What Makes Distributed Agile Projects Succeed (or Fail)?
The reality is that our teams are not always colocated and many of us have to adapt. The empirical, inspect-and-adapt, approach will help us evolve toward processes that work. This session will help you accelerate this process by learning what has, and hasn’t, worked for others. Come share your distributed agile experience and tap into the collective wisdom that will be present. We are going to compile a list of the most important ingredients for success.
We will use the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) to gather up the group’s experiences and ideas. NGT works faster than traditional brainstorming, yet generates more complete and higher quality results. Next we will identify the factors that have had the biggest impact using DOTS, a technique that efficiently harnesses the collective wisdom of the group, while avoiding groupthink.
This is really two workshops for the price of one. You will walk out with a better understanding of what makes distributed agile projects succeed, as well as how to use NGT and DOTS to tap into the wisdom and knowledge of a group.
Participants are briefed on the topic under consideration. There may be a short discussion period, if needed, to help everyone understand the topic.
Participants are provided with pen and paper, and then given several minutes to quietly generate their own list of ideas.
The ground rules for idea sharing are reviewed:
* Questions for clarification are allowed and encouraged
* Criticism is not allowed; all contributions are welcome
* One idea per turn
A participant is selected to share the first idea. The idea is explained and any clarification questions are answered. A one or two word summary of the idea is posted for all to see.
The process repeats, around and around the room, with each person sharing one idea at a time. Duplicate ideas need not be shared. If a participant has no ideas left to share when it is their turn, they may pass. If they subsequently have a new idea, they may share it next time their turn comes around.
One the idea generating phase is over, any potential duplicates will be discussed and consolidated. If there is significant disagreement or if the originator of an idea objects to the consolidation, then the ideas will remain separate.
Each participant is given a number of sticky dots to vote with. Everyone gets up and places dots on the best ideas. The group does this, all at once, without any discussion.
The ideas are then rearranged into groups based on how many dots were placed on them. For instance, a group of five people may vote in such a way that some ideas have five dots, some four, three, two, one, and none.
The results of the exercise reflect the collective wisdom and experience of the group.
Some History:
I’ve facilitated this type of workshop at Agile Open CA and Silicon Valley Code Camp 2007. Both times were standing room only. The participants at Code Camp rated it 3.8 on a 0 - 4 scale. Comments included:
“Chris, you did a great job at facilitating the session. I liked your style and how you kept people who were going down rat holes from digging too deep.”
“Yours was one of my top three sessions.”
“Great at getting everyone involved!”
“Interesting technique used for gathering Agile knowledge from attendees, itself useful for Agile development! Very interesting to compare notes and benefit from the experiences of others.”