Scrum Inc. https://www.scruminc.com/ Better Results. Starting Now. Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:28:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.scruminc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/cropped-SI-Favicon-32x32.png Scrum Inc. https://www.scruminc.com/ 32 32 Leaders Leveraging the OODA Loop for Value Stream Management https://www.scruminc.com/ooda-loop-value-stream-management/ Thu, 25 Jan 2024 17:04:48 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=47568 Discover the OODA Loop's application in Value Stream Management. This post delves into its use for impediment resolution and continuous Scrum improvement.

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Leaders Leveraging the OODA Loop for Value Stream Management

On our journey to explore the OODA Loop’s application for value stream management, let’s build upon the insights gained from our last blog as an Agile Impediment Removal Tool. The OODA Loop, encompassing the stages of Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act, isn’t merely a theoretical construct but a practical and transformative approach.  To bring the concept to life, let’s draw inspiration from the breakfast rituals of Alex and Skylar, two siblings preparing breakfast for their youngest sibling, Riley. Their toast-making escapades serve as an example of the OODA stages in action, demonstrating how these principles can be applied to streamline processes and drive continuous improvement in any business setting. 

Phase 1 – Observe: Identifying Pain Points in Value Streams 

Alex and Skylar noticed that they spent a lot of time making Riley breakfast in the morning, and no one seemed happy with the results, despite their efforts to have a good breakfast and get out the door. They could see their process was disjointed.  Riley loved toast with Jam, so Alex would get out the bread, put it in the toaster, and Skylar would take it from there,  spreading the jam on the toast in a circular pattern that Riley enjoyed. However, Riley rejected the toast about 2 days out of every week, and Alex and Skylar would have to start from scratch.

In the ‘Observe’ phase, we take the time to scrutinize our current processes. It’s important to gather data, identify delays, and recognize value stream bottlenecks. To do this, conduct a ‘value stream walk’, gather stakeholder feedback, and qualitative and quantitative information to pinpoint where your value stream may be lagging. Are there stages in your production where time is wasted? Is there a step where customer feedback often becomes negative? These insights are vital for informed decision-making. 

Phase 2 – Orient: Analyzing and Understanding the Data 

In our toast example, Skylar asks Riley why the toast was inedible.  Riley wanted it warm to the touch. Skylar realized that sometimes the toast would sit in the toaster for up to 10 minutes when it was finished.  Alex and Skylar’s realization that hand-off caused the problem mirrors the need for businesses to analyze their processes and determine where simplification or integration could improve flow. 

The ‘Orient’ phase requires a dive into the data collected. It’s about understanding the relationships between different steps in your value stream and identifying underlying causes of inefficiencies. To analyze your process, Utilize tools that make sense. Many tools can work with Agile or Lean methodologies. The important thing is to understand how each step in your value stream contributes to the overall business goals. Is there alignment or are there disconnects that need to be addressed? Understanding these dynamics is crucial for effective streamlining. 

Phase 3 – Decide: Strategic Decision-Making 

When Alex and Skylar understood what was impacting the end result goal–Riley eating her toast–they were able to redesign their process so one person could carry the toast through to its end, ensuring Riley received a warm breakfast. This mirrors the need for teams to carry out as much of the value stream as possible, avoiding unnecessary hand-offs. 

Armed with insights, the ‘Decide’ phase is where strategic planning comes into play. It’s about prioritizing areas for improvement and crafting realistic solutions. This is where you need to be strategic. Prioritize improvements based on their impact on overall value delivery and align them with your business goals. Decisions might involve reallocating resources, introducing new technologies, or retraining staff. Ensure that your decisions are scalable and sustainable. 

Phase 4 – Act: Implementing and Monitoring Changes 

Just as Alex and Skylar made a plan to make sure Riley got warm toast, they needed to observe Riley’s response to the changes in their toast-making process.

Similarly, businesses need to closely monitor how changes impact their value stream. The ‘Act’ phase is about bringing your decisions to life. Many businesses spend a great deal of time exploring issues but do commit to actions that address them.  And, implementation of a strategy must be accompanied by vigilant monitoring to gauge effectiveness.

Keep a close eye on key performance indicators. Are the changes yielding the expected improvements? Be prepared to adapt and tweak your strategies based on real-time feedback and data. Remember, the value stream is dynamic, and your approach should be equally agile. 

Iteration for Continuous Improvement

Alex and Skylar’s story doesn’t end with one cycle; they will continue to refine their process. Eventually, they may want to get Riley to eat eggs.  The iterative nature of the OODA Loop ensures continuous refinement. Similarly, businesses should use the OODA Loop as a continuous improvement tool, always seeking ways to enhance value delivery. 

Conclusion 

The OODA Loop is more than just a conceptual framework; it’s a practical guide for managing and improving value streams in any business. The narrative of Alex and Skylar’s breakfast endeavors serves as a tangible illustration of the OODA Loop in action, highlighting its iterative nature and the importance of continuous refinement. Embracing the OODA Loop as a continuous improvement tool empowers businesses to navigate challenges, enhance value delivery, and foster a culture of adaptability toward growth and excellence. 

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The Effort Estimation Matrix – A Tool for Estimating Agile Story Points https://www.scruminc.com/effort-estimation-matrix/ Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:10:10 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=47561 Simplify and accelerate the estimation process, leveraging a reference table of effort that directly relates to a team's work and insights.

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The Effort Estimation Matrix

A Tool for Estimating Agile Story Points

Introduction:
In both Agile project and product management, accurately estimating effort is both vital and challenging. Teams often face the difficult task of aligning their estimations with the fluid nature of tasks. To transcend the mechanical use of story points, we introduce a novel approach that embraces a mindset conducive to faster, more consistent estimations of effort.

