moving to agile
Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review Agile engineering in the face of industry conservatism Agile management was developed around software engineering. A new study argues that software and traditional engineering differ in that where software is forward thinking and not afraid of the radical (as long as it works), traditional engineering is a little slower and steadier to take on new ways of working. This conservatism was found to be one of the major issues in preventing ‘agile management’ being used in traditional forms of engineering. Sprint and scrum
The system of agile engineering management preferred was the ‘scrum’ method. This can be seen in the pictogram above. Tasks are broken down into short run sprints that last between 2-4 weeks. To get through each sprint there are daily, 15 minute meetings where the follow types of questions are asked: • What has been done since yesterday? • What is planned today? • Are there any impediments affecting the scope of what can be done? There are three roles present in the scrum meeting:
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Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review 1. The Product Owner is the ‘voice of the customer’ and represents the stakeholders. 2. The Scrum Master deals with any impediments in the process. 3. The Development Team is 3-9 people with cross-functional skills.
They are self organised – there is no project management system in place. In addition to these groups there is external expertise that is brought in as desired. Additionally, there are two ‘backlogs’. 1. The Product Backlog is an ordered list of requirements prioritised by the Product Owners. The size and complexity of the product backlog is determined by the development team. 2. The Sprint backlog, which is the list of work for the next Sprint. This is owned by the Development Team who share it between them. Finally, there is a ‘burn down’ board that shows the remaining and completed work as well as the progress of the Sprint. Tasks should take no longer than 12 hours or one working day. Motivators Motivators are the drivers behind the Scrum method and these were used in the study to measure the success of the implementation of a pilot project. The study used the CHAMPFROGS Moving Motivator scale to compare the difference between software engineering and traditional engineering teams: • Curiosity: I have plenty of things to investigate and to think about. • Honour: I feel proud that my personal values are reflected in how I work. • Acceptance: The people around me approve of what I do and who I am. • Mastery: My work challenges my competence but it is still within my abilities. • Power: There is enough room for me to influence what happens around me. • Freedom: I am independent of others with my work and my responsibilities. • Relatedness: I have good social contacts with the people in my work. • Order: There are enough rules and policies for a stable environment. • Goal: My purpose in life is reflected in the work that I do. • Status: My position is good and isrecognised by the people who work with me.
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Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review Where to use Agile Engineering?
Agile Engineering methodology shouldn’t be used for every task as there are different approaches dependent on the level of employee engagement needed and the level of task complexity faced: WP or Work Package approach: The ‘Work Package’ (WP) approach in Fig 2 above is where there is low employee engagement and low task complexity. Engagement is the amount of focus required by the employee without making serious errors. This might be on a production line of simple tasks or one where experts quietly do one extended job. There is no collaboration or communication required. They can just do the task. The Incremental approach is where there is low engagement and high complexity. One example may be a complex task where outside experts have come in to break it down into simpler jobs. Communication may be required to explain the ‘big picture’ position but the task will largely be handled as a work package. Agile communications practices are required in a low complexity / high employee engagement scenario where collaboration and information sharing is to complete the task. The employees tend to be creatives and should feel integrated and appreciated in the team. There is usually more management input but this produces greater output from the team. Agile engineering comes in where there is high complexity and high engagement. “This approach combines elements of agile communication and the incremental approach. Following the elements as introduced in Figure 1, enables the maximization of the output of the project team by structuring the work into small pieces and working through them. At
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Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review the same time improvements are believed to be realised regarding employee engagement and motivation by integrating the team in the project planning and also the decision making.” Instead of a project manager running the process you have the Scrum Master and the Product Owner keeping things on track and responding to changes in requirement. Study and results The project testing agile engineering was run in a research & development (R&D) team in a multinational company. There was a wide range of ages of the participants, who engaged in a project using the new management system. The research found that using the CHAMPFROGS motivation measurement system successful agile engineering teams had high levels of 1. Curiosity 2. Mastery 3. Power Followed by (as motivators) 4. Freedom and 5. Status. The study found that engineers starting to use agile approaches tended to show significant increases in curiosity as well as a higher drive for mastery and power or in other words a greater interest in being able to influence the outcomes of the project, from when they have been involved in traditional engineering projects. Further, engineers adopting agile also felt a comparatively greater level of relatedness or connection with the team . The research argues that it is conservative mind-sets that hold traditional engineers back from attempting a more agile approach. Reference Hecker, P, Kolb, A, “Agile Engineering: Introduction of a New Management Concept” (2016) Journal of Applied Leadership and Management 4, 41 - 50
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Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review Editor’s Post Script Whilst this study is focussing on the adoption of agile in engineering, the findings may well apply to other areas such as management, organisational development and HR for example. Overview This study looked at a pilot project where a team of engineers moved from a traditional engineering approach where the project is typically owned and managed by a project manager to an agile approach with the project being owned and ‘managed’ by a 1. Scrum manager and 2. A product owner The study found that once the engineers understood the process the following motivational attributes increased for the engineers involved in the agile project: 1. Curiosity 2. Mastery 3. Power 4. Freedom 5. Status, 6. Relatedness It also argued that traditional engineers tend to stay away from agile due to conservatism.
