How to grow a learning multi-site agile organization

Alexey Krivitsky agiletrainings.eu

Alexey krivitsky

Scrum trainer Agile coach

Coach for ScrumMasters Software developer

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The earliest large-scale software-intensive product development

… was the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system. Created in the 1950s, it involved hundreds of people. One of the directors of SAGE was discussing why the programming had gotten out of hand. He was asked: “If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently?” His answer was to “find the ten best people and write the entire thing themselves.”

large: don’t multisite: don’t offshore: don’t

“After many years working in large, multisite, & offshore development, our key advice?”

“After many years working in large, multisite, & offshore development, our key advice?”

“OK. You’re still gonna do it, so we wrote these books…”

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axonactive.com

www.offshore-challenge.com

Transparency can be scary

“Does Agile stink? Or is it just me?”

Jon Kern

Fast feedback on our performance

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Fast feedback on our organizational agility

org chart

1.  What is my org optimized for?

2.  How are our teams functioning?

ideal scrum team

in vacuum

Teamresponsibility

Highinteresttowardsresults

Peeraccountability

Decentralizeddecisionmaking

Productthinking

Constanteffortsonminimizingcostofchange

Highprocessandprogresstransparency

HighengagementinproductideaBon

“Your Structure is Your Strategy”

less.works/case-studies/ericson.html

“Culture Follows Structure”

CULTURE

HABITS

BEHAVIORS

ENVIRONMENT

Spaghetti code and tech debt

Spaghetti ORG and org debt

It is not possible to increase agility of an organization without

understanding its system dynamics

BACK-END

FRONT-END teams

More complexity •  More roles •  More meetings

Uneven flow

Workload and RESOURCE management

Resource management

Resource management

Cost optimization

And More complexity •  More roles •  More meetings •  More management •  More coordination •  More people

Out-of-sync development

?

Out-of-sync development

?

Work never stops

And More complexity •  More roles •  More meetings •  More management •  More coordination •  More people •  More focus on workers (instead of work) •  More complex solutions •  More complex dev process

Indirection …

And More complexity •  More roles •  More meetings •  More management •  More coordination •  More people •  More focus on workers •  More complex solutions •  More complex dev process •  More levels of indirection

Motivation is all about … Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose Purpose

Our Intentions •  Developers have sharp focus •  Сode changes are under control •  Architecture is kept clean •  Developers have time for frameworks •  …

Technical ORG

Tech org It is a complex system with technical focus. You need to have a good engineering background to comprehend and manage it.

⇒ We hire managers with engineering background.

⇒ They create more complex solutions.

More more more More complexity •  More roles •  More meetings •  More management •  More coordination •  More people •  More focus on workers •  More complex solutions •  More complex dev process •  More levels of indirection •  Less business focus •  Less learning

Variation: multi-product platform

PLATFORM

CONSUMER PRODICTS

Variation: satellite products

BACK-END

REST API

CORE FRONT-END MOBILE APPS

EXIT

“Feature teams”

Team formation workshops

h"p://blog.crisp.se/2015/10/28/henrikkniberg/scaling-agile-at-lego

Self-organize into teams Use your color cards.

Good teams are: •  4-6 people •  Good mixture of different colors •  Equal number of cold and warm colors

Much better •  Less roles •  Less incoordination •  Less indirection •  More transparency •  More cross-site collaboration •  More decentralization •  More business-focus

But…

Dispersed teams

Collocated component teams

Dispersed feature teams

Vs.

Practice “go-and-see”

“Learning teams” is new agile

Some day… Collocated Feature teams at each site!

How does your organizational dynamics look like?

What are the structural factors

that affect decision-making?

But wait! There’s more!

Org structure optimized for value delivery

product managers

managers

users

product teams collocated, multi-site

at scale: multiple product organizations

managers

product managers

product managers

product managers

???

users

product teams

users

product teams

users

product teams