What jobs are you hiring Agile for?

Johanna Rothman wrote an article in her Pragmatic Manager newsletter called "Is Your Agile Journey Based on Problems or Process?" about starting an Agile transition, not by first selecting a "process", but by first considering values and using those values to solve problems.

Some people want to plan an entire agile transition from one team, to an entire organisation, as if they could imagine how the organization could change, all up front. Big Design Up Front, anyone?

Let me suggest an alternative. Instead of selecting a process first, consider the agile values first. Are there values that resonate with you more? Maybe you build on those values first, solving your problems, using them as the basis for your agile transition. As you proceed, maybe you can integrate other values to build on your success. 

Based on the contents of the article, Johanna seems to actually be advocating starting with values rather than starting with problems, per se.

So what if we didn't start with values and started with problems?

How might that look?

At LAST conference 2014, I presented a session on the Agile Fluency Model and asked the question:

What jobs are we hiring Agile for?

Are you sure you're any good at this? Assessing Agile proficiency with the Agile Fluency Model from Jason Yip

Job 1: Create transparency and alignment to improve trust

The problem is stakeholders of delivery teams saying things like "We don't know what you're doing" and "Why are you doing that?".  Which means those stakeholders are much less likely to trust in what those teams are doing.

Job 2: Deliver reliably and more frequently to improve trust in capability

The problem is stakeholders looking at the delivery teams and organisation and saying "This is too slow, too expensive, with poor quality".  Which means that even if they are clear about what the teams are doing, those stakeholders don't consider them competent.

Job 3: Build better products and services

The problem is that stakeholders don't consider the delivery teams and organisation capable of being involved in product strategy.  "This is a product strategy session, we don't need your input."  Even if the stakeholders consider the teams competent, it does not include anything in terms of the direction of the product.

Job 4: Build an organisation that systemically builds better products and services

The problem is that stakeholders don't consider the delivery organisation capable of being involved in organisational business strategy.  "This is a business strategy session, we don't need your input."  Even if the stakeholders consider the teams competent in terms of both product strategy and delivery, this does not include the ability to trade-off multiple conflicting objectives at the overall organisation level.