Article in Harvard Business manager: sipgate’s agile transformation

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Harvard Business manager, the German edition of the Harvard Business Review, published in its August edition an article by Tim Mois, the CEO of our client sipgate, on how his company confronted its “Black Hole”, learned about Scrum, and with the help of agile42 wholeheartedly embraced an agile way of working that they are now modelling for others.

A free sample from the article in German is available here, and you can read a brief summary of the story below.

In 2009, Tim Mois, the CEO of sipgate, had a revelation. Things could not continue as they were. Everything looked good on paper and the company had grown in leaps and bounds, but for the past three years everyone had been working on the same new tool, sipgate team, and they were still just barely able to bring it to market, partly out of luck. With decisions taking longer and longer, lack of communication, and the formation of separate islands of knowledge, they were not sure they could ever create something new again. They called this problem “the black hole”.

Speed and flexibility used to be built into sipgate’s DNA from its early days, when they were the first to bring internet telephony to the German market. But along the way they made a crucial mistake: they thought that they could get twice the work done if they had twice the people. By 2009, it was clear that this wasn’t the case. Business studies at the time were rigid and mechanical. Following that type of knowledge, sipgate ended up with single-function teams, tasks being divided among them, getting stuck in bottlenecks, and not always coming together in results again. It seemed that the  organisation was just too large for effective communication. 

Sipgate simply did not know how to organise their kind of complex work when they grew beyond a nimble startup, but they knew that there must be an alternative out there. And finally, in 2010, a colleague passed Tim Mois a booklet describing Scrum. This was what they wanted, and to get there they needed the opposite of what they had been doing: no more huge project plans, but instead a new structure, new roles, and daily coordination. They did not understand it all, but it was worth a try. 

At first they went at it alone, with limited results. Then, agile42 from Berlin came to the rescue. The learning curve was steep: agile42 turned the whole development process on its head and dragged sipgate kicking and screaming towards change. This kind of deep transformation was not just about adopting a couple of new methods: instead they had to break down and then remake their very sense of self as people and as a company. Many identified with their role as experts in a field, and now outsiders were coming in and telling them that they should no longer assign specific systems to single people. Even if they wholeheartedly adopted it all, they had no idea what, if anything, they would gain in return. Now there is a lot of literature on the subject and more agile companies on the field, but back then sipgate were very early adopters, and very alone. 

It would not be possible to go through something so difficult without losses, and those included almost half of the staff at the time, either because they could not adapt to the new ways of working or because they preferred a more predictable career development. Despite the initial struggles though, advantages quickly became apparent. Divisions in departments that did not make sense and resulted in knowledge loss through a game of Telephone were eliminated, and company structure centred instead on non-hierarchical client-oriented teams. In the process, Tim Mois and sipgate also learned more of agile and the origins of Lean Production in Toyota. This was a great influence in changing the entire company and not just developers.

Photo of Tim Mois by Max Slobodda for Harvard Business Manager

Now totally lean and agile, sipgate works in brief project cycles incorporating continuous feedback. The cross-functional teams that make up the company combine a range of skills and need no managers, team leaders, or titles. Along the way the company adopted a variety of methods, some from classic agile practices, while others they developed further or outgrew. For Tim Mois, if there was only one method to recommend, it would be the retrospective. There, every two weeks teams go over progress, planning, and obstacles, but also face inconvenient subjects. In sipgate retrospectives, the Las Vegas rule applies: whatever happens in the retro, stays in the retro. 

This process does make demands on staff and leads them to take on more responsibility, but it also offers them the opportunity to constantly grow. Recruiting new colleagues is an excellent illustration: while in the past it was done by the boss with no discussion or questions, now the teams are in charge of the whole process, from placing the call for applications to explaining to someone why they will not be taken on. Matters like holiday time are also worked out by the teams themselves, and care is taken that no one works too much. In sipgate there is no overtime, and they have even instituted an old-fashioned punch clock to make sure of that. 

Within all these changes, the role of the CEO himself has changed. No longer involved in micromanaging the day to day, he can focus on the company’s future and work of a more strategic nature, asking the core questions about who they are and where they want to be. Tim Mois takes particular joy in one new aspect of his role: when sipgate became a model of agility, others began to take notice. Now they are a company open to the world, and many want to come in and see how the system works in practice. For Tim Mois, this knowledge was a gift that should be passed on. 

In sipgate they recognise their good fortune in being in the financial position and of the correct size to make those changes, but they are also aware of how far they have come and are rightly proud of their priorities and the culture they have created. The journey is not over, but they hope that they will continue growing and breaking through boundaries. 

Read more about agile42 work at sipgate.

It’s not the meeting’s fault that it sucked!

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We’ve all been in meetings or other sessions which have sucked all our energy, haven’t we? I know I have. Sessions where people have been on their laptops or checking email on their phones and not paying attention to the proceedings. What about when 1 or 2 people dominate?

We’ve also experienced meetings where everyone is in love with the shape of the problem; when the time allotted for the session is over and no decisions have been made. So they decide to have another session to make some decisions… or they rush through some meaningless actions causing the meeting to run over, making people late for their next session. And let’s not forget the group of people, impatiently waiting outside the room to start their meeting…?

Contrary to this, a meeting or a session that is skillfully facilitated:

  • Engages everyone in the room;
  • Lets all the voices be heard;
  • Remains focussed on its purpose; and
  • Unlocks wisdom and creativity beyond your expectations.

The contrast between the two is huge. We leave the second one with a sense of achievement; feeling our time has been well spent, something worthwhile has been achieved, and we maybe even feel energized.

 

What is it that makes the difference?

It starts with having some facilitation tools & techniques (the science), however that only takes one so far. The magic really happens when we have developed the art of facilitation, and when we blend that with the science.

When this magical combination happens, these are some of the things that we will begin to notice:

  • Everyone quickly shifts into a state of ‘being present’;
  • Participants contribute from their strengths and their hearts;
  • Ideas are generated and solutions may be found;
  • Constructive disagreement takes place;
  • Clear decisions can be reached with buy in from everyone;
  • Real outcomes are achieved faster;
  • Trust, collaboration and accountability grows; and
  • New effective behavior results and continues beyond the session.

To access this magic, we need to look inside ourselves. Only then can we develop our art.

Imagine you have had a tough sprint and you now need to facilitate the retrospective. You know it is not going to be easy. Take the time to prepare for the upcoming session by following this 4-step process:

  1. Take responsibility for yourself. Many times we go into sessions when we are feeling defensive. Defensiveness is the quickest way to a failed session. You begin to take responsibility for yourself by acknowledging that you are feeling defensive. It’s that easy.
  2. Identify the triggers that are making you lose your neutrality. Losing your neutrality might take you into ‘push’ mode and you risk making the session about you, when it should be about the group. Spend some time reflecting on these, draw (yes, draw!) each one on a separate sticky note. Now put them all in a box and lock them in your desk drawer…you can collect them later.
  3. Now you are ready to begin to understand the others who are going to be in the room. If you are feeling defensive, what might the others be feeling? Reflect on this using empirical evidence of what happened in the sprint and the interactions between the team. Put yourself in your team’s shoes and try to see how they see the sprint, what it means to them, and what they want for the next sprint.
  4. Now you can plan your retrospective… and you already know how to do this.

All of this is done before the session. A wise man once told me, “For every hour of the session, you have to spend 2 to 3 hours preparing. So if your session is 2-hours, you need to spend 4-hours preparing.”

 

Join us, travel the world, meet interesting people and coach them

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Once upon a time (but actually just a few months ago), we published an ebook called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Agile Coaching where we tried to explain our tradition of coaching, which is continuously being adapted to the needs of our clients and our own company. We always focus on delivering value to our customers. 

