Agile transformations with the Scrum framework

Agile Transformations

Adopting agile or lean practices as with any bigger organizational change is never just about adopting new tools or practices. It’s not even about adopting an agile culture. While those things are important, if you don’t achieve better business outcomes, adopting agile is not worth the investment.

Your journey toward greater business agility starts by identifying what outcomes are most important to your company’s success. This knowledge helps you lay a foundation for making decisions about how to tailor your approach and guide your transformation to measurably show progress toward your critical business objectives.

Why agile transformations?

Nowadays, organizations face the challenge of operating in an extremely competitive and unpredictable global market environment. The growing pace of competition development and increased customer expectations sometimes force changes in the way a company operates. The answer to such challenges is conducting an agile transformation.

Transforming the entire organization

Agile transformation is not just about adopting agile software development methodologies; it is also about a comprehensive approach that goes far beyond product development. Agile transformation is the process of transforming the entire organization into an enterprise open to changes with a reactive approach to the production of its products based on agile principles. developing the most optimal approach to innovation, changing work methods, and strengthening the role of employees by creating inter-functional and self-organizing teams. It also focuses on customer satisfaction, limiting processes and planning for quick responses to changes, and increasing the level of internal communication and information exchange.

See process

Clients

Client's references

Case study of Scrum Studio in BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank

Scrum Studio Leaders – a business people accountable on behalf of the board of management

Shared Resources for multiple Scrum Studios like Legal, Finance, InfoSec, Governance, HR any many more depending on individual Scrum Studio requirements.

Evidence-Based Management is a framework organizations can use to help them measure, manage, and increase the value they derive from their product delivery. EBM focuses on improving outcomes, reducing risks, and optimizing investments. It is developed and sustained by Ken Schwaber and Scrum.org.

Scrum Studio creates an environment in which empiricism can thrive. It may exist as a physically separate organization, or it may simply be a protected part of an existing organization, especially when it is just getting started. Read this paper to learn more.

Communities of Practice (CoP), Centres of Excellence (CoE), Lean-Agile Centres of Excellence (LACE) – many units and teams consisting from external Agile Coaches and internal (clients’s) people, supporting Agile transformation via consulting, coaching, mentoring and training.

Constant feedback from the end-users, way often and way deeper than just feedback on Sprint Review.

Scope of the Scrum Studio covering internal Scrum Teams (build from people form client’s organization as well from suppliers) and ideally minimum amount if none, external Scrum Teams.

Agile is not about choosing a specific method

Puls Biznesu Conference Project Management Forum 2019 - Miroslaw Dabrowski

Speaking about Agile Transformations at the Project Management Forum, co-organized in cooperation with Puls Biznesu
(April 2019)

Business Agility

It should be recognized that Agile is an organizational change (going significantly beyond IT) that includes entrepreneurship (budgeting, business knowledge, trends, market and end-user needs, etc.), processes maturity (i.e. SDLC), project and flow management (proficiency in Agile and Lean), technical maturity (proficiency in software engineering, automation, DevOps, etc.), change management (adaptability, teams, people, culture) and soft skills (communication, conflict management, personality traits, motivators, etc.).

“Agility is the ability to adapt and respond to change… agile organizations view change as an opportunity, not a threat.”

Jim Highsmith

Over 15 years of experience in scaling Agile organization-wide

We have over 20 years of active, non-linear, and versatile experience in IT, broadly defined management, leadership, coaching (ICF), personal development, mentoring, and training. We work with both management teams and agile teams (not only in the IT sector), creating modern, value-oriented teams and work environments.

We have supported or led agile/digital transformation initiatives in more than 10 organizations, encompassing not only IT or PMO departments but also business, HR, legal, finance, marketing, sales, and support departments.

We have mentored and coached management teams, C-level representatives, directors, and shareholders.

(framework agnostic) Agile Coaches and Change Leaders

We view ourselves as individuals not restricted to any particular framework (framework agnostic).

