Michele Brissoni
🚀 Tech Advisor & Fractional CTO | Board-Level Strategist | Inventor of SW Craftsmanship Dojo®, Unicorns’ Ecosystem & BOKaRy | Fighting IT Mediocracy 🦄
Bratislava, Slovakia
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I was born in the Dolomites of Italy, where the discipline of martial arts and a passion for speed shaped my early years. In the early 2000s, a pivotal encounter with Ferrari Formula 1 during the Michael Schumacher era 🏎️ reshaped my perspective on IT — showing me that the same principles that win world championships can also drive elite software performance.
Over the last two decades, I’ve pioneered frameworks that have redefined how organizations evolve in the software age:
• SW Craftsmanship Dojo® 🥋 — born from Ferrari’s engineering excellence, evolved into a behavior-engineered continuous learning system for elite craftsmanship.
• Unicorns’ Ecosystem 🦄 — a holistic, predictable model designed to fight mediocracy — the de-facto IT standard that silently kills more organizations than anything else — by igniting engagement and sustainable elite performance.
• BOKaRy 📈 — a Behavioral-OKR governance framework bridging vision, behavior, and delivery to generate measurable ROI for boards, CEOs, and investors.
Today, I serve as a Tech Advisor, Fractional CTO, and Board-Level Strategist, helping Fortune 500 enterprises, scale-ups, and investors move beyond transformation into true digital evolution.
👉 My mission is simple: stop transforming, start evolving. 🚀
Area of Expertise
Topics
DevOps adoption through behavioral change.
DevOps, Agile, eXtreme Programming, LeanUX, Site Reliability Engineer, DevSecOps... che confusione "sarà perchè LI amo?"
Questo sarebbe se parafrasassi la canzone dei Ricchi e Poveri.
Dopo oltre 16 anni di "viaggio" in questo fantastico mi sento in dovere di condividere con la comunità italiana la mia esperienza e aiutare a fare chiarezza su tutto questo complesso mondo. Il farlo nel "bel paese"ai piedi delle mie amate montagne renderà tutto questo ancora più magico! Il mio intento è di fare chiarezza per mostrare un esperimento, che come transformation DevOps lead e coach, sto portando avanti con successo in IBM in una divisione di circa 14mila persone, evolvendo l'agile trasformation di big blue ad un nuovo livello: LeanUX + DevSecOps. Interessati su come tutto questo sia possibile? Bene preparatevi ad ascoltare "DevOps adoption through behavioral change".
Nella mia sessione mostrerò, molto rapidamente, come si sia arrivati a questo momento storico dell'IT. Un breve excursus per fissare la reatà attuale; una realtà dove DevOps è una buzzword per generare facili profitti con clienti in cerca di veloce automazione. Questa introduzione su DevOps è doverosa perchè mi permettterà di dimostrare come invece, tutto discenda da eXtreme Programming; altresì come sarebbe possibile implementare correttamente il pilastro della CI (continuous integration)? Dall'altra però, DevOps non è solamente XP 2.0 ma qualchecosa di più esteso, di più radicato nella cultura di un'azienda. Per parafrasare Google: "Devops implement XP"!
Arrivati a capire come la chiave d'adozione di un'effettiva DevOps-DevSecOps-UxDevSecOps, sia la giusta cultura, chiuderò l'intervento mostrando la mia ricetta, nata dopo tanti fallimenti, successi e "continuous improvement" su multipli domini (IT, F1, sport agonistici e relativa psicologia sportiva), che grazie al dipartimento di neuscienze, mi ha permesso di creare un "behavioral change framework" che, abbattendo le barriere della naturale resistenza umana al cambiamento, riesce ad iniettare atomic habits, su persone, teams, departements, etc. per sanare i dysfunctional behaviors che compromettono l'adozione e la comprensione della giusta cultura che abbracci nel suo completo spetttro lean, agile, XP e devops.
