Alignment at Scaleor How to Not become Totally Unagile when you have Lots of Teams

keynote, Agile Africa, Johannesburg
August 2016

Consultant
www.crisp.se

Henrik Kniberg

Dadhenrik.kniberg@crisp.se@HenrikKniberg

Organizational
RefactoristAuthor

Henrik Kniberg

Not too hard

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A bit trickier

Henrik Kniberg

This doesn’t scale

WTF!

?!?!

Hey!!

Henrik Kniberg

Huh?

#@%&?!

Suboptimization
WTF! You guys arebuilding a TUNNEL?
WTF! You guys arebuilding a BRIDGE?

Henrik Kniberg

Common reaction

Someone needs totake charge!

Henrik Kniberg

Alignment & Autonomy

Alignment
Do whatI say!

Henrik Kniberg

FalsedichotomyAutonomy

DowhateverAlignment enables Autonomy
We need tocross the river

HighAlignment

Build abridge!

Authoritative
organization
Conformist
cultureMicromanaging
organization

LowAlignment

Henrik Kniberg

Indifferent
cultureLow Autonomy

Aligned Autonomy!

We need tocross the river

Figure out how!

Innovative
organization
Collaborative
cultureEntrepreneurialorganization
Chaotic
cultureHigh Autonomy

Hope someone isworking on theriver problem…

Ingredients for Alignment at Scale

Alignment
Henrik Kniberg

Ingredient 1: Shared purpose
SharedPurpose

Alignment
Henrik Kniberg

The magic question: “What are you working on, and why?”
We’re working on X.
Because we think it’sgoing to give impact Y,
which matters to thecompany because of Z

We’re working on X.
Because Sam said it’s
important.

We’re done when Sam
is OK with it.

We’re done when themetrics have moved

We’re working on X.
Because we feel like it.

We’re done when wedon’t feel like itanymore.
Henrik Kniberg

Alignment at different levels
We’re working forthe same company!
We’re working on thesame productWe’re working on thesame feature

Henrik Kniberg

Chain of purposes... so that we make lifeeasier for everyone!
... so that we canconnect the twovillages... so that people cancross the river

We’re gathering wood

We’re creating afoundation

Henrik Kniberg... so that we can build
a bridgeIngredient 2: Transparancy
SharedPurposeTransparancy

Alignment
Henrik Kniberg

Example

North Star goals

CompanyBeliefs

X
activeusers

Company Bet

Company Bet

Launch inCountry A

Build newproductcapability B

Henrik Kniberg

Worldclassemployer

Bet = alignment pointSony
Playstation
Integration

Henrik Kniberg

Company Bets Boardvisible to everyone

Henrik Kniberg

Now

Each bet has a 2-page brief

Launch inCountry
A
Innovate onC

Buildinfrastructure
for D

Lead team sponsor

Road Manager

Key stakeholders

Success metrics

Related bets.........

Henrik Kniberg

DIBB
Data

Insights Belief

Bet

Next
Build newproductcapability
B

Later

DIBB – an argument framework

Data
How people listen to music
Desktop users

Insight
Mobile is overtaking
desktop as primarymusic gadget!

rsMobile use

Time

How we’re staffed
Mobile devs

Desktop devs

Henrik Kniberg

We have very few
mobile devs
compared todesktop

BeliefBet

WTF we’reoptimized for thewrong thing!

Hire a bunch ofmobile devs

For long term
survival, we need
to becomemobile-first

Feedback loop

Train a bunch ofour desktop devs
into mobile devs
Buildinfrastructure for
iterating fast on
mobileHow early can you notice this happening?
WTF! You guys arebuilding a TUNNEL?
WTF! You guys arebuilding a BRIDGE?

Henrik Kniberg

Dependency board
who needs what from whom & when?

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Early detection of dependency problems
A centralized tool to enable decentralized behaviour

Henrik Kniberg& Eik Thyrsted

Scrum of Scrums

Henrik Kniberg& Eik Thyrsted

Ingredient 3: Feedback loops
SharedPurposeTransparancy

Feedbackloops

Alignment
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Agile is like a homing missile

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Single team feedback loops
Sprint review
Unit tests

Daily Standup
Retrospective
Continuous Integration

Henrik Kniberg

Multi-team feedback loops
Whole Product review
Cross team sync,
retro, etc

Henrik Kniberg

Pattern: Integration Cadence“Friday Demo”

Henrik Kniberg

Alignment as a social event

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted BrandsgårdBi-monthly alignment event

Full day, 20 teams, 150 people

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Demo video – what have we accomplish since last time?

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Team breakouts

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Team board

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Team board

Impact-based
objectives

Stretchobjectives
Risks
Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Deliverables
per sprint

Draft plan ”fair”

4 short presentation rounds, rotate after each

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted BrandsgårdPattern: Plan on a cadence, release on demand
Planning
event

Release 1.0

Release candidates

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Release 1.1

Planning
event

Release 1.2.1
Release 1.2

Release candidates

Release 2.0
Planning
event

Ingredient 4: Clear priorities
SharedPurposeTransparancy

Feedbackloops

Alignment
Henrik Kniberg

Clear priorities

So much to do...
Launch in
Country A

Henrik Kniberg

Build newproduct
capability B

Innovate onC

Build
infrastructure
for DHigh-Medium-Low = a broken way of prioritizing
Launch in
Country A

HIGHprio

MEDIUM
prio
LOWprio
Henrik Kniberg

Build newproductcapability B

Innovate onC

Build
infrastructure
for DStack rank
Only ONE thing getsto be priority one!

