Presented at Agile 2016. Struggling with agile at scale? Thinking about scaling agile beyond the team? Want to learn from others mistakes? Well don’t panic, and carry a towel. After all “any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is , is clearly a man to be reckoned with.” There is a lot to be learnt from those who have successfully Hitchhiked their way to the galaxy of Scaled Agile, but there is also much to learn from those who have gotten a little lost upon the way. This session celebrates the scaled agile hitchhiker, the people who tried and failed, with ideas that were occasionally brilliant but often plain stupid. You will laugh, you will cry but you will also walk away will a nice long list of ideas not to try when scaling agile! Learning Outcomes: - 7 failure patterns in scaling agile - An understanding of why these patterns lead to less than optimal results - Tips on how to avoid falling into these failure patterns

1. Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters
@PrettyAgile
www.prettyagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
em@contextmatters.com.au
Failing @ Scaling:
DON’T PANIC!
& carry a towel

3. THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

4. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO SCALING AGILE

5. Working in your table groups:
1. Introduce yourselves to your fellow Scaled Agile
Hitchhikers
2. Share one example each of failing at scaling that you
have witnessed or experienced.
3. Make a note of each of the failure patterns your table
comes up with on a white index card.
SCALED HITCHHIKER RESEARCH

6. Anti-Pattern 1:
Huge Teams Rather Than
Teams of Teams

7. INTRODUCING THE TOTAL PERSPECTIVE VORTEX
https://flic.kr/p/gLTAN6
“To Trin Tragula’s horror, … he realised that he
had proved conclusively that if life is going to
exist in a universe of this size, then the one
thing it cannot have is a sense of proportion”

8. Need tag line and image
SURELY LIFE WOULD BE SIMPLER WITH ONE BIG TEAM...
https://flic.kr/p/fuB8SQ

9. Project
Manager
Product Owner
Business
Analyst Change Lead Technical Lead
Logical Data
Modeller
Physical Data
Modeller
Physical Data
Modeller
Vender Project
Manger
On Site ETL On Site ETL
On Site ETL Off shore ETL
Off shore ETL Off shore ETL
DBA
Business
Intelligence Test Lead
Test Analyst
Enterprise
Architect Data SME
Scrum Master
A 22 PERSON AGILE TEAM???

10. Team
Size
Throughput

11. Scrum Master
Technical Lead Test Lead Developer Developer Developer Developer Developer
SMALL CROSS FUNCTION TEAMS

12. 9 WOMEN CAN’T MAKE A BABY IN ONE MONTH

13. Not Seen/Experienced Not Sure Have seen/experienced
Who has seen or experienced
this anti-pattern in the
enterprise?

14. WHY LARGE TEAMS DON’T WORK

15. START WHERE YOU ARE AND EVOLVE TO FEATURE TEAMS
PO
SM
D
D
D
D
T
T
PO
SM
D
D
D
D
T
T
PO
SM
D
D
D
D
T
T
PO
SM
D
D
D
D
T
T
PO
SM
D
D
D
D
T
T
PO
SM
D
D
D
D
T
T
PO
SM
D
D
D
D
T
T
PO
SM
D
D
D
D
T
T

16. TAKE IT TO THE TEAMS WITH SELF-SELECTION
http://amzn.to/2abHc9X

17. Anti-Pattern 2:
Out of the Box
or
Outside of the Box

18. INTRODUCING THE BABEL FISH
The Babel Fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication
between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars
than anything else in the history of creation!

19. LIPSTICK ON A PIG
https://flic.kr/p/8MC5YM

20. …..even with all these improvements, the game is no fun at all.
WE TRIED BASEBALL, AND IT DIDN’T WORK.
http://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/jatbaseball
https://flic.kr/p/rZhpRT

21. Not Seen/Experienced Not Sure Have seen/experienced
Who has seen or experienced
this anti-pattern in the
enterprise?

22. UNDERSTAND THE TRUE IMPACT BEFORE CHANGING

23. REMEMBER THAT GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT

24. Anti-Pattern 3:
Too many coaches in the kitchen
(with too many recipes)

25. INTRODUCING EDDIE, THE SHIPBOARD COMPUTER
Eddie:
I am pleased to inform you that two nuclear
missiles are now headed this way. If you don’t
mind, I am going to take action.
Zaphod:
COMPUTER DO SOMETHING!
Eddie:
Ok, switching to manual mode. Good luck!

