Swarming... how to launch every activities in the new normal

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agile² GmbH
SWARMING
DESIGN FOLLOWS FUNCTION
1

LET’S START WITH
THE HARD STUFF
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01source:
Wikipedia Flocking is the behavior exhibited when a group of birds,
called a flock, are foraging or in flight. There are parallels
with the shoaling behavior of fish, the swarming behavior of
insects, and herd behavior of land animals. During the winter
months, starlings are known for aggregating into huge flocks of
hundreds to thousands of individuals, murmurations, which when
they take flight altogether, render large displays of
intriguing swirling patterns in the skies above observers.
Flocking
basics
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FLOCKING OR SWARMING CAN
BE COMPARED TO THE
NATURAL WAY HOW HUMANS
ARE BEHAVING TOGETHER
WHEN THEY SHARE A COMMON
GOAL.
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><agile² GmbH PIERRE.NEIS@AGILESQR.COM
The Magic
Roundabout
in Swindon
UK
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agile² GmbH PIERRE.NEIS@AGILESQR.COM 6
System
design for
emergent
behaviours
• point to the destination
• avoid collision
• no advanced planning skills
• follow the lines

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purpose
autonomy
mastery

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agile² GmbH PIERRE.NEIS@AGILESQR.COM
it is the distance between "we know it's true" and "this is the assumption of a person"
coherence
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example
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SHOWING YOUR CREDIT CARD AT A CASHIER MEANS YOU WANT TO PAY WITH THE CARD.
90% OF THE TIME, THE CASHIER ASK YOU IF YOU WANT TO PAY WITH A CREDIT CARD.
ATTENTION IS LINKED TO COHERENCE.

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« a shift in the function of a trait during evolution ».
exaptation
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example
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Super Glue was invented by accident, twice.
Coover was attempting to make clear plastic gun sights to be put on guns used by Allied soldiers in
WWII. One particular formulation he came up with didn’t work well for gun sights, but worked
fantastically as an extremely quick bonding adhesive.
Nine years later, in 1951, now working at Eastman Kodak, Dr. Coover was the supervisor of a project
looking at developing a heat resistant acrylate polymer for jet canopies.

SOLUTIONS ARE EMERGING
FROM SMALL BABY STEPS
APPROACH FROM HYPOTHESIS
TO ACTIONABLE SOLUTION.
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Problem, Options,
Prototype
Viable Solution
safe
container
competence,
learning,
experiencing
Customer
Journey, Team
Alignment, Team
Excellence, customer
Delight

basics
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separation
alignment
cohesion
avoidance
fixed boundaries, fixed speed
coordinate with agents
(5-to 10 max)
Simple rules + no central coordination = emergent behaviour
Moving in the same direction = same purpose
Remain close
Avoid collision
from the hive

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SEPARATION “leave the nest” The venture is detached from the line of business.
ALIGNMENT “each of us decide to swarm” coordination remain close
COHESION
“small enough to feel safe,
large enough to express
yourself”
team size “purpose driven moving lines”
AVOIDANCE fixed boundaries fixed sprints avoid collision
SIMPLE RULES “point to the destination, follow the lines, avoid collision”
SELF MANAGEMENT “you decide, you commit, you do”
NO CENTRAL
COORDINATION
“a swarm has it’s own dynamics. There is no need of bureaucracy”
EMERGENT BEHAVIOUR “the dynamics in the swarm allows new behaviours to emerge. Doers will express their talents”

