A Game of Thrones

Scaling agility is a challenge with many aspects. With scaling agility we have to leave the happy kingdom of development and have to stand more or less exhausting battles with organizational change, communication in all areas of the value chain from marketing over product management to operation.

Unluckily there is an additional and unneeded world of war as well – and we, the agile community are the cause and delivering the weapons. These are the different frameworks and approaches out there on the market about how to scale. Just to throw some names in: Agility Path, SAFe, DAD, Less, the-new-deal – and I am sure you will find more when surfing through sources on the internet.

This is a game of thrones. Unluckily for the organization that strive to improve this is unsettling, a source of doubt and a crowd of smart consultants as a white guard.

Is there a chance for the never-ending summer or is winter coming?

Published in: Technology

A Game of Thrones from Bosnia Agile

Transcript

• 1. SARAJEVO, 27.10.2014 RAINER GRAU A Game of Thrones …or: is the agile winter coming?
• 2. © Zühlke 2014 A Game of Thrones…is the agile winter coming? A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 3
• 3. © Zühlke 2014 When the methodology game plays… A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Source: http://scrumorakel.de/blog/index.php?/archives/45-A-critical-view-on-SAFe.html Source: http://www.hackerchick.com/2012/01/kanban-is-the-new-scrum.html/ Source: http://www.netobjectives.com/blogs/right-way-do-scrum/ 27.10.2014 Slide 4
• 4. © Zühlke 2014 Wars about methodologies are dead end roads If you encounter methodology fights… •Check the source carefully •Prove if somebody wants to create a hype •Mark it as the wrong messages and react Typically that fighting helps selling something like •15.3 kg agility, free shipping included… •We make dummies lean in 7 days… A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland The seven kingdoms fight against each other instead against the foe 27.10.2014 Slide 5
• 5. © Zühlke 2014 What’s it all about ?! A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 6
• 6. © Zühlke 2014 A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Become a Warden of The Realm So… 27.10.2014 Slide 7 Agility Black Brother
• 7. © Zühlke 2014 Care for core values and principles A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 8
• 8. © Zühlke 2014 Take an economic view •Create more customer value with less resources, i.e. avoid waste •Do not make your customer wait •The Fast is the new Big •Establish the ability to move and change the organization quickly and effectively while in control of risks A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Think as the Master of Coin 27.10.2014 Slide 9
• 9. © Zühlke 2014 Optimize the whole •Focus, focus, focus …and once again: focus !! •Local optimization creates a sub-optimal system •Continuously adapt and improve •Experiment (as well with methods & techniques) •Balance standardization versus diversity –Standardization: the most successful way to improve productivity –Diversity: the most important factor beside slack time to foster an innovative mindset A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Act as Grand Maesterand Warden of the Realm 27.10.2014 Slide 10
• 10. © Zühlke 2014 Be a hunter and farmer A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 11
• 11. © Zühlke 2014 Copy / paste … and adapt A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 12
• 12. © Zühlke 2014 My favorite copy and paste resources * •Queuing Theory •Cadence and Synchronization •Decentralized Control •Complex Systems Theory •Management 3.0 and Leadership •Beyond Budgeting Principles •User Experience •Analytics A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Share knowledge, meet peers, read booksand blogs * To get my concrete favorite copy/paste resources: write an email to rgr@zuehlke.comwith subject “copy/paste resources” 27.10.2014 Slide 13
• 13. © Zühlke 2014 Experiment •Experimenting is nothing evil, it is NOT try and error •Experiment while creating customer value •Learn what to use, when and how –dance with the system* •Learn about the system and the options of control •Share your experience in a neutral and positive way The method and technique never is the fault, The combination of method and context determines success or failure A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Every single method, technique has its context of success * from Jurgen Appelo: Management 3.0, ISBN-13: 978-0321712479 27.10.2014 Slide 14
• 14. © Zühlke 2014 Rich and thriving kingdoms*… A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Dean Leffingwell Ken Schwaber(scrum.org) CraigLarman,BasVodde Scott Ambler 27.10.2014 Slide 15 * in respect of knowledge, wisdom and experience…
• 15. © Zühlke 2014 Agility Path Creator: Ken Schwaber, Scrum.org A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 16
• 16. © Zühlke 2014 Core elements of Agility Path •Start where your are and establish a continuous improvement process •Address leadership and change management •Assess the agile capabilities of the organization •Measure improvement regularly A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland plan do check act 27.10.2014 Slide 17
• 17. © Zühlke 2014 Regularly asses the organizational “Agility Index” A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 18
• 18. © Zühlke 2014 Large Enterprise Scaled Scrum (LESS) Authors: Craig Larman, Bas Vodde A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 19
• 19. © Zühlke 2014 Core elements of LESS •Foundation: the Lean Thinking House •Build upon a pyramid of values, principles and good practices •Establish feature teams •Establish communities of practice •Identify requirements areas •Build organization around teams •Collect good practices from many sources A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Goal Agile Foundation Respect for people Product Development 14 Principles(Toyota DevSys) Continuous Improvement The Lean Thinking House 27.10.2014 Slide 20
