Jens Østergaard gives an overview of Jeff Sutherlands Scaling framework.

1. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc. 1
Introduction To
Scrum@Scale
Jens Ostergaard

2. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc. 2
Jens Ostergaard – Scrum Training Institute
1/10/18, 7(05 AMWord Art
Page 1 of 1about:blank
• CST since 2004
• Certified > 8000
• Worldwide Trainer

3. www.scrumtraininginstitute.com

4. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
2012ScrumInc.
Sprint
Release
Backlog
(points)
400
Refinement
4
Team-Level Scrum Process
Days
Sprint
Backlog
(points)
100
Velocity

5. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc. 5
Team Level
• 3 -9 Members (ideal size = 4 or 5)
• SM - Removes Impediments & Keeps True
Scrum
• PO - Team’s Know Stable Interface -
Translates Vision into Backlog
SM PO
=
Team
SMSM PO
• Transcendent Goals
• Cross Functional ->
Independent Path to Production
• Self-Organizing/Self-Managing
• Stable Teams

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Components of the Scrum@Scale Framework
Continuous
Improvement &
Impediment
Removal
Executive
Action
Team
Cross-Team
Coordination
Team-Level
Process
Metrics &
Transparency
Product &
Release Feedback
Strategic
Vision
Executive
Meta Scrum
Deployment
Backlog
Prioritization
Backlog
Decomposition
& Refinement
Release
Planning
Potentially
Shippable Product
Increment
Product Owner
Cycle
Scrum Master
Cycle

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•Underlying structure is a set of largely
independent business components with
pre-defined interfaces (inputs & outputs)
•Stable interfaces allow for the
components to modified (ex. improved
or swapped out) without disrupting the
entire system
•This enables organizational design to
“emerge” rapidly in response to inspect
and adapt cycles
Agile Architecture:
Components & Known Stable Interfaces
7

8. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
The Scrum of Scrums: The SM Role Scaled
•Scrum must scale in an organic
way consistent with the Scrum
Guide or it will be slow
•Using a Scrum of Scrums
reduces communication paths
but increases communication
saturation
NEW ROLE
• In order for the SoS to be
most effective, we need a
Scrum of Scrums Master
(SoSM) to ensure that:
• Impediments are shared and
removed
• Knowledge is spread and
standardized
• Dependencies are discussed
and resolved
8

9. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
The Scrum of Scrums Master (SoSM)
Could be one of the team SM’s
If the company has a separate Operations
Department, it could be a senior
person from there
It should be someone who has enough
power to remove impediments and
understands the policies and politics of
getting things Done and Released
9

10. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
The Executive Action Team Perspective
•The EAT owns the Transformation Backlog and
“eats impediments” that block it
•Removes those not handled at the Team level
due to scope, budget, or corporate political power
•Mirrors Daily Scrum (but may be more than 15
mins due to complexity of topics)
•Cross-Value Stream Coordination: still limits
communication pathways while keeping
communication saturation high
•Owns the Organizational Transformation Strategy
•Executes the Transformation Strategy or
delegates it to a center of expertise (often called
the Agile Practice) Ex. 125 teams (625 people)
delivering products together
10

11. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
How a typical Executive Action Team works
11

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Who should be on the EAT?
• Leader who can change company
policy without having to ask
permission [ex. COO, CIO, CTO]
• Someone who can write a check
[ex. VP of Finance]
• Someone who is a Scrum Star [aka.
Agile Champion]
• Leaders who can motivate change
• Someone from People Ops [ex:
HR]
• Someone from Legal/Compliance
12

13. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
What is an Agile Practice?
• It is a cross functional Scrum team which owns the coaching
competency within the organization
• Accountable for the quality of Scrum within the organization
• Delivers the transformational vision of the Executive Action Team
through the execution of a transformation backlog
• It is a center of continuous learning for Scrum professionals, and
provides more than just tools and templates.
• It is NOT a PMO (Program/Project Management Office)
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14. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
What does an Agile Practice Do?
• Executes the transformation backlog:
o Facilitates the creation of the Product Owner Organization
o Provides skills training (SM, PO, Agile Leadership)
o Provides coaching and mentoring for trained teams and people
o Builds the Agile competency of the organization through the creation of:
q Quality Circles
q Communities of Practice
o Provides continuous learning through:
q Engaging the Agile community outside of the organization
q Ensuring feedback loops are established and consistently used to inspect and
adapt product and process.
o Trains the trainers
• Increases the agility of the organization
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15. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
Common Question: Who do Scrum Masters report to?
• The Scrum Masters report to the leader of the Agile Practice.
• If they report to the “managers”, they tend to disrupt the Scrum.
• The Agile Practice needs to assess and make visible the state of the teams
in real-time.
• They need to assure that agreed upon patterns of implementation are
followed successfully.
15

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Case Study: Spotify’s Agile Practice Dashboard
Scrum is continuous process improvement.
Agile Leaders measure Scrum Masters on process improvement and team happiness.
Scaling @ Spotify, Anders Ivarsson & Henrik Kniberg, Scrum Alliance Gathering Paris, 6 Feb 2013

17. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
• Sets Team Priorities
• Servant Leader
• 50% with Customer, 50% with Team
• Single Backlog
o Stories
o Epics
• “What” not “How”
• Complete Responsibility Through Trust
• Known Stable Interface to the Team
The Team Product Owner
Builds, Refines, Plans
17
Team
M
PO
SM

18. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
The MetaScrum: Scaling the Product Owner
18
L
Leadership
S
H
Stakeholders
P
O
Product
Owners
Aligned
Product
Backlog
L
S
HP
O
Sprint/Time
Aligned
Product
Backlog
L
P
O
Aligned
Product
Backlog
L
P
O
• A gathering of Key
Stakeholders, Leadership, and
Product Owners
• Run by Chief Product Owner
• Aligns enterprise around single
backlog
• The forum for stakeholders to
express preferences and
remove blocks (they should
not try to alter product vision
between MetaScrums)
• Can be held at regular
intervals or on an ad-hoc basis
M
etaScrum
M
etaScrum
M
etaScrum
S
H
S
H
S
HS
H
S
H
S
HS
H
S
H

19. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
• Sets Priorities for Multiple
Teams
• Mirrors Refinement and
Planning
• Single Backlog Pulled by Team
POs
• Epics
• Features
• Cross-Team Backlog
Coordination & Alignment
CPO MetaScrum Perspective
Aligns, Refines, Plans
19
CPO
MetaScrum
PO
PO
PO
POPO

20. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
• Sets Priorities for Multiple Team
Groups
• Mirrors Refinement and Planning
• Single Backlog Pulled by CPOs
• Features
• Value Streams
• Cross-Team Coordination & Alignment
CCPO MetaScrum Perspective
Aligns, Decomposes, Refines
20
CCPO
Meta
Scrum
CPO
MS
CPO
MS
CPO
MS
CPO
MS
CPO
MS

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Executive MetaScrum Perspective
Aligns and Sets Strategic Priorities for the Organization
21
• Owns Organizational Vision
• Lead by a terminal CPO
o CEO or SVP
o Needs CFO or Finance Exec
• Single Backlog Pulled by CCPOs
o Initiatives
o Value Streams
• Sets Organizational Priorities
• Mirrors Refinement & Planning CCPO
MS
CCPO
MS
CCPO
MS
CCPO
MS
CCPO
MS
Executive
MetaScrum

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Executive Meta Scrum
Head of Product as Chief Product Owner
• Product Owners from each Scrum Team
• ScrumMaster
• Marketing and Sales
• Architecture
• Strategic product backlog
• Product backlog refinement every two weeks
Case Study by Bob Sarni

