Rules For Scaling Agility
Over the last decade and a half of studying and implementing agility at scale I’ve come to develop a few, completely unofficial rules, to act as a guide for how to scale agility.
Figure 1: Four, Completely Unofficial, Rules For Scaling Agility
First Rule Of Scaling – Don’t
Don’t scale if you don’t have to. It is easier to facilitate self-organization within a smaller group.
Second Rule Of Scaling – Empowerment over Imposition
It is better to empower people to think for themselves than impose upon them. To scale effectively the people will have to think for themselves.
Third Rule Of Scaling – The System Must Be Capable Of Scaling
The systems, both the architecture of the system being delivered and the setup of the organization delivering the system being delivered must be capable of scaling otherwise they become a limiting factor.
Fourth Rule Of Scaling – Behave
The behaviours of the people are the determining factor. All the processes and tools are in support of those behaviours and the choices made can impede as much as support the desired behviours.
Conclusions
Beyond the principles, the practices, the pages of guidance and advice, these are just a couple of rough rules of thumb that allow assessment of whether something be it a process or organization is going to be able to scale agility.