Becoming an agile coach is a journey that has no end, but somehow it needs a start! This is why we are looking for talented new colleagues to join us and learn and evolve while working with our international, experienced, and diverse group of amazing coaches. We already have a presence in Germany, the United States, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Finland, Turkey and South Africa, and we are actively seeking new Agile coaches in most of these markets, sometimes trading places with the rest of the team and sometimes charting new territories. 

The ideal candidate is someone who can immerse themselves in our approach starting with at least three years’ experience working with more than one team using at least one of the Agile methods (Scrum, Kanban, XP). They will also need fluent knowledge of the language of their target country, in addition to English. As a true trailblazer, the role involves traveling on average three days a week, so it helps if that makes you happy to leave your house in the morning for the airport armed with a bunch of post-its, LEGO® bricks and of course a towel. 

For more information, check out our job posting or contact us at [email protected].

Join us at Agile2018: Explore and expand your agile toolbox

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Bringing together an international community of enthusiastic Agilists, Agile2018 is the world’s largest agile software conference – organized by Agile Alliance in North America.

agile42 will be heading to sunny San Diego, California to join over 2000 attendees from 40+ countries at Agile2018. Together, we will continue to explore and add to the ever-growing toolbox that makes Agile successful. Our goal is to invite the community to challenge their status quo, to act on their passion for learning, and to have fun while continuously improving their organization. 

Depending on what you want to add to your agile toolbox, join us for one or both of our two talks:

Tool #1: How to hit a deadline without forcing work on your team?

If you want to learn how to meet deadlines with an agile team that is uncertain about what they can deliver, join Dave Sharrock’s talk: Epic Budgeting (-or- How Agile Teams Meet Deadlines?). During this session, you will learn how Product Owners and their teams can work towards a fixed date or budget by applying double loop learning to epic sizing and breakdown. Emerge feeling confident that you can create a long-term product delivery roadmap which includes an estimate of delivery date.

Tool #2: How to develop and grow a healthy agile culture?

A Mission, Vision, and Values (MVV) statement is much more powerful than imagined. It is the foundation for a healthy agile culture, which is imperative to the agile transformation. When things become tough during the transformation (from struggling teams to looming deadlines), we lean into this culture for support. If you want to learn the “what, why, and how” of developing your own MVV statement, join Melissa Boggs’ talk: Lowering the Waterline of Your Culture Iceberg with Mission, Vision, and Values. 

Come prepared with your questions and expect some tales from real companies plus a few lighthearted moments. ;)

Making Diamonds from your Retrospectives – The Diamond of Participatory Decision Making

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One of the techniques I have come to greatly appreciate as a facilitator is the diamond of participatory decision making (see “The Leader’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making”, 1998 by Sam Kaner). This technique/framework allows facilitators to better harness team’s collective intelligence.

What problem does the diamond solve?

As part of a business writing course I took years ago I learned about writer’s block: a state of mind in which professional writers (such as a novelist) cannot find it in themselves to write. The phenomenon is understood in that our brain has different faculties or “hats it can wear”. One of those faculties is that of creative thinking: coming up with new ideas, exploring new topics, thinking out of the box. Another faculty of our brain is that of critical thinking: removing flawed ideas, to identify – for example – style problems that need to be revised. Both faculties are important, serving different purposes. 

The problem comes in when both creative and critical faculties of the brain are trying to be active at the same time, and as a result interfere with each other to the point where one shuts the other down. So when an author tries to write new, innovative ideas, BUT the critical part of her brain is dominant, she will not be able to come up with anything creative and is hence “blocked” from writing. The problem can be addressed by taking turns: only wear one hat at a time (eg. now I am thinking creative, simply spitting out ideas without worrying about quality or style; in an hour I will sift through my creative writing to fix style or grammatical issues and unweed the lesser ideas).

