Combining traditional PPM with agile delivery

The latest PMI Pulse of the Profession 2024 Report shows that hybrid gains ground as the fit-for-purpose approach, reflecting comparative data from 2022 and 2023. While the agile methodology has seen a slight decline in usage from 27% to 24.6%, and Waterfall has also decreased from 47% to 43.9%, the hybrid model has notably risen from 26% to 31.5%.

An increasing number of organizations are encountering challenges in their agile transformations. Despite establishing agile delivery organizations with continuous agile teams and scaling frameworks like SAFe’s agile release trains, they confront obstacles in fully integrating these changes, realizing benefits, and capturing value. One critical issue is the insufficiency of merely having permanent agile teams and structures such as agile release trains. Another problem arises when there is an absence of backlogs to incorporate their initiatives, or in other words, a lack of appropriate teams to address their issues. In such cases, organizations often revert to more conventional Project Portfolio Management (PPM) methods to find solutions.

As this hybrid approach to project management becomes increasingly mainstream, organizations are seeking guidance on integrating the two distinct models. However, the relationship between a project or program manager and a product manager isn’t hierarchically direct or functional.

To elucidate how a temporary project or program organization can effectively collaborate with a permanent agile delivery organization, I employ a specific model that illustrates the interfaces and facilitates a discussion about the flow of information.

1 Point of contact program manager in ARTs:  The point of contact for a program manager (PgM) is product or solution management (PdM) depending on the topology of the delivery organization and the size of the request. The program manager needs the delivery organization to develop/change specific functions needed for the success of the program.

2 Information flows PgM: from PgM to PdM requirements, functions, dates, deadlines, changes, accelerate, slow down. From PdM to PgM realization dates, impact, risks.

3 Which boundaries / preconditions? Priorities, capacity for small changes, for portfolio initiatives (swim lanes) set by portfolio board. Given the absence of a hierarchical relationship, it’s crucial for Product Managers (PdMs) or Product Owners (POs) to recognize the priority of this initiative. This understanding is necessary to appropriately factor it into the prioritization of their backlog, ensuring that this initiative is duly considered.

4 Point of contact PMO in ARTs: The PMO is an attendee of the PO/SM Sync to collect the needed information.

5 Information flows PMO: From PO/SM Sync to PMO progress (e.g. Burn-up chart), issues, risks (e.g. risk burn down chart).

6 Point of contact project manager in ARTs: The point of contact for a project manager (PjM) is product management or Product Owner. depending on the topology of the delivery organization and the size of the request. The project manager needs the delivery organization to develop/change specific functions or stories needed for the success of the project.

7 Information flows PjM from PjM to PdM or PO requirements, functions, dates, deadlines, changes, accelerate, slow down. From PdM or PO to PgM realization dates, impact, risks.

8 Point of contact for program sponsor in ARTs: The point of contact for a program sponsor is the Business owner of the ART or solution train. The business owner must be aware of the objectives of the initiative. The business owner can bring this forward during the next PI event. Ideally the business owner and the program sponsor are the same person.

9 Information flows Program Sponsor. From Program sponsor to Business Owner objectives/goals of the initiative.

10 Representative of ARTs in program steering committee. To aid in decision-making during steering committee meetings, it’s essential for the business owner of the Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to attend the program steering committee meetings. As mentioned, it would be advantageous if the program sponsor and the business owner were the same individual.

Next steps

This model is a starting point, it is absolutely not perfect. I’m seeking input to refine and enhance this model. What contact points do you see? Which information flows are important to make it work. Can the model be simplified?

TOAH and Programs

I am happy to announce a new article I wrote together with Henk Venema.

