Workshop Results on Culture
I am really excited about my upcoming methods & tools article on culture and have been getting some great feedback from reviewers. Two comments requested clarification around supporting analysis for my thesis that Agile, Kanban and Software Craftsmanship have a cultural bias.
Here is what I said:
These results (Agile fits better with some cultures) have been validated through group workshops where participants performed the same activity after having an explanation of the culture model.
Workshop Format
- Handout the Schneider Model to everyone.
- Form into groups of 4 to 6 people.
- Each group selects a handout with either Agile Manifesto, Agile Principles, Kanban Principles, Software Craftsmanship or Declaration of Interdependence.
- Groups draw Schneider grid on a flipchart.
- Each principle is written on a sticky note and posted in the most appropriate quadrant.
Results
The following results were from an XPToronto User Group session earlier this year. I also ran this at SoCal LeanKanban and got similar results, but my camera sadly wasn’t working so I have no evidence.
Kanban
The results here are pretty clear – Kanban is centred around Control culture. So two groups with strong agreement with the proposed model.
Software Craftsmanship
The group on the left suggests that there is slightly more emphasis on Cultivation culture while the group on the right assigned the most items to Competence culture.
What support is there to the claim that Software Craftsmanship promotes Competence culture (as based on the manifesto)? In this case, I would say it is partially supported by the results.
These results indicate that language is not precised and that the experiment would need to be repeated several times with discussion and reconciliation of results to get a clear outcome.
Agile Manifesto and Principles
The diagram shows Collaboration culture as dominant followed by Cultivation. The term “working software” appears in both competence and control. In my analysis, this terms was ignored because it doesn’t have a strong fit with any of the cultures.
This result supports the claim that Agile is about Collaboration and Cultivation Culture.
Declaration Of Interdependence
Conclusions
Related posts:
- Software Craftsmanship promotes Competence Culture The rise of anemic Scrum was noted to dismay among...
- Agile Culture, Adoption, & Transformation Reading Guide This is a reading guide to the series that explores...
- Agile is about Collaboration and Cultivation Culture What is Agile Culture? In an earlier post, I talked...
- Kanban aligns with Control Culture In my last post, I looked at how Agile Culture...
- Agile Fits Better in Some Company Cultures than Others At XPDays Benelux last November, Pascal Van Cauwenberghe told me...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Agile Scout Said,
November 28, 2011 @ 10:54 am
This is so solid! Thanks so much for putting the work in to help us all understand Agile better!
Leave a Comment