Agile at Scale
The Spotify “Model”: Don't Simply Copy-Paste
In 2014 Henrik Kniberg posted an article describing how a small music player company in Sweden organized some of their development teams. It’s a nice article describing how Spotify was organizing at the time. The names Spotify came up with for the various dimensions of the organizational structure are cute – “Tribes,” “Guilds,” “Chapters.” Somehow, however, this interesting anecdote became a rigid prescription that many large corporate IT organizations thoughtlessly copy, often (mis)guided by one of several large consultancies who flog the Spotify model as a key component of their clients’ Agile org design. In many cases, these consulting charlatans even mis-identify the Spotify model as a “methodology,” further inflating expectations of its potential value and impact.
Why your agile transformation is failing
Running a meetup group that focuses on agile coaching, software development and design means I get to meet a lot of people from a lot of different companies. As is normal in these interactions we tend to talk about work and how things are going for one another. By far the biggest discussion point tends to be about how companies are pivoting towards agile adoption, or as we all like to call it now ‘Agile Transformation.’
Business Agility
Organizational Courage: how to model and grow it in your organization
In my work on organizational transformation over the years, I have found that the largest detriment to adopting new ways of working is the fear of the unknown. We may intellectually understand the theory being applied and know these new ways of working are helping businesses (including our competitors) succeed, but applying the new concepts puts us at risk of not knowing, of not being good at the place we spend the majority of our time.
Agile Outside of IT
The Transformer CLO
In today’s dynamic business environment, workplace learning has become a key lever for success. And with that shift, the traditional role of the chief learning officer is changing. No longer are CLOs responsible just for training—making skills-based and compliance-oriented courses available to employees and perhaps running leadership-development programs. Instead, they’re embracing a more powerful role in which they reshape capabilities and organizational culture. We call this new type of leader the transformer CLO.
How agile adoption will change the way we work in 2020
Working in agile has been around on the software side for a few decades but the martech industry has been getting on the bandwagon in the past few years. While it’s still the early adopters running full-fledged agile marketing teams, it continues to be the way that companies are headed to be more mainstream in the coming year.
Industry News & Analysis
Beyond matrix organization, the helix organization
The CEO of a major global business, deeply frustrated, took time out recently as a large company-wide reorganization was stumbling toward its conclusion. Hard as he and his top team had tried, he told us, attempts to make collaboration and empowerment an enterprise-wide reality were foundering. Although he had been determined to ensure resources were reallocated across the group more dynamically, people and money remained doggedly stuck in slightly revamped silos.
Why We Need an Attitude Adjustment in Agile
I believe these four attitudes are prevalent in many Agile approaches. If you are a practitioner and wouldn't accept this for a car I suggest not accepting it from the approach you're taking for improvement.
Teams, Coaching & Facilitation
Release Planning Advice
While release and release planning are common terms, I find that different individuals attribute different meanings to them. I regard a release as a version of a product, for example, Mac OS X Catalina and Windows 10. Releases come in two flavours: major releases, like iOS 13, and minor releases, such as iOS 13.3.
Technical Agility
Role of Architect in Agile Development
Agile is a methodology used by many enterprises as a software development methodology to deliver value to end-users incrementally and faster. The approach is iterative, and the working software built and delivered in smaller chunks at the end of each iteration. In Agile methodology, the tasks are broken down into smaller, more easily managed segments to speed up the design process and produce a quality product as quickly as possible.
In Case You Missed It
Agile Isn't Just for the Tech Sector Anymore
These days, Agile has grown beyond the IT sector and is being successfully applied in marketing, sales management, logistics, corporate governance, and more.
Agile encompasses both the culture and the methodology that allows companies to adapt to the changes in the most effective manner.