Julie Wyman
Excella
Julie Wyman is an Agile Coach with Excella Consulting. She is a Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) and IC-Agile Certified Professional in Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC) with over eight years of experience in areas including Agile software delivery, traditional project management, and client training. Julie has coached multiple globally distributed teams to deliver, while leveraging Scrum, Kanban, and other Agile frameworks, to drive continuous improvement. She has coached development and business teams in commercial, federal, and non-profit environments, at places such as Thomson Reuters, Caterpillar, Appian, and DHS. Julie enjoys finding new ways to make trainings, workshops, and retrospectives more engaging, through the use of interactive games and activities.
Responding to Change Over Following a Plan: Agile Lessons from Antarctica
I spent January 2018 in Antarctica hanging out with penguins, whales, and seals. It was about as different from my day-to-day work as can be. And yet, on my long flight home, I could not help but reflect on how well my trip aligned with one specific value of the Agile Manifesto: Responding to change over following a plan.
**Session Outline**
**1. Agile Manifesto recap**
* Responding to change over following a plan
* Small group discussion: What does this value mean to you? What's one of your examples of balancing the need to plan with the need to respond to change?
* Benefits gained form the right amount of planning
* Benefits gained from remaining flexible
* Identify a goal, but how we get there may change
**2. Planning in the context of an Antarctic cruise**
* Importance of planning: Passenger safety and experience
* Reasons plans change often in Antartica: Weather (wind, fog, wave surges), forces out of expedition team's control (other ships), newly discovered info (animal sightings)
**3. Example: An ever-changing day in Antarctica**
* Daily goal: see Gentoo penguins
* Plan A: announced before dinner, based on weather current report and knowledge of the area
* Plan B: announced during wake up call - slight delay
* Plan C: announced during breakfast - wave surge too high, new landing sight needed
* Plan D: whales spotted - let's extend the zodiac cruise
**4. Takeaways**
* Increased empathy for team members struggling with dynamic situations
* Emphasized importance of planning, and, even more, the ability to respond to change
* Adjusting to changing circumstances is what protected passengers from negative outcomes and maximized positive experiences
* Full group discussion: How can these non-software development examples help us relate to the challenges our teams face? What lessons can we apply from how people respond to change in other scenarios?
**Learning Outcomes:**
* Appreciate how "responding to change over following a plan" applies beyond software development
* Explain the benefits gained from being able to adjust to changing circumstances
* Describe the benefits gained from the right amount of planning
**Slides:** https://www.slideshare.net/JulieWyman3/agiledc2018-agile-lessons-from-antarctica (these are from a shorter version and would be modified to include more detail and group discussion)
**Blog on this topic:** https://www.excella.com/insights/responding-to-change-over-following-a-plan-agile-lessons-from-antarctica
I spent January 2018 in Antarctica hanging out with penguins, whales, and seals. It was about as different from my day-to-day work as can be. And yet, on my long flight home, I could not help but reflect on how well my trip aligned with one specific value of the Agile Manifesto: Responding to change over following a plan.
**Session Outline**
**1. Agile Manifesto recap**
* Responding to change over following a plan
* Small group discussion: What does this value mean to you? What's one of your examples of balancing the need to plan with the need to respond to change?
* Benefits gained form the right amount of planning
* Benefits gained from remaining flexible
* Identify a goal, but how we get there may change
**2. Planning in the context of an Antarctic cruise**
* Importance of planning: Passenger safety and experience
* Reasons plans change often in Antartica: Weather (wind, fog, wave surges), forces out of expedition team's control (other ships), newly discovered info (animal sightings)
**3. Example: An ever-changing day in Antarctica**
* Daily goal: see Gentoo penguins
* Plan A: announced before dinner, based on weather current report and knowledge of the area
* Plan B: announced during wake up call - slight delay
* Plan C: announced during breakfast - wave surge too high, new landing sight needed
* Plan D: whales spotted - let's extend the zodiac cruise
**4. Takeaways**
* Increased empathy for team members struggling with dynamic situations
* Emphasized importance of planning, and, even more, the ability to respond to change
* Adjusting to changing circumstances is what protected passengers from negative outcomes and maximized positive experiences
* Full group discussion: How can these non-software development examples help us relate to the challenges our teams face? What lessons can we apply from how people respond to change in other scenarios?
**Learning Outcomes:**
* Appreciate how "responding to change over following a plan" applies beyond software development
* Explain the benefits gained from being able to adjust to changing circumstances
* Describe the benefits gained from the right amount of planning
**Slides:** https://www.slideshare.net/JulieWyman3/agiledc2018-agile-lessons-from-antarctica (these are from a shorter version and would be modified to include more detail and group discussion)
**Blog on this topic:** https://www.excella.com/insights/responding-to-change-over-following-a-plan-agile-lessons-from-antarctica
* Small group discussion: What does this value mean to you? What's one of your examples of balancing the need to plan with the need to respond to change?
* Benefits gained form the right amount of planning
* Benefits gained from remaining flexible
* Identify a goal, but how we get there may change
**2. Planning in the context of an Antarctic cruise**
* Importance of planning: Passenger safety and experience
* Reasons plans change often in Antartica: Weather (wind, fog, wave surges), forces out of expedition team's control (other ships), newly discovered info (animal sightings)
**3. Example: An ever-changing day in Antarctica**
* Daily goal: see Gentoo penguins
* Plan A: announced before dinner, based on weather current report and knowledge of the area
* Plan B: announced during wake up call - slight delay
* Plan C: announced during breakfast - wave surge too high, new landing sight needed
* Plan D: whales spotted - let's extend the zodiac cruise
**4. Takeaways**
* Increased empathy for team members struggling with dynamic situations
* Emphasized importance of planning, and, even more, the ability to respond to change
* Adjusting to changing circumstances is what protected passengers from negative outcomes and maximized positive experiences
* Full group discussion: How can these non-software development examples help us relate to the challenges our teams face? What lessons can we apply from how people respond to change in other scenarios?
**Learning Outcomes:**
* Appreciate how "responding to change over following a plan" applies beyond software development
* Explain the benefits gained from being able to adjust to changing circumstances
* Describe the benefits gained from the right amount of planning
**Slides:** https://www.slideshare.net/JulieWyman3/agiledc2018-agile-lessons-from-antarctica (these are from a shorter version and would be modified to include more detail and group discussion)
**Blog on this topic:** https://www.excella.com/insights/responding-to-change-over-following-a-plan-agile-lessons-from-antarctica