This approach, known as the Effort Estimation Matrix, offers a dynamic framework that integrates past project insights, facilitating more precise and adaptable planning. By leveraging collective experience and retrospective learning, the Matrix aims to reduce the uncertainty and variability often encountered in traditional estimation methods.

The Genesis of the Effort Estimation Matrix:
The Effort Estimation Matrix, inspired by complex adaptive systems theory and the Structure-Behavior model (SBM), was created not as a prescriptive tool but as a way of incorporating reflective estimation into future estimation. The intent is to simplify and accelerate the estimation process, leveraging a reference table of effort that directly relates to a team’s work and insights. 

The table evolves with each project, becoming an iterative, living document that captures the unique experiences and lessons learned by the team. It ensures that each estimation is grounded in real-world experiences and adapted to the team’s evolving understanding of project complexities. In this way, the Effort Estimation Matrix serves as a bridge between theoretical, technical models and practical applications, enabling teams, leaders, and organizations to make more informed, context-driven decisions.

Understanding the Matrix:
At a high level, the Matrix helps teams categorize work based on understandability and predictability. By assessing completed stories, teams can align their estimations with retrospective insights, fostering a shared understanding that paves the way for more accurate future estimates.

For those interested in a deeper dive into the theory, complex adaptive systems offer a lens through which teams can view their work as part of a dynamic, interconnected environment where knowledge and outcomes evolve through interaction and adaptation.

Core Benefits of the Matrix:

  • Simplified Estimations: The Matrix empowers individuals to consistently estimate new backlog items, referencing a custom table built from the team’s own experience and capacity.
  • Enhanced Forecasting: With a fully estimated backlog, Product Owners can project completion timelines more precisely, relying on the team’s current velocity and historical performance.
  • Focused Backlog Refinement: Teams can now concentrate on refining backlog items that embody greater complexity and uncertainty, allocating the necessary attention to mitigate risks.
  • Streamlined Complexity Assessment: The Matrix distills the complexity assessment into four pivotal questions, enhancing the estimation process’s clarity and reducing cognitive overhead.
  • Risk Threshold Management: By setting an upper limit on effort points for the Sprint plan, teams can manage the intake of complex or unpredictable work, encouraging the breakdown of backlog items when needed.
  • Team Alignment and Engagement: Creating and utilizing the Matrix can align the team on the required effort for backlog items, fostering engagement and collaborative planning.
  • Adaptability to Change: The flexible framework of the Matrix allows teams to adapt to project evolutions, recalibrating as understanding or environments change.
  • Efficiency in Estimation Sessions: The Matrix serves as a clear reference point, streamlining estimation sessions and minimizing time spent on debate.
  • Improved Accuracy Over Time: The ongoing refinement of the Matrix through reference stories promises improved and more consistent estimation accuracy, resulting in better planning and resource allocation.

The Matrix:

Figure 1: Effort Estimation Matrix (Original)

Sample Reference Table:

Job to Be Done Description (Acceptance Criteria) Points
User Registration As a user, I want to register an account with email verification, so that I can securely log in and interact with the site.
– Must include email verification
– Password must meet complexity requirements
3
API Integration As a developer, I want to integrate the payment API securely, so that end users can make transactions with confidence.      
– API endpoints are secured with appropriate authentication.
– Must handle potential errors gracefully
8
Mobile Optimization As a mobile user, I want the site to be responsive on my mobile device so that I can have a seamless experience across all screen sizes.
– Must be responsive on devices with screen widths 320px to 1440px
– All functions available on desktop must be accessible on mobile
5
Data Migration As an admin, I need user data migrated to the new database so that we can utilize a more efficient system without data loss.
– Zero data loss is acceptable
– Migration must be completed with minimal downtime
13
Feature Enhancement As a user, I want to use a multi-language feature on the platform so that I can interact with the site in my preferred language.
– Must support at least three languages
– Language can be switched dynamically
8

Table 1: Sample Reference Table Format

Applying the Matrix:
The Matrix’s application involves a series of steps where teams recalibrate their estimation process using their completed stories:

  1. Introduce the Matrix concept.
  2. Independently re-estimate recently completed stories, leveraging a lightweight Delphi approach.
  3. Discuss to reconcile major discrepancies in estimates, akin to “Planning Poker”.
  4. Establish or update a reference table that serves as a touchstone for future estimations, aiding in the integration of new team members and keeping estimations current.
  5. Reference the Matrix and Reference table regularly while adding backlog items, or in refining work during Backlog Refinement and Sprint Planning.

Conclusion:
The Estimation Matrix is more than just numbers; it’s about understanding the narrative behind each task. I encourage you to experiment with using the Matrix in your team. Use the tool to reflect on your work, create and regularly update your reference table, and share your insights with the Agile community. Should you seek to delve deeper or fine-tune your estimation process, my colleagues at Scrum Inc. and I are prepared to facilitate workshops to explore various estimation techniques, including this Matrix, to optimize your backlog management.

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Scrum@Scale for Organizational Success: Insights from a Scrum of Scrums Master https://www.scruminc.com/scrumscale-insights-from-a-scrummster/ Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:58:06 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=47274 Discover Scrum@Scale success! Unleash team cohesion and strategic impediment removal. Elevate your journey with insights from an experienced Agile Coach.

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Scrum@Scale for Organizational Success: Insights from a Scrum of Scrums Master

In American football, being “ahead of the chains” means the offensive team has effectively advanced, making subsequent plays easier and achieving the goal more attainable. It’s about being on the right track, consistently moving the ball down the field to score points. Conversely, being “behind the chains” is like a misstep, where the team hasn’t gained enough ground and faces the challenge of covering more distance for a first down—a detour from the path to victory.

