The Integral Agile Approach

You understand that Agile and existing Agile Frameworks are missing key components required to be more complete. So do we.

The Integral Agile Approach is not another framework. It is a framework agnostic way of implementing Agile, created to address the pervasive challenges we face trying to successfully scale Agile.

The IA approach is not prescriptive. It can stand on its own, or it can seamlessly integrate with your existing scaled framework by adding those missing components that allow agility to scale organically and effectively.

We offer you new ways of looking at each process, role, and cadence and we help you to implement the solutions that make the most sense for your organization.

The IA approach can accelerate the flow of business value by revealing the root causes of the ongoing challenges that have persisted despite Agile's best efforts, including: the pain points teams have become numb to, misaligned cadences, siloed relationships, cultural resistance, and systemic wastes that are not immediately visible without an Integral full system view of your Agile organization.

The guide to the right breaks down your organization into its component parts and shows how to align these and how to achieve agility within and between them using a 4-quadrant perspective.

Click each icon to view the practice guide for each ceremony, and each holon title to view key roles and timelines.

Back to map

Sprint planning

This session is the heartbeat of the iterative process at the team level.

The objective is to decide upon what will be delivered in the next iteration (if you’re using Scrum). Kanban teams who do not run in Sprints tend to pull from the top of the backlog as new items and priorities arise, but in many cases can also benefit from planning on a cadence of their choosing for work suitable for forward planning and to discuss capacity allocation.

Values & Goals
Do I have too much work?
Do I know what I have to do?
Product & Impact
Prioritized sprint backlog
Select stories to work on
Team pulls the work
Story task plan
Achievable sprint plan
Leadership & Culture
Sprint Goal
External team collaboration
Effective communication
Team commitment to sprint plan
Markets & Environment
Capacity planning
Resources are available

Back to map

Daily Stand Up

The main purpose of this meeting is to coordinate team efforts towards the iteration goal. Best practices suggest a brief (15 minute) meeting with anything outside the scope of daily coordination to be taken offline by the Scrum Master.

Examples of topics to be taken offline include:

  • Design considerations (technical or product related)
  • Strategy regarding removal of impediments
  • Coordination with other teams
Values & Goals
What am I planning to do today?
Do I feel confident about my work?
Active listening
Product & Impact
What did I do yesterday?
Discuss impediments
Check burn down chart
Completion of work
Update task plan
Leadership & Culture
Am I fully present?
Ask for help
Provide updates
Taking things offline (planning to meet later)
Coordination to achieve sprint goal
Markets & Environment
Blocks/issues to resolve
Update the Sprint plan

Back to map

Backlog Refinement

This session ensures the team will be able to deliver the right things, at the right time, without getting blocked. The team and Product owner meet regularly to maintain a Detailed, Estimated, Emergent, and Prioritized backlog that meets a team’s Definition of READY, which is key to enabling the efficient creation of valuable products that delight customers.

Benefits of a healthy backlog include:

  • Reduction of defects/improved quality
  • Reduction of re-work
  • The highest priority items get to the customer sooner
Values & Goals
Empowered Product Owner
Engineer understands User Story
Product & Impact
Engaged Product Owner
Prioritize Backlog
Establish Planning Horizon
Choose stories to refine
Leadership & Culture
Aligned to Product Vision
Connected with the customer
Team helps refine stories
Partnership between Product & Tech
Markets & Environment
Definition of READY
Dependency resolution

Back to map

Retrospective

Continuous Improvement and the ability to adapt as things change is arguably the most important aspect of the Agile mindset. Retrospectives are open, honest sessions where team members, the Product Owner, and the Scrum Master share their experience of how the team is working together with ideas on how to better achieve their common goals.

The Retrospective should NEVER be skipped due to time constraints, and should always result in a tangible improvement plan that will be assessed for follow-through and impact at the beginning of the next Retrospective.

Values & Goals
How do I feel about the last Sprint?
Individual accountability
What can I do differently?
Product & Impact
What went well?
What didn’t go well?
Improvement actions/items
Measurement of improvement impact
Leadership & Culture
What can we do differently?
Open and honest intent
Markets & Environment
Team celebration choice/venue

Back to map

Sprint Review

The Sprint Review occurs at the end of each small iterative cycle. Its main purpose is to solicit feedback so the team can remain focused on the goals as the landscape changes. Everyone benefits from taking a step back to celebrate the good work the whole team has done, and seeing the product emerge step by step builds engagement and a feeling of success for all participants.

