Part 5 of 5
Previously I wrote an article titled “Five Common Pitfall When Scaling Agile”. These pitfalls are:
- Not Having a Clear WHY
- Not Seeing This as Organizational Change
- Not Being Principles Based
- Not Keeping All Levels of the Organization Aligned
- Not Measuring What is Important to the Organization
This article is the final part of the five-part series and will provide remedies to overcome the fifth common pitfall, “Not Measuring What is Important to the Organization.” This pitfall is about addressing continuous improvement with a focus on what measures drive value. A summary of all five remedies provides a wrap-up of this series.
NOT MEASURING WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO THE ORGANIZATION
The Pitfall (from Five Common Pitfalls)
Trying to establish all metrics leads to a lack of focus on which ones the organization deems important. This can result in poor investment decisions. There is the classic saying you cannot improve what you do not measure. The point here is creating measures that drive your objectives. Make those core measures. This does not mean do not measure but make sure what you do measure is driving the behavior change you want. If a core objective is quality, then quality measures are what need to be visible and rewarded. Productivity may be measured but if improving this is not a key objective then the recognition system should not be more than quality.
Remedies:
The focus is scaling agile. The intent is not to do a deep dive into agile measures but instead to focus on how the misuse of measures can be a pitfall when scaling.
Signs
What are the signs that there is a misuse of measures? Attaching rewards or penalties to a measure. When doing so there is a shift away from the purpose of the measure towards a consequence. This in turn promotes a team to “work the measure.” Some call this “cooking the books.” If you see a team discuss the measure as to how it relates to the reward, even though it could simply be hearing excellent job, the measure is a goal and not about continuous improvement. The agile principle of reflect and adjust gets eroded inhibiting scaling. Simply put, undesirable behavior is being re-enforced by attaching rewards to a measure.
Another sign is when measures become just another number resulting in diminishing the measurement purpose. People become numb to the measure making it ineffective and unscalable due to this lack of value. You see this when a dashboard turns into charts and graphs that do not support how a team can reflect and adjust to improve their agility. An example of this is taking a metric that looks at story churn without looking at value creation. There could have been greater value delivered by a team with the higher churn because they responded to change. The discussion is about a number compared to a defined standard or trend. The what and not the why. Focusing on a number is about following a plan over responding to change. The agile value. When trying to scale, drive agility through the behaviors that support agile principles and values such as responding to change and continuous improvement (reflect and adjust).
How to Overcome
To overcome this pitfall there needs to be more awareness placed on the purpose of the measure and not the measure (number) itself. It is about the why and not just the what. The measure needs to focus the conversation on continuous improvement that drives value. The key is to question the use of the measure and how it either promotes or discourages the behaviors that support the agile principles and values. This sounds simple but it takes everyone to drive this awareness no matter where you are in the organization. Ask the questions. Propose the changes. Everyone in the organization can and should be a part of the conversation. This goes to another agile principle of empower and trust.
CONCLUSION
Scaling agile implies applying this to the enterprise. That means how people work together to execute a request. Their requirements to perform their work to satisfy their customer. You first need to understand the requirements of this network of people so that when you make changes, these requirements can also be changed to improve the flow of work. Having a governance capability is the vehicle to drive the coordination of scaling agile to reduce friction by keeping all levels of the organization aligned. What to measure is also critical. This is the fifth pitfall that will be the topic of the last article in this series.
SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIES TO OVERCOME THE 5 PITFALLS TO SCALING AGILE
The graphic above highlights the five pitfalls and the theme for each one. These 5 common pitfalls are interconnected as represented by the circle. Due to this connectivity you need to address every pitfall as you apply the remedies to overcome each one. This provides the fuller point of view to keep your agile scaling journey moving.
Below is a summary pulled from the five articles listing the pitfall, remedies and conclusion to provide you with additional detail. Further details can be found in each article.
1. Not Having a Clear WHY
Remedies
The key to overcoming this pitfall is twofold, clear communication and throughout the organization. Leadership first needs to evaluate and sponsor agile scaling as a strategy for a business purpose. Clearly aligned to objectives such as improving time to market, employee performance or satisfaction, or product quality to name a few. The next step is to communicate the vision across the organization. Lastly, leadership needs to provide the governance to support the purpose.
