There are certain words and phrases that are used regularly within the “Agile World”.

For some, these words are anthems and a great consequence of their delivery method. The main difficulty is finding the right balance of these terms and maintaining them whilst scaling.

For many, these are ambitions or mythical words. There is almost a belief that repeating three times or more, these will naturally occur….Beetle Juice…Beetle juice…Bee…….

One term also used more commonly but more in terms of a plea is;

Overview or “Birds Eye View”

Many people are employed simply to collate information and display this in a format for the company to understand. It is often not a trivial task depending on the structure and processes put into place. With multiple Agile Teams, different Sprints, locations, Agile methods, work cultures, interpretation of terminologies, tools, and work ethos, this can be most challenging. The audience needs can also vary significantly from the department or area to another.

Kendis is providing 3 types of view on the Boards to assist with the Bird’s Eye view. It is the same information obtained from the teams but in different views. These views are named after Mythical Birds

• Alicanto
• Griffin
• Phoenix

Alicanto

The Alicanto is a mythological bird of the desert of the Atacama, South America pertaining to Chilean mythology.
Legend has it that the Alicanto’s wings shine at night with beautiful, metallic colors, and their eyes emit strange lights.

Alicantos bring luck to any miner who sees them because they live in small caves containing minerals and feed on gold and silver.

The Alicanto view in Kendis will stem from the Planning of multiple teams and their Sprints. Whether it is from PI Planning (SAFe), or planning for 3 or 4 Sprint, this view will allow you to see Sprint by Sprint, which Features/Epics are being worked on by teams as well as dependencies.

Potential beneficiaries include – Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Teams, Delivery Managers, and Release Train Engineers.

Griffin

The Griffin is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and sometimes an eagle’s talons as its front feet.

Because the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of birds by the Middle Ages the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. Griffins were known for guarding treasure and priceless possessions.

The Griffin view in Kendis is one level higher than the Alicanto. It will display the end state of Features/Epics being worked on by teams. So when a particular Team will finish their part of the Features/Epics. The Board will display all of the Team stories as well as maintaining a view of the dependencies.

Potential beneficiaries include – Product Owners, Product Managers, Delivery Managers, Release Management and Release Train Engineers.

Phoenix

In Greek mythology, a Phoenix is a long-lived bird that cyclically regenerates or is born again. Associated with the Sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. According to some sources, the phoenix dies in a show of flames and combustion, although there are other sources that claim that the legendary bird dies and simply decomposes before being born again.

In the historical record, the Phoenix could symbolize renewal in general as well as the sun, time, the Empire, metempsychosis, consecration, resurrection, life in the heavenly Paradise.

The Phoenix view is the highest board view of them all. This will display the very end state of the Feature/Epic. If the Feature/Epic is being completed by multiple teams, this will show you the final sprint and team. With this view, it is possible to plan your Releases of the Feature. Dependencies will remain at a higher level.

Potential beneficiaries include – Solution Managers, Business Owners, Program Managers, Project Managers, Product Managers, Delivery Managers, Release Management and Release Train Engineers.

These bird views will of course not resolve all the above Beetle Juice chants of the need for more Transparency, Alignment, Predictability, and Flexibility, however, with a clearer overview of delivery stemmed from the actual experts completing the work, they should greatly assist us all to “get on the same page” and all focus on delivering Business Value to customers.

About Kendis

Digital boards to manage dependencies, multiple teams and program increments for scaling agile initiatives.

Kendis works on top of JIRA and other agile tools, your teams can keep on working with their existing JIRA boards and program level and above is planned and managed at Kendis.

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