Experience report summarizing our experiences with agile transformation in mid-large sized IT organizations and challenges we faced with current methods available. As a result, we saw a need for a better change approach to help us and others in the agile community with agile transformations. Borrowing thinking and tools from Lean Startup, Kanban and Kotter we have defined a structured framework known as Lean Change. The premise behind our thinking is that successful agile transformation requires learning and feedback as the keys for success. Lean Change is founded on three concepts, co-creation of changes through negotiated change, experiment based objectives using minimum viable changes, and validated learning to guide changes through a structured validation lifecycle.

1. Lean Change
@alhui – twitter
#leanchange
August 8th, 2013
Enabling Agile
Transformation using
Lean Startup Principles

2. - 2 -
Case for change (and a bit
about what I do)
#leanchange

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5. - 5 -

6. - 6 -
As a result, we help organizations unlock their potential to achieve
better business outcomes through lean and agile methods
“We need to deliver
more value driven
services”
“We need to offer
faster and more
responsive services”
“We need to reduce
our costs and
become more
efficient”
$
Challenges of Today

7. - 7 -
Agile transformation often leads to a rethink of the entire organization…
process, people and technology becoming a new normal

8. - 8 -
Agile transformation is
hard… how do we get
there?
#leanchange

9. One popular approach is Scrum which can be considered a change
approach to help teams become agile using inspect and adapt

10. However, many IT organizations look more like a maze of functional
silos organized into departments and not teams…

11. This can be a tough pill to swallow as the change required can be
enormous at first…

12. An alternative approach that has grown with popularity is Kanban,
start with what you do today…
- Developers must
put current work
on-hold if a high
severity defect is
found in test.
- Work tickets must
be reviewed once
every two weeks.
- Only 1 work ticket
can be assigned to
any tester at any
given time.
New Build
System
Maintenance
Issue Support
Install/Patch Configure Data Load Verify Deploy
IP Done IP Done IP Done IP Done
(12)
(5)
(6)
(2) (1) (3) (3)
Input Queue
Test
Done
Development UAT
Requirements
& Analysis
IP Done IP Done IP Done IP Done(8)
(3) (4) (3) (2)
B
D
Work is blocked Bottleneck Team is idleWork is blockedWork is blocked
Board Policies
B

13. - 13 -
Progress will take time, as long as it needs to be successful

14. - 14 -
The step to starting improvement can seem insurmountable…

15. - 15 -
Your agile isn’t my agile… the adoption of agile is uneven and
inconsistent across IT organizations
Incremental Development
Iterative Development
Scrum
eXtreme Programming
Kanban
Lean Software Development
RUP
Continuous Delivery
DevOps
Lean StartupFeature Driven Development
Home-brewed Small “a” agile Big “A” Agile Methods Leading Edge Agile
The agile ecosystem is diverse and complicated*
What do each of
these really
mean to my
organization?
ImpactofChange
Medium
Low
Low
High
Medium
Medium
High
High
High
Process
People
Technology
*Representative set of agile methods

16. - 16 -
People tend to resist change
… and plans are often wrong

17. - 17 -
The road to success? Take a different approach to agile change
 Being agile is about delivering greater business value and not just the process
 Your context matters, there is no one “right” approach to agile adoption
Based on our experiences, we set out to “rethink” how we should
be doing agile transformations
X = agile method (Scrum, XP, Kanban, SAFE, etc.)
X = Agile
 The organization needs to own and define what agile means

18. - 18 -
If agile means
something different to
each organization, how
do we maximize
feedback so we can
make better and faster
decisions while
reducing risk?

