Why model?To plan and execute complex product development, we believe in whole-team, dynamic organizational modeling, and that's what we're sharing with you in our workshop today.

TEST IDEAS FASTWe use models to experiment and explore organizational “pretotypes” that are easy for people to understand, and can be changed fast.

TEST ASSUMPTIONSDiscover how Legos can be used for organizational modeling and questioning (testing) of initial assumptions.

GET RAPID FEEDBACKCreate a lightweight model of the organization that we can use to get rapid feedback.

Consider the following inputs to developing large scale agile organizational models.

THE GOALThe goal, (e.g. we want to create an Agile organization to develop

Product X while improving cross-training and maximizing time to market.)

DESCRIBE CURRENT STATE OF ORGANIZATION:# of developers,

Information you need to model

CATHERINE LOUIS (PRODUCT OWNER, CST) - Principal and owner of CLL-Group.

Contact: cll@cll-group.com - Web: cll-group.com - Twitter: @catherinelouis

RAJ MUDHAR (CSM, PRODUCT OWNER) - Chief Agilist - Wireless DIvision @ Alcatel-LucentContact: raj@ripnet.com - Web: rajile.com - Twitter: @rmudhar

WHOLE-TEAM, DYNAMIC ORGANIZATIONAL MODELING

AGILE 2012 - MONDAY AUGUST 13, 9 AM

Facilitators:

(Continued on p. 2)

© Raj Mudhar, Catherine Louis, 2012

testers, project managers, functional managers, ScrumMasters, Product Owners, Customers, other roles...

GENERAL SKILLSSkills: # required per technical domain, e.g. Mobile, CAD, UI, DBA, callP Layer 1 etc.)

SCARCE SKILLSSkills which are in limited supply which are preventing your enterprise from achieving its goals.

DISTRIBUTIONDistribution of roles/skills across time zones and geography.

CONSTRAINTSConstraints such as unions, 3rd party suppliers, physical presence required in a country or you cannot sell there, others outside the firm with whom you work, skills shortages other than scarce skills, test equipment shortages, etc.

SCOPEScope of the model (e.g. development through product support, marketing through development, etc).

ABOUT CATHERINEAs principal of CLL-Group, Catherine focuses on clients in the large and complex product development space which include clients in military, power systems, telecom, and other regulated industries.

Catherine’s business philosophy is a “train the trainer” model where she enables her clients to become autonomous and independent as quickly as possible.

Catherine is a tacit culture hacker from way back.

ABOUT RAJAs Chief Agilist of the Wireless Division at Alcatel-Lucent, Raj is focused on leading a large-scale Agile transformation across multiple global sites, supporting 9000 employees across all business functions.

Raj’s transformation philosophy is to enable teams and their leaders to facilitate their own change.

Raj is a tacit culture hacker from way back.

REDUCE HANDOFFSUse the models to find ways to reduce handoffs associated with collaboration and communication.

SAFE AND FUNProvide a safe way of visualizing possible organizational change without naming people specifically.

Why Model? (continued from p. 1)

© Raj Mudhar, Catherine Louis, 2012

LearningBots Inc.STATE OF THE ORGANIZATION

LearningBots Inc. is a small company that builds learning robots for children aged 5 and 13. The robots come in different configurations, are voice activated and can be controlled remotely using a SmartPhone. The newest models are under development and are targeted for older children. LearningBots wants to get feedback from these older users and their parents as they develop a new version of their product. The robots plays educational games in math, physics, and literature.

THE SCOPE OF THE AGILE TEAMSDevelopment to Operations, Project has been initiated (through Marketing and Sales), and budgets have just been allocated across the HW and SW teams. Project will finish when Operations takes over after development.

DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES:All teams are at located at the same site.

THE GOAL•Establish three cross-functional, multi-disciplined teams. •Board layout skills need to be expanded across all 3 teams. •Prototyping needs to happen very quickly to keep the customer engaged.•Show how board-layout skills might transfer across 3 teams.•Show 3 teams cross-functional, multi-disciplined.•Show a reduction of reporting structure.

ORTHOGONAL CONCERN OR MAJOR IMPEDIMENT:The hardware teams and the software teams report to 3 different silo’d areas of management. The SW Director and the HW director are competing for the same budget for the project. Supply management is currently not part of the team, and waiting for parts could impact the hardware schedule.

ABOUT

H/W Developers: 12

S/W Developers: 17

Testers: 5

Project Managers: 3 total: 2 H/W & 1 S/W

Managers: 4

Supply Managers: 2 total (1H/W & 1 S/W)

Other: One system tester who could become

a PO.

Constraints: Insufficient skills in board layout

to support both teams.

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© Raj Mudhar, Catherine Louis, 2012

Acme AthleticsSTATE OF THE ORGANIZATIONThe Acme Athletics company makes software for sports clubs to organize their team rosters, schedules, statistics, and training plans for their athletes.

The software takes the statistics and training plans of the athletes and uses an algorithm (heuristic) that computes the probability of success or defeat of athletes and

their teams. Customers are demanding more flexibility in the model to tune the output depending on local conditions. There is only one modeler who know how all this works. And now, we need more of them.

