How do you scale your agile plan across multiple teams and projects?

In my experience, I usually quote Marissa Mayer, the ex-CEO of Yahoo, that she used to state the vision and mission of the organization when she was there in a meeting, this she mentioned in a interview helped her gain an alignment within the team and organization as a whole as well. Start with the Why always, to gain better alignment. For example, in a SAFe (Scaled Agile) PI planning context setting, is suppose to be very important as 20 - 25% of the agenda is spent this. This is primarily done by getting a Business Context / Goal Setting, then by the getting an understanding of the solution / product needs and then the technical guidance / standards context setting.

In addition to clarifying and communicating your vision and goals, here are some other ways agile leaders can align their plans effectively: Establish a common language and understanding: Make sure everyone involved in the planning process understands the agile methodology, terminology, and principles. Define clear roles and responsibilities: Create cross-functional teams: Use agile frameworks and tools: Prioritize and sequence work: Continuously review and adapt: Agile planning is an iterative process, so it's essential to continuously review and adapt your plan as you receive feedback, learnings, and changes in priorities. This will help ensure that your plan remains relevant and effective.

Define the pros and cons of each of these scaling frameworks to help the reader better understand the potential frameworks themselves. Most of this information is readily available on the internet.

In addition to the factors mentioned earlier, here are some other considerations for choosing a scaling framework: Evaluate the maturity level of your organization: Choose a framework that aligns with your organization's level of maturity in agile practices. If you are just starting with agile, a simpler framework such as Nexus might be a better fit, while if you have more experience, you might consider a more comprehensive framework like SAFe. Consider the size and complexity of your organization: Assess the need for customization: Involve your teams in the decision-making process: Experiment and iterate: Choosing a scaling framework is not a one-time decision, and it's important to experiment and iterate as you go.

Again, I would quote Scaled Agile framework (SAFe) here as an example, as it helps organizing teams around value streams. Scaled Agile quotes "A series of steps needed to be taken to deliver a product or service is as a value stream." And SAFe further classifies value streams into Operational Value Streams and Development Value Streams. In SAFe, organizing around value involves the following steps: Identify Value Streams, Define ARTs (Agile Release Trains), Create Team Structures, Establish Roles and Responsibilities, Implement Agile Practices, Implement Program Increment Planning and Use SAFe Artifacts.

Here are some additional tips for organizing your teams and projects when scaling your agile plan: Create shared goals and objectives: Ensure that your teams and projects have shared goals and objectives that align with your vision and goals. This will help promote collaboration and ensure that everyone is working towards a common purpose. Use a common backlog: Use a common backlog to track and prioritize work across multiple teams and projects. This will help ensure that everyone is working on the most important tasks and minimize duplicate work. Foster communication and collaboration: Establish clear decision-making processes: Use visual management tools: Provide training and support:

In my experience, we could use SAFe (one of the Scaling Frameworks) to plan collaboratively and iteratively. SAFe recommends to use Iterative and Incremental cycles to build and deliver your products and services. At my current engagement for a major US based Airline, we use 4 iterations per year (approximately a quarter) split as 6 to 8 Increments of 2 week each.

Here are some additional tips for planning collaboratively and iteratively when scaling your agile plan: Involve all relevant stakeholders: In addition to customers, users, and sponsors, involve all relevant stakeholders in your planning sessions, including team members, product owners, and subject matter experts. This will help ensure that everyone has a voice and can contribute to the planning process. Use a variety of planning techniques: Use a variety of planning techniques, such as story mapping, affinity mapping, or impact mapping, to facilitate collaboration and generate ideas. Break down work into smaller, manageable chunks: Prioritize work based on business value: Plan for contingencies: Review and adapt regularly:

In my experience, retrospectives are integral part of any thing that you would like to improve. If you want an improvement, the best way is to retrospect yourself be is yourself, a team, a team of teams or an organization. The context of your retrospectives can include PPT, namely, people, processes, and tools / technologies or environments.

Here are some additional tips for inspecting and adapting your agile plan when scaling across multiple teams: Establish clear metrics: Establish clear metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of your plan. These metrics should be aligned with your vision and goals and should be tracked regularly. Use data to inform decision-making: Use data to inform decision-making and identify areas for improvement. Collect data on team performance, customer satisfaction, and business value to inform your planning decisions. Conduct regular reviews and retrospectives: Encourage experimentation and innovation: Implement changes incrementally: Continuously learn and improve:

Continuous Improvement is no longer a choice it's a mandate for every individual, team and organization. Irrespective of what you pick as your model for improvement, be it kaizen, or PDCA or otherwise, you will always have an step where you will have to inspect and adapt. By Inspect and adapt, I mean start with a plan, execute as per plan, evaluate yourself to see if you are following the plan or made changes to it while you are implementing your plan, then take time to look back and observe. Based on your observations and finding, create your own improvement plan and follow it to get it done.

Here are some additional tips for optimizing and improving your agile plan when scaling across multiple teams: Foster a culture of continuous improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging teams to reflect on their performance and identify areas for improvement. Celebrate successes and recognize team members who contribute to the improvement of the organization. Embrace experimentation and innovation: Embrace experimentation and innovation by creating a safe environment where teams can try new ideas and approaches. Encourage cross-team collaboration: Emphasize quality and customer satisfaction: Regularly review and assess your agile plan: Continuously invest in your teams:

In my experience, getting to work on cadence and synchronization is a great way to align most of your organizational teams. This can help you as when one team is going on to a planning with all the teams across the organization. For example, create opportunities of tight bubbles to integrate your code early and often to avoid risks. This is following the principles of Continuous Integration.

Here are some additional tips for Agile Leaders who are scaling their agile plan across multiple teams: Build trust and transparency: Build trust and transparency by communicating openly and honestly with your teams and stakeholders. Share your vision and goals, and be transparent about your plans, progress, and challenges. This will help foster a culture of trust and collaboration. Foster a culture of autonomy: Foster a culture of autonomy by empowering your teams to make decisions & take ownership of their work. Provide guidance & support, but allow your teams to work independently Focus on outcomes, not outputs: Encourage diversity and inclusivity: Continuously assess and improve your processes: Invest in your agile infrastructure: