JASON SUTTIE: THE AGILE GUIDE TO THE ENTERPRISE

The Story:THIS IS RMB STORY OF HOW WE ADOPTED AGILE IN THE RMB INVESTMENT BANK A ROMANCE NOVEL FOR KNOWLEDGE WORKERS not ASHLEYMADISON

Who did we write this story for? IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT ADOPTING AGILE IN YOUR ORG THIS IS FOR YOU, PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE OF WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN'T

The Synopsis:WHAT WAS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE NEED?THE SHIFTS IN THINKING AND BEHAVIOR OF INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS AND ULTIMATELY THE ORGANIZATIONVALUE - HOW WE REDUCED OUR CYCLE TIMESOME REAL LIFE, HANDS ON FEEDBACK THE CHALLENGES THAT WE FACED AND ULTIMATELY WHAT WE DID ABOUT THEM.

Hope you enjoy our RMB Agile Story

THE AGILE GUIDE TO THE ENTERPRISE

2012-2013 Focus on SurvivalStart 2012

BUSINESS RESTRUCTURESIT CENTRALIZATION & RESTRUCTURE

RESPONSIBLE FOR DEVELOPMENT & INTEGRATION, SPENDING MOST OF MY TIME RECRUITING GOOD PEOPLE

End 2012TASKED WITH SDLC – BASED ON PAST EXPERIENCE WITH MSF FOR AGILETHE OPPORTUNITY HAD BEEN IDENTIFIED

JASON: HIS THINKING & POSITIONING

What was the shiftSHIFT TOWARDS VALUE AND CHANGING THE PHILOSOPHY OF THOUGHT OF OUR PEOPLE

WHAT WAS CAUSING PEOPLE TO NOT IDENTIFY CHANGES TO MAKE THEIR WORLDS BETTER – IT CAME DOWN TO MINDSET

THE CAREER SHIFT THE SURVIVAL MODE THE PERSONAL SHIFT THE INTERNAL SHIFT THE INTERNAL WARFARE DO I DO SOMETHING MORE BOLD THAT MAY BE CAREER LIMITING

IT HAPPENED IN ME, THERE WERE MANY THINGS THAT LED UP TO IT WHICH WE WILL TALK ABOUT NEXT

JASON: THE SHIFT IN MINDSET

THE SELL WAS “REDUCE CYCLE TIME” – ONE OF THE MANY POTENTIAL BENEFITS THAT RESOUNDED WITH BUSINESS

FIRST I GOT BUY IN FROM MY OWN MANAGEMENT TEAM AND THEN THE BUSINESS COOs

I QUICKLY REALIZED THAT I DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO DO MORE THAN STEER AN AUTONOMOUS TEAM SO I SET ABOUT CREATING THE AGILE A TEAM (DRIVEN, DANIE ROUX AND BSG)WE DID AN OFFSITE WORKSHOP THAT SERVED TO ALIGN OUR THINKING

AT THIS POINT WE HAD A BIG HAMMER AND NOT MANY NAILS…IT STARTED WITH A CONVERSATION BETWEEN CANDICE AND I AROUND DEVELOPERS

SETTING THE SCENE: RMB & BUS / BT

IN 2013, I INHERITED A TEAM KNOWN AS THE RATES TEAM WHO WERE (AND STILL ARE) RESPONSIBLE FOR SOURCING MARKET DATA, TURNING IT INTO USABLE INFORMATION AND DISTRIBUTING THAT DOWNSTREAM TO THE VARIOUS TRADING SYSTEMS IN THE FSR GROUP FOR VALUATION AND CALCULATION OF PROFIT AND LOSS ON DAILY BASIS.

ALONG WITH THEM I INHERITED THE SYSTEM THEY USED TO DISCHARGE THEIR DUTIES, KNOWN AS ARP, THE AUTOMATED RATES PROCESS AND A 101 SPREADSHEETS THAT WERE WAITING FOR AUTOMATION…

I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS IN FOR

THE SCRIPT: THE STORY CANDICE & ARP

ARP WAS EXTREMELY UNDER-MAINTAINED AND UNDER-DEVELOPED FOR WHAT IT WAS MEANT TO DO AND ITS CRITICALITY TO THE FSR GROUP AS A WHOLE.

IT HAD 2 CONTRACT DEVELOPERS ASSIGNED TO IT WHO WORKED ODD HOURS AND ONLY FOR SUPPORT – NO DEVELOPMENT.

IT WAS UNSTABLE AND UNABLE TO RECOVER IN DISASTER SITUATIONS. TECHNOLOGY COMPONENTS WERE OUT OF DATE AND A HOST OF OTHER ISSUES…

Initially, I engaged with Jason to get dedicated resources and start addressing the problems I could see, which I thought would take 3 months with 1 dedicated developer. We eventually embarked on a tactical project to fix what became a long list of burning issues. This took 6 months, from June 2013, with 5 dedicated developers

SETTING THE SCENE: ARP PRE-AGILE

THE TACTICAL PROJECT TