I’m often asked, “When will my team join an ART?” My typical go-to answer is, “Maybe never! It’s more about finding the leanest operating model than it is about launching ARTs.” SAFe does a great job introducing us to the notion of a Development Value Stream (DVS). SAFe also does a great job describing the Agile Release Train (ART) as a virtual structure of 5 [...]
Empowered Agile Transformation – Beyond the Framework, by Alexandra Stokes, 2023 What a great book! Alexandra Stokes has written the book many of us Agilists wanted to write. Her approach to Agile transformation is logical, empathetic, goal-oriented, and dare I say it "frameless". She includes over 30 personal stories of her Agile transformation successes and failures. One theme that really resonated with me was to [...]
We’ve all been there before, right? On one hand, we live in a classic siloed organization that is slow to respond to the market. Cross-org dependencies are the norm. The flow of value to the customer is slow. Painfully slow. Value stream identification is non-existent. On the other hand, we understand the power of “alignment to value” and its potential impact on the flow of [...]
Imagine. Let's start rethinking Agile transformations. What if Leaders would issue an “Agile statement of intent” instead of attempting another costly framework-driven transformation? How would our life at work be different? Can you imagine the agility innovation that this would spark? For example, what if a Leader made the following statement: “For our company to be successful, our teams really need to have a desire [...]
True story - I once did some consulting at a Fortune 50 company where the SAFe transformation success was measured by "number of ARTs launched". You can guess what happened... Fake Agile Release Trains (FARTs). Entire VP and Director organizations were now calling themselves an "Agile Release Train" and going through the motions of a cadenced PI Planning event. When I asked one of the [...]
Leaders and Executives considering a “scaled Agile transformation” – you have a choice. You can fall in line with the masses and install a scaling framework such as SAFe. Alternatively, you can take a much more targeted approach, one that addresses your needs specifically, and that actually simplifies (de-scales) product development. SAFe vs. Simple Scaling. Let’s compare these two approaches in an attempt to outfit [...]
Here I make the case for installing SAFe as-is. Note: Be sure and read to the end! The Case for Installing SAFe As-Is Installing SAFe as-is is appropriate when you have all of these situations: We need to “scale Agile up” to levels higher than Team-level Each team needs consistency of using ScrumXP or Kanban XP practices are needed to improve the quality of the [...]
As an Agile coaching community, we have gone astray. We have become obsessed with installing frameworks. We lead with frameworks instead of empathy. I'm not preaching, I'm guilty as charged. Now is the time for a great reset within the Agile coaching community. We need to stop leading with framework installations (SAFe, Scrum, LeSS, Kanban, etc.) and get back to the basics of Agile. Ivar [...]
Framework installation vs custom Agile ecosystem - which is better? When we install a framework (Scrum, SAFe, LeSS, DAD, Kanban, etc.) without understanding what the team/organization truly needs, we are creating what Lean calls muda. Muda is waste. Muda in the form of unnecessary meetings, redundant practices, solving non-problems, additional low-value artifacts, new role confusion, change fatigue, ... the list goes on and on. [...]
Ever wonder what the “Young Frankenstein” movie has in common with Agile transformations? Me neither. Until now. While channel surfing recently, I ran into the great Mel Brook’s classic movie. It still holds up today. In summary, some Agile transformations have an “abby normal” brain. Bear with me and I’ll try to explain... Situation - the Abby Normal Brain Dr. Frankenstein’s dimwitted assistant, Igor (pronounced [...]