GUEST BLOG: How Agile is Like a Guitar and Tech Info Fits Into Agile Software Development

A colleague and friend of mine, Janice Hamrick is an outstanding Technical Information Engineer (aka Tech Writer) and a totally entertaining mystery writer.  She attended last year's Keep Agile Austin Conference and wrote up a great piece on it.  I'm honored to have her as my first guest blog!  @MulticastMatt

When I told a friend I was attending an Agile Austin conference, she asked me if it was a new exercise program. Naturally, I said it was. Who am I to argue with someone who is willing to believe that I’m exercising? But for those of you who know better, the Agile Austin 2012 Conference was a day-long symposium centered on Agile software development.

Three years ago, I joined Hyperformix as the technical writer for two development teams. A week later, Matt Roberts (soon to be president of Agile Austin) joined as manager and led the teams through a transition from an unsatisfactory blend of waterfall and pseudo-Agile to an extraordinarily successful Agile development organization. Hyperformix was acquired by CA Technologies a year later, and CA is going through its own transition to Agile. As I watch the beginning of this much larger scale Agile transformation, I’m also watching Technical Information trying to find its rightful place in the mix. Technical writers often find themselves left out of the Agile process (particularly when they are not fully integrated into their development teams).

At Agile Austin 2012, the keynote speech by David Hussman set the tone for the day. He said, “Agile is as interesting to agility as a guitar is to music. Both are tools.” He then added, “If you strum a saxophone, it’s not the saxophone’s fault.”

Knowing how to play the Agile instrument is a matter of experimentation, education, and adaptation. It can be a bumpy process, but the most important thing is remembering that the people on your team – including the writers – are like members of a band. Everyone needs to be invited to the rehearsals, and everyone needs to play the same song and keep the same beat.  Holding planning meetings and estimating stories and tasks without including writers is like holding a secret band practice without the guitarist.

As with most conferences, I found the discussions that took place between sessions at Agile Austin 2012 to be as informative and interesting as the sessions themselves. I spoke with one writer who said he didn’t really see the value in retrospectives (the meeting after each sprint in which an Agile team discusses what worked, what didn’t work, and how to improve things).  I was surprised because these meetings not only improve processes but they help build trust among team members. But he then mentioned that his team’s version of a retrospective was an electronic survey sent out at the end of each sprint.  That team is strumming a saxophone, and then wondering why it doesn’t sound like a guitar.  I’ve also spoken with writers who can’t participate in standups because they can’t hear properly over the phone or who are assigned documentation tasks that they can’t possibly complete long after the sprint planning (to which they weren’t invited) had taken place. It’s no wonder that many writers feel frustrated by what they believe is “Agile” when in fact it’s not really Agile at all.

One of the many benefits of living in a town with an organization like Agile Austin is having such a terrific resource to assist you when Agile isn’t working for your or when you think that there must be a better way. Chances are, someone else out there has been in your position and has a suggestion or two that could help make your team and your life easier, better, and more agile.  If Agile isn’t working for you as a writer, then it’s not working for your development teams either (whether they know it or not). It might be time for some guitar lessons.

 About the Guest Blogger

Janice Hamrick joined CA Technologies in 2010 as the Senior Technical Information Engineer for the Capacity Management suite of products (formerly Hyperformix).  Before joining Hyperformix, she spent years writing documentation for backup and recovery products for a rival company whose three initials shall remain unnamed. It is a myth that she has worked as a technical writer in the software industry since dinosaurs roamed the earth, but she does remember when “agile” was something you had to be to avoid the saber-toothed tigers.

Outside of work, Janice is the author of the award-winning Jocelyn Shore mystery series (DEATH ON TOUR and DEATH MAKES THE CUT, Minotaur Books).  She has completed the third novel in the series which will be published in 2013 and is currently working on a new and much darker mystery series.  Learn more at www.janicehamrick.com. 

Problems Maintaining Product Development Innovation in an Agile/Lean World

Hi all:


I'll be presenting the following discussion at the Agile Austin Leaders SIG on Friday, March 1st, 2013 at CA Technologies in Austin, TX.  I'm really looking forward to feedback!

