SPA Conference session: 20 percent time - if it's so good why doesn't everybody do it?

One-line description:A session exploring innovation programmes, what works and what doesn't.
 
Session format: Goldfish Bowl [read about the different session types]
 
Abstract:Everyone is familiar with Google's 20% time programme - but less familiar with similar programmes offered by other organisations.

What options are there? How do you get buy-in to explore such a programme? How do you make it work? What factors will kill it?

Come along to this discussion session to hear what other people do, to share your experiences and have your questions answered.

Objectives:

Uncover variants of 20% time programmes, raise awareness of alternative programme models

Share experience of what works and what doesn't work particularly around getting buy-in to start the programme, first time around, on-going evolution of the programme and possibly the slow death or closure of the programme.

Dig into what value companies and participants get from such programmes

Identify key success factors and pitfalls
 
Audience background:No special requirements, come along to listen or ideally to contribute
 
Benefits of participating:Here from the horse's mouth what does and what doesn't work with 20% time-like programmes.

Have a chance to ask questions of people with experience of such programmes.

Have a chance to talk about your own experiences of such programmes and get feedback from your peers.
 
Materials provided:Encouragement
 
Process:Goldfish bowl seeded with pre-invited people with experience of such programmes.

I've done some basic research and identified about a dozen companies with variants of these programmes. Some of these have already published some success and failure stories so we have some initial themes and topics to explore - a big one being, what is the value of these programmes?
 
Detailed timetable:00:00 - 00:05 Introduce session, recap of Goldfish Bowl 'rules'

00:05 - 00:10 Gather audience-submitted questions / topics on flipchart (in case people don't want to come sit in the goldfish bowl to ask their question)

00:10 - 00:70 Facilitated Goldfish Bowl - seeded from invited folk with experience of such programmes. Easy kickoff would be to get everyone in the bowl to briefly describe their programmes and experience. Other questions will be generated by further research once the sessions has been accepted but could include - how to get buy-in, how to launch, who is in the programme and who is out (e.g. non-devs) and why, lessons learned each time the programme runs (if it's say one week a quarter), whether to focus on innovation or technical debt or 'sweating the small stuff'

00:70 - 00:75 Closing remarks
 
Outputs:Poster at conference is doable

Blog post linked from SPA wiki
 
History:Not presented before. Could do a dry run at a Software East event in Cambridge before the SPA conference if that's felt to be beneficial.
 
Presenters
1. Mark Dalgarno
Software Acumen
2. 3.