swarming process
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PROBLEM is a time-boxed workshop,
facilitated by the Customer
Journey (CJ) to ensure that we
know what the customer want in
terms of « DO-THINK-FEEL ».
OPTIONS is a « Service Jam » or « Hackathon » with
a team of self organising people gathering
in a 2 days rush to create a working
prototype including its business case. Like
in Hackathons or ServiceJams, purpose is to
produce as much as possible options for the
customer. OPTIONS closes with a Review and
the customer select the best option to work
on it. Customer can be involved during this
workshop as an agent in immersion. Outcomes
of OPTIONS are working prototypes and cases
in Lean Canvas format as example.
PROTOTYPE is a second run of a 2 days co-
creation workshop with a team of self
organizing people. In PROTOTYPE, all
the attendees are working on the same
CJ (outcome of OPTIONS). The first day
is a build, the second day is a
"destroy". Destroy means to push away
all the unnecessary features from the
prototype to provide a Viable Solution
(MVS). MVS is the minimal set
responding to the CJ. Outcome of
PROTOTYPE is the readiness to release.
VIABLE
SOLUTION is a one week
iteration where the
Development Team
build the MVS ready
to deploy. The MVS
ends with the
Review and a
Retrospective.

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viable
solution
prototype
optionsProblem
Team
Excellence
Team
Alignment
Customer
Journey
Customer
Delight

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pretotype
prototype
MVP solution

Problem
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It is
• an idea generation workshop
• an initial alignment for common interest
• a time-boxed rough momentum
• the first time of stakeholder gathering
• the Customer Journey Development
It is not
• a presentation, a report, a review
• a scope, a roadmap workshop, a story mapping
workshop
1

Problem
21
generate first ideas
destroy first ideas
(resilience)
generate new idea
align the idea (resilience)
refine the idea on robust story telling shape (obvious for
all stakeholders)
explain
the demand
1

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Practices: facilitation, Service Design, co-creation
Processes: explain the demand, generate first ideas, destroy
first ideas (resilience), generate new idea, align the idea
(resilience), refine the idea on robust story telling shape
(obvious for all stakeholders)
Tools: visual management and facilitation tools only.
Infrastructure: safe facilitation room, ideally not in the day-to-day business facility
1

Options
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It is
• a solutions generation workshop
• an initial alignment for common interest
• the first time of stakeholder gathering
• the Customer Journey Development
It is not
• a scope, a roadmap workshop, a story mapping
workshop
2

Options
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get several teams
each team works on a
solution
Teams are demoing option
audience votes on
options
selection of the « best » option as a solution
start with the problem
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Processes: start with the problem, have different teams
working on that problem, make a cross-pollination review in
the middle of the day, refine, pretotype and demo.
A pretotype is a stripped-down version of a product, used to merely validate interest.
2

Prototype
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It is
• a single minimal-valuable-solution-mockup
generation workshop
• a single team prototyping event
• a coded ready-to-use Alpha / Beta 1
It is not
3

Prototype
27
design a prototype
build the prototype
test the prototype
destroy to get mvp
validate the minimal viable solution
start with the option
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Practices: facilitation, Service Design, co-creation, UX Design, Software
Architecture, everything that matters to create a powerful solution
Processes: improve the option, design a prototype, build the
prototype, test the prototype, destroy to reach the Minimal
Viable Solution with the customer.
Tools: visual management and facilitation tools, and all the necessary tool set that
helps to get the prototype done.
A prototype is also a stripped-down version of a product — but one that contains more detail than a pretotype.
3

Viable Solution
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It is
• the development sprint/iteration when the Minimal
Valuable Solution (MVS) is build
• A beta 2 / Release candidate in a subset of
production
• A used feature
• Customer feedback on effective use of the feature
It is not
• Pussy-footing
4

Viable Solution
30
development
review
deploy
start with the MVS
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Processes: the Development Team helps their early involvement
knows what and how to build the MVS
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The outcome of PROTOTYPE is
an actionable case.
Actionable means working
prototype. Case means having
a Business Model Canvas.
PROTOTYPE should not take
longer than 2 days.
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Problem
Options
Prototype Viable solution
The outcome of the VIABLE SOLUTION
is the Deployment of the Solution.
MVS should not take longer than a
working week.The outcome of the PROBLEM is a Customer Journey (CJ).
The CJ is the interpretation of Customer’s expectation.
A CJ should be obvious for all stakeholders and ensure
understanding and engagement. For a two-week iteration,
the Problem stage should not take longer than 2 days
with a preference for 1.
The Problem to Viable Solution (MVS) cycle takes an iteration. An
iteration can be one to six weeks.
The outcome of OPTIONS is a collection
of different CJ interpretations. By
selecting the most coherent option,
the customer clarify its expectations.
OPTIONS should not take longer than 2
days.