Programs are sometimes seen as a relic from the past; something from the time when we weren’t talking about agile working. In small organizations, this could very well be the case. Working together toward a commonly felt goal is easier when you must coordinate it with a handful of teams. However, in large organizations, the delivery processes are often longer and more complex. Even if autonomous teams with agile ways of working are already widely used, in the larger organizations many teams will soon have to work together to approach the common goal. And this is often so complex that even in such agile working organizations there is added value in working through a program towards the common goal. So even though there will be less of a need for a program approach, there will always be a need to organize certain complex changes through a program. But in a way that the benefits of a program organization go hand in hand with the benefits of an agile organization with autonomous teams working in an agile way. TOAH (The Organizational Agility Heartbeat) is a framework (https://toahframework.com/) that offers clear added value in that area as well. Where organizations with many teams need TOAH to allow the organization’s strategy to emerge through the agile teams via a quarterly rhythm, this same mechanism can be applied perfectly well to programs. After all, a program is designed to bring about a strategic change, a change that matters, a change that hurts an organization when things are not going well. Think of a change due to changing laws and regulations or a change with a fundamentally different way of approaching the market. The strategy can often not yet be specified ‘in concrete’. The ‘why’ and ‘what’ questions are often clear, but the ‘how’ question is certainly not yet. And that is precisely the crux of this article. A clear need for a new strategy interpretation in a way that we still (partly perhaps) must invent as an organization.

Experimentation and iterative and incremental work are deeply rooted in the agile way of working of autonomous teams. When this is coupled with a program execution where the delivery of the ‘how’ takes place along incremental paths, this also places demand on the way the program is executed. This will not have to behave along the classical axis of ‘requirements carved in stone’ but as a mechanism that periodically asks itself whether the way in which the change is designed ultimately also realizes the strategy. Or perhaps even make the original strategy change because of advancing insight. A wonderful symbiosis between program coordination and agile execution with a crucial role for TOAH.

This article will explain this through several aspects.

• What is the essence of TOAH?
• What are programs and what added value does a program approach provide?
• How does TOAH connect program coordination with agile execution in the teams?
• How can you use Obeya to make program governance work optimally with agile teams?
• TOAH in collaboration with existing (program) approaches
  • AgilePgM
  • MSP
  • SAFe

The article leads to the following conclusion:

• Even in agile organizations with agile teams, programs continue to have added value, provided that:
  • The program execution leaves the HOW to the agile teams
  • Program execution intertwines with scaled agile processes.
• TOAH is the link between programs and agile teams
  • Both methodological (TOAH and agile program management)
  • As in practical execution
• TOAH provides a pragmatic tool within existing program management methods such asAgilePgM and MSP to ensure a recognizable delivery pattern of business skills where tranches are synchronized and within tranches periodic adjustments are possible.

The article is available at:

Project Management World Journal (PMWJ): Venema, H. and Portman, H. (2021).  TOAH and Programs, PM World Journal, Vol. X, Issue VIII, August.

Project Design Management: TOAH E PROGRAMAS:

ed100_artigo12-toah-e-programasDownload

SAFe 5.0 brief preview

In the beginning of 2020, a new version of SAFe will be available. It’s, as usual, fully backward compatible with SAfe 4.6, allowing a smooth migration.

There are now seven core competencies that enable business agility. Some are reframed and restructured and two new competencies to expand SAFe to encompass the entire enterprise and enable business agility. See the new SAFe big picture.

The two new competencies are: Continuous Learning Culture (CLC) and Organizational Agility (OA).

Continuous Learning Culture is based on three dimensions: Learning Organization (shared vision, systems thinking, mental models, team learning, personal mastery), Relentless Improvement (constant sense of danger, optimize the whole, problem solving culture, reflect at key milestones, fact based improvement), and Innovation Culture (innovative people, time & space, go see, experimentation & feedback, pivot without mercy or guilt, innovation riptides).

The three dimensions of Organizational Agility are: Lean-thinking people and agile teams (house of lean, SAfe principles, Agile Manifesto), Lean Business Operations (process time – delay time – process time) and Strategy Agility.

The old competence DevOps and Release on Demand is now called Agile Product Delivery. Here we see Develop on Cadence, Release on Demand, DevOps and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. New is Customer Centricity (understand: market research, design: user research) and Design thinking within the Agile Product Delivery competency.

Enterprise’s business teams are now ‘on the train’ and participate in delivering and supporting innovative business solutions. These teams adopt the Lean and Agile values, principles and practices.

A tenth SAFe principle is added: Organize around value. This principle is based on Kotter’s ‘dual operating system’ as described in his book XLR8 – Accelerate. Building strategic agilty for a faster moving world. See my review.

If I look at my bird’s eye view on the agile forest, I have repositioned SAFe to emphasize that SAFe is now covering, within the product-level, the product-targeted as well as the culture-targeted selection.

See the Bird’s eye view on the agile forest blog for the complete article.

