AW13 Agile Development Concurrent Session 11/12/2014 4:15 PM

"A Very Large Enterprise Agile Transformation: Lessons Learned at Salesforce"

Presented by:

Mike Register Salesforce.com

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073 888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

As an agile coach and trainer at Salesforce.com, Mike Register continues his twenty-five year journey to help organizations deliver the highest quality software continuously to market in a business environment that is constantly adapting. For more than ten years, Mike has led and coached agile teams and organizations—from the very small to the very large. Prior to joining Salesforce, he launched and guided agile transformations at multiple companies in the healthcare and finance industries. At Salesforce, Mike’s primary role as an enterprise coach and trainer involves guiding, evolving, and adapting a worldwide, very large agile implementation.

Sustaining a Very Large Agile Enterprise Transformation Agile Development East Conference 2014

• Mike Register • Agile Coach • @MikeSRegister

Mike’s Journey

Engineer Engineering Manager

Coach

1980s 1990s 2004 2014

Spiral/Iterative RUP/Waterfall FDD Scrum Lean XP Kanban

Brief History of Agile at Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com in the Beginning

• Founded in 1999 • Fast, Innovative, Successful, Growing

Incredible Growth

Higher Transaction Volume

Larger R&D Org

Unpredictable Releases

Fewer Features Processes needed to scale

Jump to 2006…

We Introduced the Adaptive Delivery Methodology (ADM)

ADM is Salesforce.com’s Agile Implementation: • Comprised of Scrum project management framework • Adopts Extreme Programming (XP) practices • Based on Lean principles

Results of 2006 Transformation

• Increased feature throughput • Predictable, regular release cadence • Prioritized work • Test automation • Regular sprint reviews • Team retrospectives • Scrum of Scrums to support teamwork across teams • Reduction in technical debt

Fast Forward to 2013

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Eng

inee

rs

Launched ADM

Engineering Growth 200+ scrum teams

What Continued to Work Well

Robust Initial Agile Implementation

Agile Coaching Office

BUs = Value Streams Company Culture

Lean Principles

Scrum XP

Challenges Sustaining a Transformation Principles forgotten; practices become stale

Coaches losing touch with teams

Enterprise Agility

Too much WIP

Command & Control seeping back in

One size does NOT fit all teams

Why was this Happening?

• Cultural shifts resulting from: – Rapid growth – Team composition – ScrumMaster role not well understood – Acquisitions: Some Agile; some not

• Gap in role-based training • Coaches needed to reach up and across the org • Principles behind practices not well understood

PULLED

IN TOO

MANY

DIRECTIONS

Solutions to Grow and Evolve Our Transformation

1. Scale Agile Coaches through Enterprise Coaching Office, BU Coaches, and ScrumMasters

2. Grow ScrumMasters into Team Coaches 3. Create Training that emphasizes principles and informs roles 4. Cultivate community and culture

Scaling Agile Coaches

Scaling Model

• 1 Enterprise Coaching Office

• 5 Enterprise Agile Coaches

• 20+ Business Units

• 200+ Scrum Teams

• 150+ ScrumMasters

Enterprise Coaching Office

BU Coach

SM SM SM

BU Coach

BU Coach

SM

SM

SM

SM

SM

SM

SM SM SM

SM

SM

SM

BU Coach

BU Coach

Enterprise Coaching Office Partners with BU Coaches and oversees Enterprise’s health

• Services: – Training – Coaching – Lead org transformation – Facilitation – Strategic Initiatives

• Engages Enterprise leadership • Enterprise Agility Initiatives • Attends to Enterprise health

Business Unit / Program Coaches

• Recognized Leader: strong influencer and change agent • Collaborates with Chief Product Owner • Measures and tracks team health • Continually improves quality and delivery practices • Regularly conducts program level retrospectives • Collaborates with other BU / program coaches • Collaborates with Enterprise Coaching Office on enterprise-wide initiatives

Coaches ScrumMasters and oversees the BU’s or program’s health

ScrumMasters

• Recognized leader • Deep knowledge of Scrum, Lean principles • Desire and ability to coach Agile principles and practices • Optimizes team throughput • Great facilitator • Measures and tracks team health • Continually improves quality and delivery practices • Protects the team

Team coaches that oversee the team’s health

Grow ScrumMasters

Growing ScrumMasters into Team Coaches 3 Step Program

• Revamped SM training • Internal Certification of Scrum Masters • ScrumMaster Qualifications

Revamped ScrumMaster Training

• The ScrumMaster role and competencies • Lean Principles: Focus on the WHY • Tips and best practices for Scrum • Facilitation role play • Team Coaching:

– How – When – Practice

Training emphasizes coaching and facilitation

Internal ScrumMaster Certification Program

Team Survey Observation Online Exam

ScrumMaster Certification Key Learnings

• This is a large effort! • Track results • ScrumMaster engagement • What is going on with ALL the teams • Themes start to emerge • Set expectations; understand context • Evaluated vs. coached

ScrumMaster Qualifications

• Qualities: Leadership, Agile interest, intellectual curiosity, desire to coach • Experience: Quantitative and qualitative • Training: 3 days internal training • Certification: Pass the program

Training

Training Strategy

• Focus on Lean principles • Flexibility in practice • Role-based training:

– New Hire Agile Training: TRAIN EVERYONE

– Product Owner – Leadership – ScrumMaster

Focus on Lean Principles

• Emphasize the WHY: Lean • Give options on the practices (HOW)

• Allow context and principles to drive practice selection

Flexibility in Practice Keep the practices evolving and adapting

• Introduce new frameworks, practices – Example: Kanban

• Introduce new options on existing frameworks and ceremonies – Example: Retrospectives

Cultivate Community

Communities of Practice (CoP)

• ScrumMaster CoPs: – Participants: All ScrumMasters in the BU – Led by the BU / Program Coach

• Enterprise-wide Agile CoP: – Participants: All Program Coaches across the Enterprise – Led by a Coach from the Enterprise Coaching Office

• Functional / Engineering CoPs: – Participants: Technical leaders in a functional discipline – Led by well known leader in the functional area

Culture: Tending the Agile Garden

• Strategies: – Emphasize Agile mindset and values – Recruit for Agile mindset – Cultivate Executive support – Leadership training – DevOps initiative

Additional work we’ve done…

• Retrospective workshops – Focus on teaching ScrumMasters how to facilitate effective retros – Includes remote / distributed retrospectives

• Renewed emphasis on sprint reviews – Educating ScrumMasters about “real” sprint reviews

• Renewed emphasis on getting to done every sprint – Revised Enterprise-level Definition of Done (DoD)

• Kanban – Targeted primarily at Operations teams – Applied in a global, “follow the sun” support model

How’d it go???

The Fruits of our Labor

Increased Trust, Collaboration

Larger Practices Toolkit

Predictable Delivery

Sustainable Culture

ScrumMasters more engaged and valued

Deeper connection with Agile principles

Role Clarity Communities for ongoing support

Group Exercise

What Ideas Can You Apply?

Coaching Grow ScrumMasters

Training Culture

Enterprise Coaching Office

SM Training: Facilitation and Coaching

Train everyone

Focus on Principles and Mindset

Business Unit Coaching

Internal Certification

Leadership training

Recruit for Agile Mindset

Grow SMs into Team Coaches

SM Qualifications Emphasize Principles

Executive Support

Flexible and evolving Practices

Questions?