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CoP

CoP and the LACE

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CoP and the LACE

SAFe LACE Alert

In my last post, I shared some ideas around the value of a Community of Practice and how to re-energize it if it’s lost a bit of momentum. Please read that one if you haven’t before reading on here.

Now I want to contrast things a bit between CoP’s and CoE’s. Specifically of the LACE kind… 

Contrasting between a CoP and a Center of Excellence?

There’s another notion you’ll often hear when discussing this area. It’s a Center of Excellence or CoE. My bias is going to shine through a bit here, but please bear with me.

A CoE is a more formal, top-down mechanism whose primary goal is the consistency of practice. That is, it’s focused on regulation and governance. Often metrics and agile performance metrics are tied to it as well. A good example of this idea is the Scaled Agile Framework’s – Lean-Agile Center of Excellence or LACE[1]. And you can also see the idea often marketed or aligned with the Agile PMO or PMI’s Disciplined Agile[2].

I’ve already alluded to the two problems I have with generic CoE’s. First is the prescriptive top-down nature—where the organization tries to mandate practices. I think that’s a non-starter in agile contexts and particularly not aligned with the agile mindset. So, implementing a CoE can actually do harm to your culture you’re trying to instill or support.

The second is that it disengages from the people doing the work. Which are the very people who are part of the “community” you’re trying to create. Typically, the teams and individuals only engage with the CoE because they’re told to. Not because they’re inspired to or are invited to participate.

In my opinion, you don’t create an agile culture by top-down mandate. It’s just doesn’t work. Instead, the organic nature of building a community of practitioners aligns so much better with our agile mindsets.

And the third challenge with creating a balanced and effective CoE relates to the agile maturity of the leadership team. If they’ve not evolved to an agile mindset, across leadership, then the CoE often becomes a mechanism for reinforcing controls and measurement.

All of these lead to problems if your goal is to truly develop and mature as an agile organization. So, approach LACE and all Centers of Excellence with caution and care.

 Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

 

 



[1] https://www.scaledagileframework.com/lace/

[2] https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/people/centers-of-excellence

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Community of PRACTICE

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Community of PRACTICE

Dare I say it, it’s a—Community of…

PRACTICE!

I was in our Moose Herd the other day, yes, you’ve herd me say that more than a few times in blogs ;-)

And we were talking about Communities of Practice (CoP’s) as a phenomenal way to “raise the bar” in agile organizational contexts.

Everyone was aware of the practice and had participated in them. But there was a general feeling that most organizations don’t have a good recipe for a great CoP. So, we started brainstorming some of the tactics or patterns for a Good-to-Great Community of Practice. Here are some of the ideas we explored—

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Agile Leadership – Community of Practice (CoP)

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Agile Leadership – Community of Practice (CoP)

I often hear of Communities of Practice as it relates to—

  • Product Ownership;

  • Scrum Mastery;

  • UX & Design;

  • DevOps;

  • Architecture;

  • Agile & Lean;

  • And Coaching

In agile contexts. But I rarely, if ever, hear of a Community of Practice as it relates to agile leadership. I wonder why?

I actually think the notion makes the most sense at the leadership level because there’s so much transformational work for leaders to take on around—

  • Finding the Vision and WHY behind their agile transformational efforts;

  • Establishing clarity around roles & responsibilities;

  • Creating more trust & empowerment across the organization;

  • Creating a more strategic focus;

  • Coaching their teams;

  • Actively culture-shaping in day-to-day behaviors;

  • Establishing effective metrics;

  • Learning, growing, and developing as effective agile servant leaders.

Shifting that must happen at the leadership level for an effective and successful agile transformation to unfold. And the best strategy for this is not each individual leader going it alone. The best approach is to form a team of leaders who are going to be receiving training and coaching together. In other words, forming a learning and collaborating cohort who helps each other in their journey. A group of accountability partners, if you will.

Let’s explore one idea around that next.

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