Agile Teams at Scale: Beyond Scrum of Scrums

Agile Teams at Scale: Beyond Scrum of Scrums Esther Derby esther derby associates, inc. www.estherderby.com @estherderbyTuesday, December 13, 11

One team or a handful of teams may be able to deliver small systems. Large complex systems require teams of teams to deliver signiﬁcant features. How can companies beneﬁt from “the team effect” at scale? (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

Teams share... a compelling work goal responsibility and accountability an approach to work teams have... complementary skills ﬁve-seven members history Teams are one sort of goal-oriented social unit. Teams can form the building blocks for larger goal-oriented social units. (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

Principles • Manage dependencies in the backlog as much as possible • Aim for long-lived cross-functional teams • Go as far down the technology stack as feasible • Organize teams around context boundaries rather than component boundaries were ever possible • Make cross-context communication explicit • Avoid late learning ...and remember the Agile Manifesto (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

Technical Practices Continuous integration (CI) within context Integration across contexts at some other interval (keeping in mind “avoid late learning”) Mutually agreed upon and developed automated test across context boundaries Architectural & coding standards Technical reviews (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

Social Practices Scrum of Scrums Integrating Teams (keeping in mind “avoid late learning”) Decision Boundaries Component shepherds Tech council Product council (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

But a large system may have several contexts. (Think of context as a feature group, for example “order entry” in a sales system.) Form cross-functional teams within contexts. (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

Make communication across context boundaries explicit. Use integrating teams to agree how to handle the interface and integration between systems. Integrating teams should also agree on and write acceptances tests that conﬁrm integration across boundaries. (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

When several teams touch the code of shared services or components, add Component Shepherds. Component Shepherds work to maintain the integrity of components. They review code, coach, provide standards and guidance to teams. (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

Resources and References Some useful resources from within the software domain: Domain Driven Design by Eric Evans Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde ...and from the ﬁeld of Organization Development and Design Designing Team-Based Organizations by Mohrman, Cohen, and Mohrman Creating Strategic Change by William Pasmore (c) 2011 esther derbyTuesday, December 13, 11

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Agile Teams at Scale: Beyond Scrum of Scrums

by Esther Derby on Dec 13, 2011

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Agile Teams at Scale: Beyond Scrum of Scrums — Presentation Transcript