Enterprise Agility for Dummies

Adopting an enterprise agile framework is a radical organizational change, and this book will help you get there without ever breaking a sweat. In Enterprise Agility For Dummies, you'll discover how to successfully choose and implement the right framework based on your organization's own unique culture.

Organizational culture is one of the most overlooked challenges when trying to make a change to enterprise agile, and there are lots of resources out there that claim to have the perfect, one-size-fits-all solution. Luckily, this book takes a neutral stance and covers popular organizational change management techniques that you can implement to suit to your unique needs. Packed with step-by-step instruction and complemented with real-world case studies, this book offers everything you need to know in order to embrace a more agile mindset.

• Understand the benefits of an agile approach
• Pick the best enterprise agile framework for your organization
• Create a successful enterprise change management plan

Let Enterprise Agility For Dummies help you optimize your business processes, and watch your productivity soar.

Doug Rose specializes in organizational coaching, training, and change management. For more than 20 years he has been transforming organizations through technology and training, and he has helped several large companies optimize their business processes and improve productivity and delivery. Doug also teaches business courses online through LinkedIn Learning and in the classroom.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Started with Enterprise Agility 5

Chapter 1: Taking It All In: The Big Picture 7

Defining Agile and Enterprise Agility 7

Understanding agile product delivery 8

Defining “enterprise agility” 12

Checking out popular enterprise agile frameworks 15

Practicing as much agile as your organization can tolerate 16

Achieving Enterprise Agility in Three Not-So-Easy Steps 18

Step 1: Review the top enterprise agile frameworks 18

Step 2: Identify your organization’s existing culture 19

Step 3: Create a strategy for making big changes 21

Chapter 2: Reviewing Agile Team Practices and Frameworks 27

Exploring Common Agile Practices 28

Starting with user stories, epics, and themes 28

Estimating with story points 30

Queuing up work 33

Conducting stand-up meetings 34

Shifting to test-driven development 34

Developing product iterations through continuous integration 34

Delivering Products with Scrum 36

Wrapping your brain around Scrum theory 37

Getting up to speed on Scrum values 38

Working in a Scrum team 39

Stepping through Scrum events 41

Producing Scrum artifacts 46

Growing Scrum 48

Developing Better Software with Extreme Programming 50

Checking out XP’s values 50

Following XP’s software engineering practices 51

Noting the similarities between XP and Scrum 52

Mixing and matching agile frameworks 53

Learning from Manufacturing with Lean Software Development 54

Managing Workflow with Kanban 56

Innovating Quickly with Lean Startup 56

Using a build-measure-learn feedback loop 57

Focusing on the one metric that matters 58

Mixing Lean Startup with enterprise agile frameworks 58

Chapter 3: Simplifying Lean Agility with SLAM 59

Introducing the Simple Lean-Agile Mindset (SLAM) 60

Starting at the Bottom with System-Level Optimization 62

Shortening the cycle time 63

Clearing communication channels 63

Budgeting for value streams 64

Encouraging transparency 65

Timeboxing 66

Working in cross-functional teams 67

Respecting people 68

Removing fear of failure 68

Setting and Executing a Strategic Vision 69

Breaking it down 71

Prioritizing the work 72

Pulling work into the teams 73

Taking an Empirical Approach to Products, Operations, and Innovation 74

Pulling in ideas, features, and tasks 76

Getting real-time feedback by delivering in small batches 77

Building Toward Business Agility 78

Part 2: Reviewing the Top Enterprise Agile Frameworks 81

Chapter 4: Joining the Big Leagues with the Scaled Agile Framework 83

Getting Your Head in the SAFe Game 84

Meeting the SAFe framework and principles 84

Picking and choosing what to use 88

Approaching SAFe as a practical compromise 90

Avoiding water-agile-fall 92

Differentiating doing agile from being agile 94

Wait a minute: Is SAFe the right solution? 94

Stepping Through the SAFe Management Layers and Levels 96

Bottom up: Starting at the foundation 96

Heading to the top: The enterprise 98

Visioning at the Portfolio level 98

Tackling big jobs at the Large Solution level 107

Making things happen at the Program level 111

Getting to work at the Team level 120

Filling in the background with the SAFe spanning palette 122

Making Your Organization Agile with SAFe 124

Plugging the gaps 125

Making your organization agile instead of fitting agile into your organization 126

