Genuine agility at scale through LeSS Product Ownership - April 2018

Genuine Agility at scale through
LeSS Product Ownership
Global Scrum Gathering Minneapolis 2018
with Rowan Bunning, CST and CLP
@rowanb

© 2017-8 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com @rowanb
Session Outline
• Starting with Why
• Problems that Product Owner model can solve
• Problems with Product Owner per team
• Scaling Product Ownership with LeSS
• Dealing with objections to Product centric Product Owner
• Dealing with objections to Product Owner authority

About me - Rowan Bunning
• Background in object oriented & web development with vendors,
enterprise product development, start-ups & consultancies
• Introduced to eXtreme Programming in 2001
• Introduced Scrum organisation-wide in 2003-5
• Agile Coach / ScrumMaster at a leading agile
consultancy in the U.K.
• Have trained about 5,000 people in Scrum & Agile
• Certified ScrumMaster®
• Certified Scrum Product Owner® etc.
• One of first Agile Coaches in Australia from late 2008
• Organiser of Regional Scrum Gatherings® in Australia
2005
2006
2008
2018
2017
2015
2010

• A given system has ﬁnite performance characteristics
• Your organisation is optimised to produce the results is currently produces
• Producing different results requires changing the system
To get from Sydney to Canberra… To get from Sydney to Minneapolis…
Systems have performance characteristics

Results from Minneapolis Scrum Gathering 2018

Rowan Bunning @rowanb
agility is not the same as “faster”
“We considered a bunch of names, and agreed eventually on “agile” as we felt
that captured the adaptiveness and response to change which we felt was so
important to our approach."
- Martin Fowler
“Agile does not mean delivering faster. Agile does not mean fewer defects or
higher quality. Agile does not mean higher productivity. Agile means agile - the
ability to move with quick easy grace, to be nimble and adaptable. To embrace
change and become masters of change - to compete through adaptability by
being able to change faster and cheaper than your competition can.
Perhaps faster delivery and higher quality will be achieved with an agile method
such as Scrum, but it is vital for business and engineering leaders to appreciate
that the raison d’être of agile methods is…agility.
- Craig Larman and Bas Vodde

Which has agility?
Source:YouTube Source: invorma.com/16-super-jumping-animals
or

@rowanb© 2017-8 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com
agility through Inspect & Adapt
Initial Product
Plan and
all “requirements”
Deﬁned
Vision, Outcomes,
Goals
Empirical
What is really needed
✖
All requirements completed
✓
Goals met ✓
inspect-adapt points
✓What is really needed
Product
Detailed up-front planning and
predictive processes are replaced by
just-in-time inspect and adapt cycles

Does our approach promote Outcome over Output?
📈💲😃
Over
Outcome
We have come to value…
Output
Aim to create the minimum Output to achieve the Outcome.
How output impacts users, customers and the resulting business value that this
produces.
Measure of what was developed.

“Speed” can be achieved by reducing batch size
Batch 1 Batch 2 Batch 3 Batch 4 Batch 5 Batch 6 Batch 7 Batch 8 Batch 9 Batch 10
Batch 1
Batch 1 Batch 2
Batch 1
Batch 2 Batch 3 Batch 4 Batch 5
Time

Ability to steer
Photo credits: thoughtcatalog.com and static.ezermester.hu
not

Go slow in the right direction or fast in the wrong direction?

“Agile” was inspired by business “agility”

Considerations in determining what to optimise for
• Sources and degrees of Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity
• Exposure to disruption
• Types of problem domain exposed to (tool: Cyneﬁn sense making)
• Organisational dynamics (tool: Causal Loop Diagramming)
• Basis on which we compete / best fulﬁl our purpose

Problems that
Product Owner model can solve

Organisational control systems
Market system
Bureaucratic
system
Clan system
• Prices drive very efﬁcient decision making
• Measure Input and Output
• Formal rules, roles, processes, compliance
• Supervision, direction and hierarchy
• Specialisations enable clearer comparison with
like workers
• Informal value based rules
• Allows innovation and collaboration
• Most suitable for unique, interdependent or
ambiguous work e.g. software development
Reference: A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms, William G. Ouchi, Management Science, Vol. 25, No. 9. 1979.

