You are a scrum master or an agile coach that has been working with software development teams for some time; suddenly someone else from a different department (marketing, HR, sales...) asks you if you can help them also to "do" this agile thing...

In this talk, you will learn our successful approach to coaching non-software development agile teams; the tools we use, our approach and a step-by-step guide you can follow when you go back to work the next day.

According to the 2016 State of Agile Survey the #3 cause of agile project failure is “Lack of management support” at 38%. To compound the matter, the #5 cause of prevention of further agile adoption is “Management support” at 29%. In contrast, the #2 reason for success in scaling agile is “Executive sponsorship” at 40%.

Clearly the executives and C-suite are a key part of a successful agile transformation. As an agile coach or transformation agent it is imperative that you work with the C-suite so that your org can successfully adopt agile.

Learn about the different types of C-suite executives through the use of personas. We will cover 6 persona types in detail.

Big programs? Lots of teams? What works and what doesn't when it comes to delivering and aligning agile team delivery with program/portfolio outcomes with the good and avoid the ugly and bad of risks and the pain of change?

Out of experiences with agencies like the ATO, DHS, ABS, AUSTRAC, Health, AIS and more, you'll hear the lessons learned from using SAFe, LeSS and NEXUS, including:

• Engaging SES and ELs to prepare them to lead agile teams
• How to scale with agile
• What's needed to make scaling agile work, including the role of the PMO
• They key to transitioning old roles to new agile roles
• What managers do in scaled agile
• Looking beyond software development to agile in the business

Business agility is the ability of a business system to rapidly respond to change by adapting its initial stable configuration. Business agility can be maintained by maintaining and adapting goods and services to meet customer demands, adjusting to the changes in a business environment and taking advantage of human resources.

This talk provides an introduction to business agility, including business drivers, getting started, and current trends.

There is no doubt that following an Agile process increases the chances of success for any project. However what is ultimately a much more important factor in the success or failure of a project is the initiative and drive of the people within the team. The Agile team has control over it's own destiny with the choices made on a daily basis.

Through a fictional Agile project run as a "choose your own adventure" game this session takes a light-hearted approach at demonstrating the power of a self-motivated team in any project.

How to evolve from the Scrum Mom who runs around trying to fix everything to a Scrum Master Sensei that guides the team towards self organisation

In this session the presenter will draw upon her experiences running a Release train of 85 team members and how at an enterprise level, the Scrum Mom pattern isn't scalable. Mia will explain that whilst the team may be successful in the short term due to the heroic efforts of the Scrum Mom and a few good individuals, this pattern will not allow facilitation of program level processes and execution and will ultimately prevent the team from becoming a self organised, empowered team. Mia will present a Scrum Master Maturity model and elaborate on how to apply the model based on the Scrum Master's level of maturity as well as the capability and maturity of the team and the organisation.

Agile coaches often work alone. How do we grow as coaches and constantly up our game and improve our craft? Agile coaching circle was explained in http://agilecoachinginstitute.com/coaching-and-mentoring/

I'll be sharing a format a few coaches within my circle have been using for peer coaching and mentoring. It is a predefined format that focused on case interview and coaching questions. And I will also share a set of systemic questions used for coaching.

Whilst Scrum Teams are self-organising and empowered, at scale, the Chief Scrum Master (i.e. Master Scrum Master) provides coordination and alignment to support teams’ delivery. In Government, this role is crucial to ensure that alignment not only across the teams, it also needs to be in line with program and portfolio strategic intentions for that government agency and in line with wider whole of government initiatives as such as the digital transformation to provide simpler, clearer and faster public services.
The Chief Scrum Master role is a recent concept in government and Mia will share her experiences of being the Chief Scrum Master on a number of transformation projects across large government agencies (Health, Clean Energy, Industry, Taxation, Finance) and explore some of the unique challenges of scaling in government including:
• Scaling from a team of eight backend developers to eight teams of 100 people across the three platforms with six external vendors on separate government contracts/SLAs
• Introducing scrum roles into a government structure that is traditionally based on levels of hierarchy with associated HR and PMO reporting
• Dealing with expectations that Agile teams will still meet work schedules driven by internal and external Waterfall teams outside of the sprint planning process
• Working within Gateway signoff processes driven by upfront detailed level design
Mia will discuss where the Chief Scrum Master plays a vital role to address challenges of scaling in government including:

1. Coordination of Integration to meet shared goals: As a contractor or vendor into government agencies, often it is hard to navigate the landscape and projects and programs of work can become caught up in “noise”. This is where the Chief Scrum Master as owner of the process and integration can help as their focus on tactical delivery of the implementation, can help those new to government or the agency, to understand the integration points and then work with these vendors and contractors to gain a better understanding of lead times, dependencies, capabilities and capacities external to the team, to work together to support the small batch sized product increments.
2. Facilitating collaboration: Mia will also demonstrate how as Chief Scrum Master of a government service delivery teams, she found patterns such as “Scrum of Scrums” and its counterpart the “Product Owners Council” was useful in ensuring collaboration and integration coordination across the teams and facilitate an effective escalation process. For example, these patterns were key to cementing the Scrum Masters and Product Owners relationship to put the focus on business value and working together towards achieving the goals for the Product Increment rather than working in team silos or formal sections/divisions.
3. Focus on Continuous Improvement: The Chief Scrum Master requires a very different mindset to a traditional program manager as the Chief Scrum Master needs to be a servant leader who coordinates all the team's efforts to facilitate program level processes and execution, escalate impediments, manage risk, and drive program-level continuous improvement through Inspect/Adapt feedback loops.

We’ve all heard the now throwaway line of “do more with less”, which is a great position so long as you’re not the one who has to “do”. So what should we do when we’re confronted with less? Less people, less time, less resources. How do we support teams in the face of increasing demands with dwindling capacity?

Can we use the reduction in capacity as the catalyst to create greater value and meaning in the work we do?

I was coaching at a client location and had product owners who had just started the journey. They were struggling to understand how agile works and what are the benefits. So I decided to create a board game to help them learn through fun and competition as well as opening up conversations for product owners to learn from each other. We also used this game to play with scrum masters and product owner & scrum master pair for them to think in perspectives of the other.

In this workshop, we will be playing the board game together and learning some of the challenges a product owner faces everyday and the trade offs they face. I call it the coaching joyride as the game journey will also include sharing of real life examples.

You will also help me improve the game. And a few people can home a set to play with their teams.