The frameworks for scaling Agile in organizations are certainly an excellent tool on which to leverage to develop strategic skills such as market adaptation, innovation and the reduction of product creation times; characteristics that, in all likelihood, will be able to significantly raise the level of general customer satisfaction. Not a few times, alas, we found ourselves having to deal with practices suggested by those same frameworks that did not fit well with the circumstances and environment of reference. In those cases it is of little use to abandon one framework in favor of another as, in most cases, we would face new failures and a sense of frustration squared. In business contexts where a minimum but sufficient Agile adoption maturity has been reached to be defined as practitioners, it is certainly worth experimenting with new approaches. In this deck we will talk about how it is possible to encourage the emergence of emerging practices by teams in their native contexts, and which allow to scale Agile in a more organic and coordinated way, to achieve the above benefits, without the risk of rejection and decreasing to a minimum the inefficiencies due to lack of alignment, collaboration and communication. We will use the example of "biological scaffolding" to explain how in a human body, in a completely natural way, it is possible to influence a system from the inside, cellular in that case, towards certain directions and behaviors, avoiding invasive, constricting interventions or structures or limiting. We will use that concept as a metaphor to apply to Agile transformations.

1. Favoring the Emergence
– Agile Scaffolding –
SCRUM AGILE MILAN – SAM MEETUP
1st December 2021 - 6 p.m. CEST
Emiliano Soldi
https://www.EmilianoSoldi.it
AgileTriathlete

2. EMERGENCE
An emergent phenomenon appears
as the consequence of interactions
between a set of elements in a system
Emergence refers to collective phenomena
or behaviors in complex adaptive systems
that are not present in their individual parts
Emergent systems exhibit synergistic
effects, where the individual parts
(aware or not) inter-relate and in so doing
provide synergies
The interaction of the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts involved
in the interaction
Photo by Kasi Metcalfe/Flickr, CC BY-ND
Source: Wikipedia

3. Groups of human beings
possessing sufficient
competences and observing
some simple rules, left free
to each regulate themselves,
tend to produce
spontaneous order…
…rather than the meaningless chaos
often feared
Source: Mintguy / Fredrik Derivative work:
Archenzo at Italian Wikipedia - User
Romanm - This file was derived from: UK
Roundabout 8 Cars.giftransferred from
it.wikipedia, file was uploaded at
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rotatoria
.gif, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.
php?curid=429087
SELF-ORGANIZATION

4. Example of Emergence in Business
We are participating in the largest value-generating emergent
process in human history, made possible by the internet
and mobile communication technologies
Individually and collectively, we have all gained incredible value
from our use of and participation in the cloud,
which in turn has led to the emergence of new value
No one over-arching governor owns, controls,
manages or directs it
It is entirely emergent
https://thenatureofbusiness.org/2013/10/04/the-nature-of-emergence-for-the-firm-of-the-future/
Source: The Nature of Business: Redesign for Resilience by Giles Hutchins

5. Start by
Assessing your
Context

6. Complicated situations
can be analyzed
Understand the situations you are in…
Obvious situations can be
categorized
Chaotic situations require
you only to act to stabilize
Complex situations can be
assessed through safe-to-
fail experiments

7. Force, obligation, pressure
Source: Dictionary.com
CONSTRAINT

8. Fixed constraints are easy to
recognize and understand
• Putting a plug into the wall
Governing constraints provide
limits to what can be done In
policy and process terms, these
are hard-and-fast rules.
They are context-free, meaning
they apply to everything.
• Seat Belt Sign
• Fuse on a plug
• Closing door on late-comers at
theatre
Source: https://lizkeogh.com/2019/12/09/constraints-and-cynefin/
Enabling constraints are
contextual. They can be
adapted or escaped for context.
In policy and process terms,
they’re guidelines, heuristics
or principles.
• Metronome
• Sprint Timebox
• Twitter’s character limit
Chaos is caused by a lack of
constraints. Chaos is transient
and short-lived; it will disappear
once it meets constraints.
… and what constraints regulate each context

9. Execute parallel safe-to-fail
experiments around those changes
Identify changes that will ease a situation,
favouring emergence, while minimizing risks
Identify current risks
and evaluate impacts on each constraints
Identify constraints
that can be changed by other actors
Identify constraints
that can be changed by you
Asses and Map the Constraints
that are limiting emergence

10. SCAFFOLDING
A scaffold is a temporary
structure that supports
something to emerge on
its own terms,
influencing it as is
designed to underpin
and steer emergence in
today's complex
environment
Adaptaed quiote from Ann Pendleton-Jullian
“

11. Scaffolding
Example
(Governing
Constraint)
The discarded
exoskeleton of
dragonfly nymph
By
Jim
Conrad
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5210583

12. Scaffolding Example
(Enabling Constraint)
By Postdlf, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1067477
Endoskeleton of a swordfish

13. ✓ Nano-scaffolding is a medical
process used to regrow tissue and
bone, including limbs and organs. The
nano-scaffold is a three-dimensional
structure composed of polymer fibers
very small that are scaled from a
Nanometer (10−9 m) scale
✓ Developed by the American military,
the medical technology uses a
microscopic apparatus made of fine
polymer fibers called a scaffold
✓ Damaged cells grip to the scaffold
and begin to rebuild missing bone and
tissue through tiny holes in the scaffold
✓ As tissue grows, the scaffold is
absorbed into the body and
disappears completely
Source: Wikipedia
Scaffolding in Biomedicine
Scaffolds change the context for generation of tissue by
giving the possibility to cells to follow their own
instruction and ruleset, while accelerating and
conditioning their growth towards specific directions

14. Why
Scaffolding is
so important in
Complexity?
Objective of scaffolds
is to reach some
ability to influence
and steer the complex
systems towards
certain attitudes,
behaviors, principles
and finally practices

15. About Scaffolding
in Organizations
by Dave Snowden
Scaffolds are a type of constraints we
recognize and acknowledge, or introduce,
or adjust.
Favoring emergence means to create
enough constraint that a pattern can
emerge which is contextually appropriate,
contextually sustainable and contextually
resilient.
Rather than designing organization, we
should design scaffolding and do
interventions around it.
We should allow the form and the
structure of the organization to emerge.