The diamond of participatory decision making follows a very similar pattern, but at the group level: the facilitator makes space for divergent thinking (creative, out-of-the-box), contemplation (discussion, debate), and convergent thinking (shortlisting of ideas) at separate, successive times, rather than at the same time or not at all.

How does the diamond work?

In short the diamond suggests 5 stages to a decision making conversation:

  1. Business as usual – conversation that does not challenge status quo
  2. Divergent zone – brainstorming, thinking outside the box
  3. Groan zone – contemplate and debate ideas
  4. Convergent zone – narrow down ideas to those most feasible
  5. Close – decide on a way forward

The diamond framework teaches us that divergent thinking and convergent thinking cannot happen at the same time, as they interfere with one another. The facilitator must make space for both separately.

The process of convergent thinking is also very important: not all ideas can be implemented, lest we create bloating, systems that conflict with each other, or that do not have enough benefit because the underlying ideas were not appropriate to start with. In this case we must dismiss some ideas and advance others.

And the groan zone is equally important: moving directly from diverging ideas (generating insights) to convergence (decide what to do) can mean that ideas are not sufficiently contemplated and understood by the group. If this happens, the group will not have the understanding it needs to make the best decision possible.

The trick is that these three stages must not take place at the same time. For example: the facilitator must not allow dissent on ideas by the group when the brainstorming is still happening. Sometimes you will notice that one person in the group ‘critiques’ everyone else’s brainstorming ideas as soon as they are being spoken. This is because they are unaware of their critiquing brain functions being active. However, if allowed to continue, this behaviour will seriously impede ideation because a) ideas that are poorly articulated, but are otherwise great ideas, won’t see the light of day and b) the group will not feel safe to express new ideas for fear of being criticized.

Many good ideas started as something that at the surface seemed odd or even silly, only then to evolve into something highly valuable.

The 3M stickies often are used as an example of this. It was originally thought that there was almost no market for them. Imagine if someone hadn’t given these a chance, where would agility be without them? ;)

Why agility and the diamond go hand in hand?

Agility and the diamond share several beliefs that make them highly compatible. 

  1. Interaction between individuals is important (agile manifesto value #1 and principle #6) and can foster innovation and quality;
  2. Participative decision making gives a voice to everyone on the team, and allows team members to contribute to end results in a meaningful way. Lean and agile believe that team empowerment and self organization is important (agile principle #5, 11);
  3. Making space for convergent thinking can help reduce bloating scope (agile principle #10) – this is more important than may first be apparent: too many teams and organizations suffer from unhealthy levels of work in progress in part because they lack a robust mechanism for saying “no”;
  4. Finally, the diamond encourages focus on identifying a concise way forward at the team level, obviously to the end of an improved future. Compare that to agile principle #12: At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

The Diamond and Retrospectives:

While there is a large variety of different ways to have retrospectives, many of them will have much in common with what the diamond stands for. One popular outline for retrospectives was introduced in “Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great” by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen (2006), and I will compare it here side-by-side.

Another important perspective is that Derby & Larsen’s outline could be seen as a string of diamonds, and we can go through a separate divergence/groan/convergence process for each phase. For example, when gathering data you first want to get as much information as possible (divergence), then group the results (groan zone) and then dot vote to pick the most important topics (convergence) for generating insights.

The Diamond of Participatory Decision Making offers many more insights and techniques that are worth exploring, for example how to draw out good ideas from people, and how to teach team members to internalize the facilitation function.

Additional Tips:

In agile environments – and especially in cross functional teams as you would find in Scrum settings – we want every team member to chime in and add to the ideation pool, believing that good ideas can “come from anyone”. We do not want to lose ideas that could prove valuable, even if at the beginning they might seem a bit odd. 

Retrospectives often follow an outline that resembles the participatory decision making framework that was researched and documented by San Kaner in 1998:  diverge-groan-converge.

