The AI-savvy operating model - Matthew Skelton, Conflux - Agile to Agility conference

Transcript

1. The AI-savvy operating model towards a humane, effective, financially-transparent way

   of working for AI-enhanced knowledge work Matthew Skelton, Conflux - co-author of Team Topologies Agile to Agility conference | 2024-12-04 K38 Photo by Barbara Zandoval on Unsplash

2. 2 ❤

3. 3 Matthew Skelton holistic innovation Originator of Adapt Together™ by

   Conflux Co-author of Team Topologies matthewskelton.com

4. Small, scrappy startups that use GenAI well will be able

   to out-innovate larger incumbents [initially[. So what would an effective “AI-savvy” operating model look like that used AI to reduce time-to-value for larger organizations? 4

5. (we already know) 5

6. 6 • Empowered teams • No hand-offs • Ongoing stewardship

   • Clear boundaries • Active knowledge diffusion

7. The near-future AI advantage (?) My perspective on AI (and

   work) How to trust and organize AI The AI-savvy operating model 7

8. The near-future AI advantage (?) 8

9. 9 “AI-savvy” operating model

10. 10 Traditional AI: pattern matching, huge data volumes, temporal correlation

    Generative AI: next-token guess, content generation, option generation

11. 11 “Learning” but no understanding with AI

12. 12 Savvy: don’t pretend or forget that AI doesn’t understand

    ⚠

13. 13 Savvy use cases for AI: • Speed up content

    generation (incl. code) and workflows • Augment human decision-making and options • Agent-based processes • …

14. 14 Do like AI and look backwards!

15. 15 Cloud birthed SaaS, leaving older models behind (likewise GenAI)

16. 16 Agentic AI - devise 230 new product variations and:

    • Generate code, deploy • Test with synthetic users • Find the best combination • Data-driven product fit in hours A/B testing on steroids!

17. 17 but…

18. 18 LLMs approaching limits?

19. 19 Serious security problems

20. 20 Data Science Data Eng ML Ops

21. 21 https://web.devopstopologies.com/ 2013

22. My perspective on AI (and work) 22

23. 23 1998 My first “AI” system: backpropagation neural network BSc,

    University of Reading

24. 24 https://www.linkedin.com/in/promarkbishop/

25. 25 2000 MSc in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford

    Research into dyslexia and Alzheimer’s disease

26. 26 2001 Software for MRI brain imaging machines

27. 27 2011 Organizational architecture and new techniques & tools for

    adopting cloud and Continuous Delivery at Trainline (UK)

28. 28 https://blog.matthewskelton.net/2013/10/22/what-team-s tructure-is-right-for-devops-to-flourish/ 2013

29. 29 https://web.devopstopologies.com/ 2013

30. Team Topologies Organizing business and technology teams for fast flow

    Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais IT Revolution Press, September 2019 Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book 175k copies sold to date 30

31. 31

32. 32 Delivering at speed means we need to organize for

    fast flow - “sociotechnical”

33. How to trust and organize AI 33

34. 34 Assume we have a collection of AI agents responding

    to … some kind of input from humans…

35. 35 Savvy: don’t pretend or forget that AI doesn’t understand

    ⚠

36. 36 Humans set the context, goals, guardrails, and execution constraints

    in a repeatable and traceable way (programming)

37. 37 How would we be able to trust a set

    of AI agents?

38. 38 How are we be able to trust a set

    of people?

39. 39 • Guardrails • Ongoing domain context • Good boundaries

    • Ongoing stewardship and responsibility

40. 40 Teams of humans and AI agents with context, guardrails,

    stewardship, boundaries, etc…

41. 41 Good boundaries for: • Context windows • Security •

    Resilience

42. The AI-savvy operating model 42

43. 43 Cloud removed IT infrastructure as a blocker

44. 44 AI removes typing, generating options, trying out combinations, etc.

