How to Reduce Risk in an Agile Framework

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by Mike Guiler to discuss the benefits of Agility, including employee satisfaction, predictable delivery, and speed to market among others.

Key Takeaways:

• Agility leads to employee satisfaction since every Team member is connected to the purpose of the work.

• Sustainable pace is enabled by Agile Methods

• • Agile done well eliminates the “death march”

  • Deliver slices of value 

  • Deliver the most valuable items first

  • Agile delivery is not “all-or-nothing,” enabling us to decide what we can release without

• Predictable delivery is mostly assured with Agile, and even when the mark is missed it can be adjusted back in a brief period.

• Reduction of Waste

• • The Increment is inspected frequently

  • We learn from what we deliver

  • You can stop and pivot when going down a path that is not what the customer needs

  • Make change easier

  • Validate assumptions early

• Reduce Risk 

• • Don’t build the whole thing before we deliver it

  • Reduce risk by gradually exposing your features to users versus an “all-or-nothing” release

  • Incremental deliveries reduce risk by validating assumptions.

  • You get real customer feedback.

• Speed to Market

• • Deliver the right things, reduce waste, and get a slice delivered!

  • Do not expect that your developers will “code faster”

• Faster Return on Investment

• • Generate revenue with small slices

  • Decide when to stop investing further in a product

• When you decide to transform your business outcomes, you need to consider the benefits you are striving for when you make decisions within your organization. Keep the end goal in mind at all times.

• We want to be efficient instead of effective.

• • Collaboration works wonders; a Team is more resilient and efficient when collaborating.

  • Some people are not ready to work in a Team; they need space and time to gradually start feeling more comfortable with teaming.

  • Scrum is often perceived as having a lot of meetings when in reality, the meetings required are the minimum necessary to keep the Team aligned toward achieving the common purpose.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations, by Nicole Forsgren Ph.D., Jez Humble, and Gene Kim

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