Metrics for Business Agility (whatever that means)

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Metrics for Business Agility
(whatever this means)
Gaetano Mazzanti
@mgaewsj
agile42

Business Agility - WTF?

!!!

you can’t run change initiatives like projects
you can’t manage change in
predefined steps
there’s no schedule to meet
no specific budget to allocate
the outcome is unknown 
months/years

going faster?

What does faster mean to you?
What are you trying to optimize for?
Would you be willing to go slower and build less, 
if it led to superior business results?

better to go slow in the right direction
than
fast in the wrong one
~Catalano
mmm does a right direction exist?

Business Agility?
decision quality
and 
decision velocity

High Velocity Decision Making
some decisions are reversible 
some are not

Type 1 Decisions - irreversible
some [few] decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly
irreversible.
you can’t get back to where you were before.
these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with
great deliberation and consultation.

Type 2 Decisions - reversible
most decisions are changeable, reversible, two-way doors.
if you’ve made a mistake, you can quickly reopen the door and
go back through.
these decisions can use a lightweight process and should be
made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups.
this implies trust

timing: some decisions are made too early
here we have very little knowledge
decisions
risk / uncertainty
knowledge
at times we tend to overestimate the
quality of data and info that we use to
make decisions

timing: some decisions are made too late
here it's too late
decisions
risk / uncertainty
knowledge
at times we spend enormous effort and
time to seek for data and info with the
illusion to get certainty

Decisions: Portfolio Management – Old Style
Yearly Budget (wasting money pretending to know how you will make money)
Hippo
Push
People assigned to projects
“Resource” allocation Tetris
Teams dismantled after project completion
Obsolete pretty soon
Decisions made too early

Decisions: Portfolio Management – Lean/Agile
Portfolio as a pool of Options
Balance Demand and Capacity
Policy based selection
Selecting vs. Prioritizing
Pull
Teams choose projects
Stable Teams
Decisions made and reviewed continuously

Group decision making - old style
King Rules (beheaded sooner or later)
Majority (may not last for long –  
minority believes they will be majority one day)
Consent (not against)
Consensus (tends to stick [harder to achieve])
Speed Risk

Group decision making - new
Quickly get to the right (now) answer 
and avoid “I never agreed to that” (later)
Consensus is not always necessary 
Agreement that persists over stress and time is the purpose
Supported by rituals (i.e. Perfection Game, Ritual Dissent)
Disagree and Commit

we tend to underestimate how many decisions are made
by ourselves
by our team(s)
i.e. during a Standup, a Replenishment Meeting, a Retro, a Review etc.

Measure decisions
Who? How many?
How much time it takes?
How long they last?
How often are they changed? Why?

analysing how decisions are made
helps us understand how a company works 
that’s a key ingredient if we want to change it

Decisions and Culture
Organizational Culture National Culture
i.e.
Controlling vs
Collaborative
i.e.
polychronic vs monochronic
top-down vs consensus based

The “Results Pyramid” is copyright of Partners in Leadership LLC
beliefs, actions, results
Experiences
Beliefs
Actions
Results
Culture

Assessing Your Culture
structured conversations to
share stories from the
company past and present
agree on a cultural profile

Narrative Landscapes

Fitness Landscapes

Check You are Moving in an Appropriate Way
mmmh
Adapt!desired
actual
Pressure from
management
Pressure
self-imposed
Do it Right
Do it Fast
this could
be ok

Right away
Within the hour
Within the day
Within the week
Within the month
Took forever
I don’t know
0 10 20 30 40
count
TimeTaken
Decision was made ...
20
40
60
80
100
20
40
60
80
100
20
40
60
80
100
Rational analysis
Decisive
action
Collaborative
consensus
building
T5: To make the decision was needed ...
mapping decision making speed
T5: To make the decision was needed…
Rational Analysis
Decisive/
Action
Collaborative
Consensus
building

How long did different decision makers 
take to decide?
Advisor/Expert A group Not sure
Me The Team Manager/Leader
0 10 20 0 10 20 0 10 20
Right away
Within the hour
Within the day
Within the week
Within the month
Took forever
I don’t know
Right away
Within the hour
Within the day
Within the week
Within the month
Took forever
I don’t know
count
TimeTaken
Decision was made ...
Decision was made by…

Culture…
and then Domain

Decisions and Domain
Context Domain
is defined by the nature of cause-effect relationships
Depending on the context, the assessment of the
situation and the way the decision-making process 
will be implemented varies significantly

