Having just returned from the 2014 Agile Alliance conference, my inbox is filling up with emails containing articles on Scaling Agile. That topic is “all the buzz” coming out of the conference this year. And, as a result, I am getting at least a couple of emails a day offering advice, tips, and tricks. I received one just today that promised if I answered just two simple questions, I would be able to download a free white paper on the topic. Being this is one of my sweet spots when it comes to agile, of course I was hooked and I clicked on it. I like to get different perspectives on the topic because as I have said before… there is no one right way to scale agile! Anyway… Imagine my surprise when these two simple questions became five open-ended ones. Hmm… that wasn’t what I signed up for… So, I decided to pass. I also thought it was a little deceptive to lure me in and then double the number of questions I had to answer to get the paper. I can be rather black and white (which I find somewhat odd because I live in a world of grey), so the old “bait and switch” wasn’t going to work on me today.

Unfortunately, I think our industry does a lot of that. We’ve hyped scaling agile to almost legendary proportions. Almost every consulting company nowadays has an Agile practice. However I really haven’t met that many consultants that could actually tell me how to scale at the enterprise level. Most coaches I talk to usually focus on the teams. But after all, Scrum does assume that you have less than 10 teams, they are all collocated, the product owner is easily accessible, and you’re doing something cool like designing and building cutting edge R&D projects. Well, that is not the world that most of us live in today and if it was, you wouldn’t be concerning yourself in the finer points of scaling agile. Large organizations have many project types, teams are spread across the globe, and product owners don’t sit across the hall from the development teams any more. That is why there is so much talk around scaling agile. And, yes of course scaling includes the teams, but it has to go beyond that to reach across the entire organization. Let’s look at the three key elements you need to focus on in your quest for faster, better, cheaper! But remember, there is no “silver bullet” to solving this conundrum. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to scale, but in the long run, it will be more than worth it.

First Element: The Team… One of the easiest places to start is with your teams. I totally agree on this point. Scrum is deceptively simple and easy to teach, however it is very difficult to do well. It takes time for the teams to learn this new way of working. So, be patient and remember that failing fast is a good thing. Once they figure out the basics, then you can introduce the next element into the mix….

Second Element: Project Portfolio Management… Switching to a Portfolio-based model is very Lean in nature. Whether you realize it or not, Agile grew out of the Lean movement and they share many common characteristics that place the emphasis on building a Fast, flexible flow by limiting Work In Process (WIP), eliminating waste, and focusing on continuous improvement. By building and implementing a portfolio management function within side of your organization, you are paving the way to achieving scale whether you realize it or not. Having a clean, crisp portfolio that focuses on “What’s Next!” is key to figuring out how to get the most bang for your development buck. It is the piece that helps the organization focus on creating business value, then getting it organized into both short and long term strategies that in the end result in a very deliberate and prioritized roadmap that constantly evolves over time.

Third Element: Enterprise Project/Program Management… Yes, I said it… Management! And yes, this does need to coexist with “All Things Agile” in an enterprise setting. Whether we like it or not, stakeholders want to know what is going on when they are spending millions of dollars to develop complex business solutions. But project and program managers play an even more important role… they keep the team focused and free from outside distractions. Now, I am not advocating for an army of PMs running around trying to defend the team. However, a group of well-trained agile PMs are invaluable. They provide a level of blocking and tackling that is required to protect the teams in a large organization. Building an agile PMO is a key element is achieving agility and scaling your organization. I would strongly advise against succumbing to the knee jerk reaction of most companies that “go agile”… which is to get rid of this layer. That is not the way to achieve agility. If you have an existing PMO, you will need to figure out a way to retrain them and harness the knowledge, leadership, and skill sets they possess in a more agile way.

In conclusion, focusing on these key elements will make your journey to agility more realistic. And, keep in mind that agility is a journey and it takes an iterative process to layer these elements into an organization. As I have said, there is no “silver bullet” to scaling. It’s going to take a lot of commitment on your part, but overall every time I work with a client that beams about what agile has done for his or her company, I think the journey is well worth it. I hope you feel the same way!