This ebb and flow of gaining and losing yardage in football mirrors the journey toward organizational agility in the world of business. As the Vice President of People Operations at Scrum Inc, and after years of training and consulting clients, I’ve observed how the Scrum@Scale framework functions much like a coach’s playbook in this strategic game. It’s not just about the individual Sprints of a single team, but aligning multiple teams under a unified strategy, much like a football team coordinates its plays to continuously advance toward the end zone.

Just as a football team’s consistent progress keeps them “ahead of the chains” and on track for victory, Scrum@Scale keeps an organization moving forward. It allows room for the ebb and flow. It harmonizes the efforts of various Scrum teams, ensuring that they’re not just successful in isolation but contribute to the overarching goal of the company. It’s about making the right plays, at the right time, to collectively score points for organizational success.

The Importance of the Impediment

In a scaled environment, the identification and removal of impediments transcend beyond the domain of a single Scrum team, echoing across the network of teams within the organization. While traditionally in Scrum, the responsibility of impediment removal lies with the Scrum Master and their team, in a Scrum@Scale environment, this task gains an additional layer of complexity and significance.

Regularly identifying and addressing impediments is not just about keeping a single team “ahead of the chains” but ensuring that the entire organization, or the ‘team of teams’, is advancing cohesively. Each impediment removed at the team level can be likened to a successful play in a football game, contributing to the overall progress and performance of the organization.

The role of leadership in this process is pivotal. In a Scrum@Scale environment, leadership, Agile Coaches, and Scrum Team Coaches must look beyond the immediate team boundaries to understand how impediments in one area can ripple across and impact other teams. This holistic view ensures a more strategic approach to problem-solving, where the focus is not only on maintaining velocity and promoting predictable delivery but also on enhancing the overall agility and responsiveness of the organization.

Additionally, the practice of impediment removal in Scrum@Scale fosters a culture of proactive engagement and continuous improvement. It’s about creating a collaborative environment where teams not only identify and solve visible challenges but also anticipate potential roadblocks. This forward-thinking approach, often inspired by traditional project management techniques, involves assessing risks and uncertainties that may not yet be obvious but could significantly impact the organization’s ability to deliver value.

Risk Management and Acceleration

As a former project manager, I would regularly assess my project risks, their probability, impact, and plan any mitigating actions to minimize the risk. Taking mitigating actions on those risks reduced the overall risk to the project and helped the project team deliver on-time and on-budget more reliably.

In a scaled agile environment, assessing risks involves a wider lens, looking beyond individual team challenges to potential organizational-level impediments. This approach is crucial for synchronizing multiple Scrum teams and maintaining overall momentum.

In this broader Scrum@Scale context, we list potential risks — uncertainties, unresolved questions — and evaluate them for their likelihood and potential impact, using a straightforward 1–10 scale. This process, more strategic than analytical, helps us prioritize risks in an organizational Impediment Backlog. As a team of Scrum Masters and organizational leaders, we ensure these risks are preemptively addressed, reflecting a proactive approach to maintaining agility and steering our collective efforts toward organizational goals.

Conclusion

As an Agile Leader and Coach, one of my goals is to mentor others in this approach in identifying and tackling team-level and organization-wide impediments. This method, derived from my project management experience and adapted for Scrum@Scale, is more than just a tool for Scrum Masters. It’s a strategic guide that enhances our collective ability to stay “ahead of the chains,” ensuring that all teams move in unison toward our organizational goals.

I encourage every Scrum Master to adopt this method. In doing so, you’re demonstrating the real, tangible benefits the Scrum Master role brings to the enterprise. Handling obstacles and risks effectively goes beyond just keeping projects on track; it shows your capacity to guide and improve the overall performance of an organization. By proactively addressing impediments and risks, you position yourself as a key player in not only leading Scrum events but also driving organizational agility and success.

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Leaders Leveraging the OODA Loop in a Scrum@Scale Environment https://www.scruminc.com/leveraging-the-ooda-loop/ Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:56:53 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=47282 Discover the OODA Loop's role in Scrum: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This post delves into its use for effective decision-making and continuous Scrum improvement.

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Leaders Leveraging the OODA Loop in a Scrum@Scale Environment

In the dynamic application of Scrum, where impediments emerge as significant roadblocks to a team’s progress, the integration of the OODA Loop provides a strategic advantage, and the same strategic advantage applies in Scrum@Scale.  “OODA,” standing for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act, originated as a decision-making model in military strategy but finds a compelling application in the Agile context. This blog post explores the synergy between the OODA Loop and Scrum, delving into how this powerful decision-making tool can be leveraged for effective impediment removal.

The term “impediment” holds significant weight.   Impediments—obstacles or hindrances that can slow down or even halt a team’s progress—are inevitable in almost every project.  As we navigate through each phase of the OODA Loop, we’ll uncover practical insights and actionable steps to integrate this approach into the Scrum practices of an organization.  

 

The OODA Loop: An Agile Decision-Making Tool

Developed by military strategist John Boyd, the OODA Loop is designed to provide a structured yet flexible way to make decisions in fast-paced, rapidly changing environments. Here’s a brief rundown:

  • Observe: Gather data to understand the current situation. In business, this could mean looking at performance metrics, team feedback, or market conditions.
  • Orient: View the data in context. Attempt to understand the “why” behind what you’re seeing. For example, are the metrics changing due to a seasonal trend or is there a deeper issue at hand?
  • Decide:  Make an informed decision from the context you’ve gathered quickly. When weighing options, remember that decision delay can lessen the opportunities and outcome. 
  • Act: Once decided, execute the decision with minimum delay.  Then, as you observe the results of the decision, remember that the “Act” phase is followed by another “Observe” phase, making the OODA Loop a continuous cycle of improvement.

 

Utilizing the OODA Loop to remove impediments and maximize your Scrum application
In Scrum or Scrum@Scale frameworks, impediments are anything that keeps the teams from doing their work or coordinating with other teams effectively. A well-functioning Scrum team or group of teams identifies impediments via several channels.

