There is a lot of evidence that organizations are trying to become more agile. Here are just a few of articles from Harvard Business Review and Forbes on Agile, Scrum, and DevOps.
https://hbr.org/sponsored/2018/05/the-new-lean-agile-face-of-business
https://hbr.org/sponsored/2018/05/the-new-lean-agile-face-of-business
https://hbr.org/sponsored/2018/05/the-new-lean-agile-face-of-business
Scrum has been the most successful framework to get organizations to agility. Scrum addresses how to get teams to accelerate. But getting an organization to accelerate is a much more complex problem.
Scrum@Scale is the framework created by Jeff Sutherland (Co-Creator of Scrum) that addresses scaling Agility across the organization.
Scrum@Scale is a framework within which networks of Scrum teams operating consistently with the Scrum Guide can address complex problems, while creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. These “products” may be hardware, software, complex integrated systems, processes, services, etc., depending upon the domain of the Scrum teams.
~ https://www.scrumatscale.com/
Scrum@Scale aims to build a healthy organization with a values-driven culture. The values of Scrum are Openness, Courage, Focus, Respect, and Commitment and the main Components of Scrum@Scale are the Scrum Master Cycle and the Product Owner Cycle.
Scrum Master Cycle
Scrum Master cycle focuses on continuous improvement, impediment removal, cross-team coordination, deployment, among other things. It’s all about the teams and how these teams operate and coordinate with each other. In Scrum@Scale an Executive Action Team (EAT) is formed to facilitate and enable the activities of the Scrum Master Cycle on the organizational scale.
Product Owner Cycle
Product Owner cycle focuses on Vision, Prioritization and Release Planning, which is a crucial capability for an agile organization. Most organizations struggle to prioritize work, and as a result, everything is the highest priority, and nothing gets done. Product Owners comes together to form a MetaScrum, and the organization forms The Executive MetaScrum (EMS) that owns the organizational vision and goals to align all the teams.
Agile Organizational Structure
Above you can see an example of an Agile Organization with Executive Action Team and The Executive MetaScrum in the middle as well as the Knowledge and Infrastructure teams labelled around them(CR, Legal, etc.) The smallest unit here is a Scrum Team (each pentagon is a team).
I believe that Scrum@Scale is the way to scale agile teams across the organization whether you are building a new company or transforming an existing organization. It is a formalization of how successful organizations operate and self-organize to achieve the highest level of output and beat their competition.
Scrum@Scale Case Studies
- Scrum@Scale at a Fortune 500 Oil & Gas Company
- Scrum in Sales
- Scrum@Scale at Toyota
- Building a Fighter Jet with Scrum
- More Case Studies at Scrum@Scale Case Study Library
Would you like to learn more?
I am a certified Scrum@Scale Trainer in Toronto, Canada. Please see the list of upcoming courses here or get in touch with me.
Alex Karasyov 