Values & Goals
Speak to MY work
Pride in my accomplishments
Product & Impact
Delivery of value/impact
View of the emerging product
Tracking towards business goals
Leadership & Culture
Customer/user feedback
Team feedback
Course correction (Priority & Learning)
Markets & Environment
Organizational/systemic learning
Systemic value delivery

Back to map

Quarterly Envisioning

This session defines the vision and objectives for the next quarter. It shifts the focus from OUTPUT to OUTCOMES. We know that there will always be more ideas than capacity to execute, and therefore there is always too much on the plate. Shifting the definition of success from “we delivered x amount of features to the market,” to “we made x impact on the world” allows the Team of Teams to look critically at the feature list and focus on those that will best advance the strategic objectives, and leave the rest as stretch goals.

The highest impact objectives are then aligned with those of other ToTs, as well as the annual objectives from Annual Lean Portfolio Management.

Values & Goals
Vision for the quarter
Aligned to purpose
Innovation mindset
Willing to take risks
Continuous improvement
Product & Impact
Quarterly OKRs
Define Features
Prioritization
Metrics
Feedback loops
Update roadmaps
Leadership & Culture
Maintain or improve ToT culture
Leader development
Feedback from employees
Open channels of communication
Top to bottom alignment of purpose/vision
Markets & Environment
Capacity plan
Explore flow improvements
Sequencing of Team execution
Hiring/talent acquisition
Systems/equipment/real estate procurement/dissolution
Promotions
Understand market conditions

Back to map

ToT Backlog Refinement (once a sprint, follow on to team refinement)

The Team of Teams Backlog Refinement session is led by the Chief Product Owner and attended by the Product Owners of all involved teams as well as any necessary SMEs. This should be held on the same day as the Team Backlog Refinement to properly align strategic and tactical decision making. The Product owner who facilitates the Team Backlog Refinement is a participant in the ToT backlog refinement and brings the full context of the team-level decisions to the ToT process. This key interconnection is critical to maintaining alignment between portfolio and team objectives.

Values & Goals
Vision for the Team
Empowered team
Committed team
Properly skilled and resourced
Product & Impact
Write down features
Make Features/Epics READY
Prioritization
Engaged Chief Product Owner
Split into shell stories
Planning horizon
Acceptance/Success criteria
Leadership & Culture
Shared vision
Cross-team collaboration
Help other teams
Product & tech perspectives
Markets & Environment
Feature level DoR
Architectural/Systemic needs
Dependency mitigation

Back to map

Team of Teams Quarterly Planning

This session best resembles what Scrum calls Release Planning, or what SAFe calls PI Planning. Our recommendation is to come up with a high level execution plan with key dependencies, risks, and milestones clearly defined. It is not necessary to thoroughly plan more than the first 1-2 sprints as the later sprints will be best informed by the results of the first ones, allowing the teams to Respond to change vs follow a plan.

Business context, design, and architectural needs should be well understood by all teams, and used to inform the high level plan with the best available current knowledge.

Values & Goals
Team goals
Cross functional
Self organizing
Self governing
Supportive of other teams
Proactive & creative culture
Responsible
Product & Impact
ToT Working agreement
Tooling that supports scale
Scaled plan - optimize for flow
Risk board
User flows
Architectural flows
OKRs finalized and shared
Roadmap
Leadership & Culture
Shared Scaled Goal
External team collaboration
Effective communication
Commitment to scaled plan intent
ToT Values
Retrospect on planning
Markets & Environment
Capacity planning
Resources are available
Dependency mapping & mitigation
Environments ready

Back to map

Scrum of Scrums (twice a Sprint or as needed)

The Scrum of Scrums brings together the Scrum Masters from each of the teams in the ToT to collectively navigate the ever changing environment while collaborating on shared product goals. The primary objectives are

  • Surfacing impediments and opportunities
  • Working together to support/enable each other
  • Escalating intractable issues to leadership.

