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
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,
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
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
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,
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
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
A mental model reflects an individual's beliefs, values, and assumptions. As those are quite often internal, we need to somehow express them in order to learn and improve. In fact, the model with Causal Loop Diagram is a representation of the mental model. We could explore different mental
In the previous Odd-e Boring Gathering at Hangzhou, I spent time pair programming with other Odd-e nerds. That was fun! I have learned a few things and I would like to share one of them today regarding writing `Dockerfile`. I learn that writing `Dockerfile` like below is going to slow
#backlogs is the ultimate lever for agility. This is the insight we gained from the systems modeling exercises in my recent CLP course. I used to think of two main designs from LeSS: 1) one product backlog and 2) feature team. I found that these two were just the different
This is the seventh article in the series of seeing system dynamics in organizational change. In the last article, we concluded that incremental structural change was more appropriate for huge organizations. In this article, we shall look at the different approaches for incremental structural change. Two approaches There are mainly
This is the sixth article in the series of seeing system dynamics in organizational change. We shall examine the topic of structural change in this and next articles. We first look at the scope of structural change - how big structural change is appropriate, and what factors and dynamics are
This is the fifth article in the series of seeing system dynamics in organizational change. In the previous article, we concluded that the best time to de-scale was when the organization is still small and has few roles. In this article, we take up the challenge of reducing special roles,
This is the fourth article in the series of seeing system dynamics in organizational change. In this and next articles, we are going to look at one specific change in the large-scale product development organization: de-scale to scale. This means to simplify the organization to achieve agility, and this is
This is the third article in the series of seeing system dynamics in organizational change. Even though we have agreed on the change vision and is progressing during the norm, we lose the plot when crisis comes. During the norm There is always a gap between our change vision and
This is the second article in the series of seeing system dynamics in organizational change. We shall learn where the local optimization comes from, and how important it is to define a clear system optimizing goal and use that to guide the change. Local optimization "It is more cost-efficient