1. Observation is the starting point to identify impediments

  • The Daily Scrum: In Scrum, the process of impediment identification begins with observation.  At a Daily Scrum, team members voice concerns or roadblocks they are facing and make visible any risks to the work being completed. 
  • The Sprint Retrospective: This is the event where the teams reflect on the past Sprint and discuss ways to improve or impediments they experienced.  In an agile organization, teams take the initiative to continuously improve their processes, resolve impediments whenever possible, and escalate issues they cannot solve themselves.  A team of teams might identify larger issues that slow the teams’ coordination and execution at a Scaled Retrospective. 
  • Metrics and Monitoring: Sprint metrics like burndown charts or velocity trends are a way to observe. A slowing velocity could indicate an impediment in the team’s way. Similarly, an irregular burndown chart can often be the smoke that indicates the fire of a larger problem.  Leading metrics, like team happiness and lead or cycle times, could point to an impediment you can resolve before it gets out of hand.
  • The Scrum Master’s Role:  As a leader who serves the teams and organization, the Scrum Master of a team (or the Scrum Master of a team of teams), is accountable for ensuring that impediments are proactively identified and removed.  They do this by acting themselves, by helping the team find the right way to remove them, or by escalating them to the personnel/team that can remove them. The Scrum Master plays a crucial role in this observation phase, not only during events but also during everyday conversations. Proactive observation is key to proactive impediment removal. Tools such as an ‘Impediment Backlog’ can be used to keep track of potential or ongoing roadblocks and make them visible to the team.

 

2. Orient to Contextualize the Impediments 

  • Process Mapping and Backlogs: The next step in the OODA loop is to ‘Orient,’ which means putting your observations into context. Scrum offers artifacts for this, such as the Product Backlog and Sprint Backlog, which can be cross-referenced to determine if impediments are causing delays in crucial value delivery. Techniques like value stream mapping or process mapping can also be useful here.
  • Retrospectives, Again: Sprint Retrospectives are a space where orientation can happen. Historical data and past Retrospectives can provide context for current impediments. For example, is the current impediment a one-off, or is it a recurring issue that has plagued the team for multiple Sprints. At the end of the retrospective, one idea for improvement is implemented in the following Sprint.
  • Systems Thinking and the Scrum Master: Orienting also involves looking at the issue from a systems perspective. Systems thinking emphasizes understanding the broader context where an impediment exists, focusing on root causes and the interdependencies within the system. The Scrum Master, whether supporting a team, or a group of teams,  is always looking at the system to understand how it impacts the team and the organization. By recognizing the interconnectedness of components, feedback loops, and leverage points, Scrum Masters can identify and address impediments more holistically.  They foster collaboration, apply lean techniques to help identify symptoms of larger systemic issues and ensure solutions target the core of the issue rather than just the observable problem. This approach ensures that impediment removal is sustainable, beneficial to the entire organizational system, and promotes a culture of shared responsibility.  

 

 3. Decision with Information and Choosing a Course of Action

  • Empowered Teams: One of Scrum’s strengths is its emphasis on self-organizing teams. The key is to use available data to make informed decisions and to empower those with the best view of the problem to make those decisions. In the ‘Decide’ phase, the team collaboratively determines the best course of action for removing the impediment, often during a Daily or Retrospective.
  • Prioritization and Decision Frameworks: Impediments can range from simple, easily resolved issues, like needing additional information, to complex challenges that might require organizational changes. In some cases, an impediment might require more than one Sprint to fully resolve.  Agile frameworks often use prioritization techniques like MoSCoW (Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, and Won’t-haves), WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First), or a value-to-effort ratio to decide which impediments to tackle and in which order.

 

 4. Act: Execute and Reflect

  • Scrum Events and Acting: Once the decision is made, the ‘Act’ part of the loop comes into play. Immediate actions can be taken within the same Sprint if they are small enough, while larger, more systemic issues might be planned for future Sprints. Tasks for impediment removal often make their way into the Sprint Backlog, making them a formal part of the team’s commitment.
  • Documentation and Knowledge Bases: Documentation is crucial here. Whether it’s updating the Sprint Retrospective with the steps taken or maintaining a knowledge base for future reference, documenting the action taken is vital. This ensures that the team can consistently learn from past experiences and that similar impediments can be addressed more swiftly in the future. Additionally, clear documentation fosters transparency and accountability, reinforcing the team’s commitment to continuous improvement.
  • Inspect and Adapt: Finally, as the team acts, it goes back to ‘Observing’ the results of those actions in subsequent Sprints, entering another iteration of the OODA loop, embodying the Scrum principle of “Inspect and Adapt.”

 

Conclusion

By providing a structured yet adaptable framework that aligns well with Scrum’s iterative model, the OODA Loop proves itself to be a valuable addition to any Agile team’s toolbox. From observation to informed decision-making to agile execution, it can enhance your team’s ability to tackle impediments head-on, ensuring a continuous cycle of improvement in the fast-paced world of Scrum.

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Scrum Inc. Webinar with JJ Sutherland and Jeff Sutherland https://www.scruminc.com/success-in-2024/ https://www.scruminc.com/success-in-2024/#respond Wed, 08 Nov 2023 21:04:46 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=46821 Explore the on-demand webinar with JJ Sutherland and Jeff Sutherland on leveraging the OODA Loop within Scrum for strategic advantage. Gain insights into effective decision-making and continuous improvement in Scrum environments.

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Prioritize, Structure, and Cultivate Business Success with Scrum@Scale in 2024

Scrum Inc. webinar with Dr. JEFF SUTHERLAND & JJ SUTHERLAND

Free Agile Webinar

Change Your POV in 2024

In this exclusive webinar, Scrum Inc. CEO JJ Sutherland and Father of Scrum and creator of Scrum@Scale Dr. Jeff Sutherland explore the vital components of organizational success: prioritization, structure, delivery, and culture. Gain key insights backed by research and real-world client practice as they demonstrate how Scrum@Scale, the world’s fastest-growing scaling framework, can transform your organization.

