(1) Abstract: Designing Agile Ecosystems with Org Topologies™ Over the past decade, heavyweight methods like SAFe® have dominated the agile landscape, offering tools for “scaling agile.” Yet questions arise about their prescriptive nature and genuine agility. Framework-agnostic approaches like Team Topologies™ and unFix™ have recently emerged, offering more flexible, “buffet-style” organizational design choices. However, they demand a deep understanding of organizational design, systems thinking, and queuing theory to avoid pitfalls. Org Topologies™ bridges the gap between rigid frameworks and DIY methods by emphasizing ecosystems—interconnected organizational parts that exhibit specific behaviors. Co-creators Alexey Krivitsky and Roland Flemm will introduce a method to navigate and improve organizational ecosystems for agility. (2) Meet Alexey Krivitsky Alexey Krivitsky, a pioneer Scrum Master in Ukraine since 2005, is a CST, CEC, and organizational agility coach. He’s a notable conference producer and speaker and created the lego4scrum game. (3) Meet Roland Flemm Roland Flemm transitioned from a 20-year developer career to a Scrum Master in 2009, specializing in large-scale Scrum consultations from 2015. An active conference speaker, he created the Koos Coach comics and “Elements of Scrum” learning cards.

3. A sneak peek into today’s talk…

4. STARTING DEC, 1

5. Once upon a time there was a startup …

7. Most
adaptive
archetype

8. Five Years Later… Scaling…

9. QA
Scale-up

10. Unthoughtful org design? Organic growth.
If the goal is to stay relevant to the
customers and stakeholders – high
adaptability is vital.
Least adaptive
archetypes
Scale-up

11. Least adaptive
archetypes
Scale-up
Unthoughtful org design? Organic growth.
If the goal is to stay relevant to the
customers and stakeholders – high
adaptability is vital.
Most adaptive
archetypes
“
S
C
A
L
I
N
G
”

12. What has changed?

13. “If you call it a ‘process change’,
you will get management support.
Call it an ‘org design change’ –
and you’ll get their involvement.”
Craig Larman

14. We have a language to
communicate the direction
of org development.
Where you
are now
Where you
want to be
Focus on the
visual language of
Org Topologies™

15. Mapping is
specific
Org design:
• three groups
• working at task level
How do they get their work?
How can they deliver value?
Scale-up
Backend
Frontend
QA- groups

16. “Y” stands for “Yokes & Yardsticks”

17. Mapping
Ecosystems
Different archetypes
work together in order
to produce value as a
whole.
Product Management
Business Analyst
Backend
Frontend
QA- groups

18. Focus on the
visual language of
Org Topologies™
We map ecosystems:
Archetypes and their
relationships.
Product Management
Business Analyst
Backend
Frontend
QA- groups

19. If there would be change, it
could look like this.
(Cross-functionality)
Multi-skill
Archetype
Cross-functional
work units
CHANGE

20. ... Or even like this!
And magic happens.
Multi-skill
Archetype
Agile teams that
work on features.
No more task work.
C
H
A
N
G
E

21. ... Or even like this!
Multi-learning
Archetype
CHANGE
End-to-end teams
that are autonomous
and rock

22. ”A” stands for “Aloof & Autonomous”

24. Focus on the
visual language of
Org Topologies™
Identify your Archetypes.
Visualize your
transformation steps.
Think systemically.
Own your change.

25. TEAM FOCUS
First wave
of the Agile
Revolution

26. unchartered territory?
First wave
of the Agile
Revolution
TEAM FOCUS

27. Most
adaptive
archetype
High Adaptivity
can be achieved only by
combining high states
of both dimension
• Low transaction costs
• Low switching costs

28. Creating higher
archetypes by broadening
the ownership of the
product domain to enable
rich whole-product
collaboration.
Second wave
of the Agile
Revolution

30. 1. owning the whole or a
part of the product
2. have P&L responsibility
3. collaborate as one team
4. contain all dependencies
inside the group

32. B- and C-level
Characteristics
Practices of the higher
archetypes:
- team-self-design workshop
- single Product Backlog (LeSS)
- multi-team PBR (LeSS)
- marketplace for work (FaST)
- Single Sprint / single cadence
- whole-product Sprint Reviews
- shared code ownership
- ...

33. “B” stands for
“Business Boundaries”

34. t
m

36. “C” stands for “Concordant Community”
French architecture firm Coldefy has revealed its latest ambitious project: the
largest single-domed greenhouse in the entire world. Spanning over 20,000
square meters (215,278 square feet) the gigantic energy self-sufficient
structure, christened “Tropicalia,” is set to be completed in 2024 in the Cote
d’Opale, or Opal Coast, in France. – CNN, 12/05/2021

37. Focus on the
visual language of
Org Topologies™
Consider two dimensions
for your transformation:
- team (skills)
- product (scope)

38. To drive the change
you ought to be
specific:
1. Define your actual
position (be specific)
2. Discuss your target
state
3. Own the change &
work on the system

39. “What if we do
SAFe?”

40. Saying "we are doing
SAFe" actually
communicates very little
of what is really
happening in your
organization.

41. You ought to be more
specific to drive any
change

42. Now that you are specific
you can discuss where to
move.

43. C
H
A
N
G
E
Now that you can discuss
which systemic changes
needed to make the move
and sustain the change.

44. “What if we do
Team Topologies?”

45. What needs to change?

46. Focus on the
visual language of
Org Topologies™
Org Topologies™
provide a powerful
language to assess,
design and drive the
change.

47. STARTING DEC, 1

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Code: NOV-WEBINAR
Valid till 13 Nov 2023
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