Toronto Agile - Organize People Around the Work

Organize People
Around the Work
Jason Little | @jasonlittle.ca | leanintuit.com

@jasonlittle | leanintuit.com
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
Vendor
Other teams

Dept X
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
LOB 1
LOB 2
LOB 3
Vendor
Other teams
Dept Y Dept Z

Dept X
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
LOB 1
LOB 2
LOB 3
Vendor
Other teams
Dept Y Dept Z
Dept A
Other
projects

Dept X
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
LOB 1
LOB 2
LOB 3
Vendor
Other teams
Dept Y Dept Z
Other
projects
Dept A

Dept X
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
LOB 1
LOB 2
LOB 3
Vendor
Other teams
Dept Y Dept Z
Other
projects
Dept A
me!

Dept X
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
LOB 1
LOB 2
LOB 3
Vendor
Other teams
Dept Y Dept Z
Dept A
Other
projects
Program Meetings:
2x sprint planning
backlog reﬁnement
2x ‘technical reﬁnement’
Retrospectives
2x standups
2x sprint reviews
A whack of other project
meetings

This won’t make sense to you,
But it did to the dude who
created it.

Agile
Every company…ever

When you strip away the Agile noise…4 things matter
1) How people are grouped:
- application
- geography/timezone
- line of business
- function/skillset
- component
- feature
- customer experience

2) How groups are linked:
- matrix
- project/program
- work management tools
- links between people (PM to PM etc)
- component
- feature

3) Are groups aligned:
- common objective
- prioritization of work
- work management tools
- links between people (PM to PM etc)
- component
- feature
Goal

4) Is the way we’re organized working?
- project/program metrics
- OKRs
- fuzzy measurements (happiness etc)
- Customer satisfaction (NPS etc)
- gut-feel
- network density and health
+
-
Customers happy
Teams are burning out

There are 630,000 publicly traded companies worldwide
https://www.investopedia.com/ﬁnancial-edge/1212/stock-exchanges-around-the-world.aspx
So there are probably millions of teams worldwide using some type of
process to manage their work.
So please stop with “that’s not agile…or that’s not scrum…or that’s
not…” because every team is doing some kind of ‘hybrid’ or ﬁt-for-
purpose process.

1 - What problems exist with the way we’re organized
now?
2 - Who are these problems a problem for?
3 - Does anyone (other than the agile coach) care enough
about making it better?
4 - Reverse the paradigm of each problem (how would we
organize differently to solve these problems?)
5 - Decide what needs to change for each problem and
who influences those changes
6 - Agree on what tradeoffs are being made

Who are these problems a problem for?
Customers
People doing the
work
People directly
managing the work
People paying for the
work
Full-time team
members
part-time team
membersContractors
Execs
LOB heads
PMs
Program
Managers
Other teams
Support
Support teams
(architecture etc)
People who are
dependant on the
people doing the
work
Don’t
care
Mildly
annoyed
Violently
angry
Cohort
Response time is
too long
Pressure to deliver
Pressure to ‘be green’

Who cares the most?
Customers
People doing the
work
People directly
managing the work
People paying for the
work
Full-time team
members
part-time
team membersContractors
Execs
LOB heads
PMs
Program
Managers
Other teams
Support
Support teams
(architecture etc)
People who are
dependant on the
people doing the
work
Don’t
care
Sorta
cares
Cares a
lot!
Cohort
Tired of getting
yelled at
Getting burned out
My budget!!!

Reverse the paradigms
What if support response time was fast enough?
What if the PM wasn’t constantly hung out to dry?
What if there was no incoming support?
What if the 3 people in front of the team were focused on the program?
What if the LOB Exec had a ﬁxed annual budget and team?
What if…..
There is no right answer, only trade-oﬀs…

Dept X
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
LOB 1
LOB 2
LOB 3
Vendor
Other teams
Dept Y Dept Z
Other
projects
Dept A
me!
Cost
Value
3 people
rotate
handling
interruptions
Stop other
project
work
Merge tech
teams w/
scrum team
Team does
program
work only
What could we do?

Dept X
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
LOB 1
LOB 2
LOB 3
Vendor
Other teams
Dept Y Dept Z
Other
projects
Dept A
me!
3 people rotate
handling interruptions
2 people focus on the
program
Spreads knowledge
faster
Strong relationships
make this a viable option
Minimal disruption

Dept X
Scrum Team 1
Scrum Team 2
LOB 1
LOB 2
LOB 3
Vendor
Other teams
Dept Y Dept Z
Other
projects
Dept A
me!
Scrum Team only does
program work
Highly disruptive
Extremely risky and
costly
Who decides what work
to stop?
Severe ripple eﬀects

Who do I work with today?
Who is inﬂuential in making the change I want?
What are other relationships in this network?
Who do I need to work with daily to be the most eﬀective?
me!
Building A
Building B
Remote

Head
- process, data,
analysis, org
structure
Heart
- relationships,
feel, culture
Wallet
- budget, value
Change happens when we balance these

http://www.the-vital-edge.com/what-is-network-density/
References
https://emeritus.org/management-certiﬁcate-programs/leading-organizations-change/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799303/
http://thecommunitymanager.com/2012/10/25/how-to-use-the-network-density-
formula-to-measure-the-health-of-a-community/
Network density, MIT’s Leadership and Org Change models, network health

Toronto Agile - Organize People Around the Work

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