A Model for the Agile Enterprise
I am always interested in researching existing Frameworks and Models. Today I am talking about John Boyd’s O-O-D-A model. O-O-D-A, or Observe-Orient-Decide-Act, is part of the basis for the Marine Corps Doctrine of Maneuver Warfare – the doctrine that shaped the strategy applied in Operation Iraqi Freedom. This model is interesting because it has been applied in multiple environments to help achieve many of the things we are looking for in Agile Enterprises. It is a framework for exploiting uncertainty in the environment. It not only enables but depends on a reduction of command and control. And as a knowledge framework pattern it can be applied to small teams, products, and organizations.
O-O-D-A talks about gaining an advantage by operating inside the decision cycle of your competition. This is desirable because the faster we can learn what to deliver – and the faster we can improve our ability to deliver what is needed – the more effective we will be. If we can to this faster than our competition, we can be successful in our market.
A Knowledge Framework for Exploiting Uncertainty
The model is pretty simple. It describes a decision loop. We Observe the unfolding environment, noting mismatches between what we think it should be and what is actually happening. We Orient our mental model to what is actually happening. We Decide what is important; what our options are for acting and form a Hypothesis for our action – including how we will measure the outcome. Then Act according to the decision. Action tests our hypothesis, hopefully moves us toward our goal, and changes the environment we are observing. This takes us back to the beginning.
At a more complex level there may be multiple decision loops overlapping in your environment. The Decision process may bring up possibilities that send you directly back to Observe. And we maintain guidance and control over the entire process.
This model looks a lot like our Agile development cycles. Every time we visit the backlog we are basing our selection on what we currently understand. New events in the market, what we learned from our last iteration and new ideas all impact the backlog. We decide what is most important, build it in small increments, and then test it against our understanding. O-O-D-A in action.
Reduce Command and Control
Top down command and control not only doesn’t support this approach, it hinders it. We need each team make their actions serve the strategic intent in terms of what is to be accomplished. The teams need a wide freedom to exercise their imagination and initiative in terms of how intent is to be realized. Teams have freedom to self-organize, but freedom within the strategic framework.
According to Chet Richards, who wrote “Certain to Win: The strategy of John Boyd applied to Business”,
“It is not more command and control that we are after. Instead, we seek to decrease the amount of command and control that we need. We do this by replacing coercive command and control methods with spontaneous, self-disciplined cooperation based on low-level initiative, a commonly understood intent, mutual trust, and implicit understanding and communications.”
The secret is in the clear communication of intent – coupled with discipline on the part of the performing team. Again, this is completely aligned with what we have found works in Agile development.
Scaling to the Enterprise
As a knowledge framework O-O-D-A has been shown to work at the small team level. It also works at the product and the Enterprise level. For example, since October of 2001 there have been 19 releases of five different IPod models. This rapid cycle of release allows Apple to Observe the unfolding environment of customer preferences and emerging competitive products, Orient their product direction, then Decide and Act in a faster decision cycle than any other player in the market. Apple excels in all four activities and this garnered 90% market share and a continued advantage over the competition.
What is particularly interesting is that this framework scales up better when it is modeled at lower levels. Apple is able to release product faster because they are good at developing software rapidly. At the Enterprise level, effective Agile development allows us achieve the four strategies of Agile Portfolio Management Jim Highsmith wrote about last week:
- focus on strategic advantage projects,
- keep projects short,
- re-align portfolios quarterly,
- implement value-driven success criteria.
Enterprise Agility
I think this is a useful model. It is not a process model like Lean. It is not a capability model that is limited to a single domain like development or projects management. It is a model that helps us think about and improve knowledge work. Like Agile, O-O-D-A helps move faster by incorporating learning with action. Like Agile, O-O-D-A operates best when teams are empowered and highly disciplined within clear strategic guidelines. I believe that, like O-O-D-A, the principles of Agile can be scaled to the Enterprise to create competitive advantage.
Tags: Agile, Software Development
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