An Amplio Learning Journey
Amplio Business Agility
About this learning journey
The Amplio Business Agility workshop is designed to help organizations achieve agility in their product management and development organizations to improve both their effectiveness and efficiency.
It is not a framework but a collection of the 30 objectives that must be met in order to be effective. Each objective is described as a pattern, that is, a solution to a recurring problem in a context. This enables adjusting how to achieve success by adjusting it to your context. The objectives are organized as a pattern language so you can add to it as needed.
It is based on a foundation of Flow, Lean, the Theory of Constraints, and Human-Centered Development. It is part of the Amplio system which provides learning journies for all aspects of creating success for an organization. It uses modern training methods which incorporate a set of virtual collaboration boards.
Al Shalloway, a recognized thought leader and creator of dozens of Agile workshops, created this workshop. He has been on the forefront of XP, Scrum, Lean, Kanban, SAFe and more. This workshop integrates all of these approaches to create a cohesive approach to business agility across an organization.
Amplio reverses solutions and problems
Virtually all Agile approaches start with learning a solution and then learning how to apply it. This workshop teaches you how to improve your development by starting with how to do it. It then presents the necessary theory and practices to support it. When you reflect on it learning a system and then learning how to apply it is not as good as learning a system by using it. That’s how this workshop is done.
The benefit of Amplio
Amplio allows you to create a tailored approach for your needs and then to continue to improve it. This makes it more effective and easier to learn. This also enables your organization to continue to improve.
A unique opportunity for those who want to bring training in-house.
There are two high costs to Agile organization improvement. The first is using approaches with pre-ordained methods. Amplio can get you past that. But the other cost is the cost of training. This is doubly expensive because it is so ineffective when done with the intense training methods required by outside vendors.
If you are a capable Agile practitioner who is a good internal coach, combining the Amplio Business Agility workshop with the Amplio Consultant Educators Learning Journey can help you become an internal consultant/trainer for how to do Agile at scale in your organization.
Contact Al Shalloway if you’re interested in learning more about this program.
Dates of sessions
This is offered as a private workshop only.
Prerequisite
Be familiar with Agile.
Duration
Enrollment in 4 months of weekly Dr Is In sessions is automatic.
Cost
Variable depending upon the number of participants.
Format
Live, virtual (Zoom)
What you will learn
- Learn to determine the best place for an organization to start.
- Be equipped to tailor an organization’s improvement plan based on their unique needs, while also paying attention to their culture.
- Know how to accelerate the realization of value by your customers at scale.
- Identify the most effective practices for each situation with the help of the factors for effective value streams—whether it be a new Agile transition or continuing a stagnated SAFe or Spotify approach. See how you can use these to pull practices from other approaches as well.
- Be able to train an organization to continue to improve on their own.
Additional Details
Participants are automatically enrolled in the Amplio Business Agility Learning Journey for four months from the date of their workshop. During this time participants can attend:
- Attend Dr. Is In sessions (offered four times a month)
- Retake an Amplio Business Agility workshop at a later date within a year.
The bulk of the workshop is in the first 6 3.5-hour sessions. The follow-up session is provided to fill in any gaps people have found that would be useful.
In addition to the live sessions, a few hours of supplemental video sessions are provided.
Leaning objectives
Foundation
- Understanding value streams
- The generic value stream
- First principles and the Agile GPS
Viewing the enterprise as a product development system
- Identifying stakeholders and their success criteria based on value
- MVPs and Minimum Business Increments
- Bridging Business and IT/Product Implementation
- Agile budgeting and Lean Allocation
- Portfolio Management
- Product Management
Value planning
- Managing work in process with an intake process
- The planning event
- Removing delays in the workflow
Flow, Lean, and the Theory of Constraints
- Factors for effective value streams
- The role of management in an Agile organization
- Single, Double, and Triple Loop Learning
- End of increment activities
Value Creation Structure (Team Topologies)
- Different team structures
- Reducing (not accommodating) dependencies
Miscellaneous
- Creating visibility across the organization
- How to improve SAFe
Transition management
- Engaging with clients
- Core coaching methods
- Managing transitions
- Transition management
- Transition monitoring team
- Creating an improvement backlog
Amplio virtual collaboration boards
Virtual collaboration boards on Miro are more important than ever. While most people use them as virtual whiteboards, their potential impact is great. One or more boards are used each session. Each board is oriented toward identifying challenges and showing how to solve challenges.
All boards
The challenges board
The challenges board is a useful way to identify challenges at all levels (teams to organizations) and track the status of resolving them. ABA, ACE, ADM, AVC
Amplio team estimation
Amplio Team Estimation takes 10-25% of the time Planning Poker does while providing better results and also works in situations where only one or two team members know how to estimate something. ABA, ACE, ADM, AVC
First principles and factors for effective value streams
Amplio is based on Flow, Lean, and the Theory of Constraints. When these are understood, many complex problems become understandable. ABA, ACE, ADM, AVC
Timeboxing or flow
This board guides in deciding whether a team should plan with timeboxing or flow. ABA, ACE, ADM, AVC
Agile requirements with MBIs and MVPs
MVPs are about checking your assumptions, and MBIs are for enhancing existing products.
