How can we leverage agility for organisations of 10,000+ people? We know how 5-7 person teams can become highly effective. Want to hear about the common techniques for taking a single team of high-performing, innovative individuals and scaling them up into your entire organisation? Join our conversation to learn:
• The change management challenges of implementing a large scale agile program
• Understand the meta-framework for prescriptive frameworks through to principle led approaches
• A short segment on the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and LeSS (Large Scale Scrum), two leading patterns of scaling, investigating it within the meta- framework.
• We’ll take questions from the group about how to apply to your situation.
From IIT Academy, Hong Kong - meetup.com/IITAcademyHK
3. Beginner Practiced MasterExpert
just starting
the journey
a few years,
know the
concepts
significant
experience,
delivered
results
let’s learn
from each
other
about you
4. about me
• Launched six startups in past 2 years - fashion, recruitment, education, creative tech,
publishing, volunteering
• First Scrum Master at the biggest bank in Australia, beach head agile coach at international
bank, responsible for orchestrating one of Australia’s top 10 brands toward agility
• Transformed across industries gaming companies, home loan providers, financial institutions,
international tech, government, health organisations - 240% productivity in 6 weeks
• Facilitates Sydney Scrum - biggest and one of the first Agile Meetups
Pioneered multi-language offshore scaled agile
Orchestrate Industrie IT’s Academy: Agile two-time IMA award winner
CBA innovation award
2011
5. Let’s design our masterclass
AGILITY
• foundational concepts (10m)
• inspecting scaling models (10m)
• inspecting SAFe & LeSS (10m)
TOOLS AND CASE STUDY
•tools and measures (10m)
•case study (20m)
YOUR TOPICS
7. SCALING 204
IIT ACADEMY
wa & harmony
Wa (和) is a Japanese cultural concept
usually translated into English as
"harmony". It implies a peaceful unity
and conformity within a social group, in
which members prefer the continuation
of a harmonious community over their
personal interests.
8. guiding principles
Constant Mura reduction
• fundamental units - stories, sprints, teams
• scope - technical integrity
• scope - business and technical integration
• scope - user & market
• quality - Definitions of Ready and Done
• people - skills and capabilities
• people - cross-team communications
• people - team, project and program norms
• product & release schedules
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9. guiding principles
Constant Muri reduction
• scope & prioritisation
• people & teams
• sprints & schedule
Constant Muda reduction
• over planning, over reporting, over scheduling,
over burdening, over documenting, over
communicating, over analysing, over
discussing, over engineering, over designing,
over creating.
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10. guiding principles
Baked-in constant improvement
• kaikaku at strategic and co-ord levels
• kaizen at co-ord and team levels
Descale the organisation
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11. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
successive approximation
SCALING 205
PROCESS FROM
PRINCIPLES
PROCESS FROM
PRESCRIPTION
IDEAL
Scaling down
processes:
stronger change
resistance
Coach process, team structure,
delivery approaches to tailor to
organisation via successive
approximation
12. scaled agile = descale
What do we mean?
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
self-
tasking
self-
managing
self-
organising
self-
selecting
self-
guiding
degree of
autonomytask design
delivery design
intra-team design
product context
team design
org’n.context
org’n design
scope
business context
28. work
DOING WORK
SENSING
TENSIONS
as challenges
& opportunities
TACTICAL
MEETINGS
GOVERNANCE
MEETINGS
ON
IN
work
DOING WORK
SENSING
TENSIONS
as challenges
& opportunities
TACTICAL
MEETINGS
GOVERNANCE
MEETINGS
ON
IN
29. work
DOING WORK
SENSING
TENSIONS
as challenges
& opportunities
TACTICAL
MEETINGS
GOVERNANCE
MEETINGS
ON
IN
work
DOING WORK
SENSING
TENSIONS
as challenges
& opportunities
TACTICAL
MEETINGS
GOVERNANCE
MEETINGS
ON
IN
transform
30. Capability Heatmap
“Understand what the business needs most”
High Level Planning + Product Roadmapping
“Understand what the business needs next”
Sprint Planning
“Create clarity, focus and energy daily”
Board Usage
“Work as a high performing team”
Cross-skill
“Keep our promises”
Sprint Review
“Articulate value and delivery thereof”
User Story Writing
“Articulate expectation and bound delivery”
Acceptance Criteria Writing
“Articulate what’s blocking or slowing us down”
Impediment Identification Culture
“Solve our own problems”
Impediment Removal within team
“Cadence for learning”
Short cycle time
“Deliver what the business needs most.”