As described by Kaner in his book, a few tips are worth keeping in mind:

  • Share with the team that you are using the diamond and how it works, so they are informed.
  • Do not try to diverge and converge at the same time, as great ideas might be discarded prematurely. That means stopping people that critique the ideas during the brainstorming phase.
  • Draw out poorly worded ideas by asking questions.
  • Do not skip the groan zone – moving directly from diverging ideas (generating insights) to convergence (decide what to do) can mean that ideas are not sufficiently contemplated and understood by the group. If this happens, the group will not have the understanding it needs to make the best decision possible.
  • Use diamonds within diamonds: diverge/groan/converge at each phase of the retrospective, as well as looking at the retrospective end-to-end as a diamond.
  • Converge properly: do not walk out with 150 action items. You know none of them will get done. Walk out with 1 or 2 and be sure that they will get implemented.

If you are interested in learning more about Agile Facilitation, consider taking the Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM) course. There will be discussions on divergent and convergent thinking, methods on helping teams reach final decisions, and listening techniques that help facilitate more effective meetings.

Agile in Everywhere: Memories of a beginner-level Scrum servant

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“…but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…”

Having worked in NGOs and development agencies for years, in my professional and academic work, I had always searched for a model, or an approach, which would help me organize myself. The classical to do tasks, project schedules and Gantt charts which I used with the belief that “this time it will make me a very organized and a very efficient person”, soon proved to be of limited use. I lost my enthusiasm and self-motivation each time I delayed, canceled a task or extended the project duration.

I always wanted a framework which would help me define my objectives clearly, list and prioritize my tasks, estimate the time I needed to finalize them, and which I could follow up easily day by day.  This tool was shared with colleagues so that we could collaborate better. Besides, I wanted to feel in control. I mean, in the classical way of planning things, I felt the responsibility to remove any obstacles all by myself as if I could control everything which impacted my work. In real life, it is not the case. I did not know that well and could not do as planned.

Sometimes all we need is a fresh start

When I started as the MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) Manager in Support to Life, it was the first time I needed to support that many team members. Our team consisted of a manager (which was me), a team leader and five officers, and each of us was based in a different location somewhere in Turkey. I found myself in the middle of a very unfamiliar way of working, with my team physically away from me, collecting, analyzing the data of our projects and reporting continuously. We were mostly on email and rarely on Skype, and I was trying to comprehend what they were doing and how they were doing so that I could support them better, so that they could become highly productive and happy.  

A flash of inspiration came to me. I had heard about Scrum and I already had started using Kanban by myself in my previous position. Since I was an industrial engineer, I already knew about the Toyota production system, lean management, Kanban and continuous improvement. Now my team consisted of the ideal number of team members for Scrum. As part of my small talks with my friends and my colleagues, I starting telling them about Scrum and asking if they knew it and if they used it. I discovered that my best friend who was a high-level manager of a company had been using Scrum for years with her teams. It was an essential part of her daily work routine. Our Information Management Advisor also mentioned that he used Scrum in his past workplaces, and told me how much they gained as a team.  

Unfortunately, the cost of a certified ScrumMaster training was quite high. As an organization, we were short of funds at that time, and there was no previously allocated budget for such a training. There were two options: (1) I could ask my best friend to teach us how to Scrum or ( 2) I could ask the leading training company in Turkey, to give me a scholarship so that I could attend their Scrum Master training program.

I knew there was some value in the Scrum Master and Product Owner trainings, because those trainings were the product of a specific expertise. I believed in expertise. I wanted us to do Scrum “according to the book”. So I was closer to the second option.

Scrumish days

After getting to know each other better and coming together physically once, I mentioned Scrum to the MEAL Team members, without giving much detail. We started holding Daily Scrum morning meetings on Skype, in which we would ask the three questions about

  • yesterday,
  • today,
  • impediments.

The time we spent was from 40 minutes to 70 minutes!