THE SCOPE OF THE AGILE TEAMSScope is from Concept to Cash - because customers want to be heavily involved in tuning the algorithm for their needs. This involves sales, marketing, R&D, and the deployment and support team. Deployment and support teams are separate from the developers and testers. They are located on the same sites as the customers. Marketing staff are at the same locations as the product managers. (we did not list these people in the original scenario)

DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES:1.PMs are on one site and the rest are elsewhere.

2.Developers and testers are spread across different sites (each team has developers and testers-co-located) but the critical skills are only in one of the three teams.

THE GOAL•Show how the model reduces reporting structures. •Show how the developers and testers can interact more easily. •Show how customers can be involved in feedback loops (e.g. tuning the algorithms).

ORTHOGONAL CONCERN OR MAJOR IMPEDIMENT:Modeling skills are lacking. PMs demand lots of reports and documentation. A budget cut is forcing you to remove at least 5 people from the project or cut salaries by 10%. You are limited to how much test infrastructure you can replicate in different locations. You can only add enough additional test equipment to enable one more site. (Tied to #2 from “Distribution of employees” from above.

ABOUTS/W Developers: 12

Testers: 10

Project Managers (PMs): 3

Managers: 3

Marketing staff: 3

Sales staff: 3 (USA, UK, Australia)

Deployment staff: 3

Product support staff: 3

Other: 1 HR, 1 Finance, 3 product managers (2 in USA and 1

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© Raj Mudhar, Catherine Louis, 2012

GammaGenomeSTATE OF THE ORGANIZATION

You’ve just been hired at GammaGenome  as a ScrumMaster. This company does genetic research to increase crop production in the US. There are 8 designers in Research Triangle Park. The company is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.  Basel HQ has decided that ALL development must happen in Egypt.  The development currently consists of high level algorithms which are then used by the medical staff to prove out their hypotheses. When they go into production, the code will be used by universities in North America.

THE SCOPE OF THE AGILE TEAMSThe teams currently take 2 weeks to plan a sprint of 2 weeks in length, and they begin with a backlog that has been prioritized and estimated by the BA’s.  So the scope is very narrow: someone else has done the requirements analysis, user story writing, prioritization and estimation. They hope for a single-piece to flow through to unit testing before being complete.  

DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES:There are 17 people located in RTP, NC and 12 are located in Cairo, Egypt.

THE GOAL1. Have 3 cross-functional, multi-disciplined teams, able to deliver to one customer

(University) in the next few months.2. Show how the model can reduce reporting structures.3. Show how product owners, developers and testers can more easily interact.4. Show how customers can be involved in feedback loops (i.e. hypothesis testing.)5. Show how we can stop this ScrumFall  

ORTHOGONAL CONCERN OR MAJOR IMPEDIMENT:The BA’s never seem to agree to anything, prioritize anything (everything is P1) and they are always arguing over what should go in the backlog.  One of the BA’s seems to be able to get them to agree.  One of the designers in RTP just found a contracting agency and wants to hire developers locally (seems he has figured out a way to hire 3 people under the Basel HQ radar.)  The velocity of the team in Egypt is very low; their last Sprint review was a demo of an ordered linked list.  The whole team is concerned that the stories are being written without the User in mind. One developer recently said, “All of our stories start with ‘As A User’ and we don’t know who the user is!”

ABOUTDesigners: 8 in RTP

Developers: 12 in Cairo, Egypt

Testers: 2 in RTP

ScrumMaster: 1 in RTP

Product Owners: 0 during development

Project Managers: 0 - she just left

Managers: 0 - Nobody seems to know what’s going on

Other: 5 BAs, all doctors holding multiple degrees, 1 production stream owner (although not in production yet)

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© Raj Mudhar, Catherine Louis, 2012

WebtasticSTATE OF THE ORGANIZATION

Webtastic is a local start-up developing everything from small brochure sites to large-scale custom software solutions. Their services include:

•Web design•Web hosting•User Experience•Programming•Internet marketing•Web strategy

THE SCOPE OF THE AGILE TEAMSDevelopment to Operations, Just R&D, from Marketing through to final customer delivery, finance...etc.

DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES:All 47 employees are located in Grapevine, Texas.

THE GOAL1. Have cross-functional multi-disciplinary teams wherever possible.2. Show how the model can reduce reporting structures.3. Show how product owners, developers and testers can more easily interact.4. Show how customers can be as close to development as possible to improve feedback.

ORTHOGONAL CONCERN OR MAJOR IMPEDIMENT:Currently, Webtastic is without process, and managing in a hierarchical fashion where each morning the CXO’s meet and then dictate the day. Developers are thrashing with this turmoil. Their venture capital firm will not replenish their funds for 2012 until some order can be seen in the organization focusing on producing value for the customer. One programmer who thought he would have been named “senior associate” programmer is considering leaving, and he is a key programmer working on their next (Big!) client project.

ABOUTExecutives:: CEO, CIO, COO

Other Management: 1 Creative Director, 1 HR, 1 Strategic Relations Manager, 1 Marketing Director, 1 Director of Client Consulting Services

Marketing: 1 senior marketing specialist and 2 internet marketing specialists

Designers: 8 web designers

Developers/Testers: 10 Associate Programmers, 1 senior Associate Programmer, 2 Programmers, 1 Mobile Apps developer, 1 front-end developer, 1 Quality Assurance Specialist, 3 Associate S/W Developers, 1 UX Developer,

Technical Support: 2 technical support specialists

Project Managers: 6

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© Raj Mudhar, Catherine Louis, 2012