Releasable Product
“Understand why the business needs value”
Voice of the Customer
“Scale to descale”
Ability to grow
“Escalate to and trust management to resolve”
Impediment Removal above team
“Have a plan to improve & transform”
This plan
“Build team feeling”
Morale
“Get better than last time”
Retrospective
“Communicate as a group”
Standups
31. effective - capability self-improving, driven by
understanding of first principles
present - consistently applied with consistency for all of the
team; not always from first principles
self-blocking - active attempts to resist creation of capability
insufficient information to assess
some evidence - capability exhibited, yet not consistently
and/or without full team participation
not evident - no or little capability exhibited
Capability Heatmap
32. Capability Area Team A Team B
“Understand what the business needs most”
High Level Planning + Product Roadmapping
- Team morale is slightly down
“Understand what the business needs next”
Sprint Planning
^ focus JIRA education
“Create clarity, focus and energy daily”
Board Usage
^ technically sound team
“Work as a high performing team”
Cross-skill
org, infra, resource constraints ^ good sprint demo
“Keep our promises”
Sprint Review
org, infra, resource constraints - retro could be improved
“Articulate value and delivery thereof”
User Story Writing
Slow in making decisions
“Articulate expectation and bound delivery”
Acceptance Criteria Writing
org, infra, resource constraints -
“Communicate as a group”
Standups
- Team morale is slightly down
“Articulate what’s blocking or slowing us down”
Impediment Identification Culture
“Solve our own problems”
Impediment Removal within team
^ focus JIRA education
“Build team feeling”
Morale
^ technically sound team org, infra, resource constraints
“Get better than last time”
Retrospective
^ good sprint demo
“Cadence for learning”
Short cycle time
^ focus JIRA education ^ technically sound team
“Deliver what the business needs most.”
Releasable Product
^ technically sound team ^ good sprint demo
“Understand why the business needs value”
Voice of the Customer
^ good sprint demo - retro could be improved
“Scale to descale”
Ability to grow
- retro could be improved Slow in making decisions
“Escalate to and trust management to resolve”
Impediment Removal above team
Slow in making decisions -
“Have a plan to improve & transform”
This plan
-
36. VELOCITY CHART
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IIT ACADEMY
BURN DOWN CHART
Standard from JIRA, with manual velocity
calculation to figure out average.