Then, I asked if anyone could help me understand this “Scrum” better by reading the official guides and watching some videos with me. Ayşe Nur, who previously worked as a project manager in STL, was eager to find efficient ways of managing our work and promoting collaboration within the Team. She volunteered willingly. In our second face to face meeting in Diyarbakır, Ayşe Nur and I shared our quite superficial knowledge and the videos we watched about Scrum, with other members of our Team. We asked ourselves if it was worth investing time and effort to learn and use Scrum. The terminology was quite confusing: user stories, sprints, backlogs, story sizing…  We were not even sure how to define our “product”. 

A very common warning in all Scrum resources was that Scrum training should be given to team members and meetings should be facilitated by a trained professional. If you learn it wrong, you do it wrong, and that is worse than not using Scrum. The MEAL Team had past experiences and lessons learned about new technological tools. At the end of the day, we decided to be quite sure-footed about it. 

We decided to go on holding Daily Scrum morning meetings on Skype, and the Team charged me with researching and finding an Agile – Scrum training company or an individual Scrum Master, who would be interested in voluntarily teaching us Scrum. 

agile42 & Support to Life Synergy

As soon as I got back to Istanbul, I made my research and found agile42. I read about their work and their approach. Why wouldn’t agile42 Turkey teach us Scrum and make Support to Life’s MEAL Team faster and more efficient? So we could increase the speed and quality of our protection efforts towards thousands of refugees, children in seasonal agriculture, and other populations in post-disaster emergencies.

I contacted  Ebru Yalçınkaya from the agile42 Turkey team for support. We had a talk about what we were looking for and how we work as the MEAL Team, and how autonomous we were as a team. She confirmed that Scrum was appropriate for us and explained how they would support us to overcome the difficulties we were facing. I was so happy. After the talk two agile42 coaches  Ayşe Turunç and Figen Yalçınkaya would work with us during our journey. We knew Ayşe and Figen normally had a hectic schedule of trainings and we were grateful. We arranged a 2-day training at STL headquarters during the last week of March 2018. 

“mura, muri, muda”

The MEAL Team was gathering face to face for the third time. Other colleagues from other teams also joined us for the first day of the training. It was an interactive training with lots of discussions, games, coloured drawings, questions, team work, and laughter. I still remember very clearly the exercise in which we failed to plan in an agile way. We realized how difficult it was to separate ourselves from the traditional project management thinking, and to adopt the agile way of thinking – mura, muri, muda :)  The second day was only for the MEAL Team. During that second day, our training was not only about being Agile. Figen and Ayşe reflected the spirit of the Team. We became aware of what we saw in ourselves and what we saw in each other; we discovered why we liked to work together; and we discussed about what could make us faster and better.

Ayşe and Figen did not leave us alone in our Scrum journey and closely coached us in the sprint review and retrospective meetings. We learned so much during the coaching. We are learning still.

Now our morning Daily Scrum are a maximum of 20 minutes (please forgive us Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland). We gave ourselves a 5 minutes bonus for Skype-related technical reasons such as sound distortion, which steals from our time.  We have the sprint planning meeting on Mondays, sprint review and sprint retrospective meetings on Fridays. Each meeting takes around 1 hour. Starting from the last week of May, the duration of our sprint will be two weeks. We will see if it works better. We are experimenting and we are learning from the experience.   

What is different now with Scrum?

The first and most dominant feeling of all team members is the feeling of being more planned and organized. I know this is not the very first aim of Scrum, but as a start, I think it was something we needed. We are more transparent to each other and we try to increase collaboration even more. And for your information: getting grisp to Scrum takes time.  We did not become super agile either in one day or in two months. Honestly, every day we are slightly more agile than the day before.

As a manager, Scrum provides me with speed in sharing information, and opportunity to make collaborative decisions as a team. Thus we have the collective responsibility and ownership of what we produce. In this process, I am what I want to be, a humble and servant leader. And my work is much less boring than any work usually is. We rarely have long meetings, but we are able to make use of each other’s experience and innovative ideas.