However, to meet diverse market demands, we stand out as the sole entity in Poland featuring certified coaches and mentors experienced in various agile transformations. We cover all major agile frameworks and methodologies, including Scrum, Kanban, S@S, NEXUS, Large Scaled Scrum (LeSS), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Agile Project Management (AgilePM), PRINCE2 Agile, alongside lightweight approaches like Team of Teams Design and Team Topologies.

In essence, these tools serve as our "toolbox" for scaling Agile and spearheading significant organizational change initiatives, employing methodologies such as PROSCI.

Agile not just in IT

As part of the Agile Transformation (depending on the scope of cooperation) we implement:

Leading E2E Enterprise Business Agility Change Management Programs
Launching Scrum Studio (if Scrum will be chosen as an approach)
- Including a full set of team-level metrics
Launching Agile Center of Excellence (ACE) or Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE)
- Including a full set of team and portfolio-level metrics
Agile in Organization (see Modern Agile)
Agile Teams (including reorganization of teams around the value delivered (for example using Value Streams):
- Agile in IT (see “Agile Manifesto”)
- Agile in HR (see Agile HR Manifesto and “Agile People Manifesto“)
- Agile in Legal (legal departments)
- Agile in Procurement (purchasing departments, purchasing policy, vendor management, verification of the agility level of suppliers, etc.)
Agile in PMO (investment committees, agile project management, hybrid approaches; see PMO Manifesto)
- including Discovery -> Options -> Delivery cycle (a.k.a. Mobius Loop)
- including Demand -> Discovery -> Outcomes (i.e. using OKRs)
DevOps / DataOps
Site-reliability engineering (SRE)
Design Thinking
Lean Startup (among others verification of business hypotheses, verification of business models, and business incubators)
Design Sprint
Kanban (both Kanban, Upstream Kanban- and Portfolio Kanban)
Modern techniques of software development and software engineering (see Manifesto of Software Craftsmanship):
- Feature Driven Development (FDD)
- Domain Driven Design (DDD)
- Behavioural Driven Development (BDD)
- Test Driven Development (TDD)
  - Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD)
- and others
Turquoise organization
Holocracy

Roche ASA Team during SAFe PI Planning with Miroslaw Dabrowski

SAFe PI Planning @ Roche
(Poland 🇵🇱, Germany 🇩🇪, Switzerland 🇨🇭)
(October 2019)

SAFe PI Planning @ Roche (Mannheim, Germany 🇩🇪)
(March 2019)

Process

Our approach draws inspiration from John Kotter’s renowned 8-Step Change Model and Jason Little’s Lean Change Management (LCM) approach. The transformation process framework, acknowledging the non-linear nature of activities in practice, unfolds as follows:

The transformation process framework, acknowledging the non-linear nature of activities in practice, unfolds as follows:

Intro – Understand your transformation vision, clarifying perspectives and expected outcomes. How do you understand it, and what results do you expect?
Exploration – Observe the current status, generating initial observations and potential solution options.
- Emphasize the identification, collection, and organization of empirically acquired information using tools such as PROSCI ADKAR, Lean Coffee, interviews, and observations
Report – Conclude and provide recommendations for the transformation strategy. Establish measures of success.
Agile and Lean training for management / decision-makers. Provide Agile and Lean training for management and decision-makers through awareness sessions.
Transformation Workshops – Define the organization’s post-transformation vision, transformation strategy, Transformation Backlog, and performance metrics.
Definition of business areas and Products. Forming teams and starting piloting agile projects and/or product areas.
- Based on the needs and selected transformation strategy, start Scrum Studio areas.
- As part of the needs and the selected transformation strategy, start the areas of Lean Change Management (Insights – Options – Experiments – Prepare – Introduce – Review process).
- As part of the needs and the selected transformation strategy, start hybrid project areas (if needed).
Forming a coalition / CoE / Transformation Team (consisting of external Coaches / Consultants and client representatives acting as Change Agents).
- Form a coalition or Center of Excellence (CoE) with external coaches, consultants, and client representatives as Change Agents.
General training and profiling. Provide general training and profiling for specific roles and selected individuals.
Iteratively carry out changes.
- Iteratively implement transformation changes collaboratively with the client at a pace suitable for them.
- Monitor the transformation progress together.
Summary of the cooperation.
- Conclude the cooperation period with a summary.
- Engage in discussions and make decisions regarding future steps.