RISKS
• To be listed by Scrum Master in Confluence
• e.g. Team A is dependent on team B to deliver component X
• e.g. Platform X being built on untested technology
ISSUES
• To be listed by Scrum Master in Confluence
• e.g. environment in development not consistently up
• e.g. Product Owner availability low
IMPROVEMENTS
• To be listed by Scrum Master in Confluence
• Greater velocity could be achieved with automation of testing
suite and test execution, but requires a test automation expert
• Team A and B could plan together in order to better co-ordinate
Standard from JIRA
Sprint A Sprint B Sprint C Sprint D
4 12 20 32
38. 1.0RELEASE 1.1 1.2 1.3
PRODUCT
BACKLOG
1.4
FEATURE A
COMPLETE
FEATURE B
COMPLETE
A
B
C
D
E
FEATURE C
COMPLETE
PREDICTED RELEASE OF ALL FEATURES
Tech Debt can be
inserted as epic
OVERALL PROJECT BURN DOWN
EPIC-BY-EPIC BURNDOWN POSSIBLE
39. Team Agile Health Heatmap
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Team A Team B Team C Team D Team E
Grooming
Doc Debt
Tech Debt
Planning
Board Usage
Cross-skilling
Morale
Impediment Removal
Impediment Escalation
Stand ups
Definition of done
Review
Retro
Velocity
40. Legend
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effective - capability self-improving, driven by
understanding of first principles
present - consistently applied with consistency
for all of the team; not always from first principles
self-blocking - active attempts to resist
creation of capability
insufficient information to assess
some evidence - capability exhibited, yet not
consistently and/or without full team participation
not evident - no or little capability exhibited
Maturity
41. BACKLOG HEALTH
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Minutes & Retrospectives
Configurable via JIRA - per team & per epic
CO-ORD RISKS
• To be listed by Project Manager in Confluence
• e.g. Team A is dependent on team B to deliver component X
• e.g. Platform X being built on untested technology
CO-ORD ISSUES
• To be listed by Project Manager in Confluence
• e.g. environment in development not consistently up
• e.g. Product Owner availability low
CO-ORD IMPROVEMENTS
• To be listed by Agile Coach in Confluence
• Greater velocity could be achieved with automation of testing
suite and test execution, but requires a test automation expert
• Team A and B could plan together in order to better co-ordinate
• DevOps Guild Minutes 14/07
• Product Co-Ord Minutes 15/07
• Technical Co-Ord Retro 16/07
• Portfolio Management 17/07
• Team A Retro 18/07
• Team B Retro 19/07
• etc…
Points
Ready
(more = better)
Stories
Unestimat
ed
(fewer = better)
Added to
in-flight
sprint
(fewer = better)
Dropped
from sprint
(fewer = better)
Carried
to next
sprint
(fewer = better)
40 10 2 4 0
43. ROADMAP
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CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
• possible only in limited ways with waterfall delivery
INTERNAL FEEDBACK
• To be listed by Project Manager in Confluence
• e.g. feature x could be improved by Y addition
• e.g. We really don’t need feature Z, focus on A instead
PORTFOLIO MEASURES
• Environmental report comes from minutes of the portfolio
strategic and product co-ord groups.
• Without a testable product in market throughout delivery,
there is little reporting possible on: benefits realisation,
market performance (zero throughout delivery), or
return on investment (increasingly negative throughout
entire delivery cycle and well beyond release)
TIME NOW
EPIC A
epic B overrunEPIC B
Epic C de-scopeEPIC C
EPIC D
EPIC D
brought
forward
EPIC D
46. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio Strategy
Product Co-Ord Technical Co-Ord
Scrum of Scrums
Scrum A Scrum B Scrum C Kanban D
Recommended Target Operating Model
SPONSOR
PORTFOLIO
MANAGER
SENIOR
ARCHITECT
PRODUCT
MANAGER
AGILE
COACH
DELIVERY
MANAGER
PRODUCT
OWNER
SCRUM
MASTER
each element represents a single recommended body
GuildsGuildsGuilds
47. Portfolio Strategy
Charter: Direct the strategic capability of the program of work
Typical Agenda: macro-level organisational and inter organisational
concerns. Expresses work via strategic architecture, capability
roadmap, benefits and measures of program’s value, kaikaku (see
capability).
Typical Attendees: Sponsor, Portfolio Manager, Capability
Consultant, others as required (see involvement).
Typical Frequency: fortnightly pre-delivery, weekly during execution
and handover, fortnightly during operations.
Typical Duration: 1 hour
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48. Strategic Capability Checklist
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Has a first-pass been done
to initialise this?
Is there a group to manage
ongoing? Which group?
Does the group maintain
the deliverables?
