AOS: agile organization and workflow

The Agile Operating System  (AOS) promotes a model in which structure and workflow are the main components. The agile structure consists of teams and backlogs, brought together by work agreements. The agile workflow consists of discovery and delivery functions, where, respectively, decisions are taken to “do the right thing” that makes business sense for the organization,  and where decisions are made in order to “do the right thing right” that delivers value and delights the Customer.

  • The Portfolio team is due to make the best production decision possible (assessment and decision phase)
  • The Product team is meant to define a coherent product strategy (design phase)
  • The Delivery teams are to show real impact (execution and release phase)

At all levels teams need to consider uncertainty (risk evaluation), must engage all employees (clear communication, total transparency, understanding of company goals), and empower front line teams (decision making on doing the right thing right)

The discovery phase is where probing takes place and decisions are made as to pursue or bin business and production initiatives. The ones that get the green light will be designed for coherent value delivery and then probed for acceptance or re-work.  the delivery phase is where aproved design gets to be worked on by delivery teams and to be released on cadence (continuous delivery).

Org and workflow

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Author: Mario Aiello

Hi, I’m Mario – retired agility warrior from a major Swiss bank, beyond agile explorer, lean thinker, former rugby player, and wishful golfer. I’ve been in the agile space since 2008. I began consulting in 2012 with a Scrum adoption in a digital identity unit — and that path eventually led me to design an Agile Operating System at organisational scale. What pushed me further was frustration: poor adoption, illusionary scaling, and “agile” that looks busy but doesn’t improve business outcomes. That’s why I developed the Adaptive Fitness System (AFS) — an approach that treats agility as fitness for change: fit for purpose, fit for context, fit for execution, and fit for continuous improvement. Today, I use AFS to help organisations sense what’s real, learn fast, and adapt with intent.