Applying the Agile Organizing
Framework to Team Management
Dr. Nicole Radziwill & Dr. Morgan Benton (JMU)
This Talk is About the Agile
Organizing Framework (AOF)
What is Agility and How Do You GET IT?
• Developed using an interpretive case
study approach, it is "an empirically based
framework grounded in Complex Adaptive
Systems (CAS) theory that can be used to
guide the organization of agile software
development" (Vidgen & Wang, 2009)
• The researchers studied both agile and
non-agile software development
environments to develop the AOF
Our Initial Motivation
"If you've lived in the software world for a few years you
know the stuff they teach you in school is irrelevant, so who
cares what degree you have?"
-- Jason Cohen, code review expert, at
http://blog.asmartbear.com/not-competitive-advantage.html
Question: If much of the functional and skills-based
knowledge that technology developers learn in school so
quickly becomes obsolete, how can we best prepare
students for jobs in the software world?
Answer: Model a mindful PROCESS in the classroom to
learn and do technology development
How Can I Use the AOF?
You can think of it as a CHECKLIST:
• Make sure you are cultivating agile team
capabilities for each of the three principles
Or you can think of it as an IDEA LIST:
• What things can YOU do as the manager
of a software development team to help
them become more agile?
• What things can you AVOID doing that
might impede your team’s agility?
Principle 1: Match Coevolutionary Change Rate
• Coevolution of Team and Customer to Create Value
• Sustainable Working with Rhythm
Principle 2: Optimize Self-Organizing
• Collective Mindfulness
• Sharing and Team Learning
Principle 3: Synchronize Exploitation and Exploration
• Process Adaptation and Improvement
• Product Innovation
Structure of the AOF
There are 3 PRINCIPLES in the AOF
derived from CAS
There are 2 ACTIVITIES that have been
identified to support each PRINCIPLE
There are MANY WAYS you can ENABLE
and INHIBIT agility
Principle 1: Match Coevolutionary Change Rate
• Activities:
• Coevolution of Team and Customer to Create Value
• Sustainable Working with Rhythm
Principle 2: Optimize Self-Organizing
• Activities:
• Collective Mindfulness
• Sharing and Team Learning
Principle 3: Synchronize Exploitation and Exploration
• Activities:
• Process Adaptation and Improvement
• Product Innovation
Principle 1: Match CoEvolutionary Change Rate
• Activities:
• Coevolution of Team and Customer to
Create Value
• Sustainable Working with Rhythm
The business and technical reps on a team
ADAPT their structures and behaviors in
response to interactions
Develop shared ROUTINES and monitor the
RATE OF CHANGE in their environment
Creating an Agile Environment
DO
DON’T
• Continuously gather
requirements
• Pace work by time, with
frequent iterations that
deliver business value often
(SLICE METHOD)
• Short, fixed-length
iterations, multilevel plans
• Regular and frequent breaks
and closure
• Rigidly dictate & sign off on
requirements (and up-front
plan)
• Define all requirements upfront with no revisiting
• Require team and customer
to “over-communicate”
• Pace work by planned
events (end of scoping) or
unplanned perturbations
Principle 2: Optimize SelfOrganization
• Activities:
• Collective Mindfulness
• Sharing and Team Learning
The development team continuously scans
their environment identifying appropriate ways
to adapt to changing needs in response to
interactions
Leadership is shared between team members
and their development manager
Creating an Agile Environment
DO
DON’T
• Share responsibility for
project management; each
member of the team is part
of your project’s “society”
• Encourage reflection, selfobservation and peer
reviews
• Support open working
spaces and multiskilling
• Centralize project manager
& management and keep it
hidden and separate from
the team
• Let the project manager
become a bottleneck
• Rely too much on informal
communication
• Over-communicate
Principle 3: Synchronize
Exploitation and Exploration
• Activities:
• Process Adaptation & Improvement
• Product Innovation
The development team leverages its current
resources to continually improve capabilities
The development team and manager
continually explore new technologies, modes
of operation, and process innovation
Creating an Agile Environment
DO
• Challenge effective
practices
• Challenge ineffective
practices
• Formalize study as part of
the development process
• Allocate time for creative
problem-solving
DON’T
• Rely too much on common
sense… make data-driven
decisions
• Impose a process on the
development team
• Miss opportunities for
collaborative exploration
AOF: A Checklist/Idea List
Principle 1: Match Coevolutionary
Change Rate
• Coevolution of Team and
Customer to Create Value
• Sustainable Working with Rhythm
Principle 2: Optimize Self-Organizing
• Collective Mindfulness
• Sharing and Team Learning
Principle 3: Synchronize Exploitation and
Exploration
• Process Adaptation and Improvement
• Product Innovation
Contact
• nicole.radziwill@gmail.com
• nicoleradziwill.com
• bentonmc@jmu.edu
• Key Reference: Vidgen, R. & Wang, X. (2009). Coevolving
Systems and the Organization of Agile Software Development.
Information Systems Research, 20(3), Sept. 2009, p. 355-376.