Genuine Agility through LeSS Product Ownership

Genuine Agility at scale through
LeSS Product Ownership
September 2017
with Rowan Bunning, CST & CLP
@rowanb #auscrum

© 2017 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com @rowanb #auscrum
Session Outline
• Context
• Problems that Product Ownership can solve
• Problems with team-centric Product Ownership
• Scaling Product Ownership with LeSS
• Objections to product-centric Product Ownership
• Objections to empowered business person as Product Owner
• Conclusions

Agile is not about “faster”
“We considered a bunch of names, and agreed eventually on “agile”
as we felt that captured the adaptiveness and response to change
which we felt was so important to our approach." - Martin Fowler
“Agile does not mean delivering faster. Agile does not mean fewer
defects or higher quality. Agile does not mean higher productivity.
Agile means agile - the ability to move with quick easy grace, to be
nimble and adaptable. To embrace change and become masters of
change - to compete through adaptability by being able to change
faster and cheaper than your competition can." - Craig Larman and
Bas Vodde
References: Writing the Agile Manifesto: martinfowler.com/articles/agileStory.html
Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde, Addison-Wesley
Professional, 2008.

@rowanb #auscrum© 2017 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com
Which has agility?
Image credit:YouTube Source: invorma.com/16-super-jumping-animals
or

Is it the case that…
• …agility and/or Customer Value are what you would like
to optimise for?
• …you would like to realise substantial beneﬁts from
Scrum at multi-team scale?
LeSS is designed to achieve this.

Problems that Product
Ownership can solve

Control systems in organisations
Market system
Bureaucratic
system
Clan system
• Prices drive very efﬁcient decision making
• Measure Input and Output
• Formal rules, roles, processes, compliance
• Supervision, direction and hierarchy
• Specialisations enable clearer comparison with
like workers
• Informal value based rules
• Allows innovation and collaboration
• Most suitable for unique, interdependent or
ambiguous work e.g. software development
Reference: A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms, William G. Ouchi, Management Science, Vol. 25, No. 9. 1979.

Which has your organisation been scaling up?
Market control
Clan control
Bureaucratic
control

Most organisations have
been scaling up Bureaucratic
Control for many years

Elimination of the
Contract Game

@rowanb© 2016 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com
External contracts spawn internal contracts
Business
External
customers
Development / I.T.
External
contract
Internal
contract

We want a solution.
How much is it going to cost?
How long is it going to take?
Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
All rights reserved.
Business Development

Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
(release contract agreed)
more,
more,
more!
1
The Milestone point
is arbitrary
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
Business
Date & Scope
Development

Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
The Milestone point
is arbitrary
more,
more,
more!
less,
less,
less!
1 2
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
The date and scope contract
point represents the time that
both parties have maximised the
ability to shift blame when
something goes wrong.
Date & Scope

Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
The Milestone point is arbitrary
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
Date & Scope

Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
Date & Scope
Responsibility
low control
low ﬂexibility
low transparency
big batches
cannot release early
not “done” until the end
Business
have
completed
date and
scope move
Development
shifts

@rowanb #auscrum
Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
* Development Phase for The Contract is controlled by R&D.
* The order of work is decided by R&D.
* Product Management does not have control, and there is low
visibility into the status of true progress.
The Contract
ineffective bonus schemes and "tracking
to plan" behaviors are injected, since
there is no real control or visibility
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
Business
• Development Phase for The Contract is controlled by the
development group
• The order of work is decided by the development group
• The Business does not have control, and there is low
visibility into the status of true progress.
Development

Shifting blame
Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
DevelopmentBusiness
There’s been a
surprise!
But you
committed!
Date & Scope
sign-off

We have a two party competitive game
your faultyour fault
Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
your fault your fault
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde

© 2016 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com @rowanb
Now development pulls out the ‘Secret Toolbox’ including…
• Stopping testing
• Crappy code
• No longer thinking about the design
• No longer taking time to learn
• Not ﬁxing weakness in organisation
• Overtime leading to attrition of the best people

LeSS aims to eliminate The Contract Game
Business
stakeholders
External
customers
Teams
External
demand
✘ No Scope and Date contract
✔ Business steers directly
☸PO
📖

What does the Agile Manifesto have to say about this?