The SoS will also often include representation from product or tech SMEs based on interest and need.

Values & Goals
Team morale
Team purpose
How is the team doing?
Solution mindset
Product & Impact
Update other teams
Update Agile tooling
Release burn up chart
Shift work to meet changing needs
Surface impediments
Leadership & Culture
Teams collaborating with teams
ToT shared purpose
Provide updates
Ask for help
Markets & Environment
Impediment reporting/removal
Dependency tracking
Capacity check in

Back to map

ToT Demo/Review (once a month or as needed)

The objective of the Team of Teams review is to demonstrate completed, integrated functionality to your stakeholders, partners, and other teams. The ability to take a step back and see the product evolve incrementally builds a sense of group accomplishment while bringing new perspectives and ideas to the table. It is a critical opportunity to have an open conversation with your customers to get their feedback and better understand their needs.

Values & Goals
Demonstrate work by team
Open to feedback
Engaged & excited, pride in their work
Product & Impact
Demonstrate integrated functionality
View of the emerging product
Tracking towards business goals
Leadership & Culture
Customer/User feedback
Team feedback (constructive)
Course correction (Priority, Learning)
Markets & Environment
Value added to the system/product?
Organizational/Systemic Learning
Review delivery against plan

Back to map

ToT Retrospective (once a month)

This session enables all collaborating teams to identify and respond to collective challenges and opportunities. The ToT retrospective is essential for building alignment across teams, establishing smooth working processes and building healthy relationships. We recommend holding both the team and ToT retrospectives on the same day, creating a half day dedicated to continuous improvement every month.

After the teams meet separately to gather their feedback, they gather in a larger session to identify common areas of improvement. Holding this offsite at a fun venue can be a great team building activity and help strengthen the bonds between teams.

Values & Goals
Team by team retro
Team accountability
Team learning
Product & Impact
Overall ToT retro
Action Items to improve
Measurement of action item impact
Leadership & Culture
What can we do differently at scale?
Open and honest intent
Teams share their experience
Markets & Environment
Team celebration choice/venue

Back to map

ToT Systems Governance (once a sprint)

The actions taken in the Team of Teams holon in this session are identical to those in Organization Systems Governance, but on a smaller scale with narrower focus. This session is where the strategic and tactical meet. It enables teams to maintain architectural integrity while responding to the emergent needs of ongoing product development. The key objective is to provide a means for the teams to balance short term (immediate delivery needs) and long term (adaptation of new technologies and capabilities) needs while maintaining or improving quality and maintainability.

Values & Goals
Alignment to Vision/Future Search
Subject matter expertise
Focus on simplicity
Focus on value add
Customer centricity
Product & Impact
Architectural runway
Choice of technology
Systems training
Pilot new ideas (POC)
Reporting (outcomes)
Reporting (systems)
Leadership & Culture
Train & mentor
Understand company culture
Support team's success
Continuous improvement
Take and respond to feedback
Markets & Environment
Reference architectures (best practices)
Avoid silos
Establish guard rails
Allow for flexibility in design (emergent)
Focus on enabling flow
Deploy system experts to instruct (coach)
Central document repository
Design follows needs
Appropriate robustness & performance

Back to map

Product Coordination (once per sprint)

This session replaces the traditional status update around product delivery with something that is more centered on coordinating how to respond to new challenges and opportunities. Over the course of delivering any product, older ideas may no longer be as relevant, and anyone who has ever worked on delivering a product to the market has been frustrated by how to handle the discovery of new work. In addition to surfacing and removing impediments, establishing an objective means to prioritize new work against existing without blowing your capacity budget or burning out your teams is the key objective for this session. Progress towards goals should be measured inside an established, transparent Agile process, and does not require special reporting.

Values & Goals
Commitment to improvement
Servant leader mindset
Proactive, not reactive
Value focused
THINK, DECIDE, COMMIT
Product & Impact
Portfolio Kanban
Raise impediments
Raise discovered work with context
How are my teams doing?
What is our plan moving forward? (Leadership guidance)
Release burn up per ToT & overall
Update leadership Kanban board
Leadership & Culture
Coordination
Provide updates
Focus on root causes
Trust & safety
Taking things offline
Ask for help
Accountable & responsible
Markets & Environment
Impediment resolution
Product governance

Back to map

Annual Lean Portfolio Management

This session defines the portfolio strategy for the year - what is the impact we want to have on the world, and how can we continue to evolve our culture? This session will differ depending on whether you are a small to medium business or a large enterprise with multiple technology and business portfolios.

