Summary

In this chapter, you have learned that systems thinking provides a way to analyze the complexity caused by the stochastic impacts of interrelating elements within a system. Complexity in a system goes up with each increase in the number of participating elements and relationships.

You have learned that a system is more than the sum of its parts. This complexity arises because of the exponential growth in potential cause-and-effect relationships as the number of elements increases.

We also went through the concepts and vocabulary of systems thinking and learned how to apply those concepts to issues related to the implementation of Agile capabilities. In addition, you also saw how to apply systems thinking to analyze the elements and relationships within a Sprint Planning event when employing Scrum to support a large and complex product-development activity, and as part of an enterprise Scrum transformation.

In the next chapter, we will learn how to apply lean–agile concepts in similar scenarios.