Which did your organisation scale up?
Market control
Clan control
Bureaucratic
control

Who would like less bureaucratic control?
Market control
Bureaucratic control
Clan control
Try… direct business - development collaboration
using the simplicity of Scrum patterns
for Minimum Viable Bureaucracy (MVB)

@rowanb© 2016 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com
Control mechanisms in LeSS
Market control
Bureaucratic control
Clan control
self-managing
teams
self co-ordination
decisions at level of
richest information
PO
≪component≫
Publishing
≪component≫
Scheduling
≪component≫
Expenses
≪component≫
KPI Dashboards
Direct co-ordination
Communities for knowledge sharing and agreements Architecture, UX, Testing etc.
💡 $
😀 ☸

External contracts spawn internal contracts
Business
External
customers
Development / I.T.
External
contract
Internal
contract

@rowanb #auscrum© 2017-8 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com
We want a solution.
How much is it going to cost?
How long is it going to take?
Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
All rights reserved.
Business Development

Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
(release contract agreed)
more,
more,
more!
1
The Milestone point
is arbitrary
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
Business
Date & Scope
Development

Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
The Milestone point
is arbitrary
more,
more,
more!
less,
less,
less!
1 2
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
The date and scope contract
point represents the time that
both parties have maximised the
ability to shift blame when
something goes wrong.
Date & Scope

Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
The Milestone point is arbitrary
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
Date & Scope
Responsibility
low control
low ﬂexibility
low transparency
big batches
cannot release early
not “done” until the end
Business
have
completed
date and
scope move
Development
shifts
Shifting responsibility means that the business loses

Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
* Development Phase for The Contract is controlled by R&D.
* The order of work is decided by R&D.
* Product Management does not have control, and there is low
visibility into the status of true progress.
The Contract
ineffective bonus schemes and "tracking
to plan" behaviors are injected, since
there is no real control or visibility
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
Business
• Development Phase for The Contract is controlled by the
development group
• The order of work is decided by the development group
• The Business does not have control, and there is low
visibility into the status of true progress.
Development
Aim becomes keeping delivery “on track” to plan

When things go wrong…
Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
content freeze
The Milestone point is arbitrary
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde
DevelopmentBusiness
There’s been a
surprise!
But you
committed!
Date & Scope
sign-off

The competitive game maximises
ability for both parties to shift blame
your faultyour fault
Product
Management
R&Dstart end
(release)
your fault your fault
The Contract
www.craiglarman.com
www.odd-e.com
Copyright © 2010
C.Larman & B. Vodde

Now development pulls out the ‘Secret Toolbox’ including…
• Stopping testing
• Crappy code
• No longer thinking about the design
• No longer taking time to learn
• Not ﬁxing weakness in organisation
• Overtime leading to attrition of the best people

Product Owner steers
Product
Owner steers
External
customers
Teams
External
demand
✘ No Scope and Date contract
✔ Business steers directly
☸PO
📖

Stop controlling though a scope &
date contract
Start controlling by steering directly
throughout… collaborating

What does the Agile Manifesto have to say about this?

LeSS is about Descaling…
• Descaling roles and organisational hierarchy
• Descaling organisational structures, policies, etc.
• Descaling architectural complexity
LeSS is More!

Problems with Product
Owner per team

The Scrum Guide™
The Definitive Guide to Scrum:
The Rules of the Game
November 2017
Developed and sustained by Scrum creators: Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland
Scrum Teams deliver products iteratively and incrementally, maximizing opportu
feedback. Incremental deliveries of “Done” product ensure a potentially useful v
working product is always available.
The Product Owner
The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product result
of the Development Team. How this is done may vary widely across organization
and individuals.
The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Bac
Backlog management includes:
• Clearly expressing Product Backlog items;
• Ordering the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve goals and mission
• Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs;
• Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and
the Scrum Team will work on next; and,
• Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog t
So, what exactly is our product?