See the Scaled Agile website for more information on SAFe 5.0

Review: The tipping point – How little things can make a big difference

See for the Dutch version Het beslissende moment

The tipping point – How little things can make a big difference is written by Malcolm Gladwell. In this book we get a multitude of examples in which the author shows what it means to reach a tipping point. If we try to sell an idea, attitude or product, we want or need to help our listeners, our customers, our employees. We try to change them in some small yet critical respect, to convince them, to persuade them to reach a critical mass so that the goal comes closer. And that can be the acceptance of an idea, a changed attitude or the increased sales of a product.

To achieve the change the author uses the three rules of epidemics: the law of the few, the stickiness factor and the power of context.

The law of the few shows that we need both connectors, mavens and salesmen. The connectors can bring the world and know lots of people. Whoever you want to reach, in a maximum of six steps, you can reach that person from your network. The mavens are accumulators of knowledge and brokers in information. Mavens are solvers of both their own problems and those of others. You use salesmen to persuade others where the word of mouth is still the most important form of human communication.

To download: Tipping point (QRC EN, 181007) v1.0

To penetrate the message, the product, or attitude (The stickiness factor) a messenger is needed that brings a memorable and contagious message. The message or advice must be practical as well as personal.

Finally, the power of the context shows that the sensitiveness to the message depends on change and the times at which and the places where they occur. Within a group of up to 150 people (the Dunbar number) it is possible to know everyone. To create an contagious movement you often have to create many small movements first (the paradox of the epidemic). The theory of broken windows can be used here too. A (social) epidemic or event can be tipped, by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment.

Conclusion: The book reads smoothly and offers appealing examples of (social) epidemics, suicide, smoking, Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues, the Ya-Ya sisters, the rise and fall of the crime in New York. The author knows how to reach a turning point in a striking way and shows that one creative person can change the world. While reading, it becomes clear why this book is recommended literature within SAFe to support the tipping point at the beginning of the SAFe implementation roadmap.

To order: The tipping point – How little things can make a big difference

 

Recensie: Het beslissende moment – Hoe je het verschil kunt maken

Zie voor de Engelse versie The tipping point.

Het beslissende moment – Hoe je het verschil kunt maken is geschreven door Malcolm Gladwell. In dit boek krijgen we een veelheid aan voorbeelden waarin de auteur laat zien wat het betekent om een kantelmoment te bereiken. Als we proberen een idee, houding of product te verkopen zullen we onze toehoorders, onze klanten, onze medewerkers over een drempel willen of moeten helpen. We proberen ze in een klein maar doorslaggevend opzicht te veranderen, te bekeren, te overtuigen om daarmee een kritische massa te bereiken zodat het doel daarmee dichterbij komt. En dat kan het accepteren van een idee zijn, een gewijzigde houding of de toegenomen verkoop van een product.

Om deze omslag te bereiken hanteert de auteur hiervoor de drie regels van epidemieën: de wet van de enkeling, de beklijvende factor en de kracht van de context.

De wet van de enkelingen laat zien dat we zowel verbinders, kenners als verkopers nodig hebben. De verbinders kunnen anderen bijeenbrengen en kennen massa’s mensen. Wie je ook wilt bereiken, in maximaal zes stappen is die persoon vanuit je netwerk te benaderen. De kenners zijn verzamelaars van kennis en makelaars in informatie. Kenners zijn oplossers van zowel hun eigen problemen als die van anderen. Verkopers gebruik je om anderen te overtuigen waarbij de mondelinge overdracht nog steeds de belangrijkste vorm van communicatie is.

Downloaden: Tipping point (QRC NL, 181007) v1.0

Om de boodschap, het product, of de houding te laten beklijven (De beklijvende factor) is een boodschapper nodig die een aanstekelijk bericht brengt dat onthouden wordt. De boodschap of het advies moet zowel praktisch als persoonlijk zijn.

Tenslotte laat de kracht van de context zien dat de ontvankelijkheid voor de boodschap afhankelijk is van voorwaarden en omstandigheden en de tijdstippen waarop en de plaatsen waar ze zich voordoen. Binnen een groep van maximaal 150 personen (het Dunbar nummer) is het mogelijk om iedereen te kennen. Om een aanstekelijke beweging te creëren moet je vaak eerst vele kleine bewegingen op gang brengen (de paradox van de epidemie). Ook de theorie van de kapotte ramen is hier op zijn plaats. Een (sociale) epidemie of gebeurtenis kan worden gekeerd, een omslag kan worden bereikt door de kleinste details van de directe omgeving te herstellen.

