The Agile School

When Microsoft started our own DevOps journey, we quickly realized that our transformation to DevOps would have broad organizational impact. Every DevOps conversation needs to focus equally on people , processes , and tools to ensure a successful transformation. Our DevOps journey began by gradually changing the way we work. For example, on the people front, we were able to reduce team sizes from over 20 members to 8-12 members, and we also shifted from working in private offices to working in team rooms. The DevOps journey also allowed us to flatten our hierarchy over time. Smaller teams working in a more collaborative environment increased our ability to more effectively present, test, and implement solutions more quickly. From a process perspective, we changed from our established 4-6-month milestones to 3-week sprints with features shipped upon the conclusion of every sprint, instead of annual shipments. With the sprint format established, we also transitioned from l...

Microsoft has rapidly rising revenues and today is the most valuable firm on the planet—worth more than a trillion dollars. In 2004, I would never have predicted this. At the time, I was visiting Microsoft for a short consultancy. I was shocked to find how bureaucratic it was. After working for several decades in another notorious bureaucracy, I knew the problems bureaucracy caused. But Microsoft was worse: it was impossible to get decisions from within a labyrinth of silos and layers that called to mind Kafka’s  The   Castle . What can other big old firms learn from Microsoft’s escape from bureaucratic strangulation? According to  The Economist , the reason for Microsoft’s turnaround is that Satya Nadella, the CEO since 2014, took the bold decisions of a heroic leader. He opted not to rely on the existing business (Windows) and chose not to be “rapacious.” The more important lesson for most big old corporations, though, is not so much the individual decisions o...

Software development has been experiencing disruptive innovation over the last few years, and with the rising expectations of customers looking to get a superior experience, they are always searching for ways to release their products with faster time to market. According to a  Forrester study conducted in 2012 , 17% of entrepreneurs need strategic IT services or software products, delivered in less than 3 months from basics to production, and a few expect the same in 3-6 months. In this post, we will try to explain the real reasons behind this shift; both from the business and from a technology perspective, plus we will also cover the tools and processes that leading-edge companies are using to stay ahead of the competition. The Business Need It has become inevitable for all industries to deliver superior customer experience, and deliver it fast, in order to stay competitive. As well, continuous innovation is required to meet customers' expectations and the market needs....

Agile innovation methods have revolutionized information technology. Over the past 25 to 30 years they have greatly increased success rates in software development, improved quality and speed to market, and boosted the motivation and productivity of IT teams. Now agile methodologies—which involve new values, principles, practices, and benefits and are a radical alternative to command-and-control-style management—are spreading across a broad range of industries and functions and even into the C-suite. National Public Radio employs agile methods to create new programming. John Deere uses them to develop new machines, and Saab to produce new fighter jets. Intronis, a leader in cloud backup services, uses them in marketing. C.H. Robinson, a global third-party logistics provider, applies them in human resources. Mission Bell Winery uses them for everything from wine production to warehousing to running its senior leadership group. And GE relies on them to speed a much-publicized transit...

In one scene of the TV show Mad Men , a young advertising copywriter (Peggy Olson) asks her boss (Don Draper) how to know which of her advertising ideas will work best. He tells her she can’t know in advance, which frustrates her. He then adds that part of her job is “living in the not knowing.” Part of our job, too, is living in the not knowing. To survive--perhaps even thrive--here in the not knowing, we need to become comfortable with uncertainty. That means we can’t: Know six months in advance exactly what will be delivered on what date and at what cost Know exactly how much more productive one team is than another Know how users will respond to a feature before they see it Similarly, we can’t even really know things such as that velocity will go up when a good, new member is added to the team. It should, but it’s not guaranteed. I can think of at least a couple of situations in which adding a good person to the team reduced velocity for more than the first f...