    as blockers

45. 45 Humans understand the organizational intent and specify guardrails &

    goals

46. Principles from Team Topologies provide guidance for knowledge work 46

47. 47 Multiple, independent flows, fractally

48. Respect Conway’s Law (aka ‘sociotechnical mirroring’) 48

49. Clear ongoing stewardship of services and systems 49

50. Stream-aligned teams have end-to-end responsibility for a service (You Build

    It, You Run It) 50

51. Platforms improve flow and reduce extraneous cognitive load 51

52. Teams are small (~9), slowly changing, with ‘aligned autonomy’ 52

53. Teams are empowered to sense and adjust boundaries to improve

    flow on a frequent basis 53

54. 54 With knowledge work, we’re fundamentally concerned with the fidelity

    of representation of intent (in code, writing, etc.), so ongoing domain knowledge, clear boundaries, and stewardship are essential.

55. 55 Architecture for fast flow resembles an ecosystem of loosely-coupled

    independently-viable services with clear boundaries and ownership aligned to the flow of business value.

56. 56 3EO: Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Enabling Organizing https://www.boundaryless.io/3eo-framework/

57. How might AI tools help leadership decision-making? 57

58. TeamOS 58 teamos.is Disclosure: Matthew Skelton has invested personally in

    the company behind TeamOS

59. 59 TeamForm teamform.co

60. 60 CodeScene codescene.com

61. 61 “The work is delivered in many small changes that

    are uncoordinated to enable flow. … Management’s job is to provide context, prioritization and to coordinate across teams. Lending resources if needed across teams to unblock things. … It works well within a high trust culture.” Adrian Cockcroft https://mastodon.social/@adrianco/111174832280576410 Technology strategy advisor, Partner at OrionX.net (ex Amazon Sustainability, AWS, Battery Ventures, Netflix, eBay, Sun Microsystems, CCL)

62. If we have clear boundaries for flow, with limited interactions,

    how do we create alignment? How do we learn from each other at pace? 62

63. 63 Multiple, independent flows, fractally

64. 64 Active diffusion of knowledge across team boundaries

65. 66 Future: AI-powered tools to detect duplication, uncertainty, waste, innovation,

    etc. and diffuse learning

66. 67 internal conferences guilds Communities of Practice lunch & learn

    public blogs

67. 68 https://internaltechconf.com/ Internal Tech Conferences Victoria Morgan-Smith and Matthew Skelton

68. 69 “This initiative around internal conferences has been the single

    most effective thing to align business and technology that I have seen in this organization” – Murray Hennessey, CEO, (UK retail co)

69. 70 https://internaltechconf.com/ Internal Tech Conferences Victoria Morgan-Smith and Matthew Skelton

    It’s o p te !

70. 71 “The way that the Conflux crew used their active

    knowledge diffusion approach to seek out and champion good practices was a real revelation to us at TELUS and helped to shift thinking around how we innovate and share successes.” – Steven Tannock, Director, Architecture (Platform Technology & Tools) at TELUS Digital

71. 72 Thriving organizations, delivering at speed™ Create alignment, trust, and

    engagement across your organization whilst delivering at pace with fast flow. adapttogether.info

72. 73 Fast flow organizations need active knowledge diffusion across flow

    boundaries to create trust, alignment, and learning

73. The near-future AI advantage (?) My perspective on AI (and

    work) How to trust and organize AI The AI-savvy operating model 74

74. Small, scrappy startups that use GenAI well will be able

    to out-innovate larger incumbents [initially[. So what would an effective “AI-savvy” operating model look like that used AI to reduce time-to-value for larger organizations? 75

75. 76 • Empowered teams • No hand-offs • Ongoing stewardship

    • Clear boundaries • Active knowledge diffusion

76. Let’s do what it takes to empower teams of humans

    + AI agents to make decisions quickly, safely, and compliantly with high-fidelity domain knowledge and visibility of the data sources & results, plus the agency to address problems caused. 77

77. let’s work together confluxhq.com Copyright (c) 2017-2024 Conflux group of

    companies. All Rights Reserved. The name “Conflux” and the filled C device are Registered Trademarks ® in multiple jurisdictions.