Agile Executives

Course Outline

Future State with Agile

• Actions: Brainstorming pains, problems, or issues that Agile practices could help correct, and benefits of Agile that the organization is looking to achieve. If applicable, we will review the results of your Agile Assessment with an eye toward determining how each of the recommendations in the assessment applies to your organization.
• Outcomes: We will come to consensus on a list of outcomes from your Agile transformation that represent your desired Future State.

Agile Mindset, Principles, and Practices

• Actions: We then build a common understanding about Agility among the workshop participants and begin discussing the senior leader role in embracing the Agile mindset and implementing each practice. We will discuss these topics:
• Why Agile?– We look at the benefits of Agility and discuss how they apply to our organization.
• The Agile Mindset – We explore the Values and Principles that underpin Agility and discuss the degree to which the organization must change to make each part of the Agile mindset the norm.
• How Agile Differs from Traditional Project Approaches – We look at the Agile practices in each of the following categories and discuss the degree to which they differ from our current practices.
• Value Delivery and Customer Engagement
• Team Structure and Enablement
• Project Initiation, Estimating, Planning, Tracking, and Oversight
• Requirements Definition and Management
• Technical Collaboration and Quality Management
• Product Delivery and Acceptance
• Transitioning from Waterfall, Becoming Agile – We look at a model for organizational change and discuss how each step of that model could be helpful as our organization embraces Agility.
• The Future State of Agile – We end this section by reviewing the Future State with Agile that we built in part one, with the intent of making additions or changes based on our new more complete common understanding of Agility.
• Outcomes: At the conclusion of this section, we will have:
• Shared understanding of Agile
• Appreciation of senior leaders’ roles in adopting DevOps Culture, Practices, and Tools
• Future State with DevOps, updated

Part 3: Strategic Agile Plan

• Actions: We will look at a Generic Strategic Plan for Agile Transformation, discuss the applicability of each item to our organization, and brainstorm additional items that we may need. Then, based on that discussion, we will build a Strategic Agiler Plan for our own organization and come to consensus on it.
• Outcomes: At the conclusion of this section, we will have:
• A Strategic Agile Transformation Plan for the whole organization

Tactical Agile Plans

• Actions: The workshop participants will break out into small groups or as individuals to build Tactical Plans for their own areas of responsibility. Each Tactical Plan will be based on the Strategic Agile Plan, and will identify concrete, specific actions that are necessary for that particular area of responsibility to become Agile by both embracing the Agile mindset and implementing Agile practices. The workshop facilitator will circulate among the participants to help them build complete and workable plans. The workshop will then reconvene. Each Tactical Agile Plan will be presented and discussed in an effort to improve it, and to ensure that all of the Tactical Agile Plans align, synchronize, and synergize across the organization.
• Outcomes:
• A Tactical Agile Plan for each area of responsibility
• Tactical Agile Plans aligned and synchronized across the organization

Next Steps Toward Agile

• Actions: We will end by identifying actions that are necessary after this workshop, e.g.:
• Make the Strategic and Tactical Agile Plans actionable (dates, metrics, deliverables)
• Define how progress against the Strategic and Tactical Agile Plans will be tracked
• Obtain the required training, coaching, and tools.
• Wrap up with a verbal commitment by all workshop participants to do their part to make the organization’s Agile Transformation successful.
• Outcomes: Participants will list steps to take after the workshop to ensure:
• The success of the Strategic and Tactical Agile Plans
• Achievement of the desired Future State with Agile