@multicastmatt

Sign up:

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5381488176 

Abstract:

One of the benefits that many product development teams are able to realize when they switch to an iterative or limited WIP process for developing software is (finally!) a ranking of work items on which the team can focus.  Over time, this allows a good deal predictability for the stakeholders of the project, especially when work items have corresponding “done” criteria that are adhered to.  Some organizations are so enamored with the results of this shift that they begin to assemble all members of team into these types of structures, including team members that were previously dedicated to research or advanced product development efforts.  While this is not necessarily a bad decision for these organizations, some face issues with maintaining a level of innovation in the product efforts as there may be a perception that there is neither time nor the people to work on important innovation efforts.  Further, some of these team members may be doing work that is neither challenging to them as individuals nor is bringing the appropriate value to the company.

In this discussion, Matt will help shine a light on this issue that can be especially challenging for a product development company that seeks to maximize the velocity of a product team working against the near-term roadmap but may lose sight of competitive challenges that may change the very nature of the playing field.  He will describe the challenges faced by teams he has worked with both in the past and currently and share what he has learned.  A healthy discussion is expected to follow!

Bio:

Matt Roberts is an agile pragmatist continuing his lifelong learning journey, currently serving multiple teams as Senior Director of Software Engineering and Agile Coach at CA Technologies. His experience is wide-ranging as he has developed software and led efforts to create systems for product development teams to deliver innovative solutions in companies ranging from early-stage startup to publicly-traded companies in both consulting and full-time roles. He has had the privilege of serving the Austin software development community as Agile Austin President over the past two and half years and as Secretary for the IEEE Computer Society over the past eighteen months.
Matt holds certifications as a Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO).  If you’d like to learn more about him, please visit http://linkedin.com/in/cpgmattr or see his latest thoughts at multicastmatt.blogspot.com.

Introduction to David Hussman (The Dude) at the Agile Austin 2012 Conference

With apologies to the Cohen brothers, my modifications in italics.  

Way up North there was this fella I wanna tell ya about. Goes by the name of David Hussman. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. See, this Hussman, he called himself "The Dude". Now, "Dude" - there's a name no man would self-apply where I come from. But then there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to some. And a lot about where he keynoted, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place so darned interestin'.

See, they call Austin the "Capitol of Live Music"; but I didn't find it to be that, exactly. But I'll allow it as there are some nice clubs there. 'Course I ain't never been to London, and I ain't never seen France. And I ain't never seen no queen in her damned undies, so the feller says. But I'll tell you what - after seeing Austin, and this here Agile Austin 2012 Conference about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin' every bit as stupefyin' as you'd seen in any of them other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me.

Now this here Agile Austin Conference about to unfold took place in the early '10s - just about the time that agile adoption hit its stride, but people were starting to miss the point. I only mention it because sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? Sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about the Dude here - the Dude from Minneapolis. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude. The Dude, from Minneapolis. And even if he's an agile man - and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the agilist in all of Minneapolis, which would place him high in the runnin' for agilst worldwide. Sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Well, I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introduced it enough.  

Welcome to the 2012 Agile Austin Conference: Keep Austin Agile - Enabling a Culture of Agility!

Note:  This will be in the Program Book for the 2012 Agile Austin Conference.  There are still two weeks to register for this valuable conference! 

http://agileaustin2012.eventbrite.com/

You have made a choice in joining hundreds of others today who share a common purpose in helping to create, sustain, or promote a culture of agility.  Everyone has their own unique perspective on why being here was worth the investment of time and mind.  But there is one thing that unites every one of us here today--an incredible opportunity to interact, learn, and teach to make lasting positive changes within our organizations.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to have culture be the focus of this event.  Lasting change that transcends charismatic leadership at the boardroom or grassroots level can only occur through a deep and fundamental cultural transformation of the entire organization.  This is not the responsibility of a committee, consultancy, or management team.  It is your responsibility to achieve the "art of the possible" within your organization to create a system that will deliver valuable software to your end users in a competitive marketplace while respecting the humanity of every individual involved in its creation.