What I like most about Scrum

What I like most about Scrum is that it supports a team to be a better team, because Scrum makes everyone equal. Scrum makes a silent team member talk more and a long talker… a fast presenter. Scrum encourages us to be innovative and collaborative rather than dull and lonely. Scrum makes us think about how we can clear our way from impediments and get faster and more efficient. Each member becomes a strategic planner and plays a role in our individual and collective professional development. Most of all, I love seeing everyone in the morning and experiencing the Monday syndrome and the Friday joy altogether.

Thank you Ebru, Figen and Ayşe, Thank you agile42, for being a supporter of Support to Life and for being an inalienable part of our neurons forever :)

Thank you Ahmad, Ayşe Nur, Büşra, Miran and Mustafa, for everything we are and we will become

Discussing large organizations in an Agile HR world

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I will be presenting a talk on “Growing an internal agile coaching capability in a large organisation” at the HR Goes Agile Conference taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 12-13 June 2018.

HR Goes Agile is the first conference in South Africa that specifically focusses on the role of HR in guiding and facilitating organizations in becoming agile. In doing so it will inspire, motivate and empower employees and unlock the true potential of their companies. We are very happy to be a sponsor of this event. Read more online.

We are currently engaged at one of the major banks where we are helping 1400 people to transition to agile methods. Our main strategy is to build an internal agile coaching capability that will enable the bank to become self-sustaining in their journey to agility, which we know, will take many years to reach maturity.

The case study that I’ll discuss in my talk will cover very briefly the genesis of the Scrum Master Academy, the journey to create the programme, and how they are going about the current programme and what they are learning right now about what works well and what remains a struggle.

ORGANIC Agility in Discover Germany magazine

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The business-oriented magazine Discover Germany just published an article about ORGANIC Agility in its issue 62 of May 2018. The article is available in both English and German, as customary for the publication which aims to promote the Germany/Austria/Switzerland (or “D-A-CH”) area to the international public.

The text by Marilena Stracke explains to a larger audience how the concept of ORGANIC Agility grew out of deep roots in the agile values and principles, and becomes a way to leverage these in a conscious and strategic way in the context of an organization. 

The whole issue of Discover Germany can be browsed online, or you can download the PDF with the ORGANIC Agility article.

AYNI ANDA PEK ÇOK İŞLE UĞRAŞMAK-Multitasking

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İş hayatında genellikle gördüğümüz şey şu ki; çoğu insan aynı zamanda pek çok işi bir arada yapmaya vakit ayırabilmekle övünür, bende dâhildim bu gruba ama aşağıdaki gerçekleri öğrendikten sonra nasıl aldandığımı anladım.

Aynı zamanda farklı işleri yapmanın nasıl süreyi uzatabileceği ve maliyeti arttırabileceğine dair okuduğum örnekler ve eğitimlerimde yaptırdığım aktiviteler, aslında aynı zamanda birden çok işi yapmaya çalışmanın bizi ne kadar yavaşlattığını ve strese soktuğunu gösterdi. 

Aynı anda birçok görev üstlenmek, 1 den fazla projede çalışmak konusunda siz ne düşünüyorsunuz? 

  • Şu anda kaç proje üzerinde çalışıyorsunuz?
  • Size verilen görevleri  iyi bir şekilde beklenen düzeyde tamamlayabiliyor musunuz?
  • Yoksa “Siz” birçok işi bir arada yapma konusunda mükemmel misiniz ?

Jeff Sutherland Scrum kitabında “2 katı işi yarı zamanda yapma sanatı” her seferinde 1 işi yapın diyor, birden fazla işi aynı anda yapmaya çalışmak beynimize acı verir, aslında sizi hızlandırdığını düşündüğünüz halde, sizi yavaşlatır diyor. Aşağıdaki egzersizi kolaylıkla kendiniz deneyimleyerek görün diye paylaşıyorum. Süre tutarak 1den 10 kadar rakam, roma rakamı ve alfabeden bir harf olacak şekilde sıra ile satır satır yazmaya çalışın, mümkün olduğunca odaklanın ve hızlıca bitirmeye çalışın! kaç dakika sürdü bakın bakalım. Daha sonra aynı işlemi aşağıya doğru yazarak hızlıca tekrarlayın.

