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Scaling Agile @ Spotify with Tribes, Squads, Chapters & Guilds Vlad Mysla . 3:15:29 AM0m

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The main part of this presentation is basedon original document that was written by:Henrik Kniberg Anders Ivarsson & http://blog.crisp.se/author/henrikkniberg http://anders-ivarsson.blogspot.com/ Original document: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1018963/Articles/SpotifyScaling.pdf3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization http://www.netage.com/pub/articles/Publications/Seybold/Seybold8_1-90.html3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human OrganizationSince we cannot "see" social structure, we developmodels to help us interpret our experience and guideour actions.Over millennia, humans have developed progressivelymore complex models of organization.Through networking eyes, we can see the antecedentsof todays organizations in history and culture.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human OrganizationNetworks are very old and very new.To understand what is new about networks and howthey are the new society of the Information Age, it isimportant to see how old networking is and itsfundamental people-to-people origin.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Homo sapiens3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Hunting and Gathering Groups3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Hunting and Gathering Groups Networking as "people connecting with people" may have been the great human social invention of the ancient Hunting and Gathering Age. Perhaps developing in parallel with the growing human capacity for language, human tribes developed a level of cooperation and coordinated action that enabled the species to spread throughout the world. Networking within and between small groups is an ancient human skill, shared by all the peoples of the planet. It is the skill that comes from within in our interpersonal relations as part of a small group.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Agricultural Hierarchies3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Agricultural Hierarchies It is said that civilization began with the planting of a seed. With the culture and technology of agriculture came a great Wave of human change. Human groups suddenly increased in size, from tribal groups of 20 or so to towns of 200, then cities of thousands. A new form of human organization emerged, hierarchies. Western civilization began in the great flood-plains of the Middle East. Some theorists believe that the need for large-scale water control led to the towering theocracies of Egypt and Mesopotamia, great human hierarchies topped with a God.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Agricultural Hierarchies In Japan, with mountainous terrain and narrow valleys, controlling water to enable agriculture required close cooperation with many small groups leading, perhaps, to a more decentralized form of hierarchy. Rather than a sharp top with a paramount individual as is common in the West, Japanese hierarchy tends to be blunt, a group of powerful leaders. What held the feudal system together were bonds of personal loyalty. Actually, this form of a blunt hierarchy plays a little-recognized but very important role in the West, best known as "old boy networks," meaning the interconnected members of a controlling elite.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Industrial Bureaucracies3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Industrial Bureaucracies The second great Wave of human change came in the centralization of society and development of vast bureaucracies. In the West, bureaucracy seemed to grow along with industry. Specialized, dependent, formal, machine-like organization came with steam engines and assembly lines. While the West was developing centralized administrations for urban industrial centers, Japan was also centralizing its feudal system in the Tokugawa era. Instead of Kings and Presidents as in the West, however, Japan relied on "councils of elders," group rather than individual leadership. By the middle of the Industrial era in the late-eighteenth century, departmental bureaucracies became formalized through constitutions in both the West and Japan.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Information Networks3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Information Networks As we speed forward into our future, we are on the crest of the next great Wave of human change based on new technologies and new global circumstances. With this great change is coming new forms of large-scale social organization. These are the global networks emerging today. Each form of organization has included the ones before. Small group networks function with hierarchies. Hierarchies provide the framework for bureaucracies. Todays global networks include hierarchy and bureaucracy, rather than replace them.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Modern Fire Organization 3:15:29 AM5m

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Modern Fire Organization A network is a form of organization like hierarchy and bureaucracy. Complex organizations today whether voluntary, business, or government have aspects of all three forms of organization. One example we believe is common to both Japan and the United States is the local fire department. For three years in the 1970s private company helped the U.S. Department of Commerce set up Americas first national fire prevention agency. Japans fire rate is one of the lowest in the world. As you may know, the U.S. fire rate is by far the highest in the world. Not a statistic we can be proud of.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Modern Fire Organization In America, the fire-fighting part of the fire department is organized in a strict, military hierarchy. When faced with the crisis of actually fighting a fire, a well-trained unit following a chain of command seems to be the optimal form of organization.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Modern Fire Organization Another important part of every fire department is a bureaucratic administration. This is the group of people concerned with building inspections, codes, violations, water mains, and all other laws and policies surrounding the control of fires.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Modern Fire Organization A third, often neglected, part of American fire departments is a network of prevention and educational efforts. At the simplest level, this means the voluntary cooperation of fire personnel with other community organizations to spread fire safety information. This is essentially small- group person-to-person networking.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Modern Fire Organization Fire departments also network at the community-to-community level. Although fire-fighting units are hierarchical, departments come together as equals in regional "mutual aid" associations. So, if one community has a very bad fire, other surrounding departments will send direct aid, while departments on the periphery will move up to fill in gaps left by the response. Here we have a network of hierarchies.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Modern Fire Organization Like other organizations, fire departments and professionals within them also form peer-to-peer associations at the state (Prefecture) and national levels to exchange information and influence policy changes. Many of these are like the voluntary grassroots associations dedicated to causes like the environment and the consumer.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Modern Fire Organization Modern fire departments, found in every community throughout the world, show the basic forms of human organization applied to a specific function: hierarchical fire-fighting, bureaucratic codes, and networks of prevention.3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Contemporary Organization3:15:29 AM

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Evolution of Networks: The Stages of Human Organization Contemporary Organization In the broad cultural context, global networks are being stimulated and shaped as the sociological response to electronic and digital technology. They are the unique response to the driving forces of information, just as hierarchy developed in the Agricultural Era and bureaucracy matured in the Industrial Era. Network organizations based on global media are appearing in grassroots movements, large-scale organizations, and in everyday work. These networks operate alongside, within, and between the hierarchy and bureaucracy in any large organization. Global media are leading to a global workforce and global work. Social Neworks making them more personal and direct.3:15:29 AM

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Software development evolution …. You should know something about it ….3:15:29 AM

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QA Extreme Programming Waterfall Continuous integration Kanban Agile Pair Programming Lean Scrum Test Driven Development User Stories 3:15:29 AM10m

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Agile TeamEach developer should be:• self-organized• self-motivated• responsible• communicative• senior• Perfect!3:15:29 AM

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Original Scrum in really big companies3:15:29 AM

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Real problems in huge Projects• What we have?• Where we should go?• Who can help me with this?• Who is responsible for that?• Who makes decisions?• Why I’m here?• Why we are?3:15:29 AM

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Back to Hierarchies and Bureaucracies? Is it real to design big systems based on Agile methodology?3:15:29 AM

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Is it real to design big systems based on Agile methodology?3:15:29 AM

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The Answer is YES! Spotify made this, and it looks great!3:15:29 AM

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Spotify made a great music player3:15:29 AM

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Spotify has a beautiful web 2.0 website You should look on it: http://www.spotify.com/int/3:15:29 AM

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Spotify is a big growing company Spotify is a Swedish music streaming service offering digitally restricted streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels. Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had approximately ten million users as of 15 September 2010, about 2.5 million of whom were paying members. Total users reached 15 million by August 2012, 4 million of them paying monthly. More about the company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify3:15:29 AM

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Spotify has great office and developers3:15:29 AM

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Spotify had real problem having scaled to over 30 teams across 3 cities.3:15:29 AM

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Spotify handles agile with hundreds of developers3:15:29 AM

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Spotify organization Magic?3:15:29 AM

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Spotify organization Yes, it is magic!3:15:29 AM

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Spotify organization 3:15:29 AM15m

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Squads3:15:29 AM

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SquadsThe basic unit of developmentat Spotify is the Squad.A Squad is similar to a Scrum team, and is designed tofeel like a mini-startup.They sit together, and they have all the skills and toolsneeded to design, develop, test, and release toproduction.They are a selforganizing team and decide their ownway of working – some use Scrum sprints, some useKanban, some use a mix of these approaches.3:15:29 AM

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SquadsEach squad has a long-term mission such as:- building and improving the Android client,- creating the Spotify radio experience,- scaling the backend systems,- providing payment solutions.- etc.3:15:29 AM

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SquadsDifferent squads take responsibility for differentparts of the user experience.3:15:29 AM

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SquadsSquads are encouraged to apply Lean Startupprinciples such as MVP (minimum viable product) andvalidated learning.MVP means releasing early and often, and validatedlearning means using metrics and A/B testing to findout what really works and what doesn’t.This is summarized in the slogan“Think it, build it, ship it, tweak it”.Because each squad sticks with one mission and onepart of the product for a long time, they can reallybecome experts in that area - for example what itmeans to build an awesome radio experience.3:15:29 AM

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SquadsMost squads have an awesome workspace including adesk area, a lounge area, and a personal "huddle"room.Almost all walls are whiteboards.3:15:29 AM

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SquadsTo promote learning and innovation, each squad isencouraged to spend roughly 10% of their timeon “hack days”.During hack days people do whatever they want,typically trying out new ideas and sharing with theirbuddies.Some teams do 1 hack day every second week, otherssave up for a whole “hack week”.Hack days are not only fun, they are also a great wayto stay up-to-date with new tools and techniques andsometimes lead to important product innovations3:15:29 AM

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SquadsA squad doesn’t have a formally appointed squadleader, but it does have a product owner.The product owner is responsible for prioritizing thework to be done by the team, but is not involved withhow they do their work.The product owners of different squads collaboratewith each other to maintain a highlevel roadmapdocument that shows where Spotify as a whole isheading, and each product owner is responsible formaintaining a matching product backlog for theirsquad.3:15:29 AM

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SquadsA squad also has access to an agile coach, whohelps them evolve and improve their way ofworking.The coaches run retrospectives, sprint planningmeetings, do 1-on-1 coaching, etc.3:15:29 AM

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SquadsIdeally each squad is fully autonomous with directcontact with their stakeholders, and no blockingdependencies to other squads.Basically a mini-startup.3:15:30 AM

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SquadsIdeally each squad is fully autonomous with directcontact with their stakeholders, and no blockingdependencies to other squads.Basically a mini-startup.With over 30 teams, that is a challenge!3:15:30 AM

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SquadsTo aid in this, they run a quarterly survey with eachsquad. This helps focus improvement efforts and findout what kind of organizational support is needed. The circles show the current state, arrows show the trend.3:15:30 AM

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SquadsFor example we can see a pattern where threesquads reports problems around releasing and that it doesnot seem to improve - this area needs urgent focus!3:15:30 AM

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SquadsWe also see that squad 4 does not have a great situation with agile coachsupport, but that it isalready improving.3:15:30 AM

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Squads ● Product owner - The squad has a dedicated product owner that prioritizes the work and takes both business value and tech aspects into consideration. ● Agile coach - The squad has an agile coach that helps them identify impediments and coaches them to continuously improve their process. ● Influencing work - Each squad member can influence his/her work, be an active part in planning and choose which tasks to work on. Every squad member can spend 10% of his/her time on hack days. ● Easy to release - The squad can (and does!) get stuff live with minimal hassle and sync. ● Process that fits the team - The squad feels ownership of their process and continuously improves it. ● Mission - The squad has a mission that everyone knows and cares about, and stories on the backlog are related to the mission. ● Organizational support - The squad knows where to turn to for problem solving support, for technical issues as well as “soft” issues.3:15:30 AM

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Tribes 3:15:30 AM25m

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Tribes A tribe is a collection of squads that work in related areas – such as the music player, or backend infrastructure. The tribe can be seen as the “incubator” for the squad mini-startups. , and have a fair degree of freedom and autonomy. Each tribe has a tribe lead who is responsible for providing the best possible habitat for the squads within that tribe. The squads in a tribe are all physically in the same office, normally right next to each other, and the lounge areas nearby promote collaboration between the squads.3:15:30 AM

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Tribes Tribes are sized based on the concept of the “Dunbar number”, which says that most people cannot maintain a social relationship with more than 100 people. When groups get too big, they start seeing more things like restrictive rules, bureaucracy, politics, extra layers of management, and other waste. So tribes are designed to be smaller than 100 people or so.3:15:30 AM

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TribesTribes hold gatherings on a regular basis, an informalget-together where they show the rest of the tribe(or whoever shows up) what they are working on,what they have delivered and what others can learnfrom what they are currently doing.This includes live demos of working software, newtools and techniques, cool hack-day projects, etc.3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependencies3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependencies With multiple squads there will always be dependencies. Dependencies are not necessarily bad - squads sometimes need to work together to build something truly awesome. Nevertheless, the goal is to have squads be as autonomous as possible, especially minimizing dependencies that are blocking or slowing a squad down. 3:15:30 AM30m

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Squad dependenciesTo aid in this, they regularly ask all squads which othersquads they depend on, and to what extent thosedependencies are blocking or slowing the squad down.Here’s an example:3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependenciesThey then discuss ways to eliminate the problematic dependencies,especially blocking and cross-tribe dependencies.This often leads to reprioritization, reorganization, architecturalchanges or technical solutions.3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependenciesThey then discuss ways to eliminate the problematic dependencies,especially blocking and cross-tribe dependencies.This often leads to reprioritization, reorganization, architecturalchanges or technical solutions.3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependenciesThe survey also helps to see patterns around how squads depend oneach other - for example that more and more squads seems to beslowed down by operations.They use a simple graph to track how the various types ofdependencies increase or decrease over time.3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependenciesScrum has a practice called “scrum of scrums”, a synchronization meetingwhere one person from each team meets to discuss dependencies.They don’t usually do scrum of scrums at Spotify, mainly because most ofthe squads are fairly independent and don’t need such a coordinationmeeting.3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependenciesInstead, scrum of scrums happens “on demand”.For example: large project that required the coordinated workof multiple squads for a few months.3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependenciesTo make this work, the teams had a daily sync meetingwhere they identified and resolved dependenciesbetween the squads, and used a board with sticky notesto keep track of unresolved dependencies.3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependenciesA common source of dependency issues at many companies isdevelopment vs operations.Most companies have some kind of a handoff from dev to ops, withassociated friction and delays.3:15:30 AM