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Copyright 2017©The Oxford Review - All rights reserved
The system of agile engineering management preferred was the ‘scrum’ method. This can be seen in the pictogram above. Tasks are broken down into short run sprints that last between 2-4 weeks. To get through each sprint there are daily, 15 minute meetings where the follow types of questions are asked: • What has been done since yesterday? • What is planned today? • Are there any impediments affecting the scope of what can be done? There are three roles present in the scrum meeting:
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Copyright 2017©The Oxford Review - All rights reserved
Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review 1. The Product Owner is the ‘voice of the customer’ and represents the stakeholders. 2. The Scrum Master deals with any impediments in the process. 3. The Development Team is 3-9 people with cross-functional skills.
They are self organised – there is no project management system in place. In addition to these groups there is external expertise that is brought in as desired. Additionally, there are two ‘backlogs’. 1. The Product Backlog is an ordered list of requirements prioritised by the Product Owners. The size and complexity of the product backlog is determined by the development team. 2. The Sprint backlog, which is the list of work for the next Sprint. This is owned by the Development Team who share it between them. Finally, there is a ‘burn down’ board that shows the remaining and completed work as well as the progress of the Sprint. Tasks should take no longer than 12 hours or one working day. Motivators Motivators are the drivers behind the Scrum method and these were used in the study to measure the success of the implementation of a pilot project. The study used the CHAMPFROGS Moving Motivator scale to compare the difference between software engineering and traditional engineering teams: • Curiosity: I have plenty of things to investigate and to think about. • Honour: I feel proud that my personal values are reflected in how I work. • Acceptance: The people around me approve of what I do and who I am. • Mastery: My work challenges my competence but it is still within my abilities. • Power: There is enough room for me to influence what happens around me. • Freedom: I am independent of others with my work and my responsibilities. • Relatedness: I have good social contacts with the people in my work. • Order: There are enough rules and policies for a stable environment. • Goal: My purpose in life is reflected in the work that I do. • Status: My position is good and isrecognised by the people who work with me.
www.oxford-review.com
Copyright 2017©The Oxford Review - All rights reserved
Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review Where to use Agile Engineering?
Agile Engineering methodology shouldn’t be used for every task as there are different approaches dependent on the level of employee engagement needed and the level of task complexity faced: WP or Work Package approach: The ‘Work Package’ (WP) approach in Fig 2 above is where there is low employee engagement and low task complexity. Engagement is the amount of focus required by the employee without making serious errors. This might be on a production line of simple tasks or one where experts quietly do one extended job. There is no collaboration or communication required. They can just do the task. The Incremental approach is where there is low engagement and high complexity. One example may be a complex task where outside experts have come in to break it down into simpler jobs. Communication may be required to explain the ‘big picture’ position but the task will largely be handled as a work package. Agile communications practices are required in a low complexity / high employee engagement scenario where collaboration and information sharing is to complete the task. The employees tend to be creatives and should feel integrated and appreciated in the team. There is usually more management input but this produces greater output from the team. Agile engineering comes in where there is high complexity and high engagement. “This approach combines elements of agile communication and the incremental approach. Following the elements as introduced in Figure 1, enables the maximization of the output of the project team by structuring the work into small pieces and working through them. At
www.oxford-review.com
Copyright 2017©The Oxford Review - All rights reserved
Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review the same time improvements are believed to be realised regarding employee engagement and motivation by integrating the team in the project planning and also the decision making.” Instead of a project manager running the process you have the Scrum Master and the Product Owner keeping things on track and responding to changes in requirement. Study and results The project testing agile engineering was run in a research & development (R&D) team in a multinational company. There was a wide range of ages of the participants, who engaged in a project using the new management system. The research found that using the CHAMPFROGS motivation measurement system successful agile engineering teams had high levels of 1. Curiosity 2. Mastery 3. Power Followed by (as motivators) 4. Freedom and 5. Status. The study found that engineers starting to use agile approaches tended to show significant increases in curiosity as well as a higher drive for mastery and power or in other words a greater interest in being able to influence the outcomes of the project, from when they have been involved in traditional engineering projects. Further, engineers adopting agile also felt a comparatively greater level of relatedness or connection with the team . The research argues that it is conservative mind-sets that hold traditional engineers back from attempting a more agile approach. Reference Hecker, P, Kolb, A, “Agile Engineering: Introduction of a New Management Concept” (2016) Journal of Applied Leadership and Management 4, 41 - 50
www.oxford-review.com
Copyright 2017©The Oxford Review - All rights reserved
Research Intelligence Brief – The Oxford Review Editor’s Post Script Whilst this study is focussing on the adoption of agile in engineering, the findings may well apply to other areas such as management, organisational development and HR for example. Overview This study looked at a pilot project where a team of engineers moved from a traditional engineering approach where the project is typically owned and managed by a project manager to an agile approach with the project being owned and ‘managed’ by a 1. Scrum manager and 2. A product owner The study found that once the engineers understood the process the following motivational attributes increased for the engineers involved in the agile project: 1. Curiosity 2. Mastery 3. Power 4. Freedom 5. Status, 6. Relatedness It also argued that traditional engineers tend to stay away from agile due to conservatism.
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Copyright 2017©The Oxford Review - All rights reserved
