The document summarizes a workshop on exercises in self-management held by Agile Boston on April 7, 2021. The workshop included the following exercises: 1. A skills matrix exercise where participants mapped their skills and identified opportunities to improve cross-functionality. 2. A permission tokens exercise where participants identified permissions or external actions needed during a sprint to surface obstacles to autonomy. 3. A discussion on breaking rules to test which rules prevent teams from self-organizing for the benefit of the organization. The document also provides background on differing views of self-organization and self-management, and details on how to structure the exercises.

1. Exercises in
Self-management
David Hanson andAnn Brea
Agile Boston, 7 April 2021

2. Agenda
10 min: Introduction and Miro
30 min: Skills Matrix Exercise as workshop
30 min: PermissionTokens Exercise as workshop
10 min: Break the Rules Exercise as discussion
10 min: Conclusion and Feedback

3. Facilitators:
Ann Brea
David Hanson
 Agile Boston 2021
 This year’s proposed focus:
Self-management and self-organization
 Keynote speaker 4th Wednesday of month
 Community-led workshopWednesday mid-month
 Today’s workshop
 3 exercises reinforcing self-management & self-organization
 Leveraging Zoom breakouts and Miro board

4. Agile Boston
FebruarySession
Joe DeAngelis
Self-organization
Self-organization is the
process by which order
arises spontaneously from
something that is initially
disorganized.
This order is the result of
self-organization only when
it emerges from the
interactions of the smallest
units of the system and isn’t
imposed by outside
influences.
Zombie Scrum Survival Guide
Self-management
Scrum Teams are cross-
functional, meaning the
members have all the skills
necessary to create value
each Sprint. They are also
self-managing, meaning
they internally decide who
does what, when, and how.
The Scrum Guide, 2020

5. Exercises in
Self-
management
 Increase Cross-functionality with a Skills Matrix
 Make Cost of LowAutonomyVisible with PermissionTokens
 Breaking the Rules

6. Let’s leverage Miro
https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lM3-mBA=/

7. analysis design front-end back-end testing
Ann PO +++ +
RajTM +++ ++ +
JoeTM ++
SamTM +++
PatTM + + ++
LinTM ++
Dan SM + + + +
Skills Matrix
Setup
identifyskillsandselfrate
Reflect
1)observeskilldistribution
2)reflectonimpactand
opportunity
3)consider1ststepw/o
approval
After
keepvisibleandupdate
analysis design front-end back-end testing
Ann PO +++ o +
RajTM +++ ++ +o
JoeTM ++o
SamTM oo +++
PatTM +o + ++
LinTM ++o
Dan SM + o + + +
Variation: add o if interested in learning or improving 7

8. Skills Matrix
Workshop
8 minutes: Setup and execution
 For this exercise choose any subject
 Work related: Agile coaching, mobile development, big data &AI, ...
 Life related: renovations, gardening, pandemic, …
 Collectively outline the required skills
 Create the matrix and self-evaluate
8 minutes: Questions and observations
 Reflect on the matrix
1.How are skills distributed? Anything obvious?
2.How does this impact our work as a team?Where should we improve?
3.What first step is possible without approval or budget?
 Enter observations in notes
8 minutes: Back to main session for reflection

9. Permission
Tokens
Exercise
Sample Categories
• Business permission or action required
• Technology permission or action required
• Management permission or action required
• Administrative permission or action required
• Cross-team permission or action required
• Intra-team permission or action required
Alternatively focus on specific types of work, e.g.:
to confirm story ready, to confirm story done, to build and deploy,
to standup environment, to configure developer laptop

10. Permission
Tokens:
Today’s
Exercise
Join Breakout Session
Setup and Execution (5 min):
• Decide categories and discuss interpretation for permission tokens (about 4).
• Reflect on past sprint when permission or external action required.
• Add “tokens” to the jar.
Evaluation (10 min):
Count tokens per category; discuss top categories:
• How does this impact your ability to quickly adapt to higher value? Where can you
simplify?
• First reflect individually for a minute, then as a group for 5 minutes.
• Capture most salient opportunities to share, before returning.
Return to Main Session
Reflection (10 min):
• Share with entire group most common category, impact on ability to adapt, and
opportunities.

11. If it ain’t
broke
don’t fix it
Bert Lance
If it ain’t
broke
don’t fix it
Bert Lance
Testwhichrulesmatter.
Pickaruletobreak.*
Considerconsequences.Whatifothers
followed?
Planaresponse,justincasecaught.
Ifworththerisk,thenbreakthe rule.
Ifsuccessful,canrulebediscarded?
* Did permissions token exercise identify a rule worth breaking?

12. Breaking the
Rules
Rules prevent many Scrum teams from self-organizing even when in the
best interest of the organization.
Test which rules matter.
1.Identify a rule that prevents your team from taking a beneficial action.*
2.Discuss consequences of breaking the rule.What if others followed?
3.Plan a response if caught breaking the rule.
4.If confident in benefits with acceptable risk, then break the rule.
• Don’t break the rule if unsure.
5.If successful, discuss if and how to permanently change the rule.
*“Make theCost of LowAutonomyTransparent with PermissionTokens” is a great way to find rules to break. 12

13. Self-
management
exercises
How do these exercises relate to self-management?
 Which workshop exercise was your favorite?
 Why?
 Anything surprising?
 What exercise might you try?
 When?
 What else?