Dive into Scrum@Scale with our new, on-demand e-Learning solution, Scrum@Scale Fundamentals ▶

Elevate Your Business in 2024 and Beyond

Watch the Recording for Our Exclusive Webinar Experience:

In-Depth Conversation with Actionable Insight

Dive into the Mega issues that threaten the success of an organization and gain valuable insights from Scrum Inc.’s research and real-world experience to optimize your enterprise.

Giveaways to Boost Productivity

All webinar registrants will be entered to win exciting giveaway prizes in celebration of Scrum@Scale Day. Winners will be selected at random from the registration list* and will be notified via email by December 4th, 2023.

Prepare for 2024

Gain the knowledge and tools you need to prepare your organization for the challenges and opportunities of 2024. Learn how Scrum@Scale, the fastest-growing scaling framework globally, can revolutionize your business and make it more adaptable, efficient, and effective.

Meet the Speakers

JJ Sutherland | CEO, Scrum Inc.

As CEO of Scrum Inc, JJ Sutherland is responsible for the strategic direction of the company. He is the author of The Scrum Fieldbook: A Master Class on Accelerating Performance, Getting Results and Defining the Future, and the co-author of Best Seller, Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time. A Scrum Inc. Trainer and leading expert in Enterprise Agility, JJ works with companies around the world to help them adapt to change, accelerate value delivery, reduce waste, and increase profit. Before joining Scrum Inc., JJ was an award-winning Correspondent and Producer with National Public Radio.

Dr. Jeff Sutherland the Co-Creator of Scrum
Dr. Jeff Sutherland | Founder, Scrum Inc. Father of Scrum, and Creator of Scrum@Scale

Dr. Jeff Sutherland is the co-creator of Scrum, a revolutionary Agile methodology that has transformed the way teams work in industries around the world. He is a signatory of the Agile Manifesto and co-author of the best seller, Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time.

Dr. Sutherland is the founder of Scrum Inc., a full-service Agile consulting and training firm that helps organizations implement and optimize Scrum, Scrum@Scale and other Agile practices. He is a thought leader in the Agile community, a sought after speaker, and author. Jeff continues to innovate and drive the evolution of Scrum and Scrum@Scale.

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SI Consulting Chats: Why Agile Transformations Fail https://www.scruminc.com/si-consulting-chats-why-agile-transformations-fail/ Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:26:05 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=46758 Join JJ Sutherland, Scrum Inc. CEO, and Bobby Woods, Principal Consultant, as they discuss some common challenges they see when organizations try to adopt Agile ways of working, patterns of dysfunction, and pathways to success.

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SI Consulting Chats: Why Agile Transformations Fail

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Decoding Agility: Asset-Based Prioritization https://www.scruminc.com/decoding-agility-asset-based-prioritization/ Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:12:40 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=46720 Discover the 'Decoder Ring' with Saraounia Mboka-Boyer, an asset-based strategy tool that empowers organizations to continuously optimize existing assets, ensuring adaptability in a rapidly changing landscape.

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Decoding Agility: Transforming Strategy with Asset-Based Prioritization

At the heart of Agile methodologies lay the principle of consistently delivering maximum value in the shortest time possible. Traditional approaches often ask: “What resources do we need?” Asset-based Agility, however, asks: “What do we already have, and how can we best utilize it?”

Using Scrum Inc.’s “Weighted Shortest Job First” (WSJF) combined with our Fibonacci-based estimation, stakeholders don’t just prioritize tasks; they harness the intrinsic strengths of their operations, and the insight and knowledge of their greatest asset, their staff.

When we think of the goods and services we receive as citizens we rarely consider the people and decisions that facilitate an effective and efficient government to deliver for those needs. Government employees use workplans, they prioritize, they need to consider how to effectively utilize current resources. In the last 3 years, most governments have experienced issues in their ability to meet that mandate and provide effective and timely services to their citizens. In some cases it has led to a reduction in faith of government and public sectors. One government office decided to take a stand to re-earn that trust. They decided to embrace agility including ruthless prioritization to better serve it’s citizens.

Scrum Inc.’s partnership with this Canadian Government Client demonstrated that the potent combination of prioritization techniques and multi-stakeholder alignment drives transformative success, and galvanizes passionate staff to deliver fast and often in support of their fellow citizens. This combination allows the client to not only be stewards of the government’s resources while serving constituents, but to continuously adapt and innovate to meet the emerging needs of Canadians.

Vision and Strategy Alignment

A vision provides the direction and motivation, while strategy offers the roadmap. The client’s 2022/2023 strategy and associated workplans underwent meticulous scrutiny, ensuring alignment with the Government’s code of practice. However, Digital Transformation is not a static or simple journey. As the environment and operational ecosystems shift, so do organizational priorities. The Government entity recognized this dynamism by seeking ways to not only regularly review their workplans, but sought to find a scalable and empirical way to measure and assess the value of planned and emerging work. They did this to ensure they remained continued to provide effective services to its citizens and clients amidst changing governmental agendas and priorities.

The Power of Multi-Stakeholder Alignment

One of the challenges many organizations face, especially in the public sector, during digital transitions is ensuring alignment across multiple stakeholders; stakeholders who often have divergent or conflicting priorities. To address this, a facilitated a deeper conversation utilizing the Collaborate Learn Adapt (CLA) framework and appreciative inquiry can be beneficial. These frameworks and methods, designed for multi-stakeholder coordination, proved pivotal in creating the office’s first ‘Decoder Ring’. A customizable tool to evaluate whether work items offer short, medium, or long-term value, enabling a more nuanced approach to prioritization.

