8. Agile Organizations Flashcards
What does “agile” mean?
The ability to create and respond to change in order to succeed in an uncertain and turbulent environment.
What are the five trademarks of agile organizations? Just mention
- Strategy - North Star embodied across the organization
- Structure - Network of empowered teams
- Process- Rapid decision and learning cycles
- People- Dynamic people model that enables burning for passion
- Technology- Next-gen enabling tech
Trademark: strategy - describe practices
It’s about having a shared purpose and vision. Seizing opportunities and being flexible in resource allocation. Having an actionable strategic guidance.
Trademark: structure - describe practices
Must have a clear, flat structure with clear accountable roles.
Trademark: process - describe practices
Have rapid interaction and standardized way of working. Should be performance oriented and use runs/sprints.
Trademark: people - describe practices
Entrepreneurial drive. Cohesive community and role mobility. Not all people/characteristics are suitable for agile models of working.
Trademark: technology - describe practices
Should have next-gen technology development and delivery practices. Also, evolving tech architecture, systems and tools.
Should you measure activities in agile organizations?
No, you should measure impacts and outputs. For example, do not measure hours worked, number of meetings or codes and scripts. Instead, measure stories in ready state, defects found, tests run, money saved, revenue generated, risk reduced, team learning etc.
What organizational modes can support innovation and agility?
- informal interaction between functional groups (walk and talk)
- innovation project team
- expert network
- thinking outside box
- willingness to take risks
- accept failure etc.
- innovation council
When complexity of projects increases, also management cost, time and difficulty increases, what type of organizational structures are better suitable for this?
Structures that increase the social capital (personal networks, trust and shared values), which suits best in line organizations (shared services), matrix organizations (ambidextrous org) or integrator/enabler (innovation council).
What is important regarding setting criteria?
To set them BEFORE the project starts and also being able to alter them during the project - define loops for criteria adjustment. Also, think about how you can measure the criteria, should not measure activities as mentioned before. Quality is more important than quantity.
What is a “Pirates”?
A group divided from the core business. A crazy group of people that is located on a different place, to foster creativity and agility.
8 things that defines a high performing team:
- Clear and compelling goal/vision
- Standards of excellence (norms)
- Competent members
- Unified commitment
- Climate of collaboration (trust, clear communication, listening).
- Results driven structure
- Principled leadership
- External support and recognition.
Organizing for innovation with intrapreneurship, what does it mean?
Intrapreneurship is a practice of creating the entrepreneurial environment within the org. to enable employees to apply their entrepreneurial skills in their roles.
What is strategic buckets?
Strategic buckets help management define where the development dollars should go, by project type, by market, by geography, or by product area (5). Each project type or market or geographic area is represented by a bucket.
What is a key element of setting up an agile, high performing team?
To have a heterogenous team with complementary skills!!
Must have both discovery-driven and delivery-driven people.
How do discovery- vs delivery-driven people differ?
Disc - prefer to associate, question, observe, idea networking, experimenting.
Deliver - lies to analyze, plan, detail-oriented implementing, self-discipline.
How do distances at working places affect innovation?
The shorter the distance is to informal meetings, the more communication will happen –> more innovation.
What is agile software development?
Agile software development is an umbrella term for a set of methods and practices based on the values and principles expressed in the agile manifesto. Solutions evolve through collab between self-org and cross-func teams utilizing the appropriate practices for their context. The most common agile method is scrum.
Difference between scrum and sprints.
The distinction between Sprint and Scrum is that they are two linked but different terms. Scrum is a framework often used in Agile methodology, and a Sprint is part of Scrum’s framework structure. Scrum gives meetings, tools, and roles, while a Sprint is a defined period for creating a feature.
How does the speed boat game work?
It works as an innovation game where you evaluate the project.
You draw:
* a boat (the project team),
*winds (all elements that made the team advance during the iteration)
*anchor (factors that slow down/decrease productivity)
*an island (goal)
* sun (what the team liked, actions/attitudes that deserve thanks)
*reef (future obstacles that have been identified)
Use post-it that all member write on.