If we only can do
one of these twothings, which one
would we do?
Why?

North Star goals
Launch inCountry A

1Innovate on
C2

Build
infrastructure
for D

3

Build newproductcapability B

4567

Henrik Kniberg

8Company
Beliefs

X
activeusers

Worldclassemployer

All bets are stack ranked

Henrik Kniberg

Higher level priorities inform lower level priorities
Tribe X Bet Board

Now

Company Bets BoardNow

Next

Launch inCountryA

1

Innovate on
C

Buildinfrastructure
for D

Build newproductcapability
B

Next

Later

11122233

Later
1122233Tribe Y Bet Board
Now

4Next

Later

11223

Henrik Kniberg

Content,
Revenue,Marketing,
etc

4

1

Stack-ranked bets make it easier to decide
what to work on#1 BetSonyPlaystation
Integration

Tools / infrastructure#2 BetInnovate on
RunningHenrik Kniberg

Squads are still responsible for figuring
out how to make best use of their time- Bet Boards & DIBBs provide contextNow

North star goals
Now

Now

Company Bets
Next

1
TPD Bets

Tribe Bets
1Next

Next

2

Later

Later

11221
Later 31321212123
2323

3

Hey, we need
your help

Hey, you need to upgrade
to the new build server

User data

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Backlog

IO

Team breakout: Pulling from the program backlog

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted BrandsgårdTeam breakout: Pulling from the program backlog
Team 1
Program backlog
1	  2	  3	  4	  PU LL

5	  6	  7	  PU L
LTeam 2

Team 3Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted BrandsgårdTeambacklog

Teambacklog

Teambacklog

Team breakout: Pulling from the program backlog(digital version)

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Management review / problem solving

Henrik Kniberg & Eik Thyrsted Brandsgård

Ingredient 5: Organizational Learning
SharedPurposeTransparancy

Feedback
loops

Organizational
Learning

Alignment
Henrik Kniberg

Clear priorities

Everything can improve

Henrik Kniberg• Velocity• Motivation• Focus• Quality• Customer communication• Release capability• .....

Too busy to improve?

Need more slack in your system!

Can’t you see?
I’m BUSY!

Henrik Kniberg

Where slack comes from

Culture that promotes learning over busy-ness

Pull scheduling=> Non-full plans

Scheduled slack (retrospectives, etc)
Sparecapacity!

Henrik Kniberg

How does learning spread across teams?

• Lunch ‘n learn• Cross-team retrospective• Embedding / team changes

Henrik Kniberg

Don’t go overboard with stable teams
Team stability
100% stable
teams

Mostly stable
teams

Totally unstable
teams
OK I’m joining
your team+ Efficientteams!
- Silos!
- Sloworganizational
learning!

Henrik Kniberg+ Efficientteams!
+ Organizational
learning!

- ChaosIngredients for alignment at scale
SharedPurposeTransparancy

Feedback
loops

Organizational
Learning

Alignment
Henrik Kniberg

Clear priorities

but... wait!

Who puts the ingredients in?!
SharedPurposeTransparancy

Feedback
loops

Organizational
Learning

Alignment
Henrik Kniberg

Clear priorities

Leaders!

Henrik Kniberg

Sometimes we like to pretend we have no leaders

We’re like SO
self-organizing!

Yeah man! Like
who needs
leaders!
Henrik Kniberg

Leaderphobia (n)- Irrational fear of leaders and leadership- The mistaken belief that all leaders are evil and all leadership is bad

Henrik Kniberg

Poster childs of self-organization

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... but who ENABLED this self-organization?

Henrik Kniberg

Leader? Who, ME?

RicardoHenrik Kniberg

GabeTonyCall it what you want
We need tocross the river

HighAlignment

Build abridge!

Authoritative
organization
Conformist
cultureMicromanaging
organization

Low
Alignment

Henrik Kniberg

Indifferent
cultureLow Autonomy

We need tocross the river

Figure out how!

Innovative
organization
Collaborative
cultureEntrepreneurialorganization
Chaotic
cultureHigh Autonomy

Chief PO?
Project Leader?
Road Manager?
Lead Coach?
UberScrumMaster?
Head Honcho?

Hope someone isworking on theriver problem…

Leader’s job
in aligned autonomy

SharedPurpose

Transparancy

Feedbackloops

Organizational
Learning

Alignment

Henrik Kniberg

Clear priorities

Leader’s job
in aligned autonomy
Not this!

This!

Singlewringableneck

Create a shared sense ofaccountability

Align theteams

Create conditions thatenable teams to alignMakedecisions

Ensure that decisions canbe madeKeep
peoplebusy

Create slack in the system

Henrik Kniberg

Leader doesn’t haveto be a single person
Tech Product DesignT P

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DPattern: Core teamTools teamFeature team 1

Core teamFeature team 2

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Feature team 3

WrapupIngredients for Alignment at Scale
SharedPurposeTransparancy

Feedback
loops

Organizational
Learning

Alignment
Henrik Kniberg

Clear priorities