19. - 19 -
Are change initiatives
really startups?
#leanchange

20. - 20 -
Startups operate in a world of uncertainty and risk
Product Risk - will you build the right
solution for a problem worth solving
Startups fail when they spend too much time building a product that
nobody wants
Customer Risk – will you build an effective
path to customers who care
Market Risk – can you find a market that
will support a viable business

21. - 21 -
Change operates in a world of uncertainty and risk
Change initiatives fail when they introduce a change that does not
have buy in at all levels of the organization
Change risk – implementing a change
that will solve business problems
Resistance Risk – implementing an
approach that result in successful adoption
across the organization
Sustainability Risk – getting the right
commitment necessary to achieving
change benefits

22. - 22 -
Lean Startup - maximize
the acceleration of learning
necessary to understand
the viability of a business
 Build, Measure, Learn
 Customer Development
 Pivot, pursue, accelerate

23. Lean Change - maximize the acceleration of learning
necessary to understand the viability of a change initiative
“Experiments” as Minimum Viable
Changes
“Validated Learning” that provides
a Change Lifecycle
“Negotiated Change” co-created through a
Change Canvas

24. - 24 -
1 2 3Brainstorm
your initial
change model
Build an iterative change
plan with small change
experiments
Systematically test
your change
The Lean Change Canvas
Is our change plan.
Build Minimum Viable
Changes
As incremental change actions
applied throughout the org.
Measure
outcomes
To inform future change
actions and our plan.
Accelerate
Adoption
Organization
Organizati
on
Lean change is a framework that takes an experiment based
approach to change to de-risk transformations

25. - 25 -
Getting Started
Brainstorm Initial
Change Model
#leanchange

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Brainstorm your change model using a Lean Change Canvas,
promoting a rapid, collaborative approach to planning change
Change
Recipients
Communication
Action
VisionTarget State
Success Criteria
Urgency
Wins and BenefitsCommitment
Top 3 drivers of
change
Strategic pillars, common
enablers
Change will stick when: Key methods used to
implement the change
Single compelling
statement that
describes what the
“destination” looks
like
Two way paths of
communication Who is
impacted by the
change
Guiding Teams:Current
Countermeasures
and Alternatives:
Time and cost commitment required from
 Recipients
 Leaders
 Change Agents
Positive results in
 Moral
 Performance
 Capability

27. - 27 -
TransformationMaking it real – Example of a Lean Change Canvas for 280
People Agile Transformation

28. - 28 -
Sample Lean Change Canvas for an IT Transformation
Change
Recipients
Communication
Action
VisionTarget State
Success Criteria
Urgency
Wins and BenefitsCommitment
Delivery is slow
and unpredictable
Customer facing co-located
teams
Bootstrap pilot projects
with strong teams
Dedicated coaching and
team pinch hitting
Creation of Agile based
Delivery Method and
supporting Tooling Stack
Build internal coaches
Build a high trust
culture using
collaborative methods
to deliver in a
predictable way
Executives and
managers
Line Business
Managers
Teams
CIO
Guiding Teams:
Current
Countermeasures
and Alternatives:
Heroics and fire
fighting
Outsource
delivery
 Executives and Business Owners 4.5 hrs wk / for 6 mths
 Managers 6 hrs /wk
 Team 2 hrs / day for 6 months
 4 external consultants for 6 months
 Dedicated team of change agents and floater experts (5
full time)
 Predictability improved (3 features / mth per team unit)
 Convert business owners to promoters (+9 NPS)
 Significant adoption of new methods and tools to enable
organization for meeting the upcoming business
transformation
Constant
firefighting and
repetition of same
mistakes
Upcoming
business
transformation will
significantly
increase demand
Kanban at enterprise and
team levels
Teams adopting agile
practices focused on
feedback and technical
quality
Dominant mindshare (40%)
1/10 FTEs experts
4/10 FTEs proficient
Projects follow the six
delivery cadences
Executives and managers
demonstrate continuous
improvement mindset
Monthly Operational Review
Bi-weekly executive and
manager update
Bi-weekly replenishment
of changes
Lean Coffees
Executive and
manager who has
cleared the way for
their team
Business owner
who has
demonstrated
ability to
collaboratively
work with IT
Knowledge
workers who have
adopted agile
practices

