AGILE

When first starting out in agile it can be very confusing to understand its purpose. Most people start with the agile manifesto (whish is a good starting point) and then move onto the principles but it can still leave many confused and some believing its just a framework to follow like Scrum.

When working in transformations or introducing people to agile we use the agile onion diagram. The diagram is a simple view of the layers of agile for people to understand and help them grow.

Mindset

Mindset is the outer layer of the onion, everything comes under a mindset change which can be very hard to achieve across a large organisation and can take time. Many organisations want change but many are not prepared to change either as an organisation or an individual (see the change curve), however they must be prepared to open their minds to progress to becoming a learning organisation. Sounds simple but many organisations and people are not prepared for this. This area is the most powerful but less obvious. 

Values and Principles 

It's important to have clear set values, if you want to have high performing teams you need to instil values within your organisations and teams. Principles are just as important in allowing people to optimise around them. This area requires structural and cultural changes within the organisation. 

Practices, Tools and Processes

This is the easiest place to understand and start, its not as powerful but is very visible which makes organisations feel like they are changing fast. Frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban provide guidance for teams and allow a faster change to the ways of working, however only doing this at team level and not progressing with mindset, values and principles will lead to problems and obstacles to overcome sooner rather than later. Many organisations only focus on this level and wonder why they are not getting the results from their agile transformation.

Adapted image from Agile Onion by AWA, Simon Powers

Focus

Focused on new start-ups to understand what the agile onion is, the different layers and how they can use this for their company.

Steps

1. Explain the agile onion using the information and visual of the agile onion above.
2. Give examples of each layer and discuss them to gain an understanding as a group.
3. Give each person a copy of the Agile Onion and ask them to individually think about what their company needs to put in place as they grow. Keep this wide open but a good nudge is to ask them to think about what values are important, how will they ensure they keep their minds open to learn, what tools and process might they want to get/use for teams.  
4. Ask them to add sticky notes to the agile onion with their ideas & thoughts. At least one for each area on the onion per person.
5. Ask people to pair with another person, discuss each others thoughts and create one view of the agile onion with their ideas on together (they can remove ideas, merge them or add new at this stage)
6. Ask the pairs to find another pair (now a group of 4) and repeat step 5 until they have one view on a sheet for all 4 people.
7. Now bring the room back together and have a big picture of the agile onion (on a flip chart or online board).
8. Go round each group of 4 one by one and ask them to talk through their agile onion and agree as a room if they should be added to the main board. Repeat this until all teams have explained their and the room has a single view of the agile onion for all.
9. Now agree on any actions to take these forward and ensure they have owners to progress.

Time 

Session takes 1 hour to complete.

Outcome

* An understanding of the agile onion and examples.

* A view of what their company needs to do to grow.

* A singe view of the the areas and actions needed.

Focus

Focused on agile transformation for companies looking to become agile. Gives an understand what the agile onion is, the different layers and how they can use this for their company. 

Steps

1. Explain the agile onion as detailed above and use the visual of the agile onion.
2. Give the examples of each area and discuss them to gain understanding as a group.
3. Give each person a copy of the Agile Onion and ask them to individually think about what their company does now that needs to change. A good nudge is to ask them to think what areas of the business might struggle with an agile transformation  and which area of the agile onion would that be.
4. Ask them to add sticky notes to the agile onion with their thoughts. At least one for each area on the onion per person.
5. Ask people to pair with another person, discuss each others thoughts and create one view of the agile onion with their ideas on together (they can remove ideas, merge them or add new at this stage)
6. Ask the pairs to find another pair (now a group of 4) and repeat step 5 until they have one view on a sheet for all 4 people.
7. Now bring the room back together and have a big picture of the agile onion (on a flip chart or online board).
8. Go round each group of 4 one by one and ask them to talk through their agile onion and agree as a room if they should be added to the main board. Repeat this until all teams have explained theirs and the room has a single view of the agile onion for all.
9. Repeat the above but this time with a focus on opportunities for the changes raised.
10. Now agree on any actions to take these forward and ensure they have owners to progress.

 Time 

Session takes 1.5 hours to complete.

Outcome

* An understanding of the agile onion and examples.

* A view of what their company needs to change.

* A view of opportunities to their company.

* A singe view of the areas and actions needed.