• 20. © Zühlke 2014 Feature teams and requirements areas -------------- ------------ --------------- ---------------------- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ----------- potentiallyshippablecomponentincrement A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland -------------- ------------ --------------- ------------------- --- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ---------- -------------- ------------ --------------- ------------------- --- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ---------- -------------- ------------ --------------- ---------------------- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ----------- -------------- ------------ --------------- ------------------- --- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ---------- -------------- ------------ --------------- ------------------- --- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ---------- -------------- ------------ --------------- ---------------------- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ----------- -------------- ------------ --------------- ------------------- --- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ---------- -------------- ------------ --------------- ------------------- --- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ---------- -------------- ------------ --------------- ------------------- --- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ---------- Area Product Owner Area Product Owner Area Product Owner -------------- ------------ --------------- ---------------------- ----------- ---------- -------- ------------- --- ----------------- ----------- Product Owner 27.10.2014 Slide 21
• 21. © Zühlke 2014 Build communities of practice (CoP) Virtual team with common interest –A technology, discipline, functional aspect –Requirements engineering, testing, architecture, Java, automation, Ux, … •Informal approach to functional learning •Avoids matrix organizations •Self-organized and no line management (CoPcoordinator principle) Very close to Jurgen Appelo’sideas of guildes •See –http://de.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/business-guilds –http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/3361949-business-guilds A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 22
• 22. © Zühlke 2014 Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Creator: Dean Leffingwell, et. al. ® 2014, Scaled Agile Inc. A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 23
• 23. © Zühlke 2014 Core elements of SAFe •Portfolio level elements –Budgeting of programs based on business themes and epics –Kanban process using business und architectural epics •Program level elements –Prioritization using features within a program backlog –Dependency of teams is explicitly managed –Elaborated Scrum of Scrum ceremonies –Release-train as time-box on program •Team level elements –A SAFeScrumXPvariant of Scrum –With many good practices pointed at A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Differentiating three the levels: portfolio, program, team 27.10.2014 Slide 24
• 24. © Zühlke 2014 A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 25
• 25. © Zühlke 2014 Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) Creator: Scott Ambler and Mark Lines, the DAD community A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 26
• 26. © Zühlke 2014 Core elements of DAD •Lean SW development following ideas of Poppendieckand Reinertsen •Architecture based: Enterprise architecture is first class citizen •Explicitly addresses DevOpschallenge •People based: life long learning and continuous improvement •Agile modeling based on UML •Surrounding life cycle model with phases •Solution based: deliver value in form of customer solutions •Hybrid of Scrum and XP A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland see http://disciplinedagiledelivery.wordpress.com/introduction-to-dad/ 27.10.2014 Slide 27
• 27. © Zühlke 2014 A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland Iteration Layer Concept Micro-Increment Copyright: 2012 Scott Ambler & Associates Iteration Lifecycle Project Lifecycle Iteration Shippable Build Project Plan Iteration Plan Work Item Days Weeks Months Personal Focus Team Focus Stakeholder Focus Inception Elaboration Construction Transition Value Risk 27.10.2014 Slide 28
• 28. © Zühlke 2014 So walking through the Realm… A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 29
• 29. © Zühlke 2014 What I like took with me walking The Realm Agility Path LESS SAFe DAD +Start where you are +Continuous improvement +Measure capabilities +Address Change +Foster Transparency +Improve the whole Suitable for organizations with sound agile mindset Applicable in non-SW domains +Clear scaling structure +Requirement areas as knowledge areas for teams +Build communities of practices (guilds) +Collect and build up good practices Suitable for organizations with sound agile mindset +Rich blueprint with good guidance +Reuses common accepted and known concepts like Scrum & Kanban +Those guys are hunter and farmer rich blueprint (if used as such) Suitable for agile starters who require more guidance +Inspect & adapt +Based on good SWE practices +Enterprise aware +Architecture aware +DevOpsaware +People aware Valuable for organization with RUP history Scalable for small and large organizations A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 30
• 30. © Zühlke 2014 But even more important Optimize the whole •What about a combination of elements in all these approaches… •Classical methods and techniques are not per-se evil !! •Methods an techniques are neutral –such as a knife •Kanban against Scrum is like Lannistersagainst Starks •Be a warden of the agility realm Playing the Game of Thronesends as… The Realmloses while The Othersare the foe A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 Slide 31
• 31. © Zühlke 2014 A Game of Thrones | Rainer Grau, Director & Partner Zühlke Switzerland 27.10.2014 So hey, agile community: Please do NOT play the… Slide 32
• 32. Thank You
• 33. © Zühlke 2014