The Five Facets of an Agile Organization

AT1
Session
6/6/2013 10:15 AM

"The Five Facets of an Agile
Organization:
Holistic Change for the Serious"

Presented by:
George Schlitz
BigVisible Solutions

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888‐268‐8770 ∙ 904‐278‐0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

George Schlitz
BigVisible Solutions

Co-founder of BigVisible Solutions, George Schlitz is an experienced change agent. Initially
introducing agile and lean to large companies and recognizing the benefits of change, George
has shifted his passion to coaching organizations through difficult changes by applying systems
thinking, agile, lean, and the theory of constraints. By bringing an awareness of complexity to
leaders and teams, he believes that large-scale change is not only achievable but should be
part of our every day. BigVisible Solutions is the largest coaching company focused on
organizational transformation via introduction of new paradigms such as agile and lean. George
is a Certified Scrum Coach and a Project Management Professional.

Five Facets of the Agile Organization:
Holistic Change for the Serious

George Schlitz
Founder, Principal Consultant

Copyright © 2013 BigVisible Solutions

Our (Somewhat-Aggressive) Goals
1. Appreciate that agile transition is by its very
nature, a holistic endeavor
2. Have a simple model to help you assess the
level of agility across your organization
3. Understand the role of leadership as
orienting shared vision and designing
p grow your capacity for
y
p
y
environments to help g
agility
4. Bring a simple change strategy approach
back to your organizations

2

But first…

The Tale of

Jorj the Pig!
(based on a true story)


It’s the oldest story in the book


[disclaimer]
The characters and events in this
story are based on true events
though the names have been
changed to protect the innocent.
Any similarities to persons living or
dead is purely intentional


This is Jorj

(he’s a pig)

This is Jorj

CSM

He is also a ScrumMaster

Jorj is Happy

CSM

He’s got a great team

Jorj is Happy

CSM

He’s got beautiful burndowns

Jorj is Happy

CSM

The team is delivering value
every sprint

Jorj is Happy

CSM

The chickens are happy too

The Product is Successfully Released

CSM


Jorj is Extatic!

CSM


2 weeks later


This is Jorg


but why? what happened?

To be continued…

Most Agile adoptions focus on
the delivery capacity of teams or
aggregates of teams.


17

Performance

A Common Pattern of Agile Teams Over
Time...

Time

18

Performance

Time...

Time

19

Performance

Time...

Time

20

Organizational Constraints

Existing processes,
gp
,
structures, and rules slow
things down…

21

Staff Caught Between Conflicting
Goals

Product or
Team
Goals

Department
Goals


22

Managers that
haven’t changed
to enable selforganization still
attempt to control
and coordinate
d
di t


23

Decades of:
“How we’ve always done it”


The CrAgilist

(crappy + agilist)


Performance

In other words, your teams have hit an
institutional ceiling.

Institutional Ceiling

Time

26

Merely trying to resolve these
challenges tactically is not
sustainable.
There are simply too many
holes to plug
plug.


27

In the end, we need to think
about agility holistically.


28

This will require two things:
1. A fuller, multi-perspective
view of your organization
2. A shift in how how you
manage and lead


29

We need…Part I
First, a fuller, multi-perspective view of your
,
,
p p
y
organization….


30

Organization: A Multi-Perspective View
•

•
•
•
•

Leadership and management styles and beliefs
about what constitutes effective leadership and
management
Orienting Vision & Environment Design
Structures, processes and systems by which work
gets done and is organized
Continuous Improvement
Collective beliefs, perspectives and habits by
which people make sense of things

•
•
•

Product Management & Strategy
Lean, continuous planning (portfolio->program)
Innovation – Lean Startup, Business Model Gen.

•
•
•
•

Product Development & Delivery
Kanban & Lean
Scrum
Multiple Team/Programs and Scaling (e g SAFe)
(e.g.