Starting communities of practice 127

Chapter 5: Growing Scrum with Large-Scale Scrum 131

Taking a Quick Tour of the LeSS Framework 132

Tracing the product development process 133

Brushing up on LeSS principles 136

Getting up to speed on LeSS structure 139

Understanding the importance of technical excellence 143

Meeting LeSS management 145

Supersizing your delivery with LeSS Huge 147

Descaling Enterprise Agility 150

Embracing the spirit of LeSS 151

Experimenting to create your own approach 152

Seeing software developers as craftsmen/women 153

LeSS is Scrum 154

Getting to Know the Key Players 155

Starting at the top: The head of product 156

Meeting the LeSS product owner 156

Getting to know the LeSS Scrum Master 159

Moving Up to Scrum at Scale: Adoption 160

Getting started: Laying the foundation 162

Committing to delivery in sprint planning 166

Coordinating efforts through communication 168

Refining the product backlog 170

Learning from achievements and mistakes: Continuous improvement 173

Avoiding common LeSS pitfalls 176

Chapter 6: Making Process Decisions with Disciplined Agile Delivery 181

Understanding What Makes DA Tick 182

Brushing up on the principles of effective process frameworks 183

Exploring the DA process decision framework 185

Seeing DAD as a goal-driven, hybrid approach 187

Looking at DAD as a group of process blades 187

Delivering in Lifecycles 191

Navigating the three-phase delivery lifecycle 193

Choosing a DAD delivery lifecycle 198

Striving to become enterprise aware and to consider the risk-value lifecycle 200

Governing the lifecycle with milestones 200

Getting to Know the Cast: Roles 201

Meeting the lead actors: Primary roles 202

Stepping behind the scenes with the supporting cast: Secondary roles 204

Deciding whether DA is worth the trouble 206

Appreciating the value in simplicity 207

Chapter 7: Working in Tribes with the Spotify Engineering Culture 209

Building Your Spotify Community 210

Starting with a squad 211

Forming tribes of squads 216

Setting up Chapters 218

Sharing interests and knowledge in guilds 218

Embracing a Creative, Failure-Friendly Culture 221

Driving agility and innovation through culture and values 221

Reducing the negative consequences of failure 223

Encouraging innovation 223

Developing an aversion to waste 224

Engaging in continuous improvement 224

Strengthening community and culture overall 225

Understanding Spotify’s Approach to Product Development/Planning 225

Changing the game plan for larger products 226

Having a system owner 227

Deciding Whether the Spotify Approach Is Right for You 227

Chapter 8: Improving Workflow and Eliminating Waste with Kanban and Lean 229

Grasping Kanban Principles and Practices 230

Brushing up on Kanban principles 231

Embracing Kanban properties 231

Pulling rather than pushing work 233

Working in small batches 234

Making Systems Lean 235

Getting up to speed on Lean’s core values 236

Connecting Lean manufacturing to software development 236

Implementing Kanban and Lean 239

Mapping your value stream 239

Eliminating waste 242

Identifying potential bottlenecks 242

Creating Kanban boards 243

Creating Kanban cards 247

Using Kanban boards to track workflow 252

Improving workflow 253

Using Kanban to reduce management meddling 257

Is Lean Kanban a Viable Enterprise Agile Framework? 258

Part 3: Leading a Large-Scale Organizational Change 261

Chapter 9: Sizing Up Your Organization 263

Agilebots Transform! Committing to Radical Change 264

Understanding What Culture Is and Why It’s So Difficult to Change 265

Understanding why culture is so entrenched 266

Avoiding the common mistake of trying to make agile fit your organization 267

Identifying Your Organization’s Culture Type 268

Running with the wolf pack in a control culture 270

Rising with your ability in a competence culture 272

Nurturing your interns in a cultivation culture 274

Working it out together in a collaboration culture 276

Laying the Groundwork for a Successful Transformation 279

Appreciating the value of an agile organization 279

Clarifying your vision 281

Planning for your transformation 282

Chapter 10: Driving Organizational Change 285

Choosing an Approach: Top-Down or Bottom-Up 286

Driving Change from Top to Bottom with the Kotter Approach 287

Step 1: Create a sense of urgency around a Big Opportunity 288

Step 2: Build and evolve a guiding coalition 289

Step 3: Form a change vision and strategic initiatives 290

Step 4: Enlist a volunteer army 291

Step 5: Enable action by removing barriers 292

Step 6: Generate (and celebrate) short-term wins 293

Step 7: Sustain acceleration 293

Step 8: Institute change 294

Improving your odds of success 295

Driving a Grass-Roots Change: A Fearless Approach 295

Recruiting a change evangelist 296

Changing without top-down authority 298

Making change a self-fulfilling prophecy 298

Looking for change patterns 300

Recruiting innovators and early adopters 301

Tailoring your message 301

Steering clear of change myths 301

Overcoming Obstacles Related to Your Organization’s Culture 304

Seeing how culture can sink agile 304

Acknowledging the challenge 305

Prioritizing the challenge 305

Gaining insight into motivation 306

Chapter 11: Putting It All Together: Ten Steps to an Agile Enterprise 309

Step 1: Identifying Your Organization’s Culture 310

Step 2: Listing the Strengths and Challenges with Changing Your Culture 312

Step 3: Selecting the Best Approach to Organizational Change Management 315

Step 4: Training Managers on Lean Thinking 316

Step 5: Starting a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) 318

Step 6: Choosing a High-Level Value Stream 319

Step 7: Assigning a Budget to the Value Stream 320

Step 8: Selecting an Enterprise Agile Framework 322

Step 9: Shifting from Detailed Plans to Epics 324

Step 10: Respecting and Trusting Your People 325

Part 4: The Part of Tens 329

Chapter 12: Ten Reasons Enterprise Agile Transformations Fail 331

The Organization’s Culture Clashes with Agile Values 331

Teams Aren’t Interested in Making Changes 332

Executive Support Is Lacking 333

The Proposed Change Is Too Radical 334

The Customer Won’t Cooperate 334

Leadership Refuses to Invest in Training 335

The Developers Insist on Requirements 335

Each Team Wants to Do Its Own Thing 336

Nobody Has a Plan to Measure Improvements 337

The Functional Areas Are Too Deeply Entrenched 339

Chapter 13: Ten Tips for Overcoming Common Obstacles 341

Develop a Clear Roadmap 341

Find Support at the Top 343

Set Realistic Expectations 343

Compensate Employees for Their Investment 344

Change Minds as Well as Systems 344

Be Objective When Assessing Your Organization’s Culture 345

Build Broad Consensus on the Reason for the Change 345

Don’t Rely Solely on Outside Consultants to Drive Change 346

Encourage Reluctant Executives and Managers to Embrace the Change 347

Listen to the Skeptics 348

Chapter 14: Ten Ways Enterprise Agility Improves Product Delivery 349

Increasing Agility 349

Boosting Innovation 350

Enhancing Transparency 350

Boosting Productivity 351

Making Product Development More Fun and Rewarding 352

Strengthening Customer Relationships 353

Enhancing Product Quality 354

Making Product Delivery More Predictable 355

Reducing the Risk of Failure 355

Improving Developer Discipline 356

Index 359

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