Seb Rose
Who was there
Tom Gilb, David Anderson, Pete Goodliffe, Jon Jagger, James & several others
What was discussed
How can we get executives to work better with agile... although most of the session was really about how we could interact better with executives.
From the whiteboard, we have:
1) Align Objectives with the business
- Ask the executives what their objectives are
- Write down the answers
- Measure what is actually done, to show how well the objectives are met
2) Senior executives are not interested in being educated (but 'middle' managers should be)
3) The higher you go [in the business] the simpler the questions have to be.
- "Should we stock Coke or Pepsi"
4) Recognise that there are competing projects
5) Classification/analysis [of objectives/requirements?]
- Table stakes
- Differentiator
- Spoiler
- Cost saver
6) Don't prioritise things - priority is a proxy variable for risk, so use risk instead
7) Understand you organisation structure [and change it if you can]
8) Executives will always choose predictability over profit
9) If you don't understand a decision it's probably because information is being filtered/hidden from you.
Some books/authors that were referenced:
- Seddon / Vanguard
- Argyris - Overcoming Organizational Defenses
- Noonan - Discussing the undiscussable
- M. Porter - Strategic Planning
- Tom Gilb - (gilb.com) Estimation and control
What was agreed
There was no real 'agreement', but plenty of interesting thoughts to take forwards.
On reflection
... reading between the lines: "Stop stressing agile's responsiveness to change [to executives], and concentrate on its control of risk."