Small - Medium Business

The first order of business will be to define both the Long Term (3+ year) and annual objectives (or OKRs). Once these objectives are set, conversations about investment, allocation, and everything else necessary to meet those objectives can effectively take place.

Enterprise

In a large enterprise, the goal will be to align annual objectives with the Long Term objectives set by the enterprise as a whole. It is also critical for each portfolio to align with each other to ensure everyone is pulling in the same direction.

Values & Goals
Long term vision (3+ years)
Annual Vision
Portfolio purpose
Innovation mindset
Willing to take risks
Continuous improvement
Product & Impact
Define 1year OKRs
Define 3year OKRs
Training plan
Pro Forma Income statement (P&L)
Define initiatives
New product approval
Update Customer Journeys & Experience
Portfolio Kanban Board
Leadership & Culture
Assess portfolio culture
Leader development
Feedback from employees
Open channels of communication
Top to bottom alignment of purpose/vision
Customer relationships
Sense & Response culture
Celebration of successes
Markets & Environment
Lean Budgeting (CapEX OPEX)
Reorganize teams to enable optimal flow
Update value stream map if necessary
Hiring/talent acquisition
Systems/equipment/real estate procurement/dissolution
Promotions
Understand market conditions
Define Run, Grow, Transform %
Target markets

Back to map

Quarterly Lean Portfolio Management

Quarterly LPM sessions are designed to get feedback from leading and lagging indicators set by the annual objectives. The quality and speed of the response to new information will be a key differentiator in competitive advantage, both internally and externally. This includes but is not limited to: prioritizing new features, shifting capacity where its needed, changing people's experience at work, and any necessary team or cultural shifts to ensure alignment and maintain or improve morale.

Values & Goals
Vision for the quarter
Aligned to purpose
Innovation mindset
Willing to take risks
Continuous improvement
Product & Impact
Quarterly OKRs
Define Features
Prioritization
Metrics
Feedback loops
Update roadmaps
Benefits realization (QBR)
SOWs
Leadership & Culture
Maintain or improve portfolio culture
Leader development
Feedback from employees
Open channels of communication
Top to bottom alignment of purpose/vision
Markets & Environment
Capacity plan
Explore flow improvements
Sequencing of ToT execution
Hiring/talent acquisition
Systems/equipment/real estate procurement/dissolution
Promotions
Understand market conditions

Back to map

Portfolio Retrospective (once a month)

Retrospectives at this level are simultaneously focused on the health and success of the leadership team as well as the many people they both lead and impact. The creation of a continuous improvement culture starts with leaders leading by example, and uses the collective feedback from their colleagues to create the kind of working environment that enables people and the systems they work with to achieve their full potential.

Values & Goals
How do I feel about how we're doing?
Individual accountability
What can I do differently?
Am I aligned to the vision?
Open, humble mindset
Value/impact focus
Product & Impact
What's going well?
What's not going well?
How is delivery going?
Measurement of growth item impact
Leadership & Culture
Ask for help
How can we improve?
Open and honest intent
Celebration of successes
How are we perceived as leaders?
Markets & Environment
Growth Item backlog to improve/respond
Portfolio acknowledgement/celebration

Back to map

Process Governance (once a month)

Ok, let's change the tone here… has anyone in any role had a look at current processes and thought to themselves: "This is amazing! This is the most efficient and pleasurable, combination of process and tooling that strikes the perfect balance between clarity and accuracy of information, and ease of communicating and formatting said information? No, no one has ever said that sequence of words in any working environment. Process governance is all about taking an informed guess as to what will best suit a transparent, collaborative and accountable working environment, and tuning the process and tooling based on feedback from every role in your organization.

