RethinkingAgile_AAC2019

Why Agile Teams Have Nothing
rethinking
AGILE To Do With Business Agility
25 June 2019, Agile Austria Conference, Graz, AT
Dr. Klaus Leopold
twitter: @klausleopold
web: www.LEANability.com
mail: klaus.leopold@LEANability.com

@klausleopold www.LEANability.com
The Problem

INITIAL SITUATION
a company wants to improve
time to market of projects
— be proactive on the market —
— exploit opportunities in the market —
— be prepared for continuous change—

•minimum requirements for teams:
-visualization (board)
-standup meetings
-retrospectives
-measurements: lead time, throughput
www.LEANability.com
AWESOME
•cross functional teams
•product teams
•teams can chose their Agile method
OVERVIEW OF THE AGILE TRANSITION

HOW WAS THE TRANSFORMATION DONE?
1.5 year transformation project was set up
•600 people received basic agile training
“Agile Mindset”
• reorganization was carried out
• AGILE was implemented team by team
• support of 16 external coaches
• 11 internal Agile Coaches were established

RESULTS AFTER ~12 MONTH
~80% teams were “fully transformed”

EVERYTHING IS GREAT, ISN’t IT
✓ boards
✓ standups
✓ retrospectives
✓ communication
✓ collaboration
✓ metrics
www.LEANability.com

time
expected
actual
velocity Scrum Sprint Velocity (throughput)
trend, team level

time
actual
expected
leadtime
Kanban Lead Time
trend, team level

time
expected
actual
leadtime
Time-to-Market Initiatives
trend
W T * ? ! ?

the search for the causes

About dependencies and agile interactions

NEXT DONEDEVELOPBACKLOG
a typical (simplified) team board
EXTERNAL
WAITING

NEXT DONEDEVELOPBACKLOGteam 1
team 2
EXTERNAL
WAITING
EXTERNAL
WAITING

team dependency graph
why are there still so many dependencies?
—> multiple teams work on one product
—> products are not completely independent
—> we are talking about 600 people

team 1
team 2
team 3
team 4
customer wish: write a love letter

customer wish: write a love letter

Agility of an organization is not about
having many agile teams.
Organizational agility is about having
agile interactions between teams. Klaus Leopold

Great to see
the teams working
so well.
But does
team 3 know
what team 2 is
doing?

noagileinteractions
betweentheteams

About the workflow

another typical team board
EXTERNAL
WAITING

WAITING 4
INTEGRATION
EXTERNAL
WAITING

WAITING 4
INTEGRATION
WAITING 4
ACCEPTANCE
EXTERNAL
WAITING

WAITING 4
INTEGRATION
WAITING 4
ACCEPTANCE
WAITING 4
RELEASE
quarterlymonthly
EXTERNAL
WAITING

NEXT DONDEVELOP
WAITING
BACKLOG
WAITING 4
INTEGRATION
WAITING 4
ACCEPTANCE
WAITING 4
RELEASEANALYZE
DEVELOPMENTPRODUCT
BACKLOG
WAITING

NEXTBACKLOGANALYZE
DEVELOPMENTPRODUCT
BACKLOG
WAITING
DETAIL
CONCEPT
ROUGH
CONCEPT
WAITING 4
APPROVAL
WAITING 4
STEERING 
COMMITTEE
WAITINGWAITING
IDEA
TRIAGE
POOL OF
NEW IDEAS

WAITING 4
INTEGRATION
WAITING 4
ACCEPTANCE
WAITING 4
RELEASEANALYZE
DEVELOPMENTPRODUCT
BACKLOG
DETAIL
CONCEPT
ROUGH
CONCEPT
WAITING 4
APPROVAL
WAITING 4
STEERING 
COMMITTEE
WAITING
IDEA
TRIAGE
POOL OF
NEW IDEAS
WAITING WAITING WAITING
we are so fucking AGILE, yay!!
monthly
quarterly yearly quarterlymonthly

WAITING 4
INTEGRATION
WAITING 4
ACCEPTANCE
WAITING 4
RELEASEANALYZE
DEVELOPMENTPRODUCT
BACKLOG
DETAIL
CONCEPT
ROUGH
CONCEPT
WAITING 4
APPROVAL
WAITING 4
STEERING 
COMMITTEE
WAITING
IDEA
TRIAGE
POOL OF
NEW IDEAS
WAITING WAITING WAITING
we are so fucking AGILE, yay!!
maybe this is Agile software development
but this has NOTHING to do with 
business agility!!
this company is as lame
on the market as before

noend-2-endmanagement
ofthevalueSTREAM

About the strategic portfolio

NEXT REALIZEBACKLOG
EXTERNAL WAITING
and another typical team board
REVIEW DONE
(2) (8) (4)
Work In Process limits - AWESOME!!

