UNDERSTANDING COMPLEXITY

of organizational

& system dynamics

krivitsky.com

Agile Coach developer, scrum master, scrum trainer, free-rider,

System thinker

Alexey KRIVITSKY

www.krivitsky.com www.agiletrainings.eu

“All the dots got connected when looking back…”

OMFG...

Technical organization

Looks a little over-complicated to be able to help

you reduce complexity

Weinberg-Brooks’ Law More software projects have gone awry from management’s taking action based on incorrect system models than for all other causes

combined.

h2ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbb9gwj7RIc

Causal loop diagrams (CLD)

The primary value in diagrams is in the discussion while diagramming—we model to have a conversation.

VARIABLES

Cycle time

Quality

WIP

Cause-effect relationships

Quality Cycle time

WIPRework

reinforcing vs. balancing loops

BA

DC

BA

DC

Reinforcing « UNSTABLE »

Balancing « STABILIZING »

Delayed effects

QualityCycle time

WIPRework

Motivation

Quick fixes

Quality Cycle time

WIPRework

Motivation

Salary

#1: Products on a shared platform

TECHNICAL PLATFORM / ENGINE

CONSUMER PRODUCTS

#2: Satellite products

BACK-END

REST API

CORE FRONT-END MOBILE APPS

#3: Many small sub-products

Play with these VARIABLES

Cycle time

#defects

Costs of���maintenance

#people

Motivation Code quality

#managers

Tech ���debt

driving transformation 1.  Understanding the system dynamics

–  Know what you’d like to change and how you can measure it –  Facilitate agreement among key stakeholders and supporters

that change in necessary 2.  Designing an experiment:

–  Pick one holistic value flow –  Avoid all-in –  Your goal is to create a new product organization within the

existing company –  Facilitating “informed consent”

Pick one holistic value flow

Designing a new system experiment

Informed consent workshop

driving transformation 1.  Understanding the system dynamics

–  Know what you’d like to change and how you can measure it –  Facilitate agreement among key stakeholders and supporters

that change in necessary 2.  Designing an experiment:

–  Pick one holistic value flow –  Avoid all-in –  Your goal is to create a new product organization within the

existing company –  Facilitating “informed consent”

3.  Facilitating formation of new structures: –  Teams and roles.

“Your Structure is Your Strategy”

less.works/case-studies/ericson.html

“Culture Follows Structure”

Collecting Team attributes

Defining what an ideal team is

knowledge spread and gaps

How to deal with resistance? work with volunteers!

driving transformation 1.  Understanding the system dynamics

–  Know what you’d like to change and how you can measure it –  Facilitate agreement among key stakeholders and supporters

that change in necessary 2.  Designing an experiment:

–  Pick one holistic value flow –  Avoid all-in –  Your goal is to create a new product organization within the

existing company –  Facilitating “informed consent”

3.  Facilitating formation of new structures: –  Teams and roles.

4.  Facilitating agreements of coordination practices: –  Internal and external ones.

Prefer decentralized coordination 0. Just talk - avoid Scrum of Scrums 1. Communicate in Code - real CI, no branches 2. Communities - functional relationship - coordinator (+ScrumMaster) - solve real issues - delegate real work to teams 3. Cross-team Meetings - multi-team PBR - multi-team SP1, SP2 - overall sprint review - overall retrospective - diverge-merge pattern

4. Open Spaces 5. Component Mentors - gardens the component community - organizes design workshops - does code reviews (no approval) - monitors long-term health - mentors and evangelizes 6. Travellers - an expert joining a team for a sprint 7. Scouts - a visitor to another team (e.g. Daily) - not a ScrumMaster 8. Leading Teams - additional responsibilities - coordination and education - dealing with undone departments

MORE ON THESE IDEAS www.less.works-seethenewbook“Large-ScaleScrum”-readthecasestudiesonthesiteI’vebloggedrecentlyoncoordinaLonat:krivitsky.com/блогagiletrainings.eu/blog