Presentation at Mastering SAP 21st May 2017 Struggling with agile at scale? Thinking about scaling agile beyond the team? Want to learn from others’ mistakes? There is a lot to be learnt from those who have successfully hitchhiked their way through the galaxy of scaled agile. This session celebrates the scaled agile hitchhiker, the people who bravely tried ideas that were occasionally brilliant but often plain stupid. You will laugh, you will cry but you will also walk away with a nice long list of ideas not to try when scaling agile! • Seven failure patterns in scaling agile • An understanding of why these patterns lead to less than optimal results • Tips on how to avoid falling into these failure patterns

1. Failing @ Scaling Agile?
Don’t Panic! & Carry a Towel
Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters

2. THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

3. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO SCALING AGILE

4. Anti-Pattern 1:
Huge Teams Rather Than
Teams of Teams

5. INTRODUCING THE TOTAL PERSPECTIVE VORTEX
“To Trin Tragula’s horror, … he realised that he had
proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a
universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot have
is a sense of proportion”

6. Need tag line and image
SURELY LIFE WOULD BE SIMPLER WITH ONE BIG TEAM...
https://flic.kr/p/fuB8SQ

7. Who has seen or experienced this
anti-pattern in the enterprise?

8. 22 PEOPLE ON ONE AGILE TEAM?!?!
Project
Manager
Product Owner
Business
Analyst
Change Lead Technical Lead
Logical Data
Modeller
Physical Data
Modeller
Physical Data
Modeller
Vender Project
Manger
On Site ETL On Site ETL
On Site ETL Off shore ETL
Off shore ETL Off shore ETL
DBA
Business
Intelligence
Test Lead
Test Analyst
Enterprise
Architect
Data SME
Scrum Master

9. Team
Size
Throughput

10. Scrum master
Technical lead Test lead Developer Developer Developer Developer Developer
SMALL CROSS FUNCTION TEAMS

11. 9 WOMEN CAN’T MAKE A BABY IN ONE MONTH

12. WHY LARGE TEAMS DON’T WORK

13. START WHERE YOU ARE AND EVOLVE TO FEATURE TEAMS

14. TAKE IT TO THE TEAMS WITH SELF-SELECTION

15. Anti-Pattern 2:
Out of the Box
or
Outside of the Box

16. INTRODUCING THE BABEL FISH
The Babel Fish, by
effectively removing all
barriers to communication
between different races and
cultures, has caused more
and bloodier wars than
anything else in the history
of creation!

17. LIPSTICK ON A PIG

18. …..even with all these improvements, the game is no fun at all.
WE TRIED BASEBALL, AND IT DIDN’T WORK.
http://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/jatbaseball
https://flic.kr/p/rZhpRT

19. Who has seen or experienced this
anti-pattern in the enterprise?

20. UNDERSTAND THE TRUE IMPACT BEFORE CHANGING

21. REMEMBER THAT GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT

22. Anti-Pattern 3:
Too many coaches in the kitchen
(with too many recipes)

23. INTRODUCING EDDIE, THE SHIPBOARD COMPUTER
Eddie:
I am pleased to inform you that two nuclear
missiles are now headed this way. If you don’t
mind, I am going to take action.
Zaphod:
COMPUTER DO SOMETHING!
Eddie:
Ok, switching to manual mode. Good luck!

24. HOW MANY COACHES DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB?

25. IGNORE IT AND IT WILL GO AWAY

26. Who has seen or experienced this
anti-pattern in the enterprise?

27. PICK A HORSE

28. WHO’S ON FIRST?

29. MAINTAINING ALIGNMENT WITH CHAPTERS & GUILDS

30. Anti-Pattern 4:
Agile is only for developers.
Not the PMO.

31. MEET THE GALACTIC HYPERSPACE PLANNING COUNCIL
“People of Earth, your attention please.
This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council.
As you will not doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying
regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyerspatial express route
through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those
scheduled for demolition.
The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank
you.”

32. WATERFALL GOVERNANCE APPLIED TO AGILE DELIVERY?!
Executive Governance
Business Steering
Program Committee
OCM BPR
Assurance
Committee
IT Control
Program Board
Project
Control
Board
Project
Control
Board
Project
Control
Board
Program Board
Project
Control
Board
Project
Control
Board
Project
Control
Board
Compliance
Service
Operations
Agile Team

33. THERE IS GOING TO BE A COLLISION

34. Who has seen or experienced this
anti-pattern in the enterprise?

35. Embrace
Agile &
Lean
ENCOURAGE THE PMO TO EMBRACE AGILE & LEAN
#WhereisART

36. APPLY LEAN PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

37. LIMIT WIP AND ENABLE FLOW

38. CREATE AN AGILE PMO

39. Anti-Pattern 5:
Forget you’re standing
in a Waterfall

40. INTRODUCING THE INFINITE IMPROBABILITY DRIVE

41. HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY

42. Who has seen or experienced this
anti-pattern in the enterprise?

43. BE INCLUSIVE OF YOUR WATERFALL FRIENDS

44. UNDERSTAND LEAD TIME & PLAN ACCORDINGLY
https://flic.kr/p/jmDQZk

45. Anti-Pattern 6:
Agile is only a Process

46. INTRODUCING DEEP THOUGHT

47. AGILE = MONEY FIRE?!

48. Who has seen or experienced this
anti-pattern in the enterprise?

49. What is the biggest impediment to delivery?
Agile without
Technical Practices:
Just doesn’t cut it!
Availability of
environments
Technical
Debt
Access to
data
Manual
Deployment
Processes
Lack of
Continuous
Integration

50. INVEST IN TECHNICAL ENABLERS

51. TRAIN EVERYONE!
Source: https://flic.kr/p/fJ5esB

52. Anti-Pattern 7:
The fish rots from the head.

53. MEET ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX, PRESIDENT
Trillian:
You idiot, you signed the
order to destroy Earth!
Zaphod:
I did?
Arthur:
He did?
Trillian:
Love and kisses, Zaphod? You didn’t even read it, did you?
Zaphod:
Well, I’m president, I don’t have a lot of time for reading.

54. A CHEQUE BOOK COMMITMENT

55. Who has seen or experienced this
anti-pattern in the enterprise?

56. THE INVISIBLE WALL

57. IT IS A TWO WAY STREET

58. The true secret to
succeeding with agile
at scale is learning to
learn to together.

61. How to Connect with Me
E: em@contextmatters.com.au
M: +61 429 302 439
B: www.prettyagile.com
Li: linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
@PrettyAgile
So long and thanks
for all the fish!