Come cavalli di battaglia, per mostrare come applicare questa filosofia di trasformazione, userò 2 degli anti pattern che amo di più:
- CD senza CI
- E2E test automation senza TDD
Sperando di potervi offrire tutto questo sul palco, vi porgo i miei più cordiali saluti.
/CHEER
Mike
Building a Culture of SW Craftsmanship
In this engaging talk, I will delve into the world of Internal Development Platforms (IDPs) and explore their impact on code quality. While IDPs are widely known for their ability to enhance delivery speed, we will uncover the reality that they alone cannot guarantee significant improvements in code quality. Drawing upon compelling data, we will examine the limitations of IDPs and how they fall short in addressing the code quality gap.
However, all is not lost! We will introduce a powerful solution: SW Craftsmanship practices. These practices act as the vital bridge between IDPs and code quality enhancement. By embracing software craftsmanship principles such as code reviews, test-driven development (TDD), time management, focus, and collaboration, organizations can achieve comprehensive improvements in code quality and teams' happiness.
But how can we ensure sustainable learning and the widespread adoption of SW Craftsmanship practices? That's where the modern dojo continuous training system comes into play. My innovative approach, inspired by neuroscience and behavioral psychology, fosters a culture of continuous improvement and enables the dissemination of SW Craftsmanship across any organization. I will explore the remarkable benefits of this approach and its ability to make learning sustainable, empowering individuals and teams to master their craft, deep diving into more than 10 years of data over multiple organizations and more than 1000 craftspersons joined my platform.
Join me as we uncover the untapped potential of SW Craftsmanship in conjunction with Internal Development Platforms, revolutionizing the way you're gonna approach code quality and driving organizational excellence. Get ready to elevate your understanding and take away actionable insights to propel your software development practices to new heights.
Stop Transforming, Start Evolving
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, traditional transformation efforts (the so-called by-the-book) fall short, leading to wasted resources and dramatically increasing burnout and disengagement. In this talk, I will explore the critical shift from transformation to evolution, emphasizing a continuous, data-driven approach based on human-centric behavioral engineering. I will demonstrate how leveraging data can empower leaders to make informed decisions, foster a culture of continuous improvement, and drive sustainable organizational growth, surpassing traditional frameworks and progressing through the evolution stages in the ShuHaRi model. Attendees will learn practical strategies to harness data for digital excellence, incorporating OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and KBIs (Key Behavior Indicators) to unlock their organization’s full potential.
In the Heart 🩺 of the DOJO🇯🇵 13 Years of SW Craftsmanship With 15,000 Elite Developers 🌟
Learnings from a Martial Arts instructor shaped a Dojo to go beyond the conventional best practices of the Elite IT Arenas.
Step into the heart of the dojo, where I, a seasoned martial arts instructor, invite you to embark on a transformative journey through the SW Craftsmanship Dojo's extraordinary odyssey. In this captivating narrative, I unfold the tale of our IT dojo—a fusion of age-old martial arts principles and the cutting-edge disruptions brought by cloud native technologies, containers, AI, and the transformative DevOps revolution that unfolded in 2010.
As the experiment unfolded, profound insights emerged, with neuroscience acting as a catalytic force, fostering neuroplasticity and enriching information retention. Beyond the mere technical aspects, we ventured into the realm of behavioral psychology, addressing the inherent social challenges that organizations face. This led us to refine our approach through meticulous observations and purposefully designed role-play-game sessions, birthing over 100 Key Behavioral Indicators (KBIs) that became the foundational elements of our unique approach.
The pivotal year of 2018 witnessed the remarkable convergence of our SW Craftsmanship Dojo with the renowned DORA model. This symbiotic integration not only propelled our XP-anchored curriculum into the technical domain of DevOps and DORA but also extended into the realms of neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and lean Product Management. Our journey, meticulously documented, transformed from an experiment into a comprehensive research endeavor, accumulating valuable insights from the experiences of over 15,000 individuals over the span of 13 years.