Agile Transformation Approach (ATA)

High-level transformation process

Analysis of the current state of the organization’s maturity in terms of Agile and Lean, understanding of limitations, identification of problems and obstacles. Selecting areas (projects, products, departments, etc.) or creating new areas as candidates for transformation.

Beginning of the iterative process and empirical building and implementation of transformation strategies and roadmaps.

Building a coalition of Center of Excellence consisting of external consultants / coaches / experts and client employees selected as Change Agents. Recruitment of Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches as needed.

Start a training, workshop and simulation process to promote Agile knowledge and experience, including Agile Awareness sessions for management and C-level staff. Commitment of Change Agents to promote knowledge of Agile.

Extending pilotage in selected projects and / or establishing new projects or product teams working in the Scrum Studio model (not to be confused with Scrum).

Extending pilotage in other areas of the organization: new projects, departments, departments, divisions and / or business areas including IT, PMO, HR, Legal, Finance and others, which were selected in the process of shaping the transformation strategy and attached during the transformation.

Measuring and continuous development of the organization’s maturity.

Key activities during transformation

Scrum Studio

Scrum Studio Model by Scrum.org

The adoption of Scrum often signifies a change in the way people work within the organization beyond the Scrum Teams. It requires the creation of a supportive environment where cultural changes align with Scrum. While the Scrum Master assists the Scrum Team in changing how they work, Scrum Teams need support, care, and mentoring to sustain new behaviors and habits. Scrum Studio helps create an appropriate cultural and managerial environment where empiricism can survive and thrive.

Scrum Studio is an approach to implementing changes in organizations, developed and recommended by Scrum.org.

Lean Change Management (LCM)

Lean Change Management (LCM) by Jason Little

Insights – generating, collecting, and aggregating information. Using methods such as ADKAR, Lean Coffee, interviews, and observations.
Options – based on insights with established cost, value, and impact. They include hypotheses and expected benefits.
Experiments – transformed from hypotheses to test changes against expected results. They include an internal loop for execution.
- Prepare – planning and validating assumptions. Gathering opinions and feelings from individuals before implementation.
- Introduce – the experiment is introduced into the daily process. It must be implemented as agreed upon without modifications, for sampling.
- Review – reviewing the results of the experiment. Requires an appropriate sample size and time.

PROSCI Change Triangle (PCT Model)

Framework that shows the four critical aspects of any successful change effort

PROSCI PCT Model

PROSCI Methodology

A structured, adaptable, repeatable approach to enable individuals to successfully move through changes in your organization

PROSCI Methodology

Supporting materials for Agile Transformations using Scrum

Scrum Studio A Model for Innovation Whitepaper 12.2017

Scrum Studio Model
Patterns for developing a working environment for innovative products - whitepaper Scrum.org [12.2017]

NEXUS Guide
Guide for scaling Scrum using the NEXUS framework from Scrum.org [01.2018]

Scrum@Scale Guide 2.1
A guide for scaling Scrum using the Scrum@Scale framework from Scrum.Inc [02.2022]

Evidence-Based Management Guide
Guide for value management from Scrum.org [09.2020]

The 8 Stances of a Scrum Master Whitepaper v2.0 [2017.05]

The 8 Stances of a Scrum Master
Whitepaper by Scrum.org [05.2017]

The Scrum Guide 2020
www.scrumguides.org [11.2020]

Supporting research on Agile Transformations

KPMG 2019 Report on Agile Transformations

13th Annual State of the Agile Report

Capgemini Agile at Scale Report 2019

Agile transformations with the Scrum framework