Mile High Agile 2011: Elevating Agility

A Day in the Agile Life of a

Financial Services Company
Presented by Bridgette Storms, Beth Bleimehl,
Mike Banta, and Doug Huffman

April 7, 2011

Page 1

How Did We Get Here?

April 7, 2011

The Catalyst for Change

The Transition to Agile
Introductions

Page 2

Agile Roles and Coaching

Product Owner

Scrum Master
Delivery (Agile) Manager
Team Members (Dev, QA/BA, SME)
Coaching Role

April 7, 2011

Page 3

Agile Roles
Product Owner

Full-time, organizational savvy

Evolved to part-time, maintaining business connection

Scrum Master

Well trained full-time focus,

For mature teams, can contribute in other areas

Delivery (Agile) Manager

Staff Manager for performance management, career development

Team advocate, less hands on, program focus

Team Members (Dev, QA/BA, SME)

April 7, 2011

Cross functional, co-located

Focus on versatility, role blurring, team focus
Page 4

Interlocking Agile Leadership

Roles

April 7, 2011

Page 5

Coaching Philosophy

April 7, 2011

At inception, equal parts executive and team level

training
Coaching engagement mandatory for new teams
Mature teams receive periodic health checks
Create coaching opportunities for Agile
practitioners

Page 6

Quality Operating Model

Embedded System Testing and Centralized Quality Control

Initial Needs

System Test Oversight

Automation Growth
Retain Focus on Good Testing Techniques/Skills

Evolved to Focus on Value

Transition Oversight to Collaboration with Audit & Compliance

Evolve Centralized Automation from Doing to R&D/Mentoring
Facilitate Collaboration/Growth Between Teams (Quality Focus)
Correct/Prevent Systemic Issues (e.g., Production Quality)
Expand Definition of Quality Beyond Defect Free
Encourage/Coach Technology Best Practices
Continuous Development of Agility/Versatility
Expand Delivery Services & Quality via Enterprise Capabilities Model
Evolve to Continuous Value Assessment

April 7, 2011

Page 7

Delivery Services Operating Model

STRATEGIC DIRECTION FROM SENIOR LEADERSHIP
Strategy Creation & Evolution Continuous Value Assessment Communication of Vision, Direction & Priorities

ENTERPRISE CHECKS & BALANCES

INTERNAL/EXTERNAL AUDIT PMO CHG MGT DATA SECURITY COMPLIANCE | ARCHITECTURE |DATA GOVERNANCE | DATA POLICY

TECHNOLOGY DELIVERY SERVICES CAPABILITY MOBILIZATION

TECHNOLOGY DELIVERY SERVICES LEADERSHIP | BUSINESS LEADERSHIP | ENTERPRISE LEADERSHIP
Epic/Project Status| Executive Status | Business Leadership Status

DELIVERY TEAM EXECUTION

Release Quality | System Testing Business Project & Product Ownership | Sprint & Project Reviews
Test Automation Development Continuous Delivery Improvement forums

ENTERPRISE

Agile
Team

Agile
Team

Agile
Team

Agile
Team

Agile
Team

Agile
Team

Traditional
Team

Quality
Team

ENTERPRISE
CAPABILITY
MOBILIZATION
Business Svc Monitoring
ECM
Usability Arch

Agile
Team

Automation & Frameworks

Load & Performance
Continuous Integration
Technology Best Practices
Research & Development
Adaptive Staffing

QUALITY OVERSIGH T
Production Quality in tandem
with Business Quality Teams
Audit, Compliance, PMO
Financial Forecast / Monitoring
Department Transparency
Continuous Improvement at
Department Level

ENTERPRISE

ENTERPRISE
COLLABORATION

Quality Control is Centralized; Testing is Embedded in Delivery Teams

Tools & Technology

Traditional
Team

P e o p le & P r o c e s s e s
Delivery Services Continuous
Improvement
Team Health
Agility & Versatility Development
Cross-Functional Liaison
Training / Mentoring / Career
Development Facilitation

Improvement
Communities
Quality, Tools
& Process

Agile and Legacy Systems

Positive impact on software

Discourages monolithic componentry

Test automation

Includes some home-grown tools

Some integration with newer tools thru web interfaces, etc.

Employees working with legacy systems

Sometimes Agile is a tougher sell

Test scrum with them

April 7, 2011

Scrum speaks for itself!

Page 9

Agile and Offshore Teams

Challenges:

Colocation

Culture

Lack of face to face collaboration

Command / control vs. self organization

Significant time difference

Can also be advantage

(round the clock work)

April 7, 2011

Page 10

Agile and Offshore Teams

Strategies for Success
Quality of communication

Face to Face

Video or Telephone

April 7, 2011

Let your front line team members be included in travel

Offshore team members in our office & on team
Currently doing daily early morning call

Page 11

Agile and Offshore Teams

Strategies for Success
Virtual standup

Virtual story board (eg Version One, scrumy.com)

Currently using a spreadsheet

Clearly communicate planning results

Telephone or video standup maybe not daily

Planning

April 7, 2011

Get stories from storytime to offshore day before planning

Get input from offshore team
Review by phone morning after planning
Page 12

April 7, 2011

Page 13

Communicating Value

April 7, 2011

Did well at first

Success led to slacking on the message

Increased # of Agile teams to program-sized

levels
Nervousness settled in w/ management

Page 14

Moratorium (Given) Reasons

Leadership felt lack of
control/influence

Cost of build outs for new Agile teams

Expressed unawareness of Agile

value

Lack of transparency

Heard we had multiple Agile coaches

April 7, 2011

Management didnt know how we

selected a project to go Agile

Business feels like theyre giving more

(PO, SME, BA, user testers, etc.)
Page 15

Evolving Leadership
How can we help them along?

April 7, 2011

Status report
Value report
Improved visibility
Keep the Agile program in front of Senior
Management

Page 16

Questions??