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Backlog Flows to Stable Teams
CCPO Meta Scrum CPO Meta Scrum PO Team Refinement
T TT T TT T TT T TT T TT T TT
Chief Chief PO’s
Backlog
Chief PO’s Backlog Chief PO’s Backlog
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
PBI
Scrum Teams Backlog Scrum Teams Backlog

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Maintain a Clear Product
Decomposition Hierarchy
Component
Goal
Feature
Capability
Feature
Capability
EpicEpic Epic
Story
Story
Story
Product Vision
Component
Goal
Product
Component
Feature
Epic
Story
Increase SB usage
of eBanking
website
Add online customer
center for self-service
of common needs
Find Branch
location
Able to search for specific language skills
Able to search close to a specified address
Able to search by hours of operation
Be the banking
provider of choice
for small businesses
Stop
Payments
Access historical
statements
Retail bank center
rated “excellent”
by SB customers
Add monthly financial
reporting summary to
track company profits
Decomposition
Level
Conceptual
Hierarchy
Example

25. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc. 25
Four Lenses for Measuring Progress
Are we
improving
our ability to
deliver
product over
time?
Are we
prioritizing
the right
features to
deliver first?
Are we
meeting
our quality
standards?
Are we
working in
a way we
can
continue for
the long
run?
Productivity
Value
Delivery
Quality Sustainability
• Acceleration
(Δvelocity/Δtime)
• Business value
per point
• Defect rate
• Service downtime
• Happiness metric
• Technical debt
Example Metrics

26. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
Patterns:
How to increase team velocity
As an Agile Executive, I need to support team-level
patterns, so that velocity can increase across the
board.

27. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
Leadership Challenge:
Without these patterns, scaling will be crippled
• Colocation
• Small teams
• Stable teams
• Dedicated teams
• Yesterday’s weather - finish early
• T-shaped people (enables Swarming)
• Daily Scrum
• Interrupt buffer
• Ready backlog
• Fix bugs within a day
• All testing completed inside the sprint
27

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Implement Patterns to Increase Velocity
www.scrumplop.or
g

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Collocation Doubles Velocity
Make Remote Teams Feel Collocated

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Finishing the Sprint Early Doubles Velocity
Yesterday’s Weather: Use the last Sprint to predict the next Sprint
Actual Velocity =
18 points
Done!
Done!
Done!
Almost done
Not started
End of theSprint
If the team is stable, how much should we assume
can be accomplished in the next Sprint?
Answer = 18 points !!!
But if we keep our expectations in line and
implement the other strategies well,
we will accelerate faster and be able to pull
more story points in!
If we try to pull more and fail, it will reduce morale,
further reducing productivity.
NOTE: Take the average velocity for the last 3 Sprints
to get the value for Yesterday’s Weather.
Keep recalculating throughout the release.
What’s our Velocity?
Why don’t we award
these 3 points?

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T-Shaped People Double Velocity

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Swarming Doubles Velocity
Weinberg, Gerald M. (1992) Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking. Dorset
House, p. 284.

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Finishing Early Doubles Velocity
Finishing late cuts production by more than 50%
I’m more efficient if I just
do my tasks

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Handling Interrupts Double Velocity
Implement a Buffer to Deal with the Unexpected
8
5
3
5
5
5
3
5
5
8
Product
Backlog
Beginning of sprint
8
5
5
3
Sprint
Backlog
Kaizen
10Buffer
Support
Sales
Management
Now
Later
Low Priority
On Buffer Overflow ABORT, Re-plan, Dates Slip
PO
To Determine Buffer Size:
Average the amount of interrupts
over the last three Sprints

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Daily Clean Product Doubles Velocity
and Cuts Project Costs in Half!

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Scrumming the Scrum Doubles Velocity
16x output
with
4x FTEs =
4x
productivity
Raw Scrum Inc. Velocity History
(not adjusted for fluctuation in team capacity by sprint)

38. © 1993-2018 Scrum Inc.
Questions?
Jens Ostergaard
jeos12@gmail.com