- 4.1 What You Will Learn in This Chapter
- 4.2 BOND Case Study Background
- 4.3 What Is a Gap Analysis and Why Is It Crucial for Agile Organizations?
- 4.4 Keys to Conducting a Gap Analysis for an Agile Organization
- 4.5 Example of "Potential Weakness" Against CMMI in an Agile Organization
- 4.6 Running Process Improvement like a Project
- 4.7 TWG Approach for Agile Organizations
- 4.8 Revisiting the Goal and Challenges on the Process Improvement Project
- 4.9 Alternative Practices and Tailored Agile TWG
- 4.10 Returning to the Peer Review Example
- 4.11 Tailored TWG Techniques and Lessons at BOND
- 4.12 Preparation Work for Running Agile TWGs
- 4.13 Packaging of Processes
- 4.14 An Agile Organizational Process Asset Structure
- 4.15 Process Asset Guidelines Used at BOND
- 4.16 Different Organizations with Different Process Asset Structures
- 4.17 Agile TWG Roles and Responsibilities
- 4.18 Effective Techniques to Run an Agile TWG
- 4.19 Separating the TWG Work from the Lead Offline Work
- 4.20 What Do You Do When You Find a Gap?
- 4.21 Answers to Common Questions When Running an Agile TWG
- 4.22 Do I Need a DAR Process?
- 4.23 Do I Need to Verify Everything I Develop?
- 4.24 Do I Need to Make Sure the Steps in My Processes Are in the Right Order?
- 4.25 Do I Need to Make Sure Process Descriptions Are Not Redundant?
- 4.26 Can Requirements Be Captured in an Email or PowerPoint Slides?
- 4.27 Do Requirements Need to Be Captured in Single "Shall Statements"?
- 4.28 Formalizing Informality
- 4.29 Summary
- 4.30 Summary: How Agile Helps CMMI
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
4.18 Effective Techniques to Run an Agile TWG
One of the most effective ways to run an Agile TWG is a variant on how I conduct a gap analysis interview. You can think of an Agile TWG as the next step in "extracting" the real "as-is" process from the organization that started during the gap analysis.
To help extract the "as-is" process from TWG members I like to stand at a whiteboard and ask the TWG members to throw out words that are either activities they do as part of this process or products they produce. I tell them not to worry about creating full sentences. When you ask people to describe the process they follow, often they get wrapped up in talking about all kinds of extraneous detail. I find that it is best to let them talk this way during a gap analysis interview because it puts them at ease, allowing them to communicate more effectively. I have also found that TWGs can easily become bogged down with a great deal of nonessential discussion. This simplified guideline I have found helps to keep the working group focused on the task at hand. This is an area where the TWG lead needs to sense the group dynamics. For a small working group that has trouble getting started, it might work best to just let them talk about how they do their jobs for a period of time. However, if the leader senses the group is getting too far off task he or she might move to my simplified recommendation.