Agile Know-How interview
‘‘I have much more fun.
I feel like I am myself.
Gone are the days of
management loneliness!’’
- Guillaume B.
About Guillaume Bertin
Guillaume Bertin is Executive Director at Morgan Stanley. He
is an software development expert. He has varied experience
as a developer, analyst, designer, and project manager, and
has been part of different organizational cultures. In recent
years, he has been leading development teams in the
financial world.
As a manager, he tries to create team dynamics that allow
him to step back to let collective intelligence take centre
stage. He likes to see his teams fulfill expectations and fulfill
themselves. Aware of the tardiness and potential in his field,
he has become an Agile transformation agent in Montréal.
Here he shares his personal experience with us.
for the team to be focused and multidisciplinary in order to
be accountable for the delivery of a certain number of
product backlog items (PBIs), from design to production. We
also wanted to get out of the conflictual mode that often exists
between users and production teams, that is to say, the neces-
sity to know all the needs and changes in priority and to define
them completely. After implementing Agility, we quickly got
encouraging results.
AKH: What is the greatest obstacle in adopting an Agile
approach?
GB I don’t actually see any obstacle, but rather a challenge:
that of managing expectations. It’s important to share best
practices. Instead of imposing a format, you can suggest
creating a community to promote exchanges. Giving orders
and suggesting ideas are two very different approaches.
Suggestions allow you to create space for Agility, but timing
is harder to master. However, I am in a competitive field that
requires immediate results; I have to stay confident and know
how to manage the organization’s expectations.
CD One of the things we tried
to get rid of and that was well
received by the teams (but that
was initially a major change) was
the following idea: “We support
what we develop.” It means that
normally the teams that develop
something also support its produc-
tion. One of the great advantages
is that people are more responsible
for the quality of what they
produce.
During the first weeks of delivery, we experienced problems,
but eventually we reached a decent cruising speed. We often
tell teams: the more it’s uncomfortable, the more often you
need to do it to implement what is needed to make it easier. So,
if delivering quickly is a challenge, we need to go even faster
so that it can be integrated daily and that we can move on to
something else. Every time we face something difficult, we must
force ourselves to do it for the teams to find a way to innovate
and improve, and then move on.
AKH: After how long did you benefit from Agility?
GB After six months, it starts to get easier. Agility is also sort
of a personal reconstruction. Management of an Agile team
is different than that of a traditional one. The emotional
dimension and collective intelligence play a major role. I have
much more fun now. I feel like I am myself. Gone are the days
of management loneliness! I love to be part of a team where
people communicate freely and take initiatives. Suffering the
client-provider relationship—no thanks!
CD During the first sprints, it quickly became fun for the teams.
People were focused on a clear backlog for two weeks without
being disturbed. In my memory, the first two or three sprints
really went well. Then, we had the surprise of not delivering
according to our expectations. When we took a step back to
understand together, it was really uncomfortable for members
of the team. Then we had some work to do. After six
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