Conclusie: het boek leest vlot weg en biedt aansprekende voorbeelden van onder andere (sociale) epidemieën, zelfmoord, roken, Sesamstraat, Blue’s Clues, de Ya-Ya zusters en de opkomst en neergang van de misdaad in New York. De auteur weet het bereiken van een kantelpunt treffend over te brengen en laat zien dat één creatieve persoon de wereld kan veranderen. Al lezende wordt het ook duidelijk waarom dit boek binnen SAFe als aanbevolen literatuur wordt aangeduid ter onderbouwing van het kantelpunt aan het begin van de implementatie roadmap.

Bestellen: Het beslissende moment – Hoe je het verschil kunt maken

Review : Turn the ship around!

In this business novel – Turn the ship around! A true story of turning followers into leaders – the author David Marquet shows you his journey as Captain on the nuclear submarine USS Santa Fe. He had the guts to lead in a completely different way. Top-down leadership sometimes endangered the men. He decided to give his men the control themself: with amazing results.

Marquet describes the traditional top-down management as the leader-follower model in which the followers have limited decision-making powers and where they are barely encouraged to make the most of their intellect, energy and passion. The follower has learned that he must rely on the leader who takes all the decisions, instead of fully focusing on the work process in order to keep the organization running as smoothly as possible. In contrast, the author sets the leader-leader model that not only brings improvements in terms of effectiveness and morale, it also makes the organization stronger and more agile.

The book consists of 29 chapters and is further subdivided into four parts. Each section describes a phase in the author’s struggle to change the way of working on board of the Santa Fe. In the first part Starting over, letting go of old ideas is central and we get an insight into the frustrations, questions and ultimate rejection of top-down leadership (Pain, Business as Usual, Change of Course, Frustration, Call to Action, “Whatever They Tell Me to Do!” and “I Relieve You!”).

In the following parts (control, competence and clarity) the bridge to the leader-leader structure and accompanying support pillars is described. The bridge is control, divesting control to others in your organization while keeping responsibility. Here it is necessary that you have competent workforce that understands the organization’s purpose.

In Part II Control (Change, in a Word, “Welcome Aboard Santa Fe!”, Under Way on Nuclear Power, “I Intend to…”, Up Scope!, Who’s Responsible?, “A New ship”, and “We have a Problem”) a number of basic control mechanisms are discussed to be able to work according to a leader-leader structure, including searching and rewriting the genetic code for control, acting your way to new thinking, conducting short, early conversations, resist the urge to provide solutions, eliminate top-down monitoring systems, think out loud and embrace the inspectors.

Part III Competence (“Mistakes Just Happen!”, “We learn”, Under Way for San Diego, All Present and Accounted For, and Final Preparations) shows that it is necessary for people to be technically competent to make the decisions they make. On a submarine this means specific understanding of physics, electricity, sound in water, metallurgy and so on (compare this with the engineering culture necessary for agile transitions in software or product development). In this part, the following competency mechanisms such as take deliberate action, learn everywhere and all the time, certify everything, don’t brief, continually and consistently repeat the message and specify goals, not methods.

In the final part IV Clarity (Under Way for Deployment, A Remembrance or War, Leadership at Every Level, A Dangerous Passage, Looking Ahead, Combat Effectiveness, Homecoming, A New Method of Resupplying, and Ripples) it becomes clear that to be able to push down authority, in addition to control it is becomes increasingly important that everyone understands what the organization is about. This section deals with a number of clarity mechanisms such as achieve excellence, build trust and take care of your people, use your legacy as a source for inspiration, use guiding principles for decision criteria, use immediate recognition to reinforce desired behaviors, begin with the end in mind and encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience.

The actual story starts 25 days to change of command and then we get a description of the 172 days to deployment of the Santa Fe, provided the submarine passes through the strict inspections and it does. The Santa Fe was the worst performing ship (poor morale, poor performance and the worst retention in the fleet) and became the best performing ship of the fleet. There are 135 men on board of whom the most important persons with name and function are described. The story reads smoothly and each chapter is closed with a number of questions to consider.