Vision & Charter During inception Portfolio Mgmt - quarterly yes
Strategic Architecture During inception Portfolio Mgmt - fortnightly yes
Capability Roadmap During inception & each FY Portfolio Mgmt - fortnightly yes
Benefits & Measures During inception & each FY Portfolio Mgmt - monthly yes
Kaikaku Part of strtgc. arch. Portfolio Mgmt - quarterly yes
Involvement
Senior Sponsors & Executives
Senior Architect
Portfolio Manager
Capability Consultant
Product Manager
Muri
(?) Are there groups of 5-7 people?
(?) Are all the people required in the group as active contributors?
(1) Are there as few groups as possible to cover off these capabilities?
(?) Does the frequency of the meetings match the cadence of the work?
49. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio Strategy
Product Co-Ord Technical Co-Ord
Scrum of Scrums
Scrum A Scrum B Scrum C Kanban D
Recommended Target Operating Model
SPONSOR
PORTFOLIO
MANAGER
SENIOR
ARCHITECT
PRODUCT
MANAGER
AGILE
COACH
DELIVERY
MANAGER
PRODUCT
OWNER
SCRUM
MASTER
each element represents a single recommended body
GuildsGuildsGuilds
50. Product Co-Ord
Charter: Co-ordinate the product backlog to maximise ROI
Typical Agenda: Groom and reprioritise backlog at macro-
level. Inspect incoming requests, scope against roadmap and
market, current backlog state and velocities to balance scope
vs. schedule, kaikaku and kaizen.
Typical Attendees: Product Owners, and others as req.
Typical Frequency: weekly
Typical Duration: 2 hours
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IIT ACADEMY
51. Technical Co-Ord
Charter: Co-ordinate architectural vision to achieve technical
excellence and good design in the program. Manage technical
conditions to ensure team delivery.
Typical Agenda: Team-originated technical impediments,
environments/infrastructure/release co-ordination, technical scope to
be placed into the backlog, kaikaku and kaizen.
Typical Attendees: Architects, SME Leads, others as required.
Typical Frequency: fortnightly pre-delivery, weekly during execution
and handover, fortnightly during operations.
Typical Duration: 1 hour
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52. Scrum of Scrums
Charter: Serve delivery teams via impediment removal
Typical Agenda: Team-originated impediments, scope
negotiations, reporting, co-ordination of co-ordination
groups, scheduling, kaikaku and kaizen
Typical Attendees: Delivery Managers, Product Owners,
Scrum Masters, others as required.
Typical Frequency: two times per week + one retro
Typical Duration: 30 minutes/1hr retro
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Delivery Co-Ord
53. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio Strategy
Product Co-Ord Technical Co-Ord
Scrum of Scrums
Scrum A Scrum B Scrum C Kanban D
Recommended Target Operating Model
SPONSOR
PORTFOLIO
MANAGER
SENIOR
ARCHITECT
PRODUCT
MANAGER
AGILE
COACH
DELIVERY
MANAGER
PRODUCT
OWNER
SCRUM
MASTER
each element represents a single recommended body
GuildsGuildsGuilds
54. Guilds
Charter: manage knowledge via avoiding rediscovery, reduce
cross-team variation. Consider opportunity for organisation-wide.
Typical Agenda: alignment of the concerns of the practice,
good practice showcases, establish practice standards, advise
technical & product planning
Typical Attendees: self-selected members of the practice, at
least one per team, per practice
Typical Frequency: weekly
Typical Duration: over lunch or semi-casual event
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IIT ACADEMY
one per practice
55. Co-ordination Capability Checklist
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IIT ACADEMY
Has a first-pass been done
to initialise this?
Is there a group to manage
ongoing? Which group?
Does the group maintain
the deliverables?
Release Management During inception Technical Co-Ord yes
Architecture & Tech Debt High-level architecture during inception Technical Co-Ord yes
Prioritisation Prioritised backlog done upfront Product Co-Ord yes
SMEs & Practice Guilds Groups established Guilds yes
Kaikaku & Kaizen
Regular meetings setup, Agile Coach
identified All Co-Ord Groups all
Involvement
Program Manager
SMEs
Senior Architect
Release Manager
Product Manager
Agile Coach
Muri
(?) Are there groups of 5-7 people?