Most organisation are
implementing “Scrum” inside of
the traditional Contract Game

The Crevasse of Doom problem
Domain knowledge Technology knowledge
Yawning Crevasse of Doom!
Source: infoq.com/presentations/Fowler-North-Crevasse-of-Doom

PO should create a bridge, not be a ferry
Domain knowledge Technology knowledge
Collaboration!
Source: infoq.com/presentations/Fowler-North-Crevasse-of-Doom

Compelling Direction
“Effective team self-management is impossible unless someone in
authority sets the direction for the team’s work.” - J. Richard Hackman
Book reference: Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances by J. Richard Hackman, Harvard Business Review Press, 2002.

Problems with team-centric
Product Ownership

The Frantic Order Taker anti-pattern
Image credit: kellyexeter.com.au/cause-of-overwhelm

@rowanb #auscrum
Product Owner
interpreted as
“Temporary Team
Mission Owner”
☸ What mechanism is there to steer the whole product?
Source: blog.crisp.se/2012/11/14/henrikkniberg/scaling-agile-at-spotify

Agility constrained by a hierarchy of objectives, budgets & people
Delivery DeliveryDelivery
Scrum is put in these boxes
Team
Program
Value Stream
Portfolio

Program execution focus within status quo structure
Delivery DeliveryDeliveryTeam
Program
Large Solution
Portfolio
Source: scaledagileframework.com

@rowanb #auscrum
Product Owner
interpreted as
“Temporary
Feature Owner”

Product Ownership contained within something else
Team
Business Owner
Customer
Product Manager
2..4
Product Owner
1..2

Project focus or Product / Customer focus?
Project abstraction
Focus on project delivery
😃
😞
Focus on customer-centric Product

Program
Project
Abstractions that contain and disconnect us
“Epic”
Delivery
“Devs”
Book reference: The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers by Gillian Tett, Simon & Schuster, 2015.

Control mechanisms in LeSS
Market control
Bureaucratic control
Clan control
self-managing
teams
self co-ordination
decisions at level of
richest information
PO
≪component≫
Publishing
≪component≫
Scheduling
≪component≫
Expenses
≪component≫
KPI Dashboards
Direct co-ordination
Communities for knowledge sharing and agreements Architecture, UX, Testing etc.
💡 $
😀 ☸
Minimum Viable
Bureaucracy
(MVB)

@rowanb #auscrum
Intervention
opportunity
Reference: Lv Yi https://blog.odd-e.com/yilv/2017/03/seeing-the-system-dynamic-1-vs-n-product-owners.html
B1: Scaling anti-pattern
R: Shifting the
burden addiction
B2: LeSS Solution

Try… whole team Backlog Reﬁnement direct with users/customers
Image credit: Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde

Scaling Product
Ownership with LeSS

@rowanb #auscrum
The Product Owner
“The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing
the value of the product”

© 2017 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com
The Product Owner steers
product development
“The Product Owner is the one and only person
responsible for managing and controlling the
Product Backlog. This is the person who is oﬃcially
responsible for the value of the work done. This
person maintains the Product Backlog and ensures
that it is visible to everyone. Everyone knows what
items have the highest priority, so everyone knows
the order in which the items will be addressed.”
- Ken Schwaber

Ability to steer the Whole Product
Photo credits: thoughtcatalog.com and static.ezermester.hu
not

@rowanb #auscrum
Reference:World’s Best Product Owner: Evil Genius Steve Jobs by Jeff Sutherland:
scruminc.com/worlds-best-product-owner-evil-genius/

@rowanb #auscrumImage credit: Tribute to Elon Musk codepen.io/laitsky/full/pNXENL

@rowanb #auscrum
Failure as learning, learning as progress
Video: youtube.com/watch?v=GeIHJ-i7yVk

Story: Entrepreneurial Product Owner

@rowanb #auscrumPO is entrepreneur actively managing Risk-Reward

Product Strategy
Source: Melissa Perri melissaperri.com/blog/2016/07/14/what-is-good-product-strategy