Again a book that I can recommend to managers of organizations on their way to achieve more agility and it definitely makes sense that it is recommended within SAFe too.

The book also contains a number of references to websites, including www.leader-leader.com and www.davidmarquet.com where you can find additional material such as articles, a step-by-step plan, an assessment, et cetera can be found.

To order: Turn the ship around!

The companion workbook – The turn the ship around! workbook. Implement intend-based leadership in your organization – written by L. David Marquet with Andy Worshek will help you to implement this leader-leader structure (intent-based leadership) in your organization. You get a lot of questions, exercises and activities on how to delegate and inspire for each of the chapters in the main book. It will show you how to to build a work community based on personal responsibility and trust. The workbook ends with the Intent-Based Leadership Manifesto

To order: The turn the ship around! workbook

Recensie: Gooi het roer om!

In deze business roman – Gooi het roer om! leiderschap creëren op elk niveau binnen organisaties – neemt de schrijver David Marquet je mee op zijn reis als kaptein op de kernonderzeeër USS Santa Fe. Hij had het lef om op een compleet andere wijze leiding te geven. Top-down leiderschap bracht de manschappen soms regelrecht in gevaar. Hij besloot zijn manschappen zelf de controle te geven: met verbluffende resultaten.

Marquet omschrijft de traditionele top-down aansturing als het leider-volger model waarin de volgers beperkte beslissingsbevoegdheid hebben en waar ze amper gestimuleerd worden om hun intellect, energie en passie zo goed mogelijk te benutten. De volger heeft geleerd dat hij zich op de leider moet verlaten die alle beslissingen neemt, in plaats van zich volledig te richten op het werkproces om zo de organisatie zo soepel mogelijk te laten draaien. Hier tegenover zet de auteur het leider-leider model dat niet alleen verbeteringen met zich meebrengt op het vlak van effectiviteit en moreel, het maakt de organisatie ook duurzaam sterker en wendbaarder.

Het boek bestaat uit 26 hoofdstukken en is verder onderverdeeld in vier delen. Ieder deel beschrijft een fase in de strijd van de auteur om de manier van samenwerken aan boord van de Santa Fe ten goede te veranderen. In het eerste deel staat het loslaten van oude ideeën centraal en krijgen we een inkijkje in de frustraties, twijfels en afkeer van het top-down leiderschap (Pijn, De normale gang van zaken, verandering van koers, frustratie, schreeuw om actie, Wat ze maar willen! En Ik los u af!). In de volgende delen (controle, competentie en helderheid) wordt de brug naar de leider-leider-structuur en bijbehorende steunpilaren beschreven. De brug is gezag, het afstaan ervan aan anderen binnen je organisatie terwijl jij de verantwoordelijkheid houdt. Hierbij is het noodzakelijk dat je competente werknemers hebt die het hogere doel van de organisatie begrijpen.

In Deel II controle (Welkom aan boord van de Santa Fe!, Met nucleaire kracht op weg, Ik ben van plan om…’, Periscoop omhoog!, Wie is verantwoordelijk?, Een nieuw schip, en ‘We hebben een probleem’) komen een aantal basis zeggenschap mechanismen aan bod om volgens een leider-leider-structuur te kunnen werken waaronder het zoeken en herschrijven van de genetische code voor controle, het toewerken naar een nieuwe manier van denken, het voeren van korte, vroegtijdige gesprekken, het onderdrukken van je neiging om oplossingen aan te dragen, het verwijderen van top-downcontrolesystemen.

Deel III Competentie (Fouten worden nu eenmaal gemaakt!, ‘We leren’, Op weg naar San Diego, Iedereen present en Laatste voorbereidingen) laat zien dat het noodzakelijk is dat mensen technisch in staat zijn om beslissingen te nemen die ze moeten nemen. Op een onderzeeër betekent dit specifiek kennis van, elektriciteit, geluid, metaalkunde etc (vergelijk dit met de noodzakelijke engineeringcultuur noodzakelijk bij agile transities in de software of productontwikkeling). In dit deel komen de volgende competentie versterkende mechanismes zoals bezin voor je begint, overal en altijd leren, autoriseren in plaats van briefen, het blijven herhalen van de boodschap en het bepalen van doelen in plaats van de methoden.