Creating MBIs and MVPs
Agility is predicated on creating small items of value. This board facilitates identifying stakeholders’ values and writing up what can be quickly created and released. ABA, ACE, ADM
Value creation structures
How people are organized has a big impact on how workflows. ABA, ACE, ADM
The dot game
The dot game is an easy way to teach the essence of Agile in an hour in a remote manner. This can also be given to management to teach them the essence of Agile and the importance of self-organization. ACE*
Capabilities for a quick start
Although Amplio is incredibly rich in options, it can start as simply as Scrum. This board is used to create a quick, simple start for any situation. ABA, ACE, ADM
Creating an improvement backlog
While the earlier “quick start” board is used to start an Agile transition, this board identifies what improvements are needed and the order in which to implement them. ABA, ACE*, ADM
Running Café Conversations
Cafe conversations are a great way to get 20-50 people to learn together about what they think is happening. ACE
Doing a pre-mortem
Take a little time to avoid some of the problems you will otherwise face. This based on Gary Klein’s pre-mortem. ABA, ACE, ADM, AVC
Two different After Action Review
These boards are useful to see how well you’ve done and how you can improve. ABA, ACE, ADM, AVC
Clean slate
The clean slate exercise is a way of clearing the air. ACE, AVC
Lean coffee
Lean coffees are informal meetings used to learn topics where the agenda is set by the participants. ABA, ACE, ADM, AVC
Feedback on feedback
Knowledge work is mostly invisible until something is demonstrated. Eliminating waste is mainly accomplished by eliminating delays in feedback. ABA, ACE, ADM, AVC
View all boards
Click “board details” to get more information on why these boards are so useful as well as to see the complete list of boards in Amplio.
Why you should take this workshop if you are a professional coach.
Most “coaching” workshops today are about how to follow a given framework. This workshop enables you to see what the people you are coaching needs based on their situation. Go beyond being a mere facilitator. Learn how to assist teams in working in better ways.
Mindset and practices
Amplio is based on the first principles of Flow, Lean, and the Theory of Constraints. This means that it can be contextualized to any situation. It provides a simple start that adjusts as the teams learn by providing a way to tell which of several optional practices would be an improvement.
It also includes several essential practices that aren’t in popular frameworks. These enable much better product management and workflow management.
The workshop is just the beginning
No workshop will transform a person alone. Even though Amplio facilitates learning in the workplace, more is needed. This is why after the first four-month offering, participants get an opportunity to review it (even if just for the Q&A session) and get enrolled in two sessions of the Value Stream Coach for free (a $790 value).
This gives participants access to senior Agile thought leaders for a year. They also get access to even more Miro boards and free updates.
All participants get a copy of the book on which the workshop is based: Amplio Development: The Path to Effective Lean-Agile Teams.
A follow-up train-the-trainer program is available for both independent consultants and those setting up internal training programs.
The course is a foundation for the consultant who wants to be able to train.
It is also the foundation for internal HR and Agile transition groups that want to grow their internal training organization at a low cost.
Instructor
Al Shalloway
Al Shalloway is the founder and CEO of Success Engineering. Al is a recognized thought leader in the areas of: Lean, SAFe, Kanban, Scrum, design patterns, Acceptance Test-Driven Development, Lean-management, value creation networks, Lean product management and more. He is the creator of the FLEX system that is the heart of the Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant workshop. He has co-written 5 books ranging from Design Patterns to Agile at Scale. He holds Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Mathematics from MIT and Emory respectively. He is an international speaker. He is a former contributor to SAFe and SPC trainer.
Register for Upcoming Learning Journeys
The Amplio Business Agility workshop is designed to help organizations achieve agility in their product management and development organizations to improve both their effectiveness and efficiency.
In the Amplio Community of Practice we discuss topics dealing with complexity, the risks of using frameworks, and how the lessons of engineering can be useful in product development. Also, discuss expert-level approaches at the team, enterprise, SAFe, and being a coach.
The Amplio Consultant Educators (ACEs) learning journey is designed to take experienced consultants and make them significantly better. It goes deeply into the principles and philosophy of Amplio. This enables ACEs to bring the Amplio approach to any other approach as well as deliver Amplio on its own.
The Amplio Development Masterclass workshop is part of an eight-month program to take experienced Agile coaches and turn them into experts as well as take those somewhat new to Agile and give them the experience it normally takes someone years to acquire.
The Amplio Value Coach teaches people how to be great team coaches. This workshop will help those doing any type of team approach – Scrum, Kanban, homegrown – but especially includes what is needed for Scrum Masters as Scrum puts more limitations on them than other approaches put on their team leads.