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
Cat Herding,
or the art of
scaling agile
development
Dave Sharrock
agile42

2. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Cat herding…
The Sinking of the Vasa
The Copernican revolution in management
Isolated Agile
Synchronous Agile
Networked Agile
It’s just about technology, right?

3. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Cat herding…
The Sinking of the Vasa
The Copernican revolution in management
Isolated Agile
Synchronous Agile
Networked Agile
It’s just about technology, right?

4. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
The sinking of the Vasa August 10, 1628
http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/The-Ship/The-sinking/

5. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Reasons for failure
• Excessive schedule pressure
• Changing needs
• Lack of technical specifications
• Lack of documented project plan
• Requirements creep
• Ignoring the obvious
Why the Vasa Sank: 10 Problems and Some Antidotes for Software Projects, Richard E. Fairley
Mary Jane Willshire, Journal IEEE Software archive, Volume 20 Issue 2, March 2003

6. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Cat herding…
The Sinking of the Vasa
The Copernican revolution in management
Isolated Agile
Synchronous Agile
Networked Agile
It’s just about technology, right?

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The Copernican revolution in management

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/01/28/more-on-why-managers-hate-agile/

9. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
The traditional economy is vertical
Strategy gets set at the top.
Power trickles down.
Big leaders appoint little leaders.
Individuals compete for promotion.
Compensation correlates with rank.
Tasks are assigned.
Managers assess performance.
Rules tightly circumscribe discretion.
Gary Hamel

10. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
The creative (agile) economy is horizontal
It is oriented to understanding and creating the future.
It believes in banking, not necessarily in banks.
It believes in accommodation, not necessarily hotels.
It believes in transport, not necessarily cars.
It believes in health, not necessarily hospitals.
It believes in education, not necessarily schools.
Steve Denning

11. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
A thriving Creative Economy
Market Capitalization
• Apple - $660 billion
• Google - $362 billion
• Facebook - $222 billion
• IBM - $155 billion
• GM - $54 billion
What billion dollar companies look like at
Series A funding rounds?
Easy-to-dismiss ideas
Competitive markets
Reinventing existing customer behaviour
Untested founders
Zero monetization
https://medium.com/@todfrancis/what-did-billion-dollar-companies-look-like-at-the-series-a-e53ea8043a85
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/01/26/why-do-managers-hate-agile/

12. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Cat herding…
The Sinking of the Vasa
The Copernican revolution in management
Isolated Agile
Synchronous Agile
Networked Agile
It’s just about technology, right?

13. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Agile Operating Models
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 Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
#people < 50-60 100-1000 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex decoupled
team location collocated
simple
distribution
global

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Isolated
• 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)

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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

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collaboration
focus
transparency
small, dedicated
cross-functional teams
Product Owner,
ordered backlog
simple, big visible
charts show progress

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Isolated Agile Team agile42 home team board

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Isolated
Project Management
• ScrumMaster and Team cover
project management
responsibilities
Program Management
• Product Owner determines
priority (assumes frequent
releases)
Focus
• Frequent releases
• 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)

22. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Isolated
• 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

23. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Isolated
• 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

24. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Six-team Isolated Agile Team formation exercise

25. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Agile Operating Models
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 Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
Project
Management
None
Program
Management
None
Focus
Frequent
releases

26. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Cat herding…
The Sinking of the Vasa
The Copernican revolution in management
Isolated Agile
Synchronous Agile
Networked Agile
It’s just about technology, right?
# ## ##

27. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Agile Operating Models
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 Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
#people < 50-60 100-1000 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
team location collocated
simple
distribution
global

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

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

30. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
informal networks
time slicing
project funding
collaboration
focus
http://www.flickr.com/photos/onemananhisdog/5718624579

31. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
collaboration
focus
transparency
terminology
local optimization
illusions of progress
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/2460655511/

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

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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

35. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Component
Teams
Component#1
Component#2
Component#3
Component#4
Experience
Teams
A B C D E F
Team#4
Team#5
Team#6
Team#1
Team#2
Team#3
Component#5
Component#6
Component#7
Component#8
PMO

36. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Synchronous - Project Management
Project Management
• Make dependencies visible,
and facilitate conversation, not
do the work for them…
• Focus on frequent integrated
increments/releases
• Scrum of Scrums between
teams to manage technical in-
sprint dependencies
• Release coordination through
PMO (e.g. Release Train
Engineer)

37. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Synchronous - Program Management
Program Management
• Feature team priorities set
through Product Owners, but
priorities are rarely set across
feature teams
• Technical (component)
priorities inherited from feature
teams - move to service-
oriented mindset
Focus
• Coordinating dependencies

38. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Synchronous - Common characteristics
• Aligned sprints
• Common integration points
• Some form of hardening sprint (real cost to deployment/integration)
• Release planning might be big, shared event (per feature team)
• Sequential delivery; either on or off the ‘train’
• Watch for different ‘releases’, different ‘done’ states
• Dependencies should be visible and continually in discussion
• Priorities visible at all times and continually reviewed

39. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Agile Operating Models
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 Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
Project
Management
None Delivery
Program
Management
None Feature team
Focus
Frequent
releases
Dependency
coordination

40. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Cat herding…
The Sinking of the Vasa
The Copernican revolution in management
Isolated Agile
Synchronous Agile
Networked Agile
It’s just about technology, right?
# ## ##

41. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/01/28/more-on-why-managers-hate-agile/

42. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Agile Operating Models
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 Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
#people < 50-60 100-1000 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
team location collocated
simple
distribution
global

43. 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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46. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Characteristics of Networked Agile 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

47. 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

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Opportunity Canvas Building a case for funds

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Siemens Opportunity management

50. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Agile Operating Models
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 Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
Project
Management
None Delivery Market’ forces
Program
Management
None Feature team Earn-to-play
Focus
Frequent
releases
Dependency
coordination
Value delivery

51. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Cat herding…
The Sinking of the Vasa
The Copernican revolution in management
Isolated Agile
Synchronous Agile
Networked Agile
It’s just about technology, right?
# ## ##

52. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
We see our customers
as invited guests to
a party, and we are
the hosts. It’s our
job every day to make
every important
aspect of the
customer experience a
little bit better.
Jeff Bezos

53. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Fast (agile) Fashion Design to display in 15 days

54. agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright ©2005-2015
Agile Operating Models
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 Networked
#people < 50-60 100-200 100’s-1000’s
#products single few many
technology
stack
simple complex unknown
Isolated Synchronous Networked
Project
Management
None Delivery Market’ forces
Program
Management
None Feature team Earn-to-play
Focus
Frequent
releases
Dependency
coordination
Value delivery

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