In het laatste deel IV Helderheid (Klaar voor de missie, Een oorlogsdocument, Leiderschap op ieder niveau, Een gevaarlijke doorgang, Vooruit kijken, Slagkracht, Thuiskomst, Een nieuwe manier van bevoorraden en Deining) wordt duidelijk dat om gezag te kunnen spreiden, naast autorisatie, het steeds belangrijker wordt dat iedereen door de hele organisatie heen begrijpt waar de organisatie voor staat. In dit deel komen een aantal helderheidsmechanismen aan bod zoals het streven naar uitmuntendheid, het bouwen van vertrouwen en zorgdragen voor je mensen, maak gebruik van je erfgoed als inspiratiebron, gebruik je grondbeginselen als criteria voor besluitvorming, geef onmiddellijk blijk van waardering teneinde het gewenste gedrag te stimuleren, begin met het einde voor ogen en stimuleer liever een kritische houding dan blinde gehoorzaamheid.

Het eigenlijke verhaal begint 25 dagen voor de overdracht van het bevel en vervolgens krijgen we een verslag van de 172 dagen voorafgaand aan de afvaart voor een missie van de Santa Fe mits de onderzeeër door de strenge keuringen heen komt en dat doet het met glans. De Santa Fe was het slechts presenterende schip en werd het best presterende schip in de vloot. Aan boord bevinden zich 135 bemanningsleden waarbij de meest belangrijke personages met naam en functie worden beschreven. Het verhaal leest vlot weg en ieder hoofdstuk wordt afgesloten met een aantal vragen om over na te denken.

Wederom een boek dat managers van organisaties zich ter harte kunnen nemen bij hun weg naar meer agility (wendbaarheid) en wordt terecht aanbevolen binnen SAFe.

In het boek staan verder een aantal verwijzingen naar websites, waaronder www.leader-leader.com en www.davidmarquet.com waarop aanvullend materiaal zoals artikelen, stappenplan, assessment et cetera te vinden is.

Bestellen: Gooi het roer om!

Bij de oorspronkelijke Engelstalige versie is ook een Engelstalig werkboek beschikbaar. Zie hiervoor de review van de Engelse versie Turn the ship around!

SAFe recommended reading

The Scaled Agile website gives a list of recommended reading. If you are interested in SAFe or if you are a SAFe trainer I think many of these books are must reads. To get a jump start you can find reviews regarding several of these recommended reading and for several books there is a quick reference card, a one-pager, too. To complement the list I added some more reviews focusing on specific topics used, or can be used, in SAFe.

The following books are discussed on this blog:

• Principles of Product Development Flow, Don Reinertsen. Discussed SAFe topics: economic objectives, cost of delay, economic batch size based on transaction and holding costs, queues, CFD, little’s law, variability, batch size, synchronization, Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF): https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2017/05/24/book-review-the-principles-of-product-development-flow/
• The Lean Machine, Dantar Oosterwal. Discussed SAFe topics: integration points, set-based design, false positive feasibility: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/book-review-the-lean-machine/
• Tribal Unity: Getting from Teams to Tribes by Creating a One Team Culture, Em Campbell-Pretty. Discussed SAFe topics: one Agile Release Train culture, tipping point: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2018/03/05/review-tribal-unity/
• Switch, How to change things when change is hard, Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Discussed SAFe topics: Leading a lean-agile enterprise: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/review-switch-how-to-change-things-when-change-is-hard/
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni: Discussed SAFe topics: Attributes of high performing teams: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/review-the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team/
• Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise, Dean Leffingwell: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2016/12/13/review-agile-software-requirements/

To complement this reading list, I recommend the following books too:

• The Rollout: A Novel about Leadership and Building a Lean-Agile Enterprise with SAFe, Alex Yakyma. Discussed SAFe topics: Introducing SAFe and Experimenting PI Planning: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2016/12/06/book-review-the-rollout/
• The Lean Start-up, Eric Ries. Discussed SAFe topics: Foster innovation with the Lean Startup cycle: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/book-review-the-lean-startup-how-constant-innovation-creates-radically-successful-businesses/
• The Startup Way, Eric Ries: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2018/01/09/review-the-startup-way/
• Lean UX – Designing Great Products with Agile Teams, Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden. Discussed SAFe topics: Elaborate features with Lean UX: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2017/08/12/review-and-summary-lean-ux/
• The Product Samurai – A Product Manager’s guide to continuous innovation, Chris Lukassen. https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2016/12/02/book-review-the-product-samurai/
• How to lead self-managing teams? Changing leadership from sheepherding to beekeeping – A business novel, Rini van Solingen. Discussed SAFe topics: Sevant leadership: https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2018/02/11/review-how-to-lead-self-managing-teams/
• The Scrum Culture – Introducing Agile Methods, Dominik Maximini. https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/review-the-scrum-culture/