The ‘Decoder Ring’: A Testament to Asset Optimization

Enter the ‘decoder ring’, borne through deep discussions under the Collaborate Learn Adapt (CLA), Appreciative Inquiry and Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) methods. The WSJF method is both ingenious and simple. By dividing the value of each task or initiative by its size, a score emerges. Tasks with towering scores naturally rise to the forefront. But it’s more than just a technical tool. It’s a reflection of an organization’s commitment to asset-based development. By focusing on the potential value of work items in the short, medium, or long term, the ‘decoder ring’ champions the assets an organization already possesses. 

As government and public priorities shift and new challenges emerge, this tool doesn’t become obsolete. Instead, it adapts, it embodies Agility continuously optimizing the value extraction from existing assets, ensuring resilience and adaptability in the face of change.

The ‘Decoder Ring’: The Executive’s Compass in Decision-Making

Not simply a categorization tool, the ‘decoder ring’ emerged as the lynchpin in asset-based strategy development, especially for executive leaders and value stream managers. It’s designed to not only assess tasks or initiatives based on their value delivery timelines but more crucially, to guide decision-makers in recognizing and leveraging the inherent value of these tasks or initiatives as organizational assets.

In the current challenging commercial, geopolitical and social times, when every decision can drastically affect an organization’s trajectory, the ‘decoder ring’ becomes an indispensable ally. It allows leadership to focus on the organization’s strengths, for employees to see their value contribution to the organization, ensuring that despite external pressures, the organization capitalizes on its core assets. Each ring measurement, whether short, medium, or long term, serves as a guidepost, helping executives prioritize tasks that align with strategic objectives and maximize value to their client/community.

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Debunking Sustainable Pace with Dr. Jeff Sutherland https://www.scruminc.com/debunking-sustainable-pace-with-dr-jeff-sutherland/ Wed, 04 Oct 2023 21:18:30 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=46586 Join Dr. Jeff Sutherland and JJ Sutherland as they dispel the myths surrounding 'Sustainable Pace' in Agile. Explore how this principle, often misunderstood, can be harnessed to propel your Agile journey forward.

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Debunking Sustainable Pace with Dr. Jeff Sutherland and JJ Sutherland

In the ever-evolving landscape of Agile methodologies, the term “sustainable pace” has often been relegated to the realm of buzzwords—misunderstood, misapplied, and at times, even misused as an excuse for mediocrity. I want to reclaim and redefine sustainable pace, elevating it from a mere concept to a potent tool in the arsenal of Agile teams and organizations.

In a meeting at Snowbird, Utah, U.S. in 2001, a group of software development experts gathered to find a common language for their lightweight processes. The term “Agile” was agreed upon, inspired by a book on 100 lean hardware companies that had formed an Agile consortium.

During a mere 10-minute coffee break, eight individuals stayed in the lodge to draft the four core values of the Agile Manifesto. When the remaining 9 returned from the ski slopes, they found the values so compelling that they accepted them without edits. The remainder of the day was spent crafting the 12 guiding principles. One of which was the idea of sustainable pace.

The Weaponization of Agile Principles and The Misinterpretation of Sustainable Pace

Over the years, the Agile community has distorted these principles. Concepts like self- organization were weaponized to mean “do whatever you want,” leading to a lack of alignment and accountability. This misinterpretation was so rampant that the Scrum Guide had to be revised. The term “self-organization” was changed to “self-management” to correct this misunderstanding. Similarly, “Servant Leadership” was rephrased to “A Leader Who Serves” because Scrum Masters, operating as “clerks,” were facilitating the failure of 58% of Agile teams. Given the current misuse of “sustainable pace,” it’s evident that another update to the Scrum Guide is urgently needed.

The concept of “sustainable pace” has been grossly misinterpreted. Originally intended to ensure long-term productivity and innovation, it’s now used as a shield against accountability. This misuse has contributed to the high failure rate of “Agile in Name Only” teams. Given this, a re-examination and potential revision of “sustainable pace” in the Scrum Guide are warranted to prevent it from being weaponized against performance.

Drawing from Frison’s free energy brain model, high predictability and fewer surprises lead to freeing up energy for innovation. Sustainable pace isn’t about going slow; it’s about maintaining a pace that allows for continuous innovation without burnout. Managers who pressure teams to finish too much deplete brain energy, making innovation impossible.

The Need for a Reset

It’s time to reclaim the true essence of Agile, one that aligns with the principles of complex adaptive systems. Empowerment must be earned and sustained through performance, and “sustainable pace” should never be an excuse for not delivering results. The Scrum Guide, as a living document, must adapt once more to clarify these critical concepts.

In the early 2000s, the Agile Manifesto emerged as a flight manual for navigating the turbulent skies of software development. Crafted by visionaries who had achieved 10x performance through Scrum and XP, the manifesto was a distillation of their collective wisdom. Among its guiding principles was “sustainable pace,” a concept rooted in the understanding that high performance is a marathon, not a sprint.

In the world of aviation, fighter aircraft are marvels of engineering, designed for agility and speed. Yet, they are inherently unstable, requiring constant adjustments to maintain course. This mirrors the journey of hyperproductive Scrum teams, who also operate in an inherently unstable environment, making continuous course corrections to sustain their trajectory.

Frison’s Theory: The Aerodynamics of the Brain

Frison’s theory posits that the brain’s evolution is tied to predictability and minimizing surprises. Fighter pilots leverage this innate human trait to maintain control amidst turbulence. Similarly, hyperproductive teams use metrics like velocity and burndown charts to achieve a high level of predictability, thereby minimizing surprises and maximizing performance.

The pattern, “Teams That Finish Early Accelerate Faster” is based on using multiple supporting patterns to achieve a sustainable pace where the team accurately predicts what they can do so they can consistently deliver planned results early. This avoids the cost of not meeting expectations which generates wasted energy to fix a broken situation. That energy is used for continuous improvement, innovation and acceleration of the team.

