Agile transformation of a 25000 people company

© 2015 Avanade Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Agile transformation of a 25,000 people company

Mikkel Toudal Kristiansen [[email protected]]

Senior ALM Advisor, Nordics Agile Coach


About Avanade

Providers of business technology solutions and managed services

Founded on a unique alliance in 2000:

To bring Microsoft technology to the Fortune 500 companies

Committed to the Microsoft Platform only

Worldwide organisation – 25,000 people in 70+ locations


Why do customers want agility?

Value

Time

Risk

Time

Visibility

Time

Waterfall

Agile


It’s All About Demand

Customers are looking for faster and more flexible development approaches to stay competitive

“Delivering more value quicker”, “flexibility in changing requirements” and

“improved collaboration between business and IT” are becoming key

differentiators for our customers

Due to economic uncertainty our customers’ agility is paramount to their success -

those that don’t are failing or already out of business

As a response, Avanade started back in 2011 with Agile @

Avanade to build an enterprise-wide (width) & -class (depth) agile

capability


It’s All About Demand

What worked for us……it’s more than putting in place a methodology or Framework

…the right attitude & cultural change

…throughout all layers of organisation

…global & local leadership support

What we wanted to avoid……thinking training alone will build you an enterprise-class capability


Agile Coaches

37 carefully selected Agile practitioners & thought leaders across organisation (12 the first year, 19 the second, and now 37)

Change Agents, Evangelising, Mentoring & Driving Awareness

Gone through Train The Trainer & PST programme

13 are Professional Scrum Trainers (PST)

2 are EBMgt Engagement Managers


Agile Coaches

What worked for us……assembling a strong team of Agile Coaches – leaders

…having Agile Coaches to continuously evangelize & build

awareness

…letting them self-manage and provide leadership support

…being transparent with them

…instilling culture of learning, respect & pride

What we wanted to avoid……diluting the strength of our Agile Coaches community

…not keeping the bar high


Having comprehensive training curriculum to build enterprise-class capability throughout all layers of organisation is paramount

Training courses range from ½ day foundations for leadership & support organizations to 5 days deep dive for agile practitioners

Licensed Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) from Accentient

All students go through Scrum.org PSM and/or PSD assessments

Training And Assessments


Agile Training Curriculum

Development Team

members, SMDevelopment Teams members,

Project Managers, PO, SM

Leadership,

Sales,

SISAs,

Delivery

Leads

AFA – ½ or 1 day ASD - 3 daysASPM - 2 days

Level 300 - Deep Dive

For Agile PractitionersLevel 200 - Deep Dive

for Agile Project

Managers

Level 100 -

Foundational

for Leadership & Sales

ASF - 1 or 2 days

Development Team members,

Project Managers, PO, SM

Level 200 -

Foundational

For Agile Practitioners


Training And Assessments

What worked for us……creating a comprehensive training curriculum for all

…aligning training with external assessment programme & tooling

What we wanted to avoid…re-creating the wheel when developing training curriculum

…delivering training virtually to get the ‘numbers’ –

in-person led training is far more effective


Qualifying Agile Projects

Careful qualification needs to happen to determine capability fit

To determine agile suitability, a custom built assessment tool is used

Based on categories of questions with focus on alignment with typical Scrum values & principles

Identifies risks associated with the given environment & approach

Connects with Agile Coaches community help mitigating risks and provide mentoring & coaching


Qualifying Agile Projects

What worked for us……always making sure our customers are going down the agile route

for the right reasons

…having conversation early on with customer

…playing the role of trusted advisors – being open & honest

What we wanted to avoid…...feeding the excitement regardless


Contracting

Scale

Distribution

Tooling

Lifecycle

Scrum

Ecosystem

Support For A Heterogeneous Environment

Need for a disciplined, enterprise-level agile approach supporting all lines of business

All guidance is based on the Scrum Framework at its core

Supports full delivery lifecycle & continuous delivery

Focuses on adaption of scale & distribution

Lightweight, non-prescriptive collection of practices & guidance


Support For A Heterogeneous Environment

What worked for us……keeping to one “version of the truth” for whole company

…keeping it succinct & to the point

…evangelising continuously making sure people get it

…being open to continuously inspect and adapt – it’s a living

thing

What we wanted to avoid……wrapping the traditional methodology around the agile one

…being too prescriptive

…creating a heavyweight “body of knowledge”


Scrum.org And Avanade

Partners “in Principle”

The Partnership “in Principle” program is between Avanade and Scrum.org, joining together to “Improve the Profession of Software Development”

We ascribe to the principles of “The Agile Manifesto” and also promote Scrum Values

We aim to foster agility and transparency

“…we believe having collaborative global teams that do more than just talk about Scrum and

agile, but live it every day, creates a stronger environment which enables our people to deliver

more value to customers…”, John-Paul Edwards, Senior Vice President, Global Delivery

“…Scrum.org’s collaboration with Avanade commits us to work together within the values and

principles of the Agile Manifesto. I look forward to a long and fruitful relationship...”

Ken Schwaber, CEO Scrum.org and Co-founder Scrum


Finishing Thoughts

It’s a long term journey

Start small & think big

Leadership buy-in is essential

“connect top-down support with bottom-up enthusiasm”

Measure to improve

“Continuously Inspect and Adapt”

We’re not only doing it for ourselves – customer stands central


Key Messages and Some key numbers

• Every aspect of Agile @ Avanade offers succinct, but high impact value – the focus is on simplicity and agility

• We have built an enterprise-level capability throughout all Service Lines and the Global Delivery Network supported by a world-class agile training curriculum licensed from Scrum.org

• Avanade ascribes to the principles of The Agile Manifesto and promote Scrum values whilst aiming to foster Agility and Transparency within our own organisation and our customers

• Proven experience with a broad set of customers across various business domains, technologies, and distributed geographies

• Proven experience with scaled and distributed enterprise agile delivery across Avanade offshore delivery centres including BDC, IDC and PDC

250+

Certified in

ProfessionalScrum Master (PSM)

Industry recognized

100+

Certified in

ProfessionalScrum Developer (PSD)

Highly selective

13

Professional

Scrum Trainers (PST)

Less than 135 exist worldwide

1500+

Trained Avanade

Scrum Developers& Project Managers

Our best Agile practitioners

37

Avanade

Agile CoachesOur Change Agents

Trained by Scrum.org


Questions and Answers

Q&A

Agile transformation of a 25000 people company

Business

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