It seems important to point out, as the process gets simpler (less steps), the governance/controls comes from the disciplines. Agile does not get control from sign-offs or checking the checker, but from real delivery on a regular rhythm.

Thanks again for sharing both the concept from another domain and your experience in applying it within distributed software domain!

I spent many years in the military and, as well as my involvement in business change, software development and project management, I also specialised as a Logistician. Within the military, and particularly in Operational Logistics, there’s a term called “Battle Rhythm”. In military terms, it’s used to describe a mechanism for both managing and maintaining synchronized activity. Battle Rhythm management is used by the military because of its capacity to cope with rapidly changing and/or highly distributed operations; in essence it provides a mechanism to focus staff on providing the commander with the right information in the right format at the right time, so aiding his decision-making.

I think Agile methods have some similarity with the military’s use of Battle Rhythm. For example, one definition of a military Joint Battle Rhythm is: “The timing and scheduled presentation of situation reports, briefings, formal collaborative sessions, and other required actions during planning and execution.” That’s sounds a whole lot like the empirical management processes used in Scrum, such as the Sprint Planning meeting.

Let’s take this down one level; again using a military definition, the Tactical Battle Rhythm could be defined as being: “The process where the commander and his staff synchronize the daily operating tempo with the planning, decision, execution and assessment cycle to allow the commander to make timely decisions.” Sounds pretty much like the Daily Scrum meeting doesn’t it – a synchronised meeting that allows daily updates in order to continually re-plan and make decisions affecting the next 24 hours.

So why’s a Battle Rhythm so important when using an Agile method such as Scrum? Well, it provides consistency and some order in what is usually a pretty (let’s be honest!) chaotic period during the Sprint; the team know when the Daily Scrum will take place, how long for and who will attend; they know the Scrum Master will take ownership of any impediments and aim to resolve them as quickly as possible. Also, by introducing a “Battle Rhythm”, the daily process of situation reports and re-planning allows the best use to be made of available resource, reducing the possibility of periods of stretch and slack. Furthermore, a “Battle Rhythm” process also works extremely well if you have a distributed team, as we do. It’s an ideal way of introducing discipline in your management, planning and reporting processes when you can’t meet with your team face-to-face.

Thanks again for sharing your views – now where did I leave my stop-watches!