14. Community
Workshops
Your Feedback
 On this session and the
format
 On the idea of
community-led
workshops
 On the self-
management, self-
organization focus
WorkshopVolunteers
 Any volunteers for next
month?
 Any ideas for workshop
topics?
If you’d like to be added to the Agile Boston distribution list, then please add your
first and last name with email into chat.

15. Appendix
Detailed instructions for the three exercises discussed.
Viewpoints on self-organization and self-management.

16. The Exercises
with details

17. IncreaseCross-
functionality
withSkills
Matrix
https://www.informit.com/articles/a
rticle.aspx?p=3100065&seqNum=2
Often, having another person with a particular skill, even less experienced,
improves flow enough to prevent problems.
With your team, outline needed skills. Create a matrix of team members
against skills identified. Invite members to rate proficiency on skills they
possess (+, ++, and +++).
Next, for each set of questions, reflect individually for couple minutes, then
in pairs for few minutes, finally collectively capture key patterns or insights.
1.How are the skills on our team distributed?What is immediately obvious?
2.What does this mean for our work as a team?Where should we improve?
3.Where should we start?What 1st step is possible w/o approval or budget?
Keep the skill matrix visible and update frequently.

18. Permission
Tokens
https://www.informit.com/articles/a
rticle.aspx?p=3100065&seqNum=4
This experiment is about making transparent where and how often permission is required.
Setup:
• Place empty jar in convenient location, accessible to all, near task board.
• Provide a couple dozen tokens to each team member with 4-5 different colors.
• Decide one permission category per color token.
Execution:
During the sprint, put a token in the jar every time someone on the Scrum team:
• Requires permission to perform an action;
• Requires an action from someone outside the team.
Evaluation:
During the sprint review, with stakeholders present, share the number of tokens by category in the jar.
• “How does this affect our ability to quickly adapt to do what is most valuable in the moment?Where can we
simplify things?”
• First reflect individually in silence, then in pairs for 2 minutes, then pair of pairs for 4 minutes.
• Capture most salient opportunities with the whole group.
Use sprint retrospective to consider potential improvements.
Alternatives:
• Use a different color for everyone on your team to identify who is most often in need of permission.
• Focus on organizational bureaucracy by limiting tokens to those outside team and not direct stakeholders.

19. Breaking the
Rules
Many Scrum teams are prevented from self-organizing to act in the best
interest of the company due to rules. Experiment to test which rules matter.
1.With your team, identify a rule that prevents you from taking an action
with clear benefit to your organization, stakeholders, or team
effectiveness.*
2.Discuss what might happen if your team broke that rule.What might be
the consequences? Do the ends justify the means?What if other teams
disregarded this rule as well?
3.Plan a response if caught breaking the rule. How would you justify your
actions? Is there a way to soften the blow in advance?
4.When sure that your actions are in the best interest of the organization
with acceptable risk, break the rule. (Don’t break the rule if unsure.)
5.If successful, discuss as team whether and how to permanently change
the rule. Use your experience to highlight why the rule is obsolete.
*“Make theCost of LowAutonomyTransparent with PermissionTokens” is a great way to find rules to break. 19

20. Self-organization and
Self-management
Differing viewpoints

21. ScrumGuide
Scrum Guide 2017*
Development teams are self-
organizing
“DevelopmentTeams have the
following characteristics:
• They are self-organizing. No
one (not even the Scrum
Master) tells the Development
Team how to turn Product
Backlog into Increments of
potentially releasable
functionality;”
Self-organize: 7 occurrences
Self-manage: no occurrences
Scrum Guide 2020
Scrum teams are self-
managing
“ScrumTeams are cross-
functional, meaning the
members have all the skills
necessary to create value each
Sprint.They are also self-
managing, meaning they
internally decide who does
what, when, and how.”
Self-organize: no occurrences
Self-manage: 5 occurrences
*2017 Scrum Guide also includes: “ScrumTeams are self-organizing and cross-functional. Self-organizing teams
choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team.”

22. Differing
Views:
interchangeable
Self-organization and self-management are interchangeable terms:
Mike Cohn: So Is It Self-Organizing or Self-Managing?
 “You can call it either one. … [S]elf-organizing is my
preference due to its history … and the usefulness of
examples …. But self-managing is equally good if you prefer
it.”
https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/two-types-of-authority-leaders-must-give-to-self-organizing-teams
Posted: Aug 2017

23. Differing
Views:
interpreted and
applied
Self-organization
• Self-organization is about
how and who
• Self-organization is limited in
scope
• Who does the work on team
• How work done during sprint
Might this limited view apply to the
DevelopmentTeam?
Self-management
• Self-management is about
how, who, what, when, why
• Self-management is broad in
scope
• How includes prioritizing
• Who includes staffing
• What includes budgeting
• When includes planning
• Why includes goals
Might this broader view apply to the Scrum
Team?
https://www.businessprocessincubator.com/content/the-difference-between-self-management-and-self-organization/

24. Differing
Views:
science based
 Self-organization is the spontaneous order resulting from simple
rules followed by individual units of a larger group
 Numerous examples in nature and society
 Scientific field of complex adaptive systems
 Self-management lacks accepted science-based definition;
proposed are two opposing views:
 Self-management occurs when the group aims to achieve a goal
without outside direction
 Individuals units are self-managed, while the larger group is self-
organized
https://blogs.agilefaqs.com/2014/10/29/self-organised-vs-self-managed-vs-self-directed-whats-the-difference/

25. Is that it?
Self-organized and self-managed.
Self-directed and self-governed.