Insurance company
What is our Product?
Insurance
Sales
Underwriting
Solution
Premium
Billing
Claims
System
Quoting engine
Leads and
Opportunities
Policy provider
application
Rules engine
Premium
system
Insurance
booking system
Premium
payment
system
Claim checker
Pay back
engine
Underwriting
workﬂow
manager
Thanks to: Viktor Grgić for the example
The Market I see a Get Insurance
system
…and a Handle Claim
system ‘Whole Product’ (LeSS)
Insured Customer
Head of
Department
No, This is
a product
Architect
No, This is
a product
Project Manager
This is a
product

Product “Owner” does not mean…
• component owner - try… customer centric product owner
• feature owner - try… customer centric product owner
• temporary project owner - try… customer-centric product owner long term
• analyst - try… team function
• clariﬁer - try… customer/user function
• solo User Story writer - try… requester story telling directly with team
• solution speciﬁer - try… framing problems for team to solve
• order giver - try… co-creator, product champion, decision maker
• Sprint-to-Sprint tactical only - try… strategic “Big Product Owner”

The Frantic Order Taker anti-pattern
Source: http://kellyexeter.com.au/cause-of-overwhelm

So called “Spotify model” has team-centric PO
More like “Temporary
Mission Owners”…
☸ What mechanism is there to steer the whole product?

Compelling Direction
“Effective team self-management is impossible unless someone in
authority sets the direction for the team’s work.” - J. Richard Hackman

Agility constrained by a hierarchy of objectives, budgets & people
Delivery DeliveryDelivery
Scrum is limited to these boxes
Team
Program
Value Stream
Portfolio

Hierarchy enforcing partial Product Owner
Team
Business Owner
Customer
Product Manager
2..4
Product Owner
1..2
POs become
tactical only.
Tactical
Strategic
This is the “partial
Product Owner”
anti-pattern
* as per Roman Pichler

Prioritisation secondary and tertiary prioritisation
results in local optimisation
MetaScrum perspective of 5 Teams MetaScrum perspective of 25
Teams
ADD LUMPY DIAGRAM HERE
Source: Scrum@Scale Guide, Jeff Sutherland
What happens
when these people
prioritise?
What happens
when overall
priorities change
away from
subsidiary PO’s
area?
Is everyone still working on the highest priorities for the overall product?

Direction (good)
“Chief”Product Owner (aka
CPO, Business Owner, etc.)
connected to teams through
middleman TLPO.
Role-free coordination on
the how (good) fails to span
teams (bad).*
(Development) Team
Members minus business
domain knowledge or
customer interaction
Secondhand direction (bad)
Coordination through
prescribed methods and
people inherently takes
coordination responsibility
away from (development)
teams.
Team Level“Product Owner,”
not the owner of the product,
must“align”with CPO.
“Scrum Master”Who
Coordinates. Please stop
teaching this.
* Living in their pools, they soon forget
about the sea.
D
SMWC
CPO
TLPO
SMWC
Agility-Reducing Organizational Design Patterns
Unfortunately Still Taught Today
SM
SM
TLPO
TLPO D
D
D
DD
D
D
D
DD
CPO
Customer(s)
Conversations about
direction, priorities,
vision
Conversations about
detailed user needs
One Product Owner and
one Product Backlog
describe the what
Fluid, role-free
coordination on the how
spans (dev) teams
(Development) Team
Member could also be a
business domain expert,
UI/UX designer, BA, etc.
Scrum Master and
management on a
different plane, no
longer coordinating
others’work. Instead,
they teach agility,
systems thinking,
organizational design.
D
C
SM M
PO
D D
D
D
D
D
D D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
C
C
C
C
SM
SM
SM
M
Try Something Like This Instead?
PO
From Michael James with permission.

Intervention
opportunity
Reference: Lv Yi https://blog.odd-e.com/yilv/2017/03/seeing-the-system-dynamic-1-vs-n-product-owners.html
B1: Scaling anti-pattern
R: Shifting the
burden addiction
B2: LeSS Solution

Scaling Product
Ownership with LeSS

Whole Product Focus
- Bas Vodde
“It is really really hard to get teams to always
consider the whole product instead of just “their
tasks”. And in the LeSS Framework we do
everything we can to avoid sandboxing, such as
not preselecting items to teams, not having
separate backlogs, not having separate POs, etc.”
Lean Principle: Optimise the Whole

Organisational context

© 2017-8 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com @rowanbImage credit: Tribute to Elon Musk codepen.io/laitsky/full/pNXENL
Product Owner shoulders Capital
Expenditure Risk.
Makes risk-reward trade-offs often.

