Causal Loop Diagrams Applied. Slides from a workshop.

1. UNDERSTANDING
COMPLEXITY
of organizational
& system dynamics
krivitsky.com

2. Agile Coach
developer, scrum master,
scrum trainer, free-rider,
System thinker
Alexey KRIVITSKY
www.krivitsky.com
www.agiletrainings.eu

4. “All the dots got connected when looking back…”

5. OMFG...
Technical organization

6. Looks a little
over-complicated
to be able to help
you reduce
complexity

7. Weinberg-Brooks’ Law
More software projects have gone
awry from management’s taking
action based on incorrect system
models than for all other causes
combined.

8. h2ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbb9gwj7RIc

10. Causal loop diagrams (CLD)
The primary value in diagrams is in the discussion while
diagramming—we model to have a conversation.

11. VARIABLES
Cycle
time
Quality
WIP

12. Cause-effect relationships
Quality
Cycle
time
WIPRework

13. reinforcing vs. balancing loops
B
A
D
C
B
A
D
C
Reinforcing
« UNSTABLE »
Balancing
« STABILIZING »

14. Delayed effects
Quality
Cycle
time
WIP
Rework
Motivation

15. Quick fixes
Quality
Cycle
time
WIPRework
Motivation
Salary

16. #1: Products on a shared platform
TECHNICAL PLATFORM / ENGINE
CONSUMER PRODUCTS

17. #2: Satellite products
BACK-END
REST API
CORE FRONT-END MOBILE APPS

18. #3: Many small sub-products

19. Play with these VARIABLES
Cycle
time
#
defects
Costs of
maintenance
#
people
Motivation
Code
quality
#
managers
Tech
debt

20. driving transformation
1. Understanding the system dynamics
– Know what you’d like to change and how you can measure it
– Facilitate agreement among key stakeholders and supporters
that change in necessary
2. Designing an experiment:
– Pick one holistic value flow
– Avoid all-in
– Your goal is to create a new product organization within the
existing company
– Facilitating “informed consent”

21. Pick one holistic value flow

22. Designing a new system experiment

23. Informed consent workshop

24. driving transformation
1. Understanding the system dynamics
– Know what you’d like to change and how you can measure it
– Facilitate agreement among key stakeholders and supporters
that change in necessary
2. Designing an experiment:
– Pick one holistic value flow
– Avoid all-in
– Your goal is to create a new product organization within the
existing company
– Facilitating “informed consent”
3. Facilitating formation of new structures:
– Teams and roles.

25. “Your Structure is Your Strategy”

26. less.works/case-studies/ericson.html
“Culture Follows Structure”

27. Collecting Team attributes

28. Defining what an ideal team is

29. knowledge spread and gaps

30. How to deal with resistance?
work with volunteers!

31. driving transformation
1. Understanding the system dynamics
– Know what you’d like to change and how you can measure it
– Facilitate agreement among key stakeholders and supporters
that change in necessary
2. Designing an experiment:
– Pick one holistic value flow
– Avoid all-in
– Your goal is to create a new product organization within the
existing company
– Facilitating “informed consent”
3. Facilitating formation of new structures:
– Teams and roles.
4. Facilitating agreements of coordination practices:
– Internal and external ones.

32. Prefer decentralized coordination
0. Just talk
- avoid Scrum of Scrums
1. Communicate in Code
- real CI, no branches
2. Communities
- functional relationship
- coordinator (+ScrumMaster)
- solve real issues
- delegate real work to teams
3. Cross-team Meetings
- multi-team PBR
- multi-team SP1, SP2
- overall sprint review
- overall retrospective
- diverge-merge pattern
4. Open Spaces
5. Component Mentors
- gardens the component community
- organizes design workshops
- does code reviews (no approval)
- monitors long-term health
- mentors and evangelizes
6. Travellers
- an expert joining a team for a sprint
7. Scouts
- a visitor to another team (e.g. Daily)
- not a ScrumMaster
8. Leading Teams
- additional responsibilities
- coordination and education
- dealing with undone departments

33. MORE ON THESE IDEAS
www.less.works
- see the new book “Large-Scale Scrum”
- read the case studies on the site
I’ve blogged recently on coordinaLon at:
krivitsky.com/блог
agiletrainings.eu/blog