Agenda

1. Compare two scenarios – when somebody gives you additional work vis-à-vis when you yourself choose to stretch

2.What is the underlying difference between these two scenarios

Agenda

3. Stretch Objective definition by SAFe

4. Why we may/may not need Stretch Objective

5. How does Agile enterprise respond to Stretch Objective

Stretch Objective – What about push

Stretch Objective – How do you respondThe word ‘stretch’ may be distressing to some of the teams

In the traditional setup – the stretch objectives were somewhat associated with Management loading development teams with additional work

Stretch Objective – Various responsesIn Scrum context, one may argue that Scrum team forecasts the work it believes it can do in upcoming Sprint. Whereas ‘stretch objective’ indicates something that can be tried

After all, team should pick those many stories that it is comfortable with based on its capacity

So the obvious question is – Why will a team pick the Stretch objectives that it is not sure about

Stretch Objective – Why

Stretch Objective – How do you respond

However one may argue that Scrum is already intensive

Scrum team would pick up those many PBIs that keep them under optimal stress

Stretch Objective – Why Stretch Objectives can be used effectively as a response to address the uncertainty in scope

Quantitatively Stretch Objectives are used to increase the predictability of business value achieved

“These are used to identify what can be variable within the scope of a plan”

Stretch Objective – SAFe definition

“Stretch objectives are not the way for stakeholders to load the teams with more than they can possibly do"

“Stretch objectives don’t count in the commitment but do count in the actual score”

Stretch Objective – SAFe definition

Stretch Objective – SAFe definition

Stretch Objective – Another perspective

My notion of set of objectives containing both objectives and stretch objectives is a forecast with associated confidence levels based on capacity.

There will be some objectives with higher confidence levels and few with lower confidence levels.

Stretch Objective – Another perspective

For me the objectives with low confidence level are Stretch Objectives

Stretch Objectives vis-à-vis Org Culture Planning for developers in a traditional ecosystem is owned by PMO. The development teams will of course be involved, but the plan will be owned by PMO. “If a team is not on the plan, it is a bad team or a bad plan”

Now in this traditional context if somebody speaks of Stretch Objective, then what will be the perception ?

Stretch Objectives vis-à-vis Org Culture

Stretch Objectives vis-à-vis Org Culture

Teams are embracing Stretch Objective – What a coach can deduce about Enterprise Agility through this culture ?

Why culture for Agile adoption and proliferation ?

Stretch Objectives vis-à-vis Org Culture Consider the scenario of Agile team where it owns planning

Team enjoys the authority and culture to declare its confidence on a particular objective based on its capacity.

Team also has latitude to take calculated risks

Stretch Objectives vis-à-vis Org Culture

Calculated risks

Learn and bounce backAllow failures

Soumya Shrivastava