Work In Process limits are AWESOME!!
- reduce delivery risk
- increase predictability
- increase system stability
- …
- reduce switching overhead
- reduce cycle time & time to market
- reduce cost of delay

Work In Progress limits are AWESOME!!
- reduce delivery risk
- increase predictability
- increase system stability
- …
- reduce switching overhead
- reduce cycle time & time to market
- reduce cost of delay
You need to limit
work items where
you want to achieve
the benefits!

epic
story task
initiative
(project)
area of influence at team level
don’t be surprised when you
don’t see any improvement in
TTM if you don’t manage TTM
elements

noagilestrategic
portfoliomanagement

About the change process

2nd Derivation: 
We need: agile teams,
scrum masters, service delivery
managers, product owners,
agile coaches…
a REORGANIZATION!
3rd Derivation: 
We need meetings, sprints,
committees, retrospectives,
stand-ups, replenishments etc…
1st Derivation: 
We become AGILE!
Improve Time to market of projects

transformation plan
current state desired state
If the desired state is agile, the way
there should already be agile.

THE ORG CHART

http://bit.ly/lba-e20

IDEA/ORDER VALUE
THE VALUE CREATION CHAIN
Optimize what interests
the customer!

Orgchartchangesinsteadof
focusonvaluedelivery

THE PROBLEMS
noagilestrategic
portfoliomanagement
ofthevalueSTREAM
noagileinteractions
betweentheteams
Orgchartchangesinsteadof
focusonvaluedelivery

THE PROBLEMS
noagilestrategic
portfoliomanagement
ofthevalueSTREAM
noagileinteractions
betweentheteams

First Solutions Awesome!

NO agile interactions between teams

product 1 product 2
product 3
do NOT optimize
organizational structures (=teams)!
optimize
value delivery (=products/services)!
webuiltproductboardsto
manageintra-product
dependencies

We've found a
dependency to
you guys.
Maria is an
expert on it. She is
currently working on
X. What do we
do?

—> product standups
—> product retrospectives
FEEDBACK LOOPS

product 1 product 2
product 3
only inter-product dependencies remain
weestablishedoperational
portfoliomanagementto
manageinter-product
dependencies

The Operational Portfolio Board
Analyze Realize Accept Delivery DONE
External waiting
Product1Product2Product3

—> portfolio standups
—> portfolio retrospectives
FEEDBACK LOOPS

no end-2-end management of the value stream

wesimplifiedtheupstream
DEV  
READY ANALYZEBACKLOG DONE
PRODUCT1PRODUCT2PRODUCT3
DEVELOP UA SHIP
WAITING 4
APPROVAL
ROUGH
CONCEPT
biweeklywebroughtbusinessonboard
WIP LIMITS APPLY HERE!!

—> standup + business
—> retrospectives + business
FEEDBACK LOOPS

no agile strategic portfolio management

MAKEMONEYINVESTMENTS
BIZ 
METRICS
COMPANY
STRATEGY
POOL OF
EVALUATED
IDEAS
NEXT TOP 5
EVALUATED
IDEAS
IN
DEVELOPMENT
MEASURE 
SUCCESS &
TWEAK
ADAPT 
& 
TWEAK
IMPACT
(NOT)
ACHIEVED
REALIZATION DONEREVIEWIIPIDEAS
information radiator ideation & prioritization development & measurement
The Strategic Portfolio Board

—> standup
—> retrospectives
—> strategy review
FEEDBACK LOOPS

focus on Org chart instead of value delivery

1. Identify your value creation chains
2. Identify dependencies WITHIN your
value creation chains
3. Identify dependencies BETWEEN your
value creation chains
4. Define agile interactions
5. Align with strategy and create focus
operational structure over organizational structure

Gandhi said: “Be the change you
want to see in the world!”
gettopmanagement
onboard

business agility is no
team sport!
it’s company sport!!

Level1:operational
…
B C DONEA
team 1
B C DONEA
team 2
B C DONEA
team N
FLIGHtlevels

Level1:operational
Level2:end-2-endcoordination
…
B C DONEA
team 1
B C DONEA
team 2
B C DONEA
team N
C DONEBA
C DONEBA
C DONEBA
FLIGHtlevels
@klausleopold www.LEANability.com@klausleopold www.LEANability.com

coord 1
coord 2
coord N
Level1:operational
…
B C DONEA
team 1
B C DONEA
team 2
B C DONEA
team N
deliver DONErealizeconcept
C DONEBA
FLIGHtlevels

coord 1
coord 2
coord N
Level1:operational
…
B C DONEA
team 1
B C DONEA
team 2
B C DONEA
team N
@klausleopold
C DONEBA
B C DA
Level3:strategy
www.LEANability.com
FLIGHtlevels

B C DA
B C DONEA B C DONEA B C DONEA
coord 1
coord 2
coord N
Level1:operational
Level3:strategy
…
team 1 team 2 team N
@klausleopold
DELIVER
COORDINATE
B C DA PRIORITIZE
C DONEBA
www.LEANability.com@klausleopold www.LEANability.com
FLIGHtlevels

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