coupled architecture Empowered teams Continuous Delivery Deployment Pain IT performance Organizational performance Non-commercial performance Personal Recognition Supportive Leadership Intellectual stimulation Inspirational communication Vision Team experimentation Working in small batches Gathering and implementing customer feedback
  • 50.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Establishing Cause and Effect with Performance Drivers https://puppet.com/resources/whitepaper/state-of-devops-report Financial Outcomes Practices and Tools Transformational Leadership Lean Continuous Delivery
  • 51.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 52.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 53.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 54.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft https://www.scaledagileframework.com/blog/assess-your-devops-health-with-the-safe-devops-radar/
  • 55.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft “It's like déjà vu all over again” Yogi Berra
  • 56.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Mentimeter: Measuring culture
  • 57.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Culture matters Westrum culture models, Table 3.1 Accelerate
  • 58.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Culture matters “investments in technology are also investments in people”
  • 59.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 60.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 61.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 62.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft In the title, I refer to people as “components”. That is how people are treated ... The mistake in this approach is that “people” are highly variable and non-linear, with unique success and failure modes.
  • 63.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 64.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Problem 1. The people on the projects were not interested in learning our system.
  • 65.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Problem 2. They were successfully able to ignore us, and were still delivering software, anyway.
  • 66.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft ● Almost any methodology can be made to work on some project. ● Any methodology can manage to fail on some project. ● Heavy processes can be successful. ● Light processes are more often successful...
  • 67.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft ...in front of us all the time, which we are not seeing: people. People’s characteristics are a first-order success driver, not a second-order one
  • 68.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Defence Innovation Board: Competence trumps process https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/09/2002049591/-1/-1/0/DIB_DETECTING_AGILE_BS_2018.10.05.PDF
  • 69.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/09/2002049591/-1/-1/0/DIB_DETECTING_AGILE_BS_2018.10.05.PDF
  • 70.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Defence Innovation Board: Bonus Article! https://media.defense.gov/2018/Apr/22/2001906836/-1/-1/0/DEFENSEINNOVATIONBOARD_TEN_COMMANDMENTS_OF_SOFTWARE_2018.04.20.PDF
  • 71.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Autonomy. Mastery. Purpose.
  • 72.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Autonomy?
  • 73.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft
  • 74.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Mastery and Purpose
  • 75.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Mastery and Purpose
  • 76.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft Modern agile is rubbish We are all doomed Save yourself (with devops)
  • 77.
    Avoiding the AgileAlignment Trap @meekrosoft The Continuous Delivery and DevOps Company