Product Strategy Canvas
Source: Melissa Perri

@rowanb #auscrum
Credit: Joseph Perline

@rowanb #auscrum
Organisational context

Whole Product Focus
- Bas Vodde
“It is really really hard to get teams to always
consider the whole product instead of just “their
tasks”. And in the LeSS Framework we do
everything we can to avoid sandboxing, such as
not preselecting items to teams, not having
separate backlogs, not having separate POs, etc.”
Lean Principle: Optimise the Whole

Insurance company
What is your Product really?
Insurance
Sales
Underwriting
Solution
Premium
Billing
Claims
System
Quoting engine
Leads and
Opportunities
Policy provider
application
Rules engine
Premium
system
Insurance
booking system
Premium
payment
system
Claim checker
Pay back
engine
Underwriting
workﬂow
manager
Thanks to: Viktor Grgić for the example
The Market I see a Get Insurance
system
…and a Handle Claim
system ‘Whole Product’ (LeSS)
Insured Customer
Head of
Department
No, This is
a product
Architect
No, This is
a product
Project Manager
This is a
product

Scaling by distributing Product Backlog management workload
Does not scale Scales well

Objections to
product-centric Product Ownership

@rowanb #auscrum
Objection: “Would be too much
work for one Product Owner!”
Image credit: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ﬁnancial-advisors-
can-overcome-client-objections-holtman-rrc/

LeSS Scales Product Ownership by delegating clarification
PO
Requesters Users Market / domain experts
Prioritisation
Content and order of
Product Backlog
Clarification
Splitting, acceptance
criteria, sufficient detail
etc.
💡 $
😀
“Yes”
“No”
“A little now, rest later”
“Sooner”
“Later”
☸

@rowanb #auscrum
Q: “What do you see as the
scope of the developer role? How
does that compare with Scrum?”
Objection: “Clarification would
take too much developer time.”
Image credit: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-financial-advisors-
can-overcome-client-objections-holtman-rrc/
Q: “Are we optimising for
resource utilisation, or agility?”
Q: “Are we considering how separate
specifiers lead to the wastes of
handoff, information scatter and a
mini-waterfall process?”

@rowanb #auscrum
Objection: “Would be too many
teams to deal with.”
A: If more than 8 teams, try
Requirement Areas

@rowanb #auscrum
x 4 items per team
x 8 teams
x 2 Sprints
= 92 ﬁne-grained “Ready”
items
A: Keep ﬁne-grained items to no more than 100.
Objection: “Product Backlog
would be too large for one PO.”

@rowanb #auscrum
Objection: “It sounds like several
current PO’s would be demoted!”
Q: “Is PO a role or a pay grade?”
Q: “How can the two be more clearly
separated?”
Q: “How can the organisation show
that it values domain experts
collaborating on or with teams
appropriately?”

Temporary fake Product Owner

Objections to empowered
business person as Product Owner

Business resistance dynamic
Intervention
opportunity
Reference: Lv Yi: blog.odd-e.com/yilv/2017/03/seeing-the-system-dynamic-1-vs-n-product-owners.html

“Shifting the burden” archetype
Reference: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_archetype#Shifting_the_burden
This is the dynamic in addiction!

Story: Negotiating Product
Owner empowerment

© 2016 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com
PO selects Who and Why, collaborates on What
Requester
Responders
Who Why
The group or person we
are serving.
The reason.
The desired value.
What
Collaboration
space
The suggested
solution, arrived at
through dialogue
and collaboration.
How
The tools, techniques and
methods the team will
use to meet the request
Task
Item
Source: Tobias Mayer.

Key points
• Product Owner implementation choices are relative to organisation
optimising goals (agility vs predictability etc.)
• The Product Owner model has the potential to solve several big picture
organisational problems
• LeSS, SAFe, “Spotify Model” all differ greatly on the above
• If Product Owner is not at whole of customer product level then you’re not
optimising for agility and customer value*
• Generally requires understanding at executive level to optimise the whole
* Assuming that you’re not wrapping Scrum teams in something with equivalent or better agility and customer value optimisation

More about LeSS Product Owner
less.works

@rowanb au.linkedin.com/in/rowanbunning
Rowan Bunning
rowan@scrumwithstyle.com scrumwithstyle.com

Genuine Agility through LeSS Product Ownership

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Genuine Agility through LeSS Product Ownership