Sustainable Pace: The Thrust Behind Long-Term Performance

The original intent behind including “sustainable pace” in the Agile Manifesto was to ensure that teams could maintain 10x performance without burning out—akin to how a fighter pilot manages energy to sustain long flights. It’s not about slowing down; it’s about calibrating your speed to ensure you can go the distance. Sustainable pace, in this context, means high predictability, minimal surprises, and constant innovation.

Just as fighter aircraft require a delicate balance of speed, agility, and control to navigate the skies, hyperproductive teams need a similar balance to navigate the complex landscape of product development. Both entities are guided by the same principles: maximize predictability, minimize surprises, and make constant adjustments to maintain course. This is the essence of sustainable pace, a principle that, when understood and applied correctly, can propel teams to new heights of performance and innovation.

The Flight Path Ahead: Reclaiming Agile’s True North

As we continue to explore the Agile landscape, let’s remember that the original intent of the Agile Manifesto was to provide a framework for sustained excellence. It’s time to reclaim that intent, guided by the lessons we can learn from the aerodynamics of fighter aircraft and the neuroscience of Frison’s theory. Sustainable pace is not a compromise; it’s a commitment to excellence, a commitment to being Agile in the truest sense of the word.

The term “sustainable pace” has been misused and misunderstood, often serving as a convenient excuse for underperformance. It’s time to reclaim its original intent as a weapon for transcendence. The first Scrum and XP teams didn’t use this principle to justify mediocrity; they used it to fuel their journey towards 10x performance.

The Final Frontier: Transcendence

By using sustainable pace as a tool for transcendence, organizations can break free from the shackles of mediocrity and soar to new heights. This is not a pipe dream; it’s a tangible reality for those willing to embrace the principles and practices that have been proven to work.

Let’s not settle for mediocrity when we have the tools and knowledge to achieve greatness.

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The Shifting Landscape of Business Agility and Consulting https://www.scruminc.com/the-shifting-landscape-of-business-agility-and-consulting/ Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:39:26 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=46508 Join Patrick Roach and Matt Jacobs as they shed light on the evolving landscape of business agility consulting. Discover how Scrum Inc. is navigating the shifting tides of the consulting world and achieving better outcomes with clients.

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The Shifting Landscape of Business Agility and Consulting

Join Scrum Inc. Chief Product Owner and Chief Operating Officer as they share their insight into the shifts in agile consulting

When change is the only constant, adaptability is key to survival. The world of consulting is no exception. Clients are no longer content with just learning the ropes of specific methodologies like Agile and specific frameworks like Scrum and Scrum@Scale. These days, clients expect more.

Achieving better, more predictable outcomes and out-performing competition has always been the goal. So, what’s different now? Today, organizations need to replicate the impact that agile approaches have had at the team, project, or product level at the enterprise level. Now, leaders are pushing the boundaries of how companies organize and operate in order to gain and keep a competitive advantage.

In this article, we will explore the changing landscape of agile consulting and how it is evolving and reshaping with the organizations it serves. We’ll also discuss the future of business agility consulting, why training is just a part of the equation, and how the ultimate goal has always been (and should always be) better outcomes.

The Growth & Evolution of Agility

Traditionally, business agility consulting has been synonymous with the implementation of team-level Agile and Scrum frameworks. Trainers and coaches were hired to train teams in these practices, with the hypothesis that training would lead to improved efficiency, faster product delivery, and increased customer satisfaction. While this approach undoubtedly brought positive changes to many organizations, it often led to a myopic focus on processes and procedures at the team-level, rather than organization-wide success.

Now, buyers are more sophisticated. Today’s cohort of corporate leaders have come up through the ranks during the popularization of agile practices in the 2000s and 2010s. Many of these leaders have already used agile approaches to deliver results at the team or product level. Consequently, their expectations have evolved beyond team-level or role-specific training; now, they want to adapt the principles, practices and structures that drove their prior success to their specific context and at a new scale.

Additionally, agile skills have become widespread throughout the workforce, reshaping the need for education. Employers now expect their team members to possess agile skills, reducing the need for external training. This shift has resulted in diminished returns on roles solely focused on teaching agile skills, contributing to a recent wave of mass layoffs within the agile industry, affecting companies like Capital One, Target, and others.

At Scrum Inc., we’ve adapted to these changes, shifting our focus from fostering high-performing teams to cultivating high-performing organizations. Our approach has grown to meet our mature, experienced buyers and agilists. We’ve discovered that we can create a more significant impact by nurturing an agile ecosystem in partnership with our clients. We focus on transforming an organization’s operating model, core policies and procedures, and the ways of working to drive holistic change, emphasizing and prioritizing principles, business outcomes, leadership, and agility throughout the organization.

The Bigger Picture

Why are clients now hyper-focused on improving organization-wide effectiveness? The answer is simple: they have no choice. The business landscape is undergoing a seismic shift, demanding rapid adaptation or facing obsolescence. Macro-environmental factors are driving organizations to evolve or perish.

Fluctuating interest rates have shifted organizations from an era of affordable investments to one where efficiency reigns supreme. The pandemic accelerated the need for adaptation, spotlighting the agility of organizations with flexible structures. However, as the pandemic wanes, organizations face the challenge of transitioning from crisis-mode operations to prospering in an environment characterized by high capital costs, evolving demands, and global uncertainties. This shift is compounded by the rapid pace of technological disruption, the accessibility of AI and the next wave of internet connectivity.