1    I   A

2   ıı   B

3  ııı   C

4  ıv   Ç

5   v   D

6  vı   E

7  vıı  F

8  vıı G

9  ıx  Ğ

Bunu satır halinde yazmak genellikle 40 saniye sürüyormuş, aşağıya doğru yazmak ise 30 saniye sürüyormuş! Benim yaptırdıklarımda genellikle 1 dakika ile 30 saniye olarak ölçümledim. Bunu odaklanmak ve hatırlamak arasında geçen zaman olarak görüyorum. İşten işe atlamak çok daha stresli, tamamlama gayreti ile ne kadar odaklı çalışmaya çalışsak da geçiş sırasında zaman kayıplarına uğranması, dağılmamız maalesef beynimizin düşünce sistemi ile ilgili biyolojik bir sorun. 

Gerald Weinberg tarafından yazılan Quality Software Management kitabından aldığım aşağıdaki tabloyu sizinle paylaşmak istedim, tamamıyla gerçek verilere dayalı yapılan bir çalışmanın çok çarpıcı sonuçları var burada:

Konu değişiminden kaynaklanan kayıp; saf olarak israf edilen zamanı gösteriyor, yani kişinin gününün büyük bir bölümü başa geçmektedir. Bu insan beyninin sınırlarından dolayı yaşanmaktadır. Bağlam değiştirmenin maliyetinin farkında olmak ve bunu minimize etmek gerekiyor. Konsantre olduğunuz bir konudan koparıldığınızda aynı farkındalık düzeyine ulaşmanız saatler sürebilir. Bu nedenle derin konsantrasyon gerektiren işleri mümkünse başlayıp, bitirmek gerekiyor, ancak böyle yaparsak verimli çalışabiliriz.

Birden fazla işle uğraşmak zamanınızı boşa harcamanıza ve sizi aptallaştırmasına yol açar, sürekli konu değiştirmek, dikkat dağıtıcı ortamlarda çalışmak IQ’muzu %10 düşüyormuş! 

Yüksek Verimlilikle Çalışan İnsanların 7 Özelliği kitabında da benzer şeyler söyleniyor:

  • Çoklu görevleri durdur,
  • İşten bölünmenize neden olabilecek şeyleri minimuma indirin,
  • Rahatsız edilmeden odaklanabileceğiniz  bir yerde çalışın diyor.

Bu konuda daha fazla kaynak isterseniz The Myth of Multiasking – by Christine Rosen’i de okuyabilirsiniz

Advanced ScrumMaster and Scrum Product Owner training

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Becoming Agile is a lifelong journey. Incorporating Scrum values and Agile principles into your world of work takes diligence, patience, and a commitment to continuous improvement. It’s now the time to aim for greater competence and Agile skills in order to meet the growing demands of the workplace.

The Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM) and the Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO) training, part of the new Scrum Alliance Advanced Certification path that started in 2017, are designed to build on your foundational knowledge with enhanced skills for the implementation of Scrum and Agile techniques within your company and teams. We are very happy to start offering these certifications to qualified professionals.

The first set of Advanced CSM classes will start in Berlin, Stockholm and South Africa (Johannesburg and Cape Town) from June to October. 

agile42 coaches are also partnering with US-based trainer Aaron Sanders to organize the first Advanced CSPO class in Europe next September. Aaron’s effectiveness results from experiences spanning over two decades in technological and interpersonal disciplines and he consistently seeks out people to co-train and coach with. We are very happy to have him in this training tour of Europe.

Places are limited, please choose the location most convenient for you and check the details and the registration options:

Schedule for A-CSM with agile42 trainers:

See the full list

Schedule for A-CSPO with Aaron Sanders: