LeSS before Scrum - adopting Scrum in large-scale organization

This is a session I planned to give in LeSS meetup in Apri, Agile 2020 in July, LeSS 2020 in Sept., but could not make any of them due to the COVID-19. Next attempt will be LeSS meetup in Sept. Thought that the ideas might be useful, thus, put the

Manager as Scrum Master

Note: This article was originally published as an experience report in Agile 2011. Abstract Manager as Scrum Master? You can not do that! It goes against the conventional wisdom, which assumes command and control managers cannot lead and coach as Scrum Masters. However, as an important aspect in Agile change,

We love individual responsibility more than we would admit

Once a team responsible for "A" (be it a function, component or customer domain) grows too big, we split it into two teams, responsible for the subsets of "A" (the left side). Why is it so natural to do this, rather than the alternative - we

Reasoning before measuring

I often got this question - what do you measure while adopting Agile? The conversation usually went like this: [me] What is about adopting Agile? [him] ... doing Scrum. [me] What effect do you expect after adopting Agile? [him] higher efficiency. [me] How would you define higher efficiency? [him] ... finishing more

How does LeSS optimize organizational ability to learn?

In my previous series of article "#backlogs and multi-learning", I wrote that "the agility is to deliver highest customer value in uncertain environment. With uncertainty, the ability to deliver is not sufficient, we need the ability to inspect and adapt, in order to deliver highest customer value&

LeSS before Scrum?

The discussion in this article assumes that we apply Scrum in large-scale (i.e. multi-team) product development, which is probably 90% of cases. Scrum adoption Scrum implies the change in organization design. The star model by Jay Galbraith defines five aspects of organization design. Let's put Scrum in

The path of least resistance towards one backlog

How could we create a path of least resistance towards one backlog? A collection of multiple backlogs is NOT one backlog Assuming that multiple teams are working on the same product, the below is a typical conversation between me and my fellow, who may be a friend in the community,

Number of backlogs and multi-learning: 4) specialized feature team

In this article, we shall look at the structure of specialized feature team, and explore the dynamics around their backlogs, then analyze its impact on the agility and find the lever to optimize for the agility. Feature team is responsible for delivering customer value from end to end, thus, there

Number of backlogs and multi-learning: 3) feature group

In this article, we shall look at a variant of the functional team and component team structure - feature group. We shall revisit the dynamics with functional team and component team, and see how much similarity and difference feature group has with them, in terms of its impact on the

Number of backlogs and multi-learning: 2) functional team and component team

In this article, we shall look at the structure of functional team and component team, and explore the dynamics around their backlogs, then analyze its impact on the agility and find the lever to optimize for the agility. Functional team is responsible for functional work such as analysis, design, implementation,

Number of backlogs and multi-learning: 1) see the backlogs

This is the first article in a series about "number of backlogs and multi-learning". Goal for Agility Let's first set the stage for our analysis by clarifying the system optimizing goal. The goal is to optimize for agility. The agility is to deliver highest customer value

The trap in learning from success

In our industry of product development, it is common that we try to learn from success. The successful people summarize a few factors from their experience, often in the name of best practices, then others would learn to apply. It is believed that A leads to success, thus the learning