Delivering Reliable Outcomes

In this complex, transformative landscape, the emphasis has shifted. It’s no longer about merely “doing Agile” or “being Agile.” Instead, it’s about delivering reliable outcomes. This profound shift carries significant implications for the consulting industry and for Scrum Inc. We’re witnessing a decline in demand for training, as clients recognize that individual education alone is insufficient for achieving enterprise-wide outcomes. Instead, clients are seeking outcome-driven consulting, where we collaborate with them to craft strategies tailored to their unique needs.

It’s essential to acknowledge that this shift isn’t solely about moving away from training or coaching; it’s about changing the entire system to drive results. Many of our clients who initially sought team-level training eventually recognized the need to transform their systems to achieve the results they desired. At Scrum Inc., we understand that the new paradigm demands not only individual skills but a holistic transformation of organizational structures and operations. Our approach has evolved accordingly to address these broader needs.

The Future of Business Consulting

So, what does the future hold for business consulting and for Scrum Inc.? Well, it’s all about evolution. We must be strategic and respond to customer needs by offering a range of tools, patterns, practices, frameworks, and approaches to meet their context-specific challenges. Our approach must be hyper-focused on driving outcomes, and our suite of tools need to be expertly adapted.

In the end, the focus on outcome-driven consulting allows us to have a more significant impact on our clients’ success. For us, the “product” we deliver is a better, more reliable, more adaptable organization. It’s about partnering with our clients to achieve better business outcomes, and that’s a rewarding journey for both parties.

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Scrum@Scale: Navigating Modern Challenges https://www.scruminc.com/scrumatscale-navigating-the-challenges-of-the-modern-business-world/ Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:37:08 +0000 https://www.scruminc.com/?p=46520 Andrew Robbins and John Roach delve into the challenges of navigating volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). Discover how Scrum@Scale, the Agile scaling framework, empowers organizations to thrive.

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Scrum@Scale: Navigating the Challenges of the Modern Business World

Exploring VUCA and the 4 Mega Issues

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are facing a set of unprecedented challenges, a stark contrast to the more predictable and stable environments of the past. “Command-and-Control” management styles rooted in Taylorism from the 1800’s are no longer enough for success. Instead, organizations find themselves dealing with the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) that define the present-day world.

The VUCA Challenge

The term VUCA, originally from the military, has become a common way to describe the demands organizations face today:

Volatility: Markets and technologies are constantly fluctuating.
Uncertainty: Strategic decisions are clouded by geopolitical tensions, pandemics, and disruptive innovation.
Complexity: The interconnected nature of global business demands sophisticated models to predict outcomes.
Ambiguity: Blurring industry lines and emerging competitors from unrelated sectors add to the business environment’s uncertainty.

In this complex setting, it’s like trying to navigate a labyrinth with a map designed for a straight road. This is why today’s management approach, incorporating Agile principles, are becoming the dominant practice in organizations around the world. Scrum, the most popular Agile framework, is the foundation for Scrum@Scale, an agile scaling framework that is focused on optimizing resources and accelerating time-to-market.

Scrum@Scale: A Response to VUCA

The popularity of Scrum@Scale has gained traction. According to the 16th Annual State of Agile Report, Scrum@Scale is now the fastest-growing scaling framework in the world, with over 28% of agilists surveyed noting their use of this highly flexible and effective scaling framework – more than double last year’s rate.

“Scrum@Scale takes a holistic approach to drive tangible business outcomes,” explains Scrum Inc. CEO JJ Sutherland, “Agility in and of itself is not a business goal. Agility is how you reach them.”

Scrum@Scale is gaining popularity because it aligns with modern business needs but also because it resonates with broader societal shifts in the way people are doing their work. The growth of remote work, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizes the need for frameworks that support distributed teams and keep them aligned. Our culture of embracing change requires adaptability and continuous learning, which is all part of the Scrum@Scale framework. Moreover, the speed at which decisions need to be made means a move towards more inclusive and decentralized leadership. Scrum@scale supports allowing decisions to be made at the team level.

In an era demanding flexibility, adaptability, and scalability, organizations are transitioning from the rigid style of Taylorism to a more customized approach. Welcome to the age of Scrum@Scale, where traditional business models are reimagined with agile principles to meet the demands of a VUCA world.

Unlocking Organizational Resilience

As novelist and futurist William Gibson said, “The future is already here – it’s just unevenly distributed.” Today, we find ourselves in a VUCA world where change is rapid, the present is unclear, complexity abounds, and ambiguity is the norm. These challenges can paralyze organizations, often leading to decision latency and missed opportunities.

However, as Bob Johansen, author and Fellow at Institute for the Future, points out, the VUCA world is not insurmountable; its effects can be mitigated. Scrum@Scale equips organizations with the tools and insights needed to navigate these challenges. It effectively transforms volatility into vision, uncertainty into understanding, complexity into clarity, and ambiguity into agility.

The ability to distinguish between problems and dilemmas is crucial. Problems have solutions, and Scrum@Scale enables efficient problem-solving. Dilemmas, on the other hand, represent significant challenges without easy answers, and Scrum@Scale offers strategies for mitigation.

The Ultimate Goal: Business Agility

The ultimate goal of adopting Scrum@Scale or any Agile approach is business agility. It identifies and maps strategies to mitigate Organizational Health Dimensions, which can impede progress toward business agility. The top four of these dimensions are referred to as Mega Issues:

Prioritization: Effective decision-making to identify top priorities aligning with the overall vision.
Delivery: Timely delivery to retain customers and maintain marketplace position.
Structure (Organizational Refactoring): Regularly refactoring people placement and workflow to meet production demands.
Culture: Cultural alignment with agility to attract and retain talent.

Scrum@Scale is not just a framework; it’s a lifeline in the tumultuous waters of the modern business world. It empowers organizations to transform challenges into opportunities, navigate the VUCA landscape, and achieve organizational resilience. As businesses continue to evolve and adapt, Scrum@Scale will play a pivotal role in shaping a more agile, responsive, and successful future.

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