A practical approach to improve the performance of your agile teams

Part 1, improving an A-level ecosystem with horizontal scaling.

The organizational archetypes of the Org Topologies™ map can be used to plot organization designs that we refer to as ecosystems. This article describes an A-type ecosystem for (software) product development, the prevalent dynamics in it, and the solutions to improve performance using Org Topologies™ mapping.

If you are unfamiliar with the Org Topologies™ approach, you can read this article to catch up and have a basic understanding of Org Topologies™.

Example of an A-type Ecosystem

The A-level ecosystem is a combination of organizational archetypes where the A-level archetype is most prominent. At the A-level, as per the Org Topologies™ map, the work is done by the teams at the feature level. This means that their Product Backlog contains features, rather than tasks or business initiatives. However, customers do not think about application features, they have a “job to be done”, a need to be met. For example, a user might need to find the best option to travel from A to B. We can help the user by offering a product that will allow them to select a mode of transport based on relevant selection criteria (time of itinerary, cost, scheduled departure or arrival times, etc). This product consists of a series of features: set selection criteria, search, show travel options, select travel options, see itinerary details, manage profile, price…