(?) Are all the people required in the group as active contributors?
(4) Are there as few groups as possible to cover off these capabilities?
(?) Does the frequency of the meetings match the cadence of the work?
56. Scrum & Kanban
Follow standard scrum and kanban practice,
as appropriate for the team.
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57. Team Capability Checklist
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Grooming - conducted to produce fit-for-purpose scope prior to sprint
Doc Debt - proactively identified and addressed
Tech Debt - proactively identified and addressed
Planning - effective collaboration and clarity on sprint achieved
Board Usage - effective, 3 column, information-radiating, team-owned
Cross-skilling - conscious, consistent and widespread cross-skilling
Morale - team exhibits high morale
Impediment Removal - proactively identified and addressed daily
Impediment Escalation - proactively identified and reported daily
Stand ups - achieves clarity, focus and are energising for team
Definition of done - includes all steps to automated, non-event dev-to-
production quality at a cycle time matching or exceeding a sprint
Review - produces showcase-able iterations, inspects all sprint scope
Retro - effectively self-identifies impediments, commits to a small
number of most fundamental improvements first.
Velocity - self-referencing, not artificially set, sustainable?
effective - capability self-improving, driven by
understanding of first principles
present - consistently applied with consistency
for all of the team; not always from first principles
self-blocking - active attempts to resist
creation of capability
insufficient information to assess
some evidence - capability exhibited, yet not
consistently and/or without full team participation
not evident - no or little capability exhibited
MaturityCapabilities
58. Typical Calendar
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IIT ACADEMY
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Co-Ord
PORT.
STRTGY.
(1hr)
PROD.
CO-ORD.
(2hr)
DELIV.
CO-ORD.
(1/2hr)
TECH.
CO-ORD.
(1hr)
DELIV.
CO-ORD.
(1/2hr)
PORT.
STRTGY.
(1hr)
PROD.
CO-ORD.
(2hr)
DELIV.
CO-ORD.
(1/2hr)
TECH.
CO-ORD.
(1hr)
DELIV.
CO-ORD.
RETRO
(1hr)
TEAMS
TEAM A
CEREMONIES
TEAM B
CEREMONIES
TEAM C
CEREMONIES
TEAM D
CEREMONIES
TEAM E
CEREMONIES
TEAM F
CEREMONIES
60. further reading
1. TEDTalk: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
iit.life/drive
2. TEDTalk: How Great Leaders Serve Others
iit.life/david-marquet
3. Book: Coca Cola: Design to Grow with Scale and Agility
iit.life/coke
4. Slide Pack: The Netflix Culture
iit.life/netflix
5. Website: The Agile Manifesto
iit.life/agilem
63. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
64. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
65. Vision & Charter
An interaction of the strategic level people:
• an initial fit-for-purpose draft
• continuously add to ongoing
• a forum for revisiting this charter
This is documented in an inception deck:
• Why are we here?
• Elevator pitch
• Product Box / Not in scope
• Community
• Tech solution
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
• Risks, Issues, Impediments
• A-team identification
• High level sizing
• Trade-off sliders
• First MVP identification
66. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
67. Strategic Architecture
An interaction of the strategic level people:
• an initial fit-for-purpose draft
• continuously add to ongoing
• a forum to manage this ongoing
Strategic Architecture includes these components:
• Adoption Management
• Risk Management
• Demand Management
• Vendor Management
• Compliance Management
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IIT ACADEMY
• Technical Architecture
• Team Autonomy Design
• People Management
• Operations Management
• Product Management
68. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
69. Capability Roadmap
An interaction of the strategic level product people:
• an initial fit-for-purpose draft
• continuously add to ongoing
• a forum to manage this ongoing
Building off the vision, charter and architecture, the
capability roadmap is usually established by a high-level
story mapping, followed by decomposition into the
largest-sized, highest level backlog. The major elements
of this backlog are large groupings of stories, placed on
a roadmap as investment themes.