This conference was brought about by a decentralized and self-selecting team of people who are passionate about changing the way that software is developed and the culture that sustains that development here in Austin, Texas.  There was no hierarchy of this all-volunteer effort, but there was a wealth of leadership that emerged from every member of the planning committee.  Team members selected work that accentuated their strengths and problems were continuously exposed, solved, and the knowledge in solving them was shared.  It was truly a model of an agile culture that I am proud to have been part of.  I would like to thank the team that made today possible, along with our partnering sponsors.  If you would like to be part of this effort, we would love to have you.  Feel free to make note of what you would change based on what you've learned today, and join us in shaping the next Agile Austin conference!

Please do not let the conversations and learning that start in the sessions end there.  Allow them to flourish in the hallways and resonate in your minds long after the day is over.  Bring them with you to work in your retrospectives and interactions with others in your organization.  Share the knowledge you've learned with others in our community through the various Agile Austin meetings, SIGs, book discussion groups, and workshops.  Extend your knowledge into other communities in Austin and then take back what you've learned and why it was important so that we may all benefit from and develop cultures of continuous improvement, learning, and agility!

Matt Roberts

@multicastmatt

[DeltaAgileAustin]Agile Austin Membership Definition Vote June Feedback and Upcoming Vote!

As discussed, June was the month that we would discuss, as a community, the proposed change in Agile Austin membership from paying annual dues to meeting attendance, as a number of us believe that the latter signifies a greater dedication to the organization for the purposes of voting.

The least you need to know

The board of Agile Austin will be voting this evening on putting a vote to the members asking them to amend the charter so that membership definition will change from an annual subscription for a $30 fee to attendance at six Agile Austin meetings in a twelve-month timeframe.

If you’re interested in being part of the discussion at the Open Board Meeting, please join us this evening at 6:30 PM (let me know soon so we can order you some tacos):

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3638569058

Detail

I held two meetings this month on this subject.  These meetings were  in addition to the previous DeltaAgileAustin meetings that occurred earlier this year, as well as ongoing open Agile Austin board meetings, where this subject has been discussed in length.  Of these two meetings, there was only one participant besides me.  This participant was our Vice President, Walter Bodwell.  We came up with the following proposal, which we should feel free to discuss in this forum.  Any and all comments are welcome, especially in this discuss thread.

Point 1:  What is the value of membership—why should someone be a member?

·         Membership creates a benefit to elect the Board of Directors of Agile Austin, which is a 501I6 non-profit organization. 

·         Board meetings are currently only open to Agile Austin members (however, we would like to change this to be open to any participant and will vote on this at the next board meeting)

·         Historically, there have been training discounts only available to Agile Austin members.  However, this too could be discontinued as the vendors normally don’t care and would like to extend them to the entire community.  We will vote on this as well at the next board meeting as we cannot recall a specific member’s only discount being issued any time in the past twelve months.

·         Historically an annual membership came with a premium such as a coffee mug or T-Shirt.  We saw no reason to discontinue this with a change in membership definition. 

Point 2:  What would be the minimum number of meetings to attend in order to gain membership?

·         Reflecting what was discussed in previous DeltaAgileAustin meetings as well as what seemed to make sense, both Walter and I agreed that the number should be six.  This equates to one meeting every other month.  A meeting would be defined as any officially-sponsored Agile Austin meeting including, but not limited to monthly meetings, special interest groups (SIGs), workshops, dojo, community series, etc.  In the month of June, there were over 15 meetings, which is normal.  Attending six meetings in one year would equate to approximately going to 3% of the total meetings in a year.

Point 3:  What would be the language of the vote?  Do we want to make it specific, or allow the board to have broad scope in modifying the membership definition?

·         There are certain benefits to make the language of membership definition broad.  If we made it specific to a certain number per year, any modification would have to go back to the membership to make a change.  However, this is one of the most critical aspects of membership, so it may be better to leave it specific and require a vote each time it’s changed.

