Ever fought to replicate a successful pilot with a handful of teams to a functioning product delivery program across an enterprise? It's hard - and frameworks rarely make things simpler. In this talk, we'll examine the natural progression of an Agile transition, from isolated teams often held up as a pilot study, to synchronous agility where many teams collaborate to deliver a program, to the rarified world of networked agility, where we move back to the effectiveness of individual teams. While highlighting principles that distinguish each stage of growth, we also outline how to recognise where your transition is, and therefore where to move to next. Managing the evolution of a single product working with a small number of teams is somewhat straightforward. Working from a single backlog, the product roadmap becomes relatively easy to visualize, and planning and tracking is simple. As we increase the complexity of the product, things become harder. Different teams require different backlogs. Different products require work from different teams. Before you know it, there are lots of independent moving parts, and coordination costs increase and dependencies dominate. In this talk, we consider core principles and practices for scaling in an Agile world, and discuss how to move from a handful of teams to many teams and many product lines.

1. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
3 Stages of
Enterprise Agility
@DaveSharrock
#agile42

2. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
3 Stages of
Enterprise Agility
Sputnik and the Space Race
The International Space Station
Space Tourism

3. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2007-2016
4th October, 1957
• Russians launch Sputnik, which
kicks off the space race
• 22.8 inches in diameter, orbits
the Earth for less than 6 months
•
http://www.coalwoodwestvirginia.com/sputnik.htm

4. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2007-2016
Proliferation of Ideas
• Isolated examples, but ubiquitous
• Solving very different problems
• Varying degrees of success
By 2010, there are 1,100
active satellites, and 2,600
that no longer work

5. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Stage 1: Isolated Agility
• Simple technology stack
means team is completely
cross-functional
• Single product under
development, with all teams
focussed on the same
product backlog
• Small team size (7±2)

6. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
agile teams and small organizations
get things done
by creating an environment where good
practices are easy to do

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collaboration
small, dedicated
cross-functional teams

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collaboration
focus
small, dedicated
cross-functional teams
product owner,
ordered backlog

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22% of teams have
no product owner
http://www.scrumalliance.org/why-scrum/state-of-scrum-report

10. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
collaboration
focus
transparency
small, dedicated
cross-functional teams
Product Owner,
ordered backlog
simple, big visible
charts show progress

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Isolated Agility Team agile42 home team board

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Stage 1: Isolated Agility
• Simple technology stack
means team is completely
cross-functional
• Single product under
development, with all teams
focussed on the same
product backlog
• Small team size (7±2)

13. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Stage 1: Isolated Agility
• Simple technology stack
means team is completely
cross-functional
• Single product under
development, with all teams
focussed on the same
product backlog
• Small team size (7±2)
• Scale by adding teams not
growing team size

14. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Stage 1: Isolated Agility
• Simple technology stack
means team is completely
cross-functional
• Single product under
development, with all teams
focussed on the same
product backlog
• Small team size (7±2)
• Scale by adding teams not
growing team size
• Product Owner team for
larger development
environments

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Six-team Isolated Agility Team formation exercise

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3 Stages of Enterprise Agility
Isolated Synchronous Organic
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Organic
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Organic
#people < 50-60
#products single
technology
stack
simple
team structure local
Proliferation
of Ideas

17. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
3 Stages of
Enterprise Agility
Sputnik and the Space Race
The International Space Station
Space Tourism

18. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2007-2016
International Space Station
• Launched in 1998, permanently inhabited since 2000
• Five different space agencies representing 15 countries
built the $100-billion International Space Station
• Spans a US football field, including the end zones

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Development of New Skills
• Solve larger and more complicated problems
• Builds on foundations of old thinking
• Old and new live uncomfortably together

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Stage 2: Synchronous Agility
• Deep technology stack
means team is rarely
completely cross-functional
• Multiple products sharing
common platforms or
services
• Built with isolated agile teams
(not dev & test teams…)

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Size and complexity
breakdown these constraints
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlevin/4488369118
collaboration
focus
transparency

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functional silos
single-points-of-failure
residual bureaucracy
collaboration
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebastiandooris/2449853812

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informal networks
time slicing
project funding
collaboration
focus
http://www.flickr.com/photos/onemananhisdog/5718624579

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collaboration
focus
transparency
terminology
local optimization
illusions of progress
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/2460655511/

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Stage 2: Synchronous Agility
• Deep technology stack
means team is completely
cross-functional
• Multiple products sharing
common platforms or
services
• Built with isolated agile teams
(not dev & test teams…)
• Scale by decoupling
components not adding
teams
• Component team product
owners serve feature teams

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Experience
#1
#3
#5
#4
#6
#2
Capability Delivery
Team #1
Capability Delivery
Team #2
Capability Delivery
Team #3
Capability Delivery
Team #4
Capability Delivery
Team #5
Capability Delivery
Team #6
Integration, front-end
development, creative
design
Shared services &
platform
Experience visioning
and conception
Experience Delivery
Team #1
Experience Delivery
Team #2
Experience Delivery
Team #3

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Common Patterns for
Synchronous Agility

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Common Integration Points
Aligned sprints and common
integration points; sequential
delivery; either on or off ‘train’
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Fotothek_df_roe-neg_0002422_003_L%C3%A4uferinnen_beim_Weiterreichen_des_Staffelstabes.jpg

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Real Cost of
Integration
•Some form of hardening
sprint (real cost to
deployment/integration)
•Watch for different
‘releases’, different
‘done’ states
•Dependencies should be
visible and continually in
discussion
https://www.flickr.com/photos/53370644@N06/4975888229/

30. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
3 Stages of Enterprise Agility
Isolated Synchronous Organic
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Organic
#people < 50-60 100-1000
#products single few
technology
stack
simple complex
team structure local global
Learning
New Skills
Proliferation
of Ideas

31. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
3 Stages of
Enterprise Agility
Sputnik and the Space Race
The International Space Station
Space Tourism

32. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2007-2016
3 Stages of Enterprise Agility
Dave Sharrock
agile42
29 April 2015
• The New Shepard blasts off on
its first developmental test flight
over Blue Origin’s West Texas
Launch Site
• The uncrewed vehicle flew to an
altitude of more than 93.5 km
(307,000 ft) and achieved a top
speed of Mach 3 (2,284 mph;
3,675 km/h)
Built on the back of the space race, private companies
(Blue Agility, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX) now lead the way

33. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2007-2016
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/67/Blue_Origin_Incremental_Development_%28Spacecraft%29.jpg
Innovation with New Skills
• New learnings are the
foundation not an extension
• New way of thinking is in DNA;
the old paradigm is lost
• Take on radically different
challenges

34. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Two pizza teams
No, communication is terrible!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos

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37. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Characteristics of Organic Agility organizations
• Asynchronous delivery
• Different teams deliver on their cadence, not the release cadence of product
• Automated deployment
• Not continuous integration or continuous deployment
• Automated immediate feedback on different versions
• Dynamic budgeting
• Earn-to-play (not pay-to-play)
• Treat budgets as malleable
• Value-based decision-making

38. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
3 Stages of Enterprise Agility
Isolated Synchronous Organic
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Organic
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Organic
#people < 50-60 100-1000 10’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex decoupled
team structure local global local
Innovation
Learning
New Skills
Proliferation
of Ideas

39. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Get ready to lose control
“I tell people I push more code
by 9 AM Pacific than most people
do in a lifetime. And that’s
[just] 2% of what I’m going to do
in the next couple of hours,”
Garo Taft
Facebook’s Release Engineer
“Step by Step,
Ferociously”

40. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
thank you
dave.sharrock@agile42.com
@davesharrock