29. - 29 -
Systematically test your canvas using an MVC approach, to de-
risk your change program
Change
Recipients
Communication
Action
VisionTarget State
Success Criteria
Urgency
Wins and BenefitsCommitment
Delivery is slow
and unpredictable
Customer facing co-located
teams
Build a high trust
culture using
collaborative methods
to deliver in a
predictable way
Executives and
managers
Line Business
Managers
Teams
CIO
Guiding Teams:
Current
Countermeasures
and Alternatives:
Heroics and fire
fighting
Outsource
delivery
 Executives and Business Owners 4.5 hrs wk / for 6 mths
 Managers 6 hrs /wk
 Team 2 hrs / day for 6 months
 4 external consultants for 6 months
 Dedicated team of change agents and floater experts (5
full time)
 Predictability improved (3 features / mth per team unit)
 Convert business owners to promoters (+9 NPS)
 Significant adoption of new methods and tools to enable
organization for meeting the upcoming business
transformation
Constant
firefighting and
repetition of same
mistakes
Upcoming
business
transformation will
significantly
increase demand
Kanban at enterprise and
team levels
Teams adopting agile
practices focused on
feedback and technical
quality
Dominant mindshare (40%)
1/10 FTEs experts
4/10 FTEs proficient
Projects follow the six
delivery cadences
Executives and managers
demonstrate continuous
improvement mindset
Monthly Operational Review
Bi-weekly executive and
manager update
Bi-weekly replenishment
of changes
Lean Coffees
Executive and
manager who has
cleared the way for
their team
Business owner
who has
demonstrated
ability to
collaboratively
work with IT
Knowledge
workers who have
adopted agile
practices
C C
C
C R
R
R
S S
CC
R
S
Change Risk
Resistance Risk
Sustainability Risk
Bootstrap pilot projects
with strong teams
Dedicated coaching and
team pinch hitting
Creation of Agile based
Delivery Method and
supporting Tooling Stack
Build internal coaches

30. - 30 -
Plan Your Change
#leanchange

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Learning is accelerated through introducing a sequence of
Minimum Viable Changes (MVC) to the organization
 Designed, rolled out, and measured
independently
 Backed by a hypothesis used to validate
the proposed impact of the change
 Supports a pursued decision
 Unsupported hypothesis indicate the
need for a pivot
Strategy
Assumptions Hypothesis
Measurement Framework
Accelerate
Canvas Define
Validate
Pivot
Pursue
Measure
Build
Learn
MVC
Risks

32. - 32 -
 Eager adopters exist that
identify with the urgency of
the change
 Buy in for the vision and
target state
 Teams are enabled for action
and communication
 The right commitment will
result in desired outcomes
 Change is starting to stick
Your Change is not just the “target state”, design MVCs to validate

33. - 33 -
1. Increase Urgency
2. Build the Guiding
Team
3. Get the Vision Right
4. Communicate for Buy
In
5. Empower Action
6. Create Short Term
Wins
7. Don't Let Up
8. Make Change Stick
The Kotter 8 Step Change Lifecyle provides a lifecycle for
driving successful “people” change

34. - 34 -
The MVCs for your change strategy should be guided by the
Kotter 8 Steps of Change
Agree on the
Reason for Change
Negotiate the
Change
Validate Adoption Verify Improvement
Why Should I change? What change am I
willing to adopt?
Am I able to adopt the
change?
Is the change making a
difference?
! ! ! !
 Build a canvas with
the change
recipients
 Socialize with
eager adopters /
guiding teams
 Mockup a target
state and make
commitments
explicit
 Agree on a set of
hypothesis as
improvements
 Champions
completes target
Validated Adoption
Graph
 Execute
improvements and
validate qualitatively
with teams during
retrospectives
 Update Validated
Adoption Graph
 Continue until
change is stabilizing
 Associate metrics to
MVCs
 Measure before and
after each MVC
 Cumulative Flow
Diagram and SPC
Charts are reviewed
weekly

35. - 35 -
Bring the MVC as close as you can to your change recipients
with a Change Canvas and Kanban
Change
Recipients
Communication
Action
VisionTarget State
Success Criteria
Urgency
Wins and BenefitsCommitment
DoneLearnIntroducePrepareThis Week2 Weeks3 Weeks4 Weeks2 months
Improvement
Improvement
Improvement
Improvement
Improvement
Improvement
Improvement
Improvement
Improvement
Improvement Improvement
Improvement Improvement
1 11
22
2 2
12
3