•
•
•

Skills, practices for individuals and teams
Automated Testing, TDD, CI
Stories


31

Perfo
ormance

A Multi-Perspective View Can Help Leaders
Iteratively Raise Organizational Capability

Broader Organization Capability

Time


32

1. Execution: Tales of Woe
“From Start-Up to Mid-Sized:
Failing by S
F ili
b Success”
”
Pattern: “Low Hanging Fruit”
(I
(Ignoring T h i l
i
Technical
Debt/Tough Problems)
33


We’re Growing!
1. The company
experiences
more demand for its
products

2. The company decides to
develop more product in
response to demand.


34

Technical Debt Pain is Felt Later
4. These problems decrease the
ability to develop more stuff,
after some time/delay

3 Developing more stuff
3.
without greater development
capabilities results in problems
over time – defects, poor
design, etc.

35


Results Are Delayed…
5- The solution to this is to be more aware of
the need for capacity and capability, and
to take action to ensure that we are always
improving capacity and capability as
needed.
needed

6- Investment in capacity and capability
decreases the negative effects
described earlier, preventing the
decrease in ability to do more stuff. This
effect takes place after some
time/delay, however.


36

1. Execution: Tactics of Hope
Expose “Growth and
Underinvestment” in your
Organization
Ensure Change Strategy
Includes Systemic
Improvements
as well as Quick Wins

37

2. Delivery: Tale of Woe
“Great Idea…Now Let us Get
Back to W k”
B k t Work”

P tt
Pattern: “O l iin M B k
“Only My Back
Yard” (Improving Locally)

38

PMO/PPM
- making decisions based
on old assumptions
- on time/budget
- % complete
- green/yellow/red
- productivity
- unable to move budget


Traditional
Dev and QA
Test Plan

Test Cases

QA

Requirement

Design

Development

•Two paths converge at the
end of the lifecycle
Why the high defect count?

QA the Agile Way
Requirements Elaboration
Test Cases

Story

Design

Acceptance

Development
Validate

•Single Process Flow
• Not serialized – activities happen in parallel, continuously
• Do not need to finish one activity before beginning another

2. Delivery: Tactics of Hope
Establish Holistic Goals:
• Outcome-based Measures
versus Activity-based
Measures
• Business Model Linkage
Lean/Agile Delivery and
Scaled Lean/Agile Delivery

42

3. Product: Tales of Woe
“Project Success, Product Failure”
“Hyper Productivity”
“The Least Productive Project
Success”
Pattern: “Activity Versus
i i
Outcome” (Valuing/Measuring
Actions not Outcomes)

43

Product Strategy - Are you steering your products to
achieve
business success…


…or are you just taking orders?


Continuous Planning –Lean/Agile
PPM


46

Business Model Generation (and
Innovation)
Key Partners

Key Activities

Value Propositions

Key Resources

Relationships

Customers

Channels

Cost Structure

Revenue Streams

Iteration [1/y] by [–ABC--] on [2013/3/27]


47

Product And Delivery


48

3. Product: Tactic of Hope
“The Viral (Biz Model) Canvas”
The Lean Portfolio & Program
Outcome based Measures
Outcome-based
versus Activity-based
Measures

49

4. Organization: Tales of Woe

“Making Agile ‘Work for
Us’”
P tt
Pattern: N t Ch
Not Changing th
i
the
Rules (Keeping Structures
that No Longer are Needed)

50

Existing Methodology


Re-Examine The Value of Consistency &
Standards


What were the limitations they were
based on?
And what are our new limitations?

What does ‘Maturity’ Mean?

“A mature person is one who is
highly conscious of when it’s
g y
appropriate to follow rules and
when to break them.” Weinberg
A team is a group of peopleHow do we approach maturity?

Enterprise Groups and Holistic Concerns


HR…Career Development
How to we encourage the new
behaviors, and stop rewarding
p
g
the old?
What does career development
now look like?
Is HR a center of development, or
risk avoidance?
ik
id
?
Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation


Or who hasn’t
changed
themself!
Someone in charge who stands to lose
or is misinformed

Organizational Structures


Employee Reward Systems


4. Organization: Tactics of Hope
ToC Change Questions
1. What limitation does the improvement diminish?
2. What rules existed to help us deal with this limitation
in the past?
3. Change these rules!
4. What new limitations do we have?
5. Make new rules!

