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
I have written a series of blogs focusing on seeing system dynamics in organizational design. Now, i'd like to start a new series, focusing on organizational change. In this first one, let's understand three common problems in organizational changes: 1. change stalls after it is initiated,
Zooming out and seeing the big picture is a form of systems thinking, and we see how it helps to understand Scrum roles. Distributed project management "Distributed project management" is a very powerful exercise regarding Scrum roles. We start to write down all project management tasks in post-it
As part of the LeSS trainer application, I was asked to give a graphical representation of LeSS. Here's the result showing my view of LeSS. A series of choices LeSS is a series of choices for the large-scale product development. We could make any choice if we were
[Team Leader = TL; Product Owner = PO; ScrumMaster = SM] The real Scrum requires significant organizational redesign. I have seen two common settings to pilot Scrum: 1) project group and 2) component team, as those are existing structures thus convenient to just use them. However, without organizational redesign, you could not adopt
This sounds like an easy choice in Agile development, however, single-functional team such as testing team is still prevalent in many organizations. There are forces favoring in it. By understanding the factors and dynamics behind different choices, we make more informed decisions. Efficiency & Quality vs. Cycle time Why do
Two years ago, I wrote a blog article called "Revisit feature team". I felt not quite complete, thus, the thought went on, until I discovered what was missing recently. Collective ownership Let me recap the scenario here. There is one so-called feature team, in which small groups work
In part 1, we looked at the case of platform as product. Now, we are going to look at the case of product area as product. Those products all have customer views, but there is possibility to define a broad product, then the products become product areas in the broad
What is the product? This is a critical question in organization design. You define the product narrowly or broadly, and the scope of the product is a continuum. We are going to see the factors and dynamics behind different choices in two parts. In part 1, we shall look at
One important leverage in coaching Agile teams is to increase the focus on requirement, rather than task. This article describes the dynamic behind it. Traditional project tracks the progress at two levels. One level is the milestone, which is often associated with stages such as requirement analyzed, ready for integration,
It is natural that people specialize in various things, but when it is too much, it becomes over-specialization. Over-specialization wastes our potential. We shall understand why it happens and how the adoption of LeSS avoids it. Eroding goals "Eroding goals" as a system archetype consists of two balancing
Creating projects is still common in product organization, but it is really not optimized for product development. In this article, we give an analysis from one viewpoint. 1. The conflict between static skill and dynamic work If you prioritize the work from customer point of view, you will inevitably find
This is my first blog here.
Project manager does not exist in Scrum context. Project management in Scrum is distributed mainly between PO and team, for release and sprint respectively. This clarifies one of the most common understandings about SM as project manager, but raises another misunderstanding, which regards PO as project manager. To clarify this,
I started to work with a new organization and its teams recently. During the first sprint retrospective, developers and testers in teams discussed about how to collaborate more effectively. The same discussion has happened in other organizations of the same company, isn't it too slow to go through
In large-scale product development, multiple teams work on one product. Team PO is prevalent for various reasons, but they are anti-patterns. In this article, I try to describe those and provide the leverages. In Scrum, PO plays an important role in breaking the traditional contract game and improving the collaboration