Succeeding with OKRs in Agile: How to Create & Deliver Objectives & Key Results for Teams

OKRs are about goals bigger than the next story. OKRs prioritise purpose and strategy over backlogs.

Does your agile team get lead astray by burning fires? Do you struggle to keep your agile team focused?
Do you feel the need for more than just doing the top of the backlog every two weeks?
Are you using, or want to use, OKRs with an agile team?

Then  this is the book for you! Acclaimed author, Allan Kelly, has written a  short guide to OKRs, writing them, organizing to deliver and the  pitfalls. Allan is the author of multiple books on agile and has given  advice and training for over 10 years. Now he turns his attention to  OKRs.

In this book he doesn't try to sell OKRs - others can tell  you why they are great. Allan describes his practical experience working  with an agile team adopting OKRs, day-by-day, quarter-by-quarter.

Allan’s  advice includes: be really specific in setting goals, involve the whole  team in setting OKRs, think broad when setting then execute narrowly,  set analogue not binary OKRs and, most controversially, throw away your  backlog and let OKRs drive everything you do.

Initially skeptical  about OKRs, Allan found them a good fit with agile; OKRs became an  effective means of focus teams, exposing problems, communicating with  senior managers and a powerful means of asking bigger questions about  product strategy and value.

OKRs and agile work well together  because they are both outcome oriented and results focused. When used  right OKR's give power and authority to teams - one could even say OKRs  create test first management. Yet OKRs can be a double edge-sword, used  poorly they can re-introduce command-and-control and hinder agile  working. Allan addresses problems with predictability, aspirations,  culture, targets and annual reviews.