This is a case study describing the problem of navigating Agile's "first mile" - from Big Idea to clear, prioritized Product Backlog, in a large initiative, and how it was accomplished.

It is a story that begins with a large and confused product backlog and ends with a .clear, focused, well-sized and prioritized one, along with a clear, focused process for continuing to accomplish that feat again and again on a repeatable basis.

It has all the dramatic elements. BIG program. LOTS of stakeholders, separation of responsibilities, and hand-offs. An accumulated mix of multiple products and IT-focused re-engineering objectives. Deadlines.

That's where we start.

This presentation takes you step-by-step through our evolution of the process for addressing this problem, beginning with use of the Toyota A3 form to bring focus to the problem itself, to reorienting around goals and new collaboration models, to impact mapping, new, rapid prioritization and consensus processes to bring about an order of magnitude decrease in cycle time for incremental Product Backlog definition and order of magnitude increases in quality of and confidence in the Product Backlog itself.

We'll provide you tested actions and templates that you can tune for your own environment, to help you navigate through the remaining frontier of Agile Development, the area between Big Idea to clear, prioritized and actionable Product Backlog.

How many Agile coaches go into their coaching engagements unprepared?

Actually the question is impossible to answer; because there's no broadly known and accepted statement of what "being prepared as an Agile coach" encompasses or even means.

But we think this presentation will help - a lot.

It provides a simple but very effective exercise that any coach can perform to understand the ecosystem they are entering and where they sit within it, establish the communication channels that they will need to execute, and put them in a position to quickly contribute and learn.

As with all good things coaching, this presentation draws on the work of Peter Block. It distills a number of his preparation and readiness actions, plus some additional, distinctly Agile ones, into a graphic radiator we call "The Coaching Wheel."

Eisenhower notes, "Plans are worthless; planning is everything." How that applies here is that building your Coaching Wheel as you begin your engagement is the most valuable part. But it also encompasses a more fundamental step than planning. It includes mapping out the landscape of relationships. A bit oversimplified but useful summary is that it boils down to, "Where am I?" "What's the specific context? What's the game?" "What's my role in it?"

You'll see what we mean, because you'll get to build you're own Coaching Wheel! You can do one even if your role is not the coach, or even if you're not on an Agile project or team! While a few of the details may vary, the same technique can be used to orient you in any role, even if you've been in it for years.

Scaling frameworks can still be a polarizing topic. This session compares three of those frameworks on a factual basis:

• Where are they similar
• Where are they different

In terms of their own stated

• Principles and sources
• Structure, and
• Practices

As Lyssa Adkins noted, "...When we argue about this framework, that framework, the other framework; when we snipe at each other on social media; when we allow our Agile values to be compromised... those are from a bygone era and they are not worthy of us, not anymore. That’s not who we are... We're headed toward something else." (We are the Leaders We Have Been Waiting For https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6pPQ3W7npY&feature=youtu.be) (she also makes some other direct observations in this vein).

Following in that spirit, the purpose of this presentation is to present a fact-based comparison of the key elements of SAFe, LeSS, and Scrum@Scalle. It's not to feed you any pronouncements on the relative strengths or weaknesses of these three popular frameworks, or to assert which, if any is appropriate in what situations. Rather, the idea is to put you in a position to make your own informed judgments these points. And in doing so, perhaps deepen your understanding of the key issues and options associated with agile scaling.

(45 minute verson). Probably few topics in Agile generate more philosophical polarization, strength of opinion, and catch phrases than how to scale Agile, and nothing represents that fact better than comparisons of LeSS and SAFe. But if we step back and take a dispassionate look - or try to - what do we find at the next level of specifics? If you sift the data, what are key differences in terms of practice and structure, and the two or three key differences in principles or philosophy that drive them? What shakes out. And - what we rarely or ever dwell on - what is the same or similar about them, and what if anything can we learn from that? These are the questions we look at and results we share in this presentation.

Probably few topics in Agile generate more philosophical polarization, strength of opinion, and catch phrases than how to scale Agile, and nothing represents that fact better than comparisons of LeSS and SAFe. But if we step back and take a dispassionate look - or try to - what do we find at the next level of specifics? If you sift the data, what are key differences in terms of practice and structure, and the two or three key differences in principles or philosophy that drive them? What shakes out. And - what we rarely or ever dwell on - what is the same or similar about them, and what if anything can we learn from that? These are the questions we look at and results we share in this presentation.