Values & Goals
Process objective
Alignment to Vision/Future Search
Subject matter expertise
Focus on simplicity
Focus on value add
MVC (Minimal Viable Change)
Systems thinking (avoid silos)
Focus on enabling flow
Product & Impact
Choice of tooling
Training sessions
Test/Pilot new processes
Work progress metrics
Team health/productivity metrics
Score cards
Leadership & Culture
Consult, coach, train & mentor
Understand company cultural goals & values
Support team's success
Continuous improvement
Take and respond to feedback
Empowerment
Celebration of successes
Knowledge Sharing (succession plans)
Markets & Environment
Establish processes & systems
Establish best practices
Deploy process experts to instruct (coach)
Focus on enabling flow
Make impediments & dependencies easier to navigate (impact of problems)
Establish guard rails
Allow for flexibility in the process
Development value streams to reduce waste
Design follows needs
Enable Quality
MVC Journey

Back to map

Systems Governance (once a month)

Balancing the immediate needs of the business with new capabilities that will be needed in the future with emergent technological advances while staying focused on delivery deadlines is quite the tightrope to walk. The purpose of this session is to define the architectural runway for the portfolio as a whole while taking in feedback from the teams to refine the strategy based on its application. Choosing and adapting the best technologies to enable the optimal flow of value requires an emergent, flexible design structure.

Values & Goals
Alignment to Vision/Future Search
Subject matter expertise
Focus on simplicity
Focus on value add
Customer centricity
Product & Impact
Architectural runway
Choice of technology
Systems training
Pilot new ideas (POC)
Reporting (outcomes)
Reporting (systems)
Leadership & Culture
Train & mentor
Understand company culture
Support team's success
Continuous improvement
Take and respond to feedback
Markets & Environment
Reference architectures (best practices)
Avoid silos
Establish guard rails
Allow for flexibility in design (emergent)
Focus on enabling flow
Deploy system experts to instruct (coach)
Central document repository
Design follows needs
Appropriate robustness & performance

Back to map

Envisioning & Elaborating Initiatives (DoR)

This process typically kicks off in earnest after annual objectives are set, and there’s a clear idea about the overall strategy for the upcoming year. After the list of ideas has been trimmed to a set that will fit into the known budget/capacity, initiative owners, their business teams, and their technology partners can get to work elaborating the solution. This often involves multiple design sessions, rapid prototyping to get early feedback, the testing of new technologies, establishing your key feature set (MVP), and the creation of a loose roadmap with an impact analysis. The objective is to bring the initiative to an established Definition of READY, where there’s general comfort and consensus around the value to be delivered, who needs to be involved, and the relative effort.

Values & Goals
Vision for the portfolio
Empowered product team
Commitment to improvement
Properly skilled and resourced
Proactive, not reactive
Value focused
THINK, DECIDE, COMMIT
Focus on Objectives
ROI focused
Lean MVP mindset
Product & Impact
ROI
Business case
Prioritization
Engaged Portfolio Owner
Roadmap
Create shell features
Pricing strategy
Portfolio Kanban
Create personas
Success criteria
Pirate metrics (ARRRR)
Leadership & Culture
Aligned to portfolio vision
Meaningful to the product team
Product & tech perspectives
Coordination
Trust & safety
Ask for help
Accountable & responsible
Connected with the customer
Markets & Environment
Performance ranges
Market conditions
External & Internal competitive analysis
Marketing strategy
Sales strategy
Legal & Compliance
Architectural/Systemic needs
Dependency mitigation
Improve refinement practice plan
Establish training where necessary
Explore possible need for technical uplift
Impediment resolution

Back to map

Long Term Planning (3+ Years)

This is an opportunity for executive officers and the board to reflect on all internal and external feedback and to establish or revise the long term objectives necessary to maintain competitive advantage and the overall health of the enterprise. Examples of feedback include changing technology and market conditions, product/portfolio performance against projections, employee surveys focused on enterprise culture, and the health and performance of the executive team.

