Welcome to the

LARGE-SCALE Scrum simulation with lego

Alexey krivitsky Mediocre developer Bulldozing scrum master Kicking ass agile coach Certified scrum trainer Fat ski rider Lame bass guitarist

Mostly known in agile community for #lego4scrum.

Alexey Krivitsky agiletrainings.eu/blog

krivitsky.com/блог

I’ve done this before… It kinda works

I’ve done this before… It kinda works

I’ve done this before… It kinda works

I’ve done this before… It kinda works

Challenges of scaling

There are two key approaches to dealing with the scaling challenges:

1. Managing the complexity Here we usually end up adding new roles, rules, processes – and this creates more complexity.

There are two key approaches to dealing with the scaling challenges:

2. Minimizing the complexity Here we are working hard to understand where the complexity is coming from – and minimizing it.

Component teams not owning the whole stack

TECHNICAL PLATFORM / ENGINE

CONSUMER PRODUCTS

Customer-facing teams with end-to-end responsibilities. Easier to plan, build and ship quality software

TECHNICAL PLATFORM / ENGINE

CONSUMER PRODUCTS

one product split into many sub-domains root of local optimizations

whole product focus. Easier to maintain bigger picture

and optimize the whole.

More with less Less management Less focus on processes Less standardization Less hierarchies Less complexity Less inward focus

More customer focus More product focus More empowered teams More global optimization More transparency More learning

The “Less Framework” 3-7 teams

Large-scale scrum is Scrum One product Owner (for whole product) Single Product Backlog (for whole product) Single Sprint (for all teams) Single Product Increment (from all teams)

The “Less Huge Framework” 8-108 teams

Enough theory.

So let’s get our hands dirty!

Real business simulation Business model – ground passenger transportation. Your goal – build a profitable business. You are building cities with a transportation network. Clients are willing to pay for intercity tours. You are getting 60 million of initial investment. Your expenses are on the materials.

What do we know about our customers?

Our potential customers are interested in traveling among the capitals of Europe. They are willing to pay for bus rides among the cities. They are attracted by sightseeing sites.

Market Demands Market is ready to pay these amounts monthly for trips:

Kiev <-> Barcelona 25’000’000 Paris <-> London 20’000’000 Kiev <-> Berlin 15’000’000 Rome <-> Barcelona 12’000’000 Rome <-> Paris 10’000’000 Paris <-> Kiev 8’000’000 Rome <-> Berlin 8’000’000 Amsterdam <-> Paris 5’000’000 Amsterdam <-> London 3’000’000 Amsterdam <-> Berlin 3’000’000 Amsterdam <-> Rome 2’000’000 Amsterdam <-> Barcelona 2’000’000

Every sightseeing gives an additional 3’000’000

Architectural Constraints

Each city needs to be recognizable. Distance between cities need to be relatively right. Buildings need to at least 80% of LEGO. You’re using duct tape for roads. And flipchart paper for city ground.

Material Pricelist

LEGO sets for buses: 10’000’000 LEGO sets for buildings: 2’000’000 One flipchart sheet for terrain: 1’000’000 One meter duct tape for roads: 1’000’000

“Culture follows structure”

new Structure introduced

existing culture

New culture

New Behaviors

emerge

New Habits stick

LaRman's law

“Your Structure is Your Strategy”

less.works/case-studies/ericson.html

“Culture Follows Structure”

Culture of Self-Organization

1.  High Alignment leader: “our goal is …”

2.  Clear Constraints leader: “Here are some boundaries to follow …”

3.  High Autonomy leader: “go and figure out hoW!”

(1) Getting Ready Shaping the org structure

•  Product

•  Product Owner •  Area Product Owners

•  Teams •  Scrum Masters

•  Project Managers???

LeSS Principle: LEAN THINKING eliminate waste!

What are the top activities managers are kept busy with in traditional organizations?

1.  Managing of resources

2. Managing of dependencies

3. Managing other managers

free your project managers! 1.  Teams are the minimal building blocks

of an organization No external resource mgmt needed.

2.  Teams are cross-functional with minimal outbound dependencies who learn to coordinate with others when needed No external dependency mgmt needed.

For our less huge adoption We’ll need a Product Owner team

1 x PO 5 x Area Pos

The PO gets the investment And they need to come up with a product strategy.

16 Shades of Self-management

Setting overall direction

Designing teams and its org context

Monitoring and managing work process

and progress

Executing team task

“Leading Teams” book by Richard Hackman

Most Scrum teams

Cool LeSS adoptions

Is there life of Mars? Pre-agile

Who assigns

scrum masters to teams?

Team self design workshop 1.  The skillset

2.  5-7 people per team

3.  Team members like each other to the extend that they can work together for about two hours

4.  Each team has all necessary skills

What do you do with free managers?

Fire? RE-Hire? Admire?

Re-hire project managers

1.  As Area Product Owners (good skillset)

2.  As general managers (yes, we need them)

3.  As team members (now go and do good!)

4.  As ScrumMasters (nah…)

(2) Getting Ready forming product groups

1.  Product Owner pitches the vision to everyone

2.  Each Area Product Owner selects teams

(3) Getting Ready product groups prepare their space

1.  Each Area Product Owner and her teams select a war space (enough wall and floor space)

2.  They are getting ready to run their Initial

Product Backlog Refinement session (in parallel to the others)

(4) Getting Ready Initial product backlog refinement

1.  The Teams and their Area Product Owner brainstorm 10 ideas for their Area Product Backlog

2.  Write on post-its

3.  Then they detail top 3-5 items

Four minutes

(5) Getting Ready sprint planning

1.  Sprint will last 8 minutes 2.  Area Product Owners get cash from the Product

Owner

3.  Each team builds a Sprint Plan pulling items for the Area Product Backlog

4.  If you need to coordinate with another team – just talk!

Four minutes

SPRINTING

1.  Sprint starts now!

2.  Overall Sprint Review is in 8 minutes.

Eight minutes

Inspect and adapt

1.  Sprint Review for whole product

2.  Sprint Retrospectives: •  In each team separately •  In each area with all teams and APO