26. HOW MANY COACHES DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB?

27. IGNORE IT AND IT WILL GO AWAY

28. Not Seen/Experienced Not Sure Have seen/experienced
Who has seen or experienced
this anti-pattern in the
enterprise?

29. PICK A HORSE

30. WHO’S ON FIRST?

31. MAINTAINING ALIGNMENT WITH CHAPTERS & GUILDS

32. Anti-Pattern 4:
Agile is only for developers.
Not the PMO.

33. MEET THE GALACTIC HYPERSPACE PLANNING COUNCIL
“People of Earth, your attention please.
This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace
Planning Council. As you will not doubt be aware, the plans for
development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the
building of a hyerspatial express route through your star
system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled
for demolition.
The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth
minutes. Thank you.”

34. WATERFALL GOVERNANCE APPLIED TO AGILE DELIVERY?!
Executive Governance
Business
Steering
Program Committee
OCM BPR
Assurance
Committee
IT Control
Program Board
Project
Control
Board
Project
Control
Board
Project
Control
Board
Program Board
Project
Control
Board
Project
Control
Board
Project
Control
Board
Compliance
Service
Operations
Agile Team

35. THERE IS GOING TO BE A COLLISION
https://flic.kr/p/34MM9T

36. Not Seen/Experienced Not Sure Have seen/experienced
Who has seen or experienced
this anti-pattern in the
enterprise?

37. Embrace
Agile &
Lean
ENCOURAGE THE PMO TO EMBRACE AGILE & LEAN
#WhereisART

38. CREATE AN AGILE PMO
https://voice.adobe.com/a/mNvq5/

39. APPLY LEAN PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

40. Anti-Pattern 5:
Agile is only a Process

41. INTRODUCING DEEP THOUGHT

42. AGILE = MONEY FIRE?!

43. What is the biggest impediment to delivery?
Agile without
Technical Practices:
Just doesn’t cut it!
Availability of
environments
Technical
Debt
Access to
data
Manual
Deployment
Processes
Lack of
Continuous
Integration

44. Not Seen/Experienced Not Sure Have seen/experienced
Who has seen or experienced
this anti-pattern in the
enterprise?

45. INVEST IN TECHNICAL ENABLERS
https://flic.kr/p/bgfAgD

46. Anti-Pattern 6:
The fish rots from the head.

47. MEET ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX, PRESIDENT
Trillian:
You idiot, you signed the
order to destroy Earth!
Zaphod:
I did?
Arthur:
He did?
Trillian:
Love and kisses, Zaphod? You didn’t even read
it, did you?
Zaphod:
Well, I’m president, I don’t have a lot of time for
reading.

48. A CHEQUEBOOK COMMITMENT
https://flic.kr/p/b2JSuk

49. Not Seen/Experienced Not Sure Have seen/experienced
Who has seen or experienced
this anti-pattern in the
enterprise?

50. THE INVISIBLE WALL

51. IT IS A TWO WAY STREET
https://flic.kr/p/nNgsnx

52. Anti-Pattern 7:
Forget you’re standing
in a Waterfall

53. INTRODUCING THE INFINITE IMPROBABILITY DRIVE

54. HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY

55. Not Seen/Experienced Not Sure Have seen/experienced
Who has seen or experienced
this anti-pattern in the
enterprise?

56. BE INCLUSIVE OF YOUR WATERFALL FRIENDS

57. UNDERSTAND LEAD TIME & PLAN ACCORDINGLY
https://flic.kr/p/jmDQZk

58. The true secret to
scaling is learning to
learn together.

59. Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters
@PrettyAgile
www.prettyagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
em@contextmatters.com.au
So long and thanks
for all the fish!