Values & Goals
Long range vision (3+ years)
Enterprise Purpose/Vision
Innovation mindset
Willing to take risks
Continuous improvement & learning
Product & Impact
Define 3 year OKRs
Rolling 3 year roadmap
Leadership & Culture
Aligned to portfolio vision & objectives
Meaningful to the product team
Product & tech perspectives
Coordination
Trust & safety
Ask for help
Accountable & responsible
Connected with the customer
Markets & Environment
Performance ranges
Market conditions
External & Internal competitive analysis
Marketing strategy
Sales strategy
Legal & Compliance
Architectural/Systemic needs
Dependency mitigation
Improve refinement practice plan
Establish training where necessary
Explore possible need for technical uplift
Impediment resolution

Back to map

Enterprise Annual Planning

This session defines the enterprise strategy for the year - what is the impact we want to have on the world, and how can we continue to evolve our culture as a business? Similar to the Long Term Planning session, feedback is received from all directions and combined to create a cohesive strategy for the year. Following this session, the #1 priority is to ensure each portfolio area is aware of and aligned to the refined enterprise strategy.

Values & Goals
Long Term vision (3+ years)
Annual Vision
Enterprise Purpose/Vision
Innovation mindset
Willing to take risks
Continuous improvement
Product & Impact
Opportunity identification
Refine 3year OKRs
Define 1year OKRs
Pro Forma Income statement (P&L)
Rolling 1 year roadmap
Product approval/EOL
Prioritization
Enterprise Kanban Board
Customer Journeys & Experience
Consent Order
Leadership & Culture
Portfolio Context & Alignment
Assess Enterprise culture
Leader development
Feedback from employees
Open channels of communication
Top to bottom alignment of purpose/vision
Board approval
Contractual Agreements
Customer relationships
Sense & Response culture
Celebration of successes
Markets & Environment
Acquisition/Divestiture realization
Enterprise investment/allocation
Update value stream maps
Hiring/talent management
Systems/equipment/real estate procurement/dissolution
Understand market conditions
Target markets
Distribution strategy/scorecard
Enterprise Technology Business Management Strategy
Enterprise Organizational architecture
Global Legal, Compliance & Regulatory

Back to map

Enterprise Coordination

The main purpose of this session is responding to change. Open channels of communication from top to bottom and back are essential so that leaders can respond to accurate, timely information. Creating and nurturing a culture of safety and transparency is paramount to getting accurate feedback and maintaining alignment across the enterprise.

Values & Goals
Vision for the quarter
Aligned to purpose
Innovation mindset
Willing to take risks
Continuous improvement
Product & Impact
Quarterly OKRs
Benefits realization (QBR)
Feedback loops
Update roadmaps
Update Customer Journey
Updated prioritization
Leadership & Culture
Maintain or improve enterprise culture
Leader development
Feedback from employees
Open channels of communication
Top to bottom alignment of purpose/vision
Customer relationships
Sense & Response culture
Celebration of successes
Markets & Environment
Enterprise Investment
Hiring/talent management
Systems/equipment/real estate procurement/dissolution
Understand market conditions
Target markets
Distribution strategy/scorecard
Enterprise Technology Business Management Strategy
Enterprise Organizational architecture
Global Legal, Compliance & Regulatory
Adjust Reorganization Plans

Back to map

Enterprise Retrospective (Twice a year)

The Enterprise Retrospective maintains the health of the executive team and its relationship with the board, while promoting a thriving culture based on innovation and strong values. Typically semi-annual, its cadence is driven by the length of the enterprise feedback loop needed to gather sufficient, actionable feedback in the particular organization.

Values & Goals
How do I feel about our direction?
Individual accountability
What can I do differently?
Am I aligned to the vision?
Open, humble mindset
Value/impact focus
Product & Impact
What's going well?
What's not going well?
How are we tracking towards outcomes?
Measurement of action item impact
Leadership & Culture
Ask for help
How can we improve?
Open and honest intent
How are we operating as a team?
How are we perceived as leaders?
Perception of Wall Street (if public)
Perception of our customers/public
Celebration of successes
Markets & Environment
Growth Item backlog
Organizational needs

Back to map

Enterprise Process Governance (Once a month)

Choosing the ideal processes and tools enterprise wide often involves years of trial, error and adaptation. Striking the right balance between guard rails, flexibility, ease of collaboration, and metric based data integrity (as well as which metrics to follow!) requires continually engaging with teams to hear their pain points with existing processes and tools, mining that feedback to create the next Minimal Viable Change and measuring its impact.

