Convoy Alignment Agenda

Every journey must begin with meticulous, even pedantic, planning
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Attendance

All teams should assemble in the Convoy Alignment room for this multi-day celebration of detailed planning. It is important that the alignment happens in person and that everyone travels to a remote location to eliminate distractions from less important things such as family or pets.

Establish a Focused Environment

The organization must maximize planning time. With only 5 days to plan the quarter, the Commodore should schedule 9 hours of structured work each day. Because all non-work distractions have been eliminated, daily meetings can easily be extended if the day’s planning goals are not met. Planning must itself be planned. If the organization cannot meet its commitments, it cannot go fast.

Feel comfortable that since there are no extra-work distractions, the teams will all be able to provide their utmost focus and attention to the work at hand, even if it gets extended by a few hours due to the executive management team’s desire to exceed expectations.

Breaks and lunch can consume valuable alignment time. A collection should be taken at the beginning of each day to order sandwiches. This eliminates the need to stop for lunch and produces the team-building benefits of a shared meal.

Management Address

Day 1 begins with the Management Address, where senior leadership presents the strategic vision for the upcoming convoy cycle. The Admiral or Commodore will outline the top priorities, which will bear no resemblance to the priorities communicated at the previous Convoy Alignment. This is expected. Strategic agility means being able to pivot the entire organization’s direction every 6 weeks while maintaining the 8-quarter commitment plan from the previous alignment.

Code Engineers are encouraged to take notes, though the strategic direction will be further clarified through a series of follow-up emails over the next 3 weeks. Questions during the Management Address should be limited to expressions of enthusiasm.

Dependency Negotiation Theater

On Days 2 through 4, teams engage in Dependency Negotiation Theater. Each Feature Captain identifies every team their feature depends on and negotiates delivery commitments with those teams’ Feature Captains. These negotiations are conducted in a large room with all teams present so that the Commodore can observe which teams are being collaborative and which are “creating blockers.”

Dependencies are recorded on the Nautical Chart using colored string. The density of string on the chart is a leading indicator of alignment maturity. Charts with minimal string suggest teams are not thinking broadly enough about their impact on others.

Teams that cannot resolve dependency conflicts during the negotiation window may escalate to the Commodore, who will resolve the dispute by assigning the dependency to whichever team has the most Code Engineers currently in the coding pool.

Wrapping Up Alignment

On the last hour of the last day, while alignment decisions are fresh, the Commodore holds a “Fist of Five” confidence vote on the organization’s ability to deliver the next 8 quarters’ worth of work. A high confidence level is mandatory, so all participants should be aware that anything less than a score of 4 will result in additional planning until the minimum confidence level is achieved. If there is not a unanimous vote of 4 or better, another collection for sandwiches is taken and planning continues until confidence is achieved.

All stakeholders must be included in the vote. Alignment requires unanimity. Letting the developers see the votes of their managers and vice-versa will ensure that accountability is maintained. In the event of disparity between the developers and managers, ensure that the managers’ votes receive preference since they can influence the developers to work harder.

Confidence Vote Escalation Protocol

If the initial Fist of Five vote does not achieve unanimity at 4 or above, the following escalation protocol is activated:

  1. Round 2: The Commodore asks anyone who voted below 4 to explain their concerns publicly. Their concerns are recorded on the Nautical Chart as risks.
  2. Round 3: The concerns are “addressed” by the Commodore verbally confirming that the risks are acknowledged. A new vote is taken.
  3. Round 4: If unanimity has still not been achieved, the Commodore reminds the room that the hotel conference room is booked through the weekend and that additional sandwich collections will be taken.
  4. Round 5: Unanimity is achieved.

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