Obvious
Complicated
Complex
Chaotic
Cynefin - David Snowden
disorder
Categorize
Best Practices
Rigid Constraints
Analyze
Good Practices
Governing Constraints
Probe
Emergent Practices
Enabling Constraints
Act
Novel Practices
Absence of Constraints
We Are
Here
Cynefin – a decision making framework

Characteristic of Complex Systems
The behavior of the system is determined by the nature of the
interactions, not by what is contained within the components.
Since the interactions are rich, dynamic, fed back, and, above all,
nonlinear, the behavior of the system as a whole cannot be
predicted from an inspection of its components.
The notion of “emergence” is used to describe this aspect. The
presence of emergent properties does not provide an argument
against causality, only against deterministic forms of prediction.
Paul Cilliers

so what about decisions in a complex domain?
“the presence of emergent properties does not provide an
argument against causality, only against deterministic
forms of prediction”

Decisions in a complex domain
we need to accept that we don’t always know 
what is going to happen
and that this isn’t some failing on our part

we ultimately have to choose uncertainty
run multiple experiments
it’s ok if some of the experiments fail
learn early, fail fast less
establish a regular cadence

so there is no predefined path,
no magic recipe,
if you want to go agile

ideas
pre biz
analysis
rough tech
analysis
external
parking
Gate 1 done
detailed
tech
analysis
biz
analysis prioritizationGate 2
resource
allocation queue development
external
parking
external
parking
test
external
parking
deploy
external
parking
business agility
is much more than 
just agile development
Gate 3

check for external dependencies
ideas next in progress
external
parking
done
external
parking
doneideas next in progress
external
parking
done
external
parking
done
external
parking
done
external
parking
done
how many?
thanks to @klausleopold

reminder: velocity has very little to do with being fast to market
customer
needs
something
chit
chatting
commitment,
clock starts
ticking
feature a
feature b
feature c
US 1
US 2
US 3
US 4
US 1
US 2
US 3
US 4
US 1
US 2
US 3
US 4
velocity
lead time

Avoiding dependencies
We need to design a decoupled system to
remove unnecessary synchronization
And to establish effective working agreements which
grant collective responsibility and ownership.
Inter-dependence between teams emerges based on needs, 
and it is temporary.

Need some Kanban to WIN
WIN - What Is Next? @drunkcod
Limit the ongoing
Manage the going on
Watch out:
Limiting user stories is (almost) pointless if you don’t limit the number of
features/epics
Limiting features/epics is pointless if you don’t limit the number of projects

Value and Flow
The goal of the system is rapid and sustainable flow of value
Teams should understand value and obsess about flow
Product Managers should understand flow and obsess about value
Dan North

Flow
Obsess about lead time
Obsess about feedback
Obsess about collaboration
Focus on finishing
tasks, stories, features, projects

How do you measure flow?
Lead Time
ideas
pre biz
analysis
rough tech
analysis
external
parking
Gate 1 done
detailed
tech
analysis
biz
analysis prioritizationGate 2
resource
allocation queue development
external
parking
external
parking
test
external
parking
deploy
external
parking
Gate 3
external
parking
done

watch out: Lead Time distribution is not gaussian
don’t use averages
frequency
lead time
SLA
source: Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability

Process Efficiency
___
process efficiency =
total time
active time
________
20
5
= 25%
!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!7!!8!!9!10!11!12!13!14!15!16!17!18!19!20!
elaborate do validate deliver
waiting
active

How big are your batches?
Small batches
Reduce delays
Reduce long tuning phases
Increase predictability

Measurement - what for
Where we are
Where we want to go (improve)

Measuring improvement: where should the focus go
what is done properly or what is not done properly?
both, but more of the 2nd
 
things that should have been done but weren’t 
vs 
things that should have not been done but were done anyway
both, zero overlap :)

Measurement Don’ts
Focus just on what can be easily measured
Disregard what can’t be measured
If it can’t be measured easily it should not be important
If it can’t be measured it doesn’t exist
Yankelovich, 1977
Measurement Dos
focus on trends (not on absolute values)

How many measures are too many?
3? 5?
Too many -> people will always have some in which they are good
Managers will always find at least one in which people are not good

No physical boards
Traditional annual budget
Too many dependencies
Decisions
No distinction between Type 1 and Type 2
Consensus: top-down or unanimity
some Key Indicators you will never make it
but what about people?
this is all about
people!

Business Agility
is not
having agile dev/IT teams; 
using Scrum in sales, mktg or HR 
is about
value & flow, 
flow of value, information flow 
is about
mindset, interactions, rituals; 
trust
these can be
“measured”

Gaetano Mazzanti
@mgaewsj
gaetano.mazzanti@agile42.com
agile42

Metrics for Business Agility (whatever that means)

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