unFIX Principles

"What are the values and principles behind unFIX?" people have asked several times. We understand the usefulness of being able to explain the "Why?" behind the unFIX elements. Why are some patterns often good? Why are other practices usually bad?

But we try not to be too reductionist in our approach. We intend to maintain a dynamic set of principles. Now and then, there is a good reason to discuss a principle, modify an existing one, or maybe even retire one. On this page, you find the collection as it exists at this moment.

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It Depends and Everything Is Optional
The unFIX Company
It Depends and Everything Is Optional
The unFIX Company

It might be better if agile frameworks were decomposed into pattern libraries, similar to unFIX. It all depends on context, and everything is optional.

The unFIX Company
Try: Cheap, Safe, and Fast—Don’t Fail.
The unFIX Company
Try: Cheap, Safe, and Fast—Don’t Fail.
The unFIX Company

You only fail when you waste your money, health, or time. And you fail when you stop trying and learned nothing.

The unFIX Company
Experience Beats Product and Service
The unFIX Company
Experience Beats Product and Service
The unFIX Company

A focus on products is still sub-optimization. The customer cares more about their experience than about your product or service.

The unFIX Company
Where Is the Customer? Everywhere!
The unFIX Company
Where Is the Customer? Everywhere!
The unFIX Company

If you choose to include customers in your picture, consider including all external stakeholders. The organization exists to offer a value exchange with all stakeholders, not only customers. Everyone expects to benefit from it.

The unFIX Company
Balance High Cohesion with Low Coupling
The unFIX Company
Balance High Cohesion with Low Coupling
The unFIX Company

If you make sure that no role and no team can get away with ignoring the needs of their local environments, you end up with a fully optimized organization, where nobody sees the whole picture.

The unFIX Company
Increase Simplicity, Embrace Variety
The unFIX Company
Increase Simplicity, Embrace Variety
The unFIX Company

We should keep things as simple as possible. Needless complication is undesirable. But reducing variety is not an option.

The unFIX Company
Manage the System, Lead the People
The unFIX Company
Manage the System, Lead the People
The unFIX Company

Organization patterns are good when they promote leadership over management and prioritize the management of systems over the management of people.

The unFIX Company

Deeper Insights

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An Objection to Objectives
An Objection to Objectives

Organizations are addicted to goal-setting. Aiming for what’s new must be balanced with protecting what we have.

You Are a Portfolio Manager (Everyone Is)
You Are a Portfolio Manager (Everyone Is)

If you don't manage your portfolios, you only build but never own.

Initiatives: What Scrum and SAFe Ignored
Initiatives: What Scrum and SAFe Ignored

Anything that you continuously or continually make available to stakeholders is an Initiative. An Initiative never spontaneously disappears. It needs frequent monitoring and regular maintenance.

Case Studies

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Freshening up epharma’s organizational design
Freshening up epharma’s organizational design

Improving the company organization design of epharma by using unFIX - structure with 18 bases, organized one unFIX congress and five domains.

unFIX Visual MS with Product Area Turfs
unFIX Visual MS with Product Area Turfs

Visual MS is a Spanish business software development group with 114 employees organizing with different Product Type Turfs and scaling up via bases, leagues, and a crowd.

Exploring the application of unFIX patterns in the structure and dynamics of Visual MS group. Visual MS highlights the importance of psychological safety and the sense of belonging, two fundamental aspects in unFIX, creating a special synergy of the model with the organization.

How we unFIX our SAFe ecosystem to deliver a better user experience in our Artificial Intelligence Division in the Banking Sector
How we unFIX our SAFe ecosystem to deliver a better user experience in our Artificial Intelligence Division in the Banking Sector

unFIX SAFe ecosystem to deliver a better user experience

Models and Frameworks

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Let’s Unfix McKinsey’s Helix Organization
Let’s Unfix McKinsey’s Helix Organization

Every point McKinsey lists as a difference to a matrix is an almost exact description of a matrix. And that’s fake agile. Or, as some people call it, agile theatre.

Let’s Unfix Holacracy
Let’s Unfix Holacracy

You don’t create a happy culture by rolling in the consultants, toppling the autocratic managers, installing a democratic system, and pulling out. I’m not touching a tool that’s so fundamentally flawed.

Let’s Unfix Team Topologies
Let’s Unfix Team Topologies

There are no conflicts between Team Topologies and unFIX. The minor differences are easily reconciled, and it’s easy to use both tools in parallel.