60

5. Leadership: Tales of Woe
“Go Forth and Be Agile…as
Long as I Don’t Have To”
Don t
To
“Why won’t they ___?”
•
•
•
•
•

Be Transparent?
Self Organize?
Share Obstacles?
Want to Improve?
…?

Pattern: Leaders Not Leading
(Delegating all the Change)

61

Leadership Misconceptions
“agile is about development/software/etc. only”
Ask for standards/”best practices” to make it seem
the same
“Agile as long as it doesn’t require me to change”


We need…Part II
First, a fuller, multi‐perspective view of your
First a fuller multi perspective view of your
organization….

Second, a shift in how you lead and
manage
manage…


# 3: Shifting The Paradigm…

From Leading
as DIRECTING

To Leading
as CATALYZING
Sources: Leadership Agility, Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs; Action Inquiry, William Torbert et. al.


63

A shift from seeing organizations as
complicated…

Complicated vs. Complex

Complicated

Complex
The relationship between cause and
effect can only be perceived in retrospect
(most organizational situations)
-> Catalytic, experimental methods work best
(allow the path forward to reveal itself)
-> Follow emergent practices:
1. Probe
2. Sense
3. Respond
- But watch for command/control, imposing
order

The relationship between cause
and effect requires analysis
and/or expert knowledge
(expert d
(
t domain)
i )
-> Follow good practices:
1. Sense
2. Analyze
3. Respond
- But watch for entrained thinking
(experts), analysis paralysis
-> So, welcome new thinking,
scenarios

David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone, A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making, Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2007


65

Complicated vs. Complex
… To seeing organizations as complex
Complicated

Complex
The relationship between cause and
effect can only be perceived in
retrospect (most organizational
situations)
it ti
)
-> Catalytic, experimental methods work
best (allow the path forward to
reveal itself)
-> Follow emergent practices:
1. Probe
2. Sense
3. Respond
- But watch for command/control,
imposing order

The relationship between cause
and effect requires analysis
and/or expert knowledge
(expert d
(
t domain)
i )
-> Follow good practices:
1. Sense
2. Analyze
3. Respond
- But watch for entrained thinking
(experts), analysis paralysis
-> So, welcome new thinking,
scenarios

David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone, A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making, Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2007


66

FROM
“We support selforganization. We
think we will be
better, faster,
cheaper because
of it. Please start
self organizing as of
y
today.
Thank you for your
support.”

67

TO
“Together, we create
environments that
support healthy
emergence of
capabilities that are
congruent with the
growth of high
performing agile
f
i
il
teams.
Please join us.”

68

What are the
implications for
leaders?


69

What Do Agile Leaders Do?

Two Things
1. Orienting Shared Vision (For Where You Want to Go)
2. Designing Environments (To Help You Get There)


70

Orienting People
Around Shared Vision


Declaring the Vision

Leaders Who are more
Directive will Identify, Declare,
and even Champion their
vision!

Identify changes,
Declare vision,
Champion.

71

Level of A
Alignment with Greater P
Purpose….

Committed

Wants it, will make it happen, creating/changing “laws”

Compliant

Sees benefits in general. Does what’s expected, bare
minimum

Noncompliant

Does not see benefits, does not do it
Source: “The Fifth Discipline” Senge


When associates
are invited to
participate in the
creation of a
vision…

they come to
own that vision.
Identify changes,
Champion.

73

Designing Environments


Environment Design Addresses Three
Domains

Leadership
Styles

Organization
Structures

Organization
Culture


A Simple
Example:
We Reflect On
and Improve
How we Work
through
Retrospectives

Photo provided under Creative Commons by Improve IT

77

5. Leadership: Tactic of Hope


78

Building our Strategy Map – Start with
our overall objective

Overall
Goal/Vision/Objectiv
e


Building our Strategy Map – Start with our
overall objective

We are Awesome


What are the capabilities we will need in
order to achieve our Objective?