Conclusion
These remedies to overcome this pitfall sound simple but are not easy. This goes beyond the “tone from the top.” They need to translate into performance goals that align to execution of an agile strategy. Establishing a leadership committee that is across the enterprise reduces stalling the organization’s agile maturity.
2. Not Seeing This as Organizational Change
Remedies
Engage resources that are organization change specialists. Seek these skills in your personnel department. If it is not available procure this talent either as permanent or contract labor. Then listen to them. By combining the CLEAR WHY with organizational change management (OCM) these specialists can provide answers based upon their due diligence of understanding the organization to avoid the pitfalls, improving transparency and alignment of what has happened and what is to come.
Conclusion
By recognizing scaling agile as an organizational change and engaging a change management specialist, an organization will gain insights as to how to restructure, train, and coach all levels of the enterprise. Where it is today and where it wants to be. OCM enables change that is not about “applying a framework or model” but taking these insights and applying them to an organization with coordination to avoid lack of transparency, misalignment, confusion, and lack of ownership.
3. Not Being Principles Based
Remedies
Let us first start with a definition of a principle. A fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning. The key here is to create an environment of stable change. One that is based upon the organization’s values, and everyone identifies as a guide to “ways of working.”
First, the leadership in the organization needs to evaluate what values are important and then create and articulate the principles and benefits that are foundational to scaling agile. Second, a governance mechanism needs to be in place to reflect on how well these principles are adopted and if any changes need to be made. If you reflect on these measures, would they embrace the principles. This is about what behaviors, actions, and mindset are in play. That is the base to build upon and to establish the guiding light that everyone can focus on.
Conclusion
Principles provide the foundation of stability and governance provides the reflection needed to establish the guardrails to staying on a clear path. Leadership establishes these and everyone needs to embrace them through their behavior, actions, and mindset. When in place there can be a heightened sense of purpose and direction. Everyone can have a broader understanding of how we can all work together.
4. Not Keeping All Levels of the Organization Aligned
Remedies
To overcome this pitfall there needs to be a governance model in place. It would provide the coordination and alignment of changes along with the removal of unnecessary gates. This ties back to the second pitfall to recognize this is organizational change that needs to be enabled.
First capture the understanding of the customer supplier relationships and what conditions are needed to satisfy the other party or parties and secondly when changes are planned to be implemented. By identifying what is in these steps all parties are better able to plan and execute what they need to do. Another party may be able to accommodate a negative impact for three months but not for six. As changes are executed and commitments honored, trust is improved, which supports making future changes with less friction.
Conclusion
Scaling agile implies applying this to the enterprise. That means how people work together to execute a request. Their requirements to perform their work to satisfy their customer. You first need to understand the requirements of this network of people so that when you make changes, these requirements can also be changed to improve the flow of work. Having a governance capability is the vehicle to drive the coordination of scaling agile to reduce friction by keeping all levels of the organization aligned.
5. Not Measuring What is Important to the Organization
Remedies
To overcome this pitfall there needs to be more awareness placed on the purpose of the measure and not the measure (number) itself. It is about the why and not just the what. The measure needs to focus the conversation on continuous improvement that drives value. The key is to question the use of the measure and how it either promotes or discourages the behaviors that support the agile principles and values. This sounds simple but it takes everyone to drive this awareness no matter where you are in the organization. Ask the questions. Propose the changes. Everyone in the organization can and should be a part of the conversation. This goes to another agile principle of empower and trust.
Conclusion
Each organization will have their own set of goals and objectives based upon their strategies. Whether for growth or improvement. Each will have their unique stage of agile maturity. Those drive what behaviors need to change and which measures focus on that change. By tying the use of the measures to agile principles and values promotes value driven continuous improvement. Understand their purpose. If they do not support agility, change them. If the measures have the right focus now, reflect and adjust these measures as the organization scales their agility so the measures remain aligned.