Values & Goals
Process objective
Alignment to Vision/Future Search
Subject matter expertise
Focus on simplicity
Focus on value add
MVC
Systems thinking (avoid silos)
Focus on enabling flow
Product & Impact
All collaboration tooling
Training sessions
Test/Pilot new processes
Work progress metrics
Team health/productivity metrics
Score cards
Leadership & Culture
Consult, coach, train & mentor
Understand company cultural goals & values
Support team success
Continuous improvement
Take and respond to feedback
Help create affinity & transparency enabling collaboration across LoBs
Empowerment
Celebration of successes
Free sharing of knowledge (succession plans)
Markets & Environment
Establish processes & systems
Establish best practices, guard rails & playbooks
Deploy process experts (coach)
Make impediments & dependencies easier to navigate
Allow for flexibility in the process
Map & design development value streams to enable flow
Process design follows needs
Enable Quality
MVC change plans

Back to map

Enterprise Systems Governance (Once a month)

Whether your enterprise is relatively new, built on modern technology, or its over a century old, balancing innovation with stability while enabling future business capabilities is an ongoing game of trade-offs. Enterprise Systems governance ensures that systems evolve in response to feedback from the portfolios and emerging technology while continuing to align with the long term architectural vision.

Values & Goals
Alignment to Vision/Future Search
Subject matter expertise
Focus on simplicity
Focus on value add
Customer centricity
Systems thinking
Lean mindset
Product & Impact
Catalogue of Enterprise Architectural Technology
Architectural runway
Systems training
Pilot new ideas (POC)
Reporting (outcomes)
Reporting (systems)
Leadership & Culture
Consult, coach, train & mentor
Understand company cultural goals & values
Support team success
Continuous improvement
Take and respond to feedback
Free sharing of knowledge (succession plans)
Celebration of successes
Systems thinking (avoid silos)
Markets & Environment
Reference architectures
System procurement/dissolution & disaster recovery
Establish guard rails
Allow for flexibility in design
Implement development value stream improvements to enable flow
Deploy system experts (coach)
Central document repository & SORs
Design follows needs
Meet vulnerability guidelines with appropriate robustness & performance
Integration of industry standards & future innovations

Back to map

Enterprise Business Strategy (Twice a year)

The highest level of pure Business Agility, this session focuses on experimentation, creativity, deep relationships with the customer base, and an innovation mindset. This is a pure brainstorming session that takes in feedback on market conditions, customer needs, internal capabilities, challenges and opportunities and generates possibilities to excite and delight. The frequency may vary depending on the length of the enterprise feedback loop needed to gather sufficient, actionable feedback in each organization but the ideal is to create a "tick, tock" cadence where a strategy is established and refined semiannually.

Values & Goals
Alignment to Vision
Subject matter expertise
Focus on value add
Customer centricity
Systems thinking
Lean mindset
Moral & ethical mindset
Product & Impact
Stock price
Product performance & NPS
Leadership & Culture
Customer relationships & behavior
Strategic relationships
Brand perception
Political relationships
Wall Street Perception
Competitive relationships
Markets & Environment
Market Analysis (opportunities & threats)
Fiscal analysis & goals
Customer base analysis (demographics)
PR/Advertising plans
Product families
Enterprise capabilities
Environmental & Humanitarian impact
Advertising & marketing plans
R&D

Back to map

Individual Holon - Roles

Role definition is one of the biggest challenges currently faced in our ever changing environment. Finding and growing the right talent for the right role and enabling their success is the most important element to having a healthy organization.

A 4 Quadrant Perspective is necessary to fully grasp and execute the critical roles involved in having an effective and impactful Agile business and technology strategy.

Enterprise

  • CEO
  • Coach
  • CTO/CIO
  • CHRO
  • CFO

Organization

  • organization Owner
  • organization Coach
  • Architect
  • Stakeholder
  • Portfolio Operations

Team of Teams

  • C Product Owner
  • ToT Coach
  • ToT Architect
  • Stakeholder
  • Subject Matter Expert SME

Team

  • Product Owner
  • Scrum Master
  • Tech Lead
  • Stakeholder
  • SME