36. - 36 -
Plan and Test the
Change
#leanchange

37. - 37 -
An initial Change Canvas was developed to drive the problem interview
with the change recipients to understand the reason for change
Change
Recipients
Communication
Action
VisionTarget State
Success Criteria
Urgency
Wins and BenefitsCommitment
DoneLearnIntroducePrepareThis Week2 Weeks3 Weeks4 Weeks2 months
Inconsistent
delivery practices
interfering with
delivery speed and
predictability
Inconsistent
customer
interactions
interfering with
effective
collaboration
End-to-end adoption of
transformation method
and components
2-4 Experts
~10 Proficient
1 Exec and Manager
proficient in managing
system of work
Create high performing
team through adoption
of kanban and agile
practices
Bi-weekly status to
executives
Bi-weekly replenishment
with business and team
Refine Kanban
Adopt Agile Practices
Adopt Cadences
Introduce Metrics
1 Executive
1 Business
Owner
1 Manager
Team of 10
1 Executive 6 hrs / wk
1 Manager 6 hrs / wk
1 Business Owner 4. 5 hrs / wk
Team 2 hrs / wk 3 Features / month per unit of capacity
Convert Business Owner to Promoter (+9 NPS)
Focus Topics Secondary Topics

38. - 38 -
Negotiated Change – every step is an opportunity to negotiate
the change to meet the needs of the change recipients

39. - 39 -
Crucial feedback was provided, change was negotiated and
a revised problem and solution was agreed upon
Change
Recipients
Communication
Action
VisionTarget State
Success Criteria
Urgency
Wins and BenefitsCommitment
DoneLearnIntroducePrepareThis Week2 Weeks3 Weeks4 Weeks2 months
Deliver a realistic
“product” the
customer wants by
Oct 15th
Establish confidence
in ITs ability to
delivery
Realistic throughput and
continuous flow
Regular replenishment
Collaborative modeling and
technical practices to avoid
surprises
Deliver 6 features / month to hit
Oct 15 w/ agreed upon feature
counts
Zero defects that disrupts
business activity
Team that has gained the
trust and confidence of the
business by delivering the
best product possible
together
Daily modeling workshops
Bi-Weekly MMF Planning
Bi-Weekly Replenishment
Weekly Lean Metrics Reporting
Establish:
MMF Planning and Replenishment
Adopt collaborative modeling
practices
Adopt technical automation
1 Executive
1 Manager
1 Business Owner
1 Business PM
1 Manager
Team of 10
PM – 1 hr / day
Dev + Test – 1 hr every other day
BA + Business SMEs – 2 hrs /day
Business Owner and PM – 2 hrs / wk
Increased throughput to 6 features / month
Greater efficiency and quality due to automation
Customer Promoter (+9 NPS)
Proven and adopted tooling framework and delivery model
Catch problems earlier
to avoid surprising the
customer
Proven, repeatable process
model + tooling framework
for future project teams to
apply

40. - 40 -
A set of improvements of the change were then defined to
achieve the target state solution
Change
Recipients
Communication
Action
VisionTarget State
Success Criteria
Urgency
Wins and BenefitsCommitment
DoneLearnIntroducePrepareThis Week2 Weeks3 Weeks4 Weeks2 months
Deliver a realistic
“product” the
customer wants by
Oct 15th
Establish confidence
in ITs ability to
delivery
Realistic throughput and
continuous flow
Regular replenishment
Collaborative modeling and
technical practices to avoid
surprises
Deliver 6 features / month to hit
Oct 15 w/ agreed upon feature
counts
Zero defects that disrupts
business activity
Team that has gained the
trust and confidence of the
business by delivering the
best product possible
together
Daily modeling workshops
Bi-Weekly MMF Planning
Bi-Weekly Replenishment
Weekly Lean Metrics Reporting
1 Executive
1 Manager
1 Business Owner
1 Business PM
1 Manager
Team of 10
PM – 1 hr / day
Dev + Test – 1 hr every other day
BA + Business SMEs – 2 hrs /day
Business Owner and PM – 2 hrs / wk
Increased throughput to 6 features / month
Greater efficiency and quality due to automation
Customer Promoter (+9 NPS)
Proven and adopted tooling framework and delivery model
Catch problems earlier
to avoid surprising the
customer
Proven, repeatable process
model + tooling framework
for future project teams to
apply
Co-located
War Room
MMF
Analysis to
Reconfirm
Scope (4, 5,
6, 9)
Weekly
Lean
Metrics
Reporting
Set-up
Regular
Cadences
MMF 6
Planning
MMF 6 Daily
BDD and
Agile
Modeling
Workshop
MMF 3
Planning
MMF 3 Daily
BDD and
Agile
Modeling
Workshop
MMF 5
Planning
MMF 5
Tooling and
Vendor
Integration
Mocks
MMF 7
Planning
Release
Automation
Establish:
MMF Planning and Replenishment
Adopt collaborative modeling
practices
Adopt technical automation
Blocker