Handout containing all one-pagers: SAFe (recommended reading – one pagers, 180321) v1.1

Review: Switch – How to change things when change is hard

In the book Switch – How to change things when change is hard the authors describe a fundamental three-part framework that can guide you in any situation where you need to change behaviour: direct the rider (provide chrystal-clear direction by addressing the rational side), motivate the elephant (engage people’s emotional side), and shape the path (make change more likely).

The book is divided in three parts. In the first part – Direct the rider, the authors describe that you should look for bright spots. Do not obsess about the failures but investigate and clone the successes. Then give the rider a starting point and a destination and give him a destination postcard so that the rider knows where you are going and it gives the elephant an insight why the journey is interesting. And finally you have to script the critical moves to be taken.

In the second part – Motivate the elephant we get many examples of how you can make the elephant believe that he is capable of conquering the change. It’s emotion that motivates the elephant. And emotion comes from feeling. En motivatie komt voort uit gevoel. On the one hand you can shrink the change and on the other you can grow your people grow (or, preferably, both).

In the last part – Shape the path we get to see what it means that, when you tweak the environment the behavior will change too. Simple adjustments can lead to dramatic changes. Look for ways to build habits and finally rally the herd. Behavior is contagious, help it spread.

Conclusion: A must read for the change agent, you get an in depth explanation of the three-part switch framework, and many, many examples. On top of this you get workshops with food for thought on the basis of a situation how the three switch parts should be handled (direct the rider, motivate the elephant and shape the path).

To order: Switch – How to change things when change is hard

Recensie: Switch – Durf te veranderen

In het boek Switch – Durf te veranderen werken de auteurs Chip en Dan Heath een fundamenteel raamwerk uit dat je kan helpen bij situaties waarin je gedrag moet veranderen (switch): stuur de bereider aan (geef kristalheldere instructies door de rationele kant van mensen aan te spreken), motiveer de olifant (betrek de emotionele kant van mensen erbij) en effen het pad (maak de verandering waarschijnlijker).

Aan ieder van de drie aspecten weidt het boek een deel. In het eerste deel – Stuur de bereider beschrijven de auteurs dat je op zoek moet gaan naar lichtpuntjes. Blijf niet hangen in mislukkingen maar onderzoek en kloon de successen. Geef vervolgens de bereider een startpunt en een eindbestemming en geef hem een ansichtkaart van de eindbestemming zodat de bereider weet waar hij/zij heen gaat en het geeft de olifant inzicht waarom de reis interessant is. En tenslotte schrijf je de te nemen cruciale acties voor.

In het tweede deel – Motiveer de olifant krijgen we vele voorbeelden hoe je de olifant kan doen geloven dat hij in staat is de verandering te veroveren. Het is de emotie die de olifant motiveert. En motivatie komt voort uit gevoel. Enerzijds kan je de verandering verkleinen en anderzijds kan je mensen laten groeien (of, beter nog, allebei).

In het laatste deel – Effen het pad krijgen we te zien wat het betekent als je de de omgeving verandert dit een effect heeft op het gedrag. Eenvoudige aanpassingen kunnen leiden tot enorme veranderingen. Zoek naar manieren om gewoontes aan te moedigen en tenslotte gebruik de mensen in de omgeving. Gedrag is besmettelijk, help het te verspreiden.

Conclusie: een must voor de veranderaar, je krijgt een veelheid aan voorbeelden en een gedegen onderbouwing van het driedelige switch raamwerk en daarnaast een aantal workshops waarmee je zelf aan de hand van een situatie moet nadenken hoe de drie switch onderdelen gehanteerd moeten worden (stuur de berijder aan, motiveer de olifant en effen het pad).

Bestellen: Switch – Durf te veranderen