16. Ehy! Why did you spend
so much time explaining
all that stuff?

17. Why?! Can you
tell an example
of an Agile
scaffolding?

18. What about these?
Principle
/ˈprɪnsɪp(ə)l/
A fundamental truth
or proposition that serves
as the foundation
for a system of belief
or behavior or for a chain
of reasoning
Source: Oxford Languages

19. ✓ Good software design comes not from
up-front planning, but from constant,
purposeful craftsmanship and refactoring
✓ Applying TDD helps you to improve your
code through refactoring, while paying
close attention to not changing the
behavior of the software
✓ Over time we will find that a new software
design has emerged, and that it is superior
to where we initially started
Add Tests
See Tests
Fail
Write
Code
Make
Tests Pass
Refactor
Code
TDD – Test Driven Development Cycle
TDD Cycle is a Scaffold

21. Scrum can be thought as a kind of
scaffolding that helps introduce the
change where it is applied,
favoring emergent behaviors
As teams practice improvements and go
through the journey of learning, Scrum
should get absorbed into their way of
working, finally becoming
an integral part of who they are
…and what about Scrum?

22. ✓ Frameworks are great tools born to
address certain problems
✓ Start by applying them by the book,
empirically assessing results and,
over time, adapting your ways of working
to evidences
✓ Think to them as temporary, malleable
scaffolds (not rigid nor permanent ones)
✓ Once team’s experience grows
(Shu>Ha>Ri), exploit their usage
to enable the emergence of fit-for-
context practices, and eventually
they will dissolve away
But, remember, scaffolding should be thought
as temporary structures where to lean on…
Time
Knowledge
Learn the rules
Break the rules
Transcend the rules
SHU
HA
RI
Once the practice of Scrum to the team evolves
from “Shu” to "Ri“ state, it has been fully absorbed
into the fabric of the team and do become an
integral part of who they are

23. Team Self-Selection
favors emergence
1. POs prepare draft team missions on flipcharts
reporting business objectives to achieve, and
present them to attendees
2. Any constraints for team composition
are identified (e.g., competences, capacity, etc.)
3. Attendees walk around reading missions
and asking question to POs
4. When a candidate sees a good fit with a certain
team, she sticks her picture and short bio
on that flipchart
5. Final discussions with Product Owners and Agile
Managers to find ideal setup

24. Source: http://www.plays-in-business.com/download/team-charter-canvas-poster-a0-format/
Canvases can be thought as
conceptual scaffoldings. They are a
combination of pre-defined spaces
that function as enabling
boundaries.
These templates help to cllect
the essential elements of a topic
and to think systematically
to all its key elements.
These type of scaffolding help
to maintain focus but keep
the door open to weacing
several perspectives.
Influencing Teams formation towards
certain attitudes and behaviors
Agile Inception Deck
https://agilewarrior.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/the-agile-inception-deck/
Team Chartering

25. SCALING
EMERGENCE

26. Scaling Heuristics in Complexity
by Dave Snowden
• Reduce granularity
• Distribute cognition
(process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through
thought, experience, and the senses)
• Disintermediate decision makers
(e.g., put all decision makers in contact with raw material, coders
with users, executives with technology, etc.)
• Create real-time feedback loops
• Now scale by radical recombination
A heuristic is any approach to problem-
solving that uses a practical method or
various shortcuts in order to produce
solutions that may not be optimal but
are sufficient given a limited timeframe
or deadline
Source: Investopedia
Isn’t this a kind of Scaffolding?

27. Systematically
Favouring
Emergence
Lean Coffee
World Café
Open Space
Communities of Practice
Retrospectives
Reviews

28. New “rules” emerge from the field.
There, leaders, need to understand
situation at hand, influence and “frame”
behaviors of people through direct action

29. Coach
Asking intelligent
questions to
encourage the
coachee to come up
with their own
solutions wherever
possible
Mentor
Advising on what
course of action
coachee can took and
how it could be
worked out
Trainer
Teaching on specific
skills, with off-the-
shelf materials and
approach
Consultant
carrying out specific
work and acting as an
advisor and problem
solver
Internal
Scaffolding
(endoskeleton)
External
Scaffolding
(exoskeleton)
Roles/Activities whose activities aim at creating…
Less
Prescriptive
More
Prescriptive
“Scaffolding” your Agile Transformation
Shouldn’t Agile Coaching be thought as a
transient and self-dissolving scaffolding?

30. Always remembering that External Scaffolding
supports growth but does not scale,
while Internal Scaffolding does both
Over time, while maturity increases, we should aim at
creating the miminal agile scaffolding to favour
the natural emergence of behaviors, attitudes,
approaches and practices

31. Thank You!
https://www.EmilianoSoldi.it
Emiliano Soldi
Business Agility Practice Lead
ITALY, CENTRAL EUROPE, GREECE
AgileTriathlete
https://op.europa.eu/en/
publication-detail/-
/publication/712438d0-
8c55-11eb-b85c-
01aa75ed71a1/language-
en
https://medium.com/rettigs-
notes/notes-on-scaffolding-and-
constraints-in-complexity-
59407f93be58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
VX2RZ5Jig4A