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70. SCALING 205
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Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
71. Benefits and Measures
An interaction of the strategic level product people:
• an initial fit-for-purpose draft
• continuously add to ongoing
• a forum to manage this ongoing
Building off the vision, charter and architecture, the benefits
articulation is done at the same time as the story mapping
for the capability roadmap. Each capability becomes large
groupings of stories, with expected benefits to be realised
from each grouping, and measured against investment to
maximise the ROI of the resulting stream of work.
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72. SCALING 205
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Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
73. Kaikaku
An interaction of all involved at the strategic levels
• to inspect measures and current state documentation
• to discuss adaptations where required
• to execute improvements
Build into management expectation, part of their role
• Requires senior coaching
• Is a philosophy, not a ‘meeting’
• Use an effectively run retro as the mechanism
• May also require offsite-style workshops
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
74. Strategic Capability Checklist
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Has a first-pass been done
to initialise this?
Is there a group to manage
ongoing? Which group?
Does the group maintain
the deliverables?
Vision & Charter
Strategic Architecture
Capability Roadmap
Benefits & Measures
Kaikaku
Involvement
Senior Sponsors & Executives
Senior Architect
Portfolio Manager
Agile Practice Lead
Product Manager
Muri
Are there groups of 5-7 people?
Are all the people required in the group as active contributors?
Are there as few groups as possible to cover off these capabilities?
Does the frequency of the meetings match the cadence of the work?
76. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
77. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
78. Prioritisation & Scheduling
An interaction of required individuals to:
• co-ordinate the organisation to continually maximise the ROI delivered
• map the capability roadmap to backlog
• set macro-order priority of groups of stories
• estimate groups of stories top down level (t-shirt size)
• Delegate design, articulation, user story and acceptance criteria writing to relevant Product Owners
• Product Owners to detail, prioritise and schedule work for their respective teams
Key characteristics for successful design:
• A clear hierarchy of Product Owners must exist. e.g. Overall Product Owner for priorities -> delegate-per-team
Product Owners for specific priorities and all acceptance criteria -> Technical Business analysts/designers who
design guided by the acceptance criteria and write the documentation.
• Product Owners have responsibility for co-ordinating with all required parties on all matters that impact scope.
• Product Owners have all accountability on matters of scope.
• Product Owners have no accountability, power or ability to ‘set’ velocities of the team
• the art of maximising that which is not done is key in this role, which requires continual attention to effort-for-value
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
79. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
80. Release Management
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
An interaction of required individuals to:
• balance scope vs schedule whilst co-ordinating and setting expectations for all parties
• map backlog to a sprint & release plan
• include change management, co-ordination activities on plan
• gather historical velocities (not set future velocities) established by teams
• monitor and respond to changes in delivery of teams
• socialise the sprint and release plan
• execute releases
• continuously inspect, adapt to and improve upon releases
• This function has responsibility for co-ordinating with all required parties on all matters that impact the release schedule
Key characteristics for successful design:
• Mature technical capability for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery
• Environmental stability from development through to production
• Automated tests for as much code coverage as possible
81. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
82. Systems Architecture & Tech Debt
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
An interaction of required individuals to:
• co-ordinate the organisation to continually adhere to technical excellence and good design
• align the delivery to the architectural roadmap
• identify, monitor, and plan to resolve ongoing architectural updates
• identify, monitor, and plan to resolve ongoing technical debt
Key characteristics for successful design:
• Modular architecture developed both incrementally and iteratively in a highly decoupled
manner will aid delivery
• this function must work closely with product ownership and scrum master(s) to prioritise
and justify the addition of ongoing work to keep up technical excellence, both as new user
stories and updates to definitions of done
83. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
84. SMEs & Practices/Guilds
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
An interaction across capabilities in each team to periodically:
• includes: Design, UX, DevOps, Development, Testing, et al.
