Agile Carpentry

I hope you enjoy this audio recording of my LeSS case study covering the work I did a large server hardware company.

This is a podcast or audio book style recording as you might listen to while driving in your car as an alternative to reading the written version. The YouTube and Spotify versions of the recording have a video component which displays slides of the relevant figures as they are discussed. If you would prefer a recording of an interactive overview and discussion of the presentation co-presented by myself and "Mitya" please see the "Case Study Walkthrough Presentations" playlist on the Agile Carpentry YouTube channel instead.

Organizational benefits from the incremental approach covered in the case study include:

The written version of my case study includes a large number of figures. I recommend you review the figures included in the case study prior to or while listening to this recording. Video versions of this reading found on YouTube and Spotify display each figure as it is being discussed.

Thank you for your interest. Please feel free to reach out to me regarding any questions you may have, as well as any consulting or training needs.

The written version of the case study can be found at:

https://less.works/case-studies/large-server-hardware-company

More details about myself (James Carpenter) can be found at:

https://agilecarpentry.com/

Section Index:

Gene and James discuss why agile roles are being eliminated in some companies.

In order to understand the situation in full, from organizational design and systemic implications perspective, these decisions need to be well researched and analyzed. Things to consider, while analyzing:

Have you been impacted by what is described herein? Do you feel that soon you might be impacted by similar decisions of your  company?  Is your company at the point of decision-making, such as:

The following two LeSS guides for technical excellence are captured in Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS.

Below are some LeSS experiments that are supportive of these two guides:

In their short recorded message, James and Gene are talking about these guides, experiments and some real life experience.

The above experiments are detailed in Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Large, Multisite, and Offshore Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum

How to embrace and digest the entire body of knowledge that Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) offers?

How to understand what is foundational, what is minimally required and what is optional?

There is a graphic on less.works site that graphically illustrates LeSS Principles, Frameworks (Rules), Guides & Experiments. However, how the aforementioned relate to one another may require some additional explanation. 

In their short recorded message, James and Gene are trying to explain how to read the complete picture of LeSS. Understanding this, will help you navigate less.works site, understand LeSS case studies and read LeSS books.

There are two key information flows in Scrum related to the Product Owner: (1) Adaptively deciding the direction to evolve the product and reflecting that decision in Product Backlog prioritization, and (2) Discovering and clarifying the details of user needs and items. In the first flow (direction and prioritization), information is sought and analyzed related to profit drivers, strategic customers, business risks, etc. In the second flow (details and clarification), the objective is to discover the fine-grained behavior and qualities of items, the user experience, etc.  

-- Guide: Prioritization over Clarification; Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS; p 178  

As Product Owner, you focus on thinking hard about direction and prioritization, but delegate to the teams as much of the detailed discovery as possible. You encourage and help teams enter in a direct conversation with users, acting as a connector, not an intermediary. In short, you are mostly focusing on prioritization rather than detailed clarification, which is delegated to the teams.

Gene and James discuss how LeSS training alone is not enough. Sub-topics include: 

Why do we need more fancy frameworks? Why not re-focus on having small successes with good-n-old fundamentals?

The history of Agile Manifesto (AM) and Scrum has 20+ years. Yet, the % of companies that are consistent with basic principles of AM that can demonstrate rudimentary success with Scrum is still very low.

These are the current market trends:

What the market needs:

Gene and James discuss common internal distortions of LeSS concepts and terminology. 

* Concurrent Sprints != LeSS * LeSS-Huge is a bad goal

* 1-2 Teams per Product Area != LeSS-Huge

* Technology Area  != Requirement Area (of LeSS Huge)

* "Area Product” (meaningless term) != [Product] Requirement Area

Gene and James discuss the following:

* Deep and narrow organizational design changes aligned with adaptablity can produce fruitful outcomes far faster than applying management pressure to squeeze improved performance out of the status quo system.

* A deep and narrow LeSS adoption will rapidly produce improvement in adaptablity and value delivery, even when the discomfort resulting from increased transparency sometimes makes it feel otherwise.

* The value of using a private Certified LeSS Practitioner or Certified LeSS for Executives course as a way to achieve management alignment at the begining of a LeSS adoption.

* The ability of an external Certified LeSS Trainer to provide consultation which is less influenced by the existing power dynamics of a client organization when compared to inside council.

* Balancing between external vs. internal agile training and coaching support, and the benefits of decentralized vs. centralized internal agile coaches within an organization.

Relevant Links:

Learn @ James: https://agilecarpentry.com/

Learn @ Gene:  https://www.keystepstosuccess.com/

#lessworks #less #largescalescrum #agile

For so many companies, inability to estimate, forecast, budget, and manage expectations of clients, users, and management is a big issue.  Below, are some of the most commonly heard concerns: 

Let’s talk about how most of these problems can be addressed in Large Scale Scrum. Instead of implying that LeSS is a silver bullet or blanket solution to everything, lets focus on specific dynamics of LeSS, with respect to:  

This will provide insight on WHY estimation and forecasting by LeSS product group (e.g. 50 developers) would be more reliable than the same, done by e.g. 50 developers of a traditionally-designed organization.  

Relevant Links: 

Learn @ James: https://agilecarpentry.com/

Learn @ Gene:  https://www.keystepstosuccess.com/

#lessworks #less #largescalescrum #agile