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Squad dependenciesAt Spotify there is a separate operations team, but their job is not to makereleases for the squads - their job is to give the squads the support they needto release code themselves;support in the form of infrastructure, scripts, and routines.They are, in a sense, “building the road to production”.3:15:30 AM

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Chapters and guilds 3:15:30 AM35m

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Chapters and guildsThere is a downside to everything, and the potentialdownside to full autonomy is a loss of economies of scale.The tester in squad A may be wrestling with a problemthat the tester in squad B solved last week.If all testers could get together, across squads and tribes,they could share knowledge and create tools forthe benefit of all squads.3:15:30 AM

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Chapters and guildsIf each squad was fully autonomous and had nocommunication with other squads, then what isthe point of having a company?Spotify might as well be chopped into 30different small companies.3:15:30 AM

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Chapters and guildsIf each squad was fully autonomous and had nocommunication with other squads, then what isthe point of having a company?Spotify might as well be chopped into 30different small companies.That’s why they have Chapters and Guilds.This is the glue that keeps the company together,it gives some economies of scale without sacrificing too much autonomy.3:15:30 AM

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Chapters3:15:30 AM

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ChaptersThe chapter is your small family of peoplehaving similar skills and working within the samegeneral competency area, within the same tribe.3:15:30 AM

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ChaptersEach chapter meets regularly to discuss their area ofexpertise and their specific challenges - for examplethe testing chapter, the web developer chapter or thebackend chapter.3:15:30 AM

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ChaptersThe chapter lead is line manager for his chapter members, with all thetraditional responsibilities such as developing people, setting salaries, etc.However, the chapter lead is also part of a squad and is involved in the day-to-day work, whichhelps him stay in touch with reality.3:15:30 AM

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ChaptersNow, reality is always messier than pretty pictures like the one above.For example, chapter members are not evenly distributed across the squads;some squads have lots of web developers, some have none.3:15:30 AM

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Guilds3:15:30 AM

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GuildsA Guild is a more organic and wide-reaching “community of interest”, a groupof people that want to share knowledge, tools, code, and practices.Chapters are always local to a Tribe, while a guild usually cuts across thewhole organization.Some examples are: the web technology guild, the tester guild, the agilecoach guild, etc.3:15:30 AM

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GuildsA guild often includes all the chapters working in that area and theirmembers, for example the testing guild includes all the testers in alltesting chapters, but anybody who is interested can join any guild.Each guild has a “guild coordinator” who, well, does just that :o)3:15:30 AM

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GuildsAs an example of guild work, is a “Web Guild Unconference”,an open space event where all web developers at Spotify gathered upin Stockholm to discuss challenges and solutions within their field.3:15:30 AM

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Guilds Another example is the agile coach guild. The coaches are spread all over the organization, but share knowledge continuously and meet regularly to collaborate on the high level organizational improvement areas, which we track on an improvement board.3:15:30 AM

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Wait a sec, isn’t this just a matrix org? 3:15:30 AM45m

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Yes.Well, sort of. It’s a different type of matrix than what most of us are used to though.In many matrix organizations people with similar skills are “pooled” together intofunctional departments, and “assigned” to projects, and “report to” a functionalmanager.Spotify rarely does any of this.Our matrix is weighted towards delivery.That is, people are grouped into stableco-located squads,where people with different skill setscollaborate and self-organizeto deliver a great product.That’s the vertical dimension in the matrix, and it is the primary one since that is howpeople are physically grouped and where they spend most of their time.The horizontal dimension is for sharing knowledge, tools, and code.The job of the chapter lead is to facilitate and support this.3:15:30 AM

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Questions? 3:15:30 AM50m

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Provide your feedback please! http://bit.ly/vmysla-ed2-scaling-agile-at-spotify 3:15:30 AM59m

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Thanks to: You all, dear listeners Spotify for good example Henrik Kniberg for knowledge sharing Agilee for the great event 3:15:30 AM60m