2: Increase speed to market - AgilityHacking.com

Phase 2: Increase speed to market
Support business opportunities
Goals
What are we trying to achieve?

Focus on regular, small, quality deliverables
Increasingly deliver changes via smaller, higher quality, complete slices of usable functionality.

Allow the business to be more nimble in going after opportunities
Having the mechanisms to successfully ingest work, break it into small increments of value and reliably deliver them offers your business the ability to quickly pursue opportunities that present themselves.
Method
How do we achieve these goals?

Encourage working on smaller, more piecemeal items
Small batches - done, or not done, there is no try
Use agile techniques to extend the work ingestion mechanism, breaking larger pieces of work into smaller increments. Instil a mentality of finishing each increment so that it needn't be touched again - truly 100% done. Do it and never see it again. No last mile problems.
Portfolio management
Thinking ahead
Cement a multi-sprint view of all the work underway, from the previous phase. Be able to show an always-current view of the work being undertaken in the department for 6 sprints out. Categorise the work by how well it is understood. Ensure work progresses smoothly in understanding and breakdown as it gets closer. This plan will change but everyone will be able to see it as it does so.
Decouple teams, but keep them synchronised
Reduce handoffs, but align efforts
Spot dependencies between teams. Start the technical and workflow process of decoupling teams. This will reduce the number of handoffs, wait states and queues. At the same time introduce (or update) a lightweight, well-executed mechanism of cross-team synchronisation. Typical options include scrum-of-scrums, Nexus, LeSS, etc. Opt for the lightest you can get away with.
Start inspecting processes to remove waste
Apply lean thinking and remove non value-adding steps
Identify the most impactful processes that hold back smooth, quick delivery. Do something each sprint to reduce the pain. Tackle larger, more pervasive issues centrally. Often this lies in release processes, bureaucracy and other more legacy approaches. Apply a lean mindset to reframing the outcomes needed by the organisation into, ideally, automatable solutions.
Shift to automating repetitive tasks
If you need to do it again, automate it
Tasks that occur, and are the same, for every piece of work, need to be automated. Use the adage, "if you do It for a second time, automate it". Initially the pool of candidates for automation will be large. focus initially on the build, release pipeline, testing and others that provide a safety net for delivering future work.
Gather business metrics for feedback
What difference do we make?
Give teams a sense of their place in the world. Provide appropriate business metrics that show how the teams are helping to move the business forward. Not only is this hugely motivating, but it starts the long process of bringing commercial, business thinking into the delivery teams' psyche.
Prototypical changes
What are examples of things that might be undertaken or changed in this phase?

For example:
Reduce batch sizes at all levels
Portfolio management for visibility and prioritisation with the rest of the business
Remove waste and theatre from the release management process
Focus on automated test frameworks to gain release confidence
Build-in app monitoring & alerting - instrumentation
De-couple teams reducing handoffs for scale & efficiency
Cement a team synchronisation mechanism for smooth operation & reduced dependencies
Introduce business metrics so teams understand the impact of their work
Indicative gains/benefits
What benefits will be demonstrable in this phase?

As this phase progresses, you should sense the rest of the business not being afraid to take bolder business opportunities that rely of technology deliverables. The sense that the delivery pipe was broken before phase 1 has now diminished in peoples' minds. This is replaced with a tentative trust.

As the work is broken down and delivered in smaller pieces, the business will probably not ask for all work to be "finished". Once they have seen the higher value parts delivered, attention usually switches to entirely different, high-value deliverables, leaving the original deliverable request incomplete. (Where possible, delete the remaining work. You will thank yourself later!)

The ability to ingest work, large and small, cope with the changes in plan and prioritise clearly with business stakeholders should be noticeable by all. The quality of the conversation with stakeholders should also be noticeably different.

Example indicators from this phase:
Heathier conversation around requirements, prioritisation and planning
Teams understanding more around the business intentions of the work they are doing
Cross-team collaboration and alignment becomes less painful
Conversations start about work several sprints ahead
Your business counterparts should reflect feeling that things are "under control"