So, join me on this immersive tour into the discoveries of the SW Craftsmanship Dojo. Allow me to share the profound lessons learned and unique insights gained during this transformative voyage—a journey that has undoubtedly left an indelible mark on 15,000 elite developers. Together, let's redefine excellence in software craftsmanship and unlock new horizons in the dynamic world of IT.
Metrics and Specific techniques
1. Metrics:
- Student Progress Tracking:
o Key Behavioral Indicators (KBIs) on individual level
o Personal Code Base analysis
o Graduation tests from white to black belt
o DASA Competence model
- Team Progress Tracking:
o Key Behavioral Indicators (KBIs) on individual level
o Team Code Base analysis
o DORA model
o DORA quick check and related prioritization framework
- Curriculum Effectiveness:
o 5-star reviews
o Dojo anonymous surveys
- OKR Success Metrics:
o Connect company OKRs with technical excellence dedicated KRs to address improvements on teams within the dojo
2. Specific Techniques:
- Coding Kata
- Gamification
- Virtual dojo experience
- Role-play-game Sessions
- Neuroplasticity Training
- Behavioral Psychology Integration (observation, and transformation)
- Samman Coaching Methodology
- SW Craftsmanship dojo Curriculum Convergence with DORA Core Model
- Learn from the back of the room on a Cross-disciplinary Learning (XP, Agile and Scaled Agile frameworks, LeanUX, Product management, DevOps)
- Code Analysis (statical and behavioural) for Technical Capability Assessment
- Agile Transformation Techniques
- Coaching for performance Techniques
- Behavioural Coaching Techniques (Arbinger, Black swan)
- XP, LeanUX, Lean Product Management Implementation
- Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) Practices
- Large-Scale Agile Adoption Techniques
Lessons Learned
- Underestimating the diverse needs of companies based on their size was a significant oversight. A startup's dojo can undergo a fully immersive 6-month evolution within the Samman technical coaching method. Conversely, for a corporation, it necessitates a more diluted intensity, functioning as a weekly activity supplemented by homework.
- The implementation of the Judo belt system's wisdom, clustering expertise, proved groundbreaking in creating a safe space that accelerates the learning curve for both acolytes and experts.
- The principle of 'Divide and impera' extends its efficacy to technical practices. Focusing on one practice, as opposed to an extensive toolbox, proves to be more effective in achieving mastery.
- Large corporations lag in objective and holistic indicators around SW Craftsmanship. 98% of developers had never experienced a kata in their careers.
- The average time to wire the atomic habit of doing TDD is 3 months of daily practice. To being able to master all it's flavours, tapping into ATDD, and BDD, roughly 9 months of daily practice and discipline are required.
- Developers don't embrace time management (0.01% reported to know and use the pomodoro technique), thus, in average, a corporate developer is able to code "in-the-flow" for less than 5 pomodori/day.
- Teams use OKRs without understanding the different methodologies: "measure what matters," "radical focus," "north star," and where to use them.
- Test automation and TDD face challenges as cornerstones in DevOps and CI/CD adoption due to dysfunctional product management. 93% of students and their teams, are observed with efficiency problems due to poor product discovery capability.
- TDD adoption is hindered by challenges in dysfunctional product management and the subsequential difficulty of upfront test design.
- Students, influenced by the GIJoe fallacy, believe they can do TDD but fail to implement it effectively. Indeed, only 0.2% of students effectively use all five Test Doubles.
- Still a green belt level, milestone of tapping into high performance, less than 10% of students master a proper Double Loop passing through the realm of BDD, ATDD, TDD seamlessly.
- At blue belt level instead, less than 15% is master the skills to switch between Chicago and London style.
- At white belt level, the cognitive load from reading unclean code prevents the initiation of writing clean code.
Italian Agile Days 2024 Sessionize Event
Italian Agile Days 2023 Sessionize Event
Michele Brissoni
🚀 Tech Advisor & Fractional CTO | Board-Level Strategist | Inventor of SW Craftsmanship Dojo®, Unicorns’ Ecosystem & BOKaRy | Fighting IT Mediocracy 🦄
Bratislava, Slovakia
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