1. Agile? Governance?!
oliver.wihler@ignite.ee
02/02/13 1

2. • Swissborn in Zürich 1970
• Estonified since 1999
• Co-founder of Agile Estonia 2009

3. Goal
increase awareness of governance
it affects us all and we can change it

4. Milestones
• Bit of history and definition
• Corporate governance
• How to implement agile governance

7. first PO - ever :)

8. first Scrum - ever :)

9. Survival of the fittest
Apple Event :)
First PO & Scrum team

10. Survival of the fittest
Apple Event :)
First PO & Scrum team
French Revolution

11. Mother of all slogans Mother of all revolutions
• Live and let live
• Equal rights
• Fraternity or
Death!
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a1

12. Representative Democracy

13. Direct Democracy

14. Liquid Democracy
Electronic direct democracy
(EDD)
Direct Digital Democracy (DDD)

16. The Economist's Democracy Index as published in December 2011, with greener colours representing
more democratic countries and clearly authoritarian countries in dark red.

17. Definition
• Governance is the way rules are
interpreted, implemented and
changed.
• Principle of separation of powers:
• changing of rules (aka Legislative)
• implementing of rules (aka Executive)
• interpreting of rules (aka Judiciary)

18. Bit of history and
definition
✔

19. Corporate Governance
let’s get into it

20. Stakeholders

21. attempt at mapping principals of separation
changing implementing interpreting
Nation-State People Official Judge
Corporation Employees? Management Shareholder
Scrum Team SM PO

22. Scrum Governance
Team
self-organized
Scrum Backlog
Product increment Product
Master Owner
ensures that the team responsible for the
is functional and business value of the
productive project

23. Discussion
• discuss with your neighbor if there is
something what you have decided (voted)
on.

24. Corporate governance
✔

25. How to implement
agile governance
let’s do it

26. Case Study: Ignite OÜ
Employees
• self-motivated
• self-organized
• approves rules by vis
y voting ion
enc • can challenge rules at
su
cc
par es
ss
ns any time to
tra
rie
s
Management
• demonstrates leadership review vision with management yearly Shareholders
• is on top of the situation • owns the vision
• has action plan for vision • designs basic rules
• co-ordinates activities • arbitration
and ensures proper gets approval for strategy/goals and needed
execution funds quarterly

27. Rules - what rules?
• company rules
• in general, there are no limits ...

28. change in action
example 1: challenging a rule
More
lab time?
Workgroup works out new rule
Shareholders check proposal is complete
No
Workgroup present initiative to employees
No
Vote OK?
Yes Yes
New rule is implemented END

29. Conclusion
• goal for making governance agile in corporations
should always be employee empowerment and
involvement in decision process
• keep it in the middle of a triangle of
* authoritarian style
* no rules at all
* over-regulation
• remember to keep balance of powers and live
by the ideals of equality and liberty
• keep a simple and non-complex decision
process

30. Tips
• shareholders must be involved
operationally (more than just investors)
• aim for employees self-organization but
don’t bet on it
• managers must be experienced and
knowledgeable in implementing strategy
• rules must apply equally to everyone:
managers, employees and shareholders

31. Agile Governance v0.1a
features
• gives the power of change to everyone
• facilitates open discussion of issues
• makes it possible to de-regulate over-
regulated systems
• makes it possible to break-up stuck
processes
• tames the “traveling” manager syndrome

32. Agile Governance v0.1a
known problems
• legal issues i.e. IANAL

33. Finally
Remember, today’s
solutions give birth to
tomorrow’s problems.
improve improve improve :)

34. How to implement
agile governance
✔

35. Goal achieved if you...
• got appetite for organizational change
thank you