41. - 41 -
Making it real – MVC Canvas for Adoption of End-to-End
Model for a project team of 10 people

42. - 42 -
Validate adoption based on behaviours – Are we doing
what we said we would do?
Manage Flow
Score 1 for each technique in use
Daily meetings 1
Cumulative Flow Diagrams 1
Delivery rate (velocity/throughput) control chart 1
SLA management / Lead time target
Flexible staff allocation or swarming behavior 1
Deferred pull decisions, or dynamic prioritization 1
Metrics for assessing flow such as number of days blocked, lead time
efficiency
1
Conduct regular replenishment cadences with business stakeholders
Conduct regular release cadences with key stakeholders
SCORE 6
Agile Modeling
Score 1 for each technique used
Model envisioning (requirements and architecture) 1
Iterative modeling
Model simplest possible solution that can work then refine and build iteratively to reflect
evolving solution
Model collaboratively across functions
Model storming
Cross-functional team dynamically iterates across multiple models to communicate and evolve
architecture and requirements using a just-in-time approach
SCORE 1
Story Mapping
Score 1 for each technique used
Story mapping of functional requirements 1
Narrating the story map 1
Story mapping of non-functional requirements
Story mapping of technical features
Features that provide value to non-business stakeholders
1
Prioritize and group features by MMF 1
Maintain story maps as requirements evolve .5
Effectively define features (INVEST) .5
SCORE 5

43. - 43 -
Verify performance using Kanban, and scale out the
change, focusing on optimization and quantitative metrics
Kanban
 Supports a learning based
approach
 Measures the impact of
change output of business
value
 Makes quantifiable
improvement possible
Key Measures:
 Lead/Cycle Time
 Throughput
 Capacity Load
 Value/Failure Load

44. - 44 -
Track minimum viable changes through the Change Lifecycle
using a Kanban visualization system

45. - 45 -
Illustrative examples
of real-world MVCs
#leanchange

46. - 46 -
Agile Kanban Pilot Projects MVC
Projects will be delivered more effectively if there are
cross functional teams that adopt Kanban with a
baseline set of agile practices
Knowledge workers will…
• successfully decompose work if introduced to story mapping and BDD
• work with fine grained units of value if coached using Kanban techniques
• collaboratively estimate if introduced to planning poker
• facilitate collaborative design sessions if introduced to model storming

47. - 47 -
“As Is” Kanban MVC-
Managers will be able to manage
their function if Kanban systems
are used to visualize work

48. - 48 -
Enterprise Kanban MVC
A dedicated, project level Kanban system for managers and executives
Managers and executives will…
• visualize work if we set up a board
• engage in issue escalation/resolution if we provide standups and process
• limit WIP if we provide a simple sizing/capacity model
• improve adoption if we provide a “concierge” support service

49. - 49 -
Teaching the managers Lean Change as a way to build
and own their changes
Managers will
 Build and socialize their canvas with their
teams if we teach them the change canvas
 Organize a community of practice to define
experiments and improvements if we help them
build a Kanban board

50. - 50 -

51. - 51 -
Key takeaways and how to get started using Lean
Change for your agile change initiatives
 Start with the components you need
 It doesn’t have to be just for transformations
 Don’t be afraid to evolve or add to it
 Co-creation and negotiation
 Learning your way to success

52. - 52 -
Alexis Hui
Deloitte LEAN Co-Lead
Manager – LEAN Practice
alhui@deloitte.ca
@alhui
Thank you for your time
To find out more about #leanchange:
http://agileconsulting.blogspot.com
http://leanchange.org/
You can also Google…
Lean Change Live Lessons
Lean Change Book
Lean Change Canvanizer
Lean Change Linkedin Group