THE CONSTRAINTS
OF TIME
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Time
35
WEEK 1 WEEK 2
IDEATION
OPTIONS
PROTOTYPE
MVS
DEPLOY

AUDIENCE IS A
CONSTRAINT
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Audience
37
WEEK 1 WEEK 2
IDEATION
OPTIONS
PROTOTYPE
MVS
DEPLOY
ALL STAKEHOLDERS all
stakeholdersDEVELOPMENT TEAM

DEDICATION IS A
CONSTRAINT
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01
39

basics
40
separation
alignment
cohesion
avoidance
Avoid disrupting other hives. A swarm is end-
to-end from the beginning to the end.
from the hive
Swarming needs a dedicated team during the swarming.
Dedicated means allocating 100% of the time to the purpose.

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SWARMING IS AN
INVITATION. IT IS
NOT MORE PARALLEL
RUNNING ACTIVITIES.
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SWARMING AS
ORGANIZATIONAL
CONCEPT
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SEPARATION ALIGNMENT COHESION AVOIDANCE
fear
CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP
fixed boundaries
coordinate with agents (5-to 10 max)
fixed speed
• Simple rules + self managed agents + no central coordination = emergent behaviour
• Moving in the same direction = same purpose
• Remain close
• Avoid collision
FEAR ZONE
SINGLE SYSTEM BEHAVIOUR

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SAME RULES
SALLIES
GLEANERS
COLLECTIVE DECISION
MAKING: QUORUM SENSING
• ZONES OF REPULSION
• ZONES OF ATTRACTION
• ZONES OF ALIGNMENT
MULTIPLE SYSTEM BEHAVIOUR
collecting small chunks of work or ideas outside of the swarm.
a sudden act of rushing out to make an action

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• agents changes their positions relative to
six of seven agents directly surrounding them
• self organization
• emergence
• stigmergy: yesterday’s weather, continuous
improvement
• no need of planning or control
• sufficient collaboration
• Goals
• collective behaviour
• emerging intelligence
• Crowds are group of people acting
collectively without centralized direction
• upgraded transmission of thoughts
mechanisms
• emerging patterns of connections
• Moving closer reduces danger: unite
appearance emerging from uncoordinated
behaviour of self serving individuals
in swarming
Rules
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Applying Deming
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• Appreciating a system
• Understanding the variations in that system
• Capture the psychology of that system
• Using epistemology (theory of knowledge)
• Deming is known for Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA), the most known Plan-Do-
Check-Act (PDCA) and the almost certain fourteen principles of
transforming business effectiveness:
• Create constancy of purpose
• Adopt the new philosophy
• Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality
• Better have a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term
relationship of loyalty and trust
• Improve constantly and forever
• Institute learning
• Institute leadership
• Drive out fear
• Break down barriers between departments
• Eliminate slogans, work standards, management by objective
• Supervisors responsibility linked to quality
• Abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of "management by
objectives."
• Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
• Transformation is everybody's job.

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EVERY INITIATIVE
OR PROJECT
SHOULD START
FIRST AS A SWARM
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A SWARM IS A PROOF
OF CONCEPT, A SPIKE,
THE ONLY TRUE DATA
VALIDATING A
HYPOTHESIS
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><agile² GmbH PIERRE.NEIS@AGILESQR.COM ><agile² GmbH PIERRE.NEIS@AGILESQR.COM
my name is
Pierre Neis
CAC5, CEST, CBAC, CSPPO, CSP, CSPO, PSM
Author of

Swarming... how to launch every activities in the new normal

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