• share approaches and manage knowledge via avoiding rediscovery
• establish practice standards across portfolio
• continuously inspect, adapt and improve practices
Build into management expectation, part of their role
• Strong influence over their team’s definitions of done
• Open structures not tied to job titles - i.e. anyone can attend the practice
• Continuously updated documentation of the agreed upon practice standards
• SMEs, Practices & Guilds should be embedded in each of their teams as champions, with
accountability to coach the team to adopt mature practices, rather than being individually
and directly responsible.
85. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
86. Kaikaku & Kaizen
Co-ordination teams must run retrospectives facilitated
by an appropriate agile coach to periodically inspect
and remove impediments to their effectiveness.
Key characteristics for successful practice for co-
ordination teams:
• use kanban boards and lean practices
• metricise their work via ticket-based representation,
qualified by flow
• document the improvement actions from retros
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
87. Co-ordination Capability Checklist
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Has a first-pass been done
to initialise this?
Is there a group to manage
ongoing? Which group?
Does the group maintain
the deliverables?
Release Management
Architecture & Tech Debt
Prioritisation
SMEs & Practice Guilds
Kaikaku & Kaizen
Muri
Are there groups of 5-7 people?
Are all the people required in the group as active contributors?
Are there as few groups as possible to cover off these capabilities?
Does the frequency of the meetings match the cadence of the work?
Involvement
Program Manager
SMEs
Senior Architect
Release Manager
Product Manager
Agile Coach
89. SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Portfolio
Programs
Teams
STRATEGIC
TECHNICAL
& IMPLEMENTATION
INTEGRATION,
CO-ORDINATION
& RELEASE
BACKLOG
high level
SCRUM AND
KANBAN TEAMS
KANBAN
TEAMS
KANBAN
portfolio manager
SMEs, e.g. UX,
DevOps, Automation
sponsors
program manager
scrum master
product owner
architects
senior stakeholders,
incl. senior architect
release & integration
managers
Kanban
Team(s)
Scrum
Team(s)
Vision
Benefits &
Measures
Capability
Roadmap
Strategic
Architecture
UX, DevOps,
Automation, et al.
Prioritisation &
Scheduling
Systems
Architecture &
Technical Debt
Release
Management
Development
Measurement and Reporting
…
permanent teams
of 5-9 people:
cross-skilled,
self-managing,
high performing.
BACKLOG
elaboration
BACKLOG
high detail
KaizenandKaikaku
90. Scrum & Kanban
Follow standard scrum and kanban practice,
as appropriate for the team.
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
91. Team Capability Checklist
SCALING 205
IIT ACADEMY
Grooming - conducted to produce fit-for-purpose scope prior to sprint
Doc Debt - proactively identified and addressed
Tech Debt - proactively identified and addressed
Planning - effective collaboration and clarity on sprint achieved
Board Usage - effective, 3 column, information-radiating, team-owned
Cross-skilling - conscious, consistent and widespread cross-skilling
Morale - team exhibits high morale
Impediment Removal - proactively identified and addressed daily
Impediment Escalation - proactively identified and reported daily
Stand ups - achieves clarity, focus and are energising for team
Definition of done - includes all steps to automated, non-event dev-to-
production quality at a cycle time matching or exceeding a sprint
Review - produces showcase-able iterations, inspects all sprint scope
Retro - effectively self-identifies impediments, commits to a small
number of most fundamental improvements first.
Velocity - self-referencing, not artificially set, sustainable?
effective - capability self-improving, driven by
understanding of first principles
present - consistently applied with consistency
for all of the team; not always from first principles
self-blocking - active attempts to resist
creation of capability
insufficient information to assess
some evidence - capability exhibited, yet not
consistently and/or without full team participation
not evident - no or little capability exhibited
MaturityCapabilities