Presentation from my workshop at Agile Cambridge, September 2013.

1. Complexity, Governance, Team
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Complexity, Governance & the Agile Team

2. Objectives
 What is governance?
 How do our perceptions of “good governance” vary?
 Does complexity influence this?
 Governance is contextual – no single “correct” model.
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3. Agenda
15 min Discussion
60 min Two exercises
15 min Debrief
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4. Who chooses the development process?
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Complex.
Belongs to team plus PM.
Simple (“just do it”).
Belongs to team plus exec
“Belongs to me”

5. Complexity, Governance, Team
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Institute on Governance (www.iog.ca)
Governance is the process whereby societies or
organisations make important decisions, determine
whom they involve and how they render account.
The right people are
involved in these
decisions
They track outcomes &
act to improve them
They follow an
acceptable process
(“due process”)
We know which
decisions matter

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7. Dave Snowden
Cynefin
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I can just decide and do it
We’d assemble a team of
experts
We’d need to do
an experiment or
pilot/prototype
If we need to think
about this, we’re in
the wrong place

8. Break into teams
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9. Exercises
 60 Minutes
 Dot vote on the matrix – 5 dots per person per decision
 Position the decision post-its against the four corners
 Go with your gut, then discuss & refine if you have time
 Ask me if you need clarification
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10. Debrief
 Circulate around the teams:
What’s different?
What’s the same?
What’s surprising?
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Final thoughts
He who forgets history is condemned to repeat it.
 Good governance lets you focus energy on decisions, not process
 If you don’t define governance up front, you revisit it for every decision
 Agile shifts the locus and timing of decisions
 It doesn’t remove the need to think about governance
 Decisions are often fuzzy
 People have divergent opinions who should make which decision
 This derails projects & programmes, unless it’s addressed head on
governance

12. Thank you
graham@grahamoakes.co.uk
@GrahamDOakes
(Give me your contact details if you
want today’s outputs.)
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 Making sense of technology…
 Many organisations are caught up in the
complexity of technology and systems.
 This complexity may be inherent to the
technology itself. It may be created by the pace of technology change. Or it may arise from
the surrounding process, people and governance structures.
 We help untangle this complexity and define business strategies that both can be
implemented and will be adopted by people throughout the organisation and its partner
network. We then help assure delivery of implementation projects.
 Clients…
 Cisco Worldwide Education – Architecture and research for e-learning and educational systems
 Council of Europe – Systems for monitoring compliance with international treaties; e-learning systems
 Dover Harbour Board – Systems and architecture review
 MessageLabs – Architecture and assurance for partner management portal
 National Savings & Investments – Helped NS&I and BPO partner develop joint IS strategy
 The Open University – Enterprise architecture, CRM and product development strategies
 Oxfam – Content management, CRM, e-Commerce
 Thames Valley Police – Internet Consultancy
 Sony Computer Entertainment – Global process definition
 Amnesty International, Endemol, tsoosayLabs, Vodafone, …
Graham Oakes Ltd

14. Materials
 Matrix charts
 Brown paper for 4 corners
 Decision post-its
 Dots for voting
 Pens, spare post-its, blue-tack
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