·         Ultimately, Walter and I agreed that we would make the vote specific as opposed to giving the board broad powers of definition.  Of course, we can always revisit this if it doesn’t work.

Point 4:  How will we count the number of times someone attends a meeting?

·         The main thing that we need to focus on is ease-of-use in this area for both the participants and the program leads.  We strongly desire to eliminate paperwork and challenging processes.

·         In order to count, the board will develop a “Roll Call” application that can be used quickly via cell phone to register for events.  There will always be a manual backup in case the Roll Call application is not available. 

·         Earlier this year, the Board voted to move the annual Board vote to June, so we’d need to calculate this on May 31, 2013 to send out the ballots.  We would also conduct a trial run on May 1st letting people know how many events they’ve attended and how many more they’ll need as of May 31st.

Point 5:  When do we stop charging/Current members?

·         All membership is valid for the period until such time as it expires.

·         Once we have the new membership process in place (member vote to change the charter and the Roll Call implemented), the paid membership will be discontinued.

Point 6:  What are the dependencies of this change?

·         We need to have Roll Call working before we call a vote of the membership so we can immediately implement it.  We will begin beta testing this in July at a variety of the SIGs.

Point 7:  How will people know whether they are a member or not?

·         They can ask—sending a message to info@agileaustin.org

·         We would like to have an automated way for them to check

·         We would like to have an automated system send email when the member has reached membership status or is about to go off membership.  We might just do this as a simple rails app backed by a database so we could always have the information quickly and easily available for everyone.

·         We may be able to print special badges denoting members

Again, please let us know if you have any questions or comments.  I’ll also be available to discuss this after our next monthly meeting on July 10^th.

Agile Leadership Lessons from Lao Tzu

I have been reading The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge as part of the Agile Austin Book Discussion Group, and one quote struck me as particularly meaningful from Lao Tzu:

The wicked leader is he whom the people revile.
The good leader is he whom the people revere.
The great leader is he of whom the people say, "We did it ourselves."

To me, the "great leader" succinctly describes what it means to be a servant-leader--what do you think?

@multicastmatt

Matt Roberts - Cloud Architect Circa 2001?

I helped start a company called Meetrix, which delivered multi-point collaboration services back in 2001.  We had a good run for about 4 years, but we ended up taking a bridge loan (bridge to nowhere), and the whole thing went through bankruptcy for $10k.  At one point, the offer had been in the millions, but it "wasn't enough".  Sigh.

Anyhoo, as we were strapped for cash and our original investors were all Enron guys who ended up pulling back the $5 - 10MM promised for the initial investment, I had to get creative on putting the service together.  So, I looked for third-party solutions that I could customize, keeping the IP of the multipoint audio and video conferencing as our core.  IBM/Lotus Sametime was the software that I selected to use as the meeting room (like now WebEx/Gotomeeting) software that would kick off the audio/video portion.  In order to make this happen for our SaaS model, I had to make some *ahem* modifications to the source.  What we wound up was with a "cloud" based version of Lotus Sametime that was multi-tenant.  This, of course, was before anyone referred to the cloud except in fancy architecture presentations where you'd always start with a cloud representing the Internet.  It was also SaaS before anyone came up with that particular popular palindrome.  It worked really well, and ended up being the only thing that survived the bankruptcy and ever since, some of the guys have been working the model.

I just heard that they won the 2011 Beacon Award "IBM Cloud Computing Innovation - For Application Providers."

<<

https://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/pw_com_prb_2011_beacon_smarter_solutions

Meetrix is the first company to virtualize Lotus Sametime in a public or private Cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. Meetrix UC in the Cloud integrates Telco 2.0 telephony and third-party plug-ins. The innovative Cloud-based design delivers low-cost, secure, anytime, anywhere unified communications and collaboration; connecting people, data and environments and enhancing business productivity.

>>

So there you go--Matt Roberts, Cloud Architect, for over 10 years with expertise in multi-tenant Saas n-tier web applications.  I may even put it on my business card :)

@multicastmatt