Capability
p
y

Capability

We are Awesome

Capability

Capability


What are the capabilities we will need in
order to achieve our Objective?
2. Deliver product
iteratively,
incrementally, and
quickly to customers

1. High Quality,
continuously
improving practices
of execution

5. Leadership that
catalyzes change
and designs
environments f
i
t for
success

We are Awesome

3. Innovative,
Adaptive product
strategy and
planning


4. The organization
continuously evolves
to enable success.

Old- Identify only the minimum actions required
Shared Story Definition of Done across
teams

Shared Release Definition of Done
across groups

Automated Acceptance Criteria Testing

Dedicated Scrum Master without
conflicting responsibilities
Realistic Commitment
Dedicated Product Owner giving clear
direction

Team and PO make tradeoffs as learning
takes place. Release plan is updated.

Teams have a sustainable pace and are
continuously improving

Common understanding of Potentially
Shippable Product

Reach a sustainable pace

Enablement team formed
2. Deliver product iteratively,
incrementally, and quickly to
customers

Valuable and inclusive way to work with
distributed teams

Enablement team practices vision
orientation and environment design

Awareness on possible model to
distribute and scale
5. Leadership that catalyzes change
and designs environments for success

Tools that enable emerging
processes, not shape them
TDD

Basic B-M-L feedback loop for
improements

1. High Quality, continuously
improving practices of
execution

We are Awesome
4. The organization continuously
evolves to enable success.

Automated Acceptance Testing/Criteria

Introduce Lean Portfolio to Road Map
Level

Introduce BMC

Teams focusing on delivery customer
value together

Release Burndown Chart shared across
the Product Stack

Enable transparency across boundaries

Introdice concepts of Lean Thinking,
6Sigma, ToC

3. Innovative, Adaptive p
p
product
strategy and planning

Empirical Process Control, Iterative &
p
Incremental
Scrum Master can remove impediments
quickly

Definition of Ready Shared across the
whole Product Stack

Introduce Business Model Canvas Level
1-2

Product Management can plan value
incrementally

Teams are managing their Active
Learning Cycle

Encourage decision making at team level
vs. escalation

Introduce BMC Level 3-4

Ability to prioritise PBIs across all
dependent RVs

Awareness on dysfunctions by
measuring metrics

building a motivating working
environment


Identify only the minimum actions required

Enablement team formed
2. Deliver product iteratively,
incrementally, and quickly to
customers

5. Leadership that catalyzes change
and designs environments for success

We are Awesome
4. The organization continuously
evolves to enable success.

Teams focusing on delivery customer
value together

3. Innovative, Adaptive p
p
product
strategy and planning


Build our backlog from the minimum actions

Backlog/
Experiments
Blah blah blah blah blah blah

Team Spend most of their
time on PBL development

Awareness on possible
model to distribute and scale

Teams dependencies
aligned with customer value

Recognise good agile/Scrum
behaviours

Scrum Master can remove
impediments quickly


Have a Continuous Improvement Approach


86

Summary
1. Serious Change is Holistic
2. We need:
1. A Holistic View: The Five Levels
2. A Shift in Leadership
1. Orienting Shared Vision
2. Environment Design
3. Simple Change Strategy & CI Approach

References of Possibility
1.

Execution
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_programming
2. “Collaboration Explained” by Jean Tabaka

2.

Delivery
•
http://scaledagileframework.com
•
BV Lean/Agile Portfolio Management and Planning

3.

Product
•
http://businessmodelgeneration.com
•
http://theleanstartup.com
•
Principles of Product Development Flow, by Reinertsenhttp://www.amazon.com/PrinciplesProduct-Development-Flow-Generation/dp/1935401009
Organization
•
“Beyond the Goal,” by Eli Goldratt
•
“The Logical Thinking Process,” by William Dettmer
•
“Fearless Change,” by Linda Rising and Mary Lynn Manns
Leadership
L d hi
•
“Leadership Agility,” by Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs
•
“Leadership and the New Science,” by Meg Wheatley
•
http://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making/
General
•
“The Fifth Discipline,” By Peter Senge

4.

5.
5

6.

This is just a start….MANY more available on request!


88


George Schlitz
Founder, Principal Coach

[m]: +1 949 244 1212
[ e ]: gschlitz@bigvisible.com
[ U]: www.bigvisible.com
[ t ]: gschlitz

The Five Facets of an Agile Organization

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