Failure as learning, learning as progress
Video: youtube.com/watch?v=GeIHJ-i7yVk

Story: Entrepreneurial Product Owner

My ﬁrst Product Owner was the Managing Director
• Very compelling vision
• Steered Sprint-to-Sprint on risk-reward basis
• Domain experts next to us
• Teams infected by entrepreneurship
• Extremely high motivation
• Extremely high innovation

PO is entrepreneur actively managing Risk-Reward

Dealing with objections to
product centric Product Owner

Scaling by distributing Product Backlog management workload
Does not scale Scales well

One LeSS Product Owner works with up to 8 teams
PO
≪component≫
Publishing
≪component≫
Scheduling
≪component≫
Expenses
≪component≫
KPI Dashboards
Direct co-ordination
Communities for knowledge sharing and agreements Architecture, UX, Testing etc.
💡 $
😀 ☸

© 2015 Scrum WithStyle scrumwithstyle.com
Single overall PO in 2007-8
Product Backlog
• Feature A
• Feature B
• Feature C
• Feature D
• Overall PO and Product Backlog
• Streams split to minimise dependency
• Separate Stream Owners
Team BTeam A
Area 1 Backlog
• Feature A
• Feature C
• Feature F
• Feature I
Area 2 Backlog
•Feature B
•Feature D
•Feature G
•Feature H
Team G
Area 3 Backlog
•Feature E
•Feature H
•Feature J
•Feature K
Thanks to: Colin Bird.
Team C Team ETeam D Team F Team H

Objection: “Too much work for
one Product Owner!”
Image credit: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ﬁnancial-advisors-
can-overcome-client-objections-holtman-rrc/

LeSS Scales Product Ownership by delegating clarification
PO
Users Market / domain experts
Prioritisation
Content and order of
Product Backlog
Clarification
Splitting, acceptance
criteria, sufficient detail
etc.
💡 $
😀
“Yes”
“No”
“A little now, rest later”
“Sooner”
“Later”
☸
Requesters

Q: “What do you see as the
scope of the developer role? How
does that compare with Scrum?”
Objection: “Clarification would
take too much developer time.”
Image credit: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-financial-advisors-
can-overcome-client-objections-holtman-rrc/
Q: “Are we optimising for
developer utilisation, or agility?”
Q: “Are we considering how separate
specifiers lead to the wastes of
handoff, information scatter and a
mini-waterfall process?”

Objection: “Too many teams to
deal with.”
A: If more than 8 teams, try
Requirement Areas

x 4 items per team
x 8 teams
x 2 Sprints
= 92 ﬁne-grained “Ready”
items
A: Keep ﬁne-grained items to no more than 100.
Objection: “Product Backlog too
large for one PO.”

Objection: “Several current PO’s
would be demoted!”
Q: “Is PO a role or a pay grade?”
Q: “How can the two be more clearly
separated?”
Q: “How can the organisation show
that it values customers, users,
domain experts collaborating on or
with teams appropriately?”

Temporary fake Product Owner
Video thanks to Mike Cohn, Mountain Goat Software

Parkes radio telescope used in
support of Apollo 12, 13, 14,
15, 16 and 17 missions.

Dealing with objections to
Product Owner authority

Business resistance dynamic
Intervention
opportunity
Reference: Lv Yi https://blog.odd-e.com/yilv/2017/03/seeing-the-system-dynamic-1-vs-n-product-owners.html

This is “Shifting the burden” archetype which is…
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_archetype
…the dynamic of addiction!

Story: Negotiating Product
Owner empowerment

Key Messages
• The Product Owner model has the potential to solve several big picture
organisational problems
• Choices in scaling up Product Owner are relative to the optimising goals
(agility vs predictability etc.)
• LeSS, SAFe, “Spotify Model”, Scrum@Scale all differ greatly on the above
• Buy-in at señor management/executive level is generally required to
optimise the whole

Beware…

R.I.P. Mike Beedle Long live agility!

To learn more…
less.works

@rowanb au.linkedin.com/in/rowanbunning
Rowan Bunning
rowan@scrumwithstyle.com scrumwithstyle.com

Genuine agility at scale through LeSS Product Ownership - April 2018

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