Tom Perry's Seattle Scaled Agile Community November 2019 Meetup presentation

1. Thomas Perry, LLC
Radical Approaches
to Scaling:
Agile Mix-ins

2. Thomas Perry, LLC
Biography
Tom Perry
• Agile Transformation Consultant and
Coach
• Author of The Little Book of
Impediments, Agile Mix-ins
• Owner Thomas Perry, LLC
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3. Thomas Perry, LLC
Agenda
• What are Mix-ins?
• The Mix-in Catalog
• Your Mix-in Ideas
• Q&A
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4. Thomas Perry, LLC
What are Mix-ins?
Mix-ins are Agile tools, processes or practices that we can
use to customize standard SAFe practices.
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5. Thomas Perry, LLC
Mix-in Benefits
Mix-ins provide the following Benefits:
1. Flexibility in solution set
• Agile isn’t “one size fits all” so find your best fit
2. Growth, evolution and exploration
• Alternatives to stale solutions
3. Incorporates the state of the art
• Keep from being left behind
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6. Thomas Perry, LLC
When to Use Mix-ins
• AFTER you have established a baseline
• When you have BUY-IN from folks impacted
• Questions to ask:
• Is there some mechanism for evaluating capacity across
teams?
• Is there some structure that supports x-team coordination
• Is there transparency into progress on features and initiatives?
• Are quarterly planning events or some similar structure
supported?
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7. Thomas Perry, LLC
The Mix-in
Catalog
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8. Thomas Perry, LLC
#No
Estimates
Summary
Estimates suck.
Is there an alternative
to estimates in SAFe?
Example
Use historical
throughput measures
instead of estimates
for Sprint and PI
Planning
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9. Thomas Perry, LLC
Evaluating #NoEstimates
Forces
• The organization is in an estimation vortex
• Estimates are abused or consistently wrong
Impacts
• WSJF only used at the portfolio level
• Below the portfolio all work is measured by throughput alone
Benefits
• Time wasted on estimation is freed up for more productive work
• Improved morale as dysfunctional productivity goals are eliminated
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10. Thomas Perry, LLC
Open
Space
Summary
Open Space Technology (OST) is a
method for organizing and running
a meeting or multi-day conference,
where participants have been
invited in order to focus on a
specific, important task or purpose.
OST is a participant-driven process
whose agenda is created by people
attending.
Example
Replace the PI Planning event with
a 2-day OST event. Stakeholders
deliver the theme, then everyone is
responsible for deciding how they
are going to address the theme.
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11. Thomas Perry, LLC
Evaluating Open Space
Forces
• PI Planning feels stale and rigid
• You’re looking for way to foster innovation
Impacts
• Replace the PI Planning with Open Space (same time commitment as PI
planning, but less structure)
• Less pre-PI Planning effort
Benefits
• More ownership of team direction and work
• Potentially better plans because work can be actively investigated alongside
planning (due to loose Open Space structure)
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12. Thomas Perry, LLC
The Core
Protocols
Summary
The Core Protocols define the
kind of interpersonal
interactions that you have on a
team and SAFe defines the
interactions that you have at a
cross-team level and above.
Example
Introduce The Core Protocols
at the team level. Use features
like Check in, Check out,
Protocol Check to reinforce
clear communication and
accountability within the team.
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13. Thomas Perry, LLC
Evaluating The Core Protocols
Forces
• You are seeking more proscriptive guidance for
certain team level interactions
Impacts
• None
Benefits
• More explicit guidance for healthy team-level interactions
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14. Thomas Perry, LLC
Role By
Election
Summary
Role by election is turning some of the
role selection process on its
head. When we're creating release
trains, or solutions we need to let the
teams pick their own leadership. They
get to pick who the release train
engineer is or the solution leaders are.
They pick the architect and the product
manager as well.
Example
Hold an election for leadership
positions during the Inspect and Adapt
event at the end of each PI. Elected
leaders serve for the duration of the
next PI.
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15. Thomas Perry, LLC
Evaluating Role By Election
Forces
• You want the highest possible engagement and buy-in for
your transformation
• Management is willing to let go of the responsibility of role
selection
Impacts
• None really, SAFe doesn’t dictate how roles are selected or changed
Benefits
• Improved buy-in and engagement from teams
• Less burn out in key roles
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16. Thomas Perry, LLC
No Prep PI
Planning
Summary
In a no-prep BRP we would
minimize pre-PI planning to the
greatest degree possible. We only
prepare the initiatives at the highest
possible level. There is no
estimation, instead the focus is on
customer validation.
Example
Pre-PI planning consists solely of
agreement and prioritization of
initiatives/epics. Any features or
stories are elaborated during the PI
Planning event itself by the teams
doing the work.
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17. Thomas Perry, LLC
Evaluating No Prep PI Planning
Forces
• PI Planning Prep is getting too heavyweight and
oppressive
• Product management is willing to plan less and discover more
Impacts
• None really, SAFe doesn’t require extensive PI Planning as such
Benefits
• Improved collaboration between teams and product owners
• More time spent with customers and less time spent on endless
estimation
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18. Thomas Perry, LLC
Dynamic Re-
teaming
Summary
In dynamic re-teaming, the individuals
decide who they work with and what
they work on. Product management
make the most compelling case they
can for the work. Then allow the group
to choose what they are going to work
on and who they are going to work
with.
Example
After the Inspect and Adapt event a
team selection event is held. Each
product owner gets up before the
audience of developers and makes their
best pitch for why people should work
their initiative. Then the individuals in
the audience select the product/team
that they want to work with for the
next PI.
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19. Thomas Perry, LLC
Evaluating Dynamic Re-Teaming
Forces
• Teams seem lackluster, not engaged
• The management team is open to creative new options
(and can tolerate giving up some control)
Impacts
• Teams must persist through the full PI
Benefits
• Improved morale and engagement
• Additional selection pressure applied to new features/initiatives
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20. Thomas Perry, LLC
Your Mix-in Ideas
• Pair up and discuss the mix-ins you’ve seen so far:
• What would you do differently?
• What else would you try?
• What would be the benefit?
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21. Thomas Perry, LLC
The Mix-in Catalog
• #NoEstimates
• Open Space
• Core Protocols
• Role By Election
• No Prep PI Planning
• Dynamic Re-teaming
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22. Thomas Perry, LLC
Appendix
• Story Points Considered Harmful or Why?
• Open Space Technology website
• Core Protocols
• Ivar Jacobson talks about No Prep PI Planning
• Dynamic Reteaming
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23. Thomas Perry, LLC
The Book
• https://leanpub.com/agilemixins
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24. Thomas Perry, LLC
Questions?
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25. Thomas Perry, LLC
Thank you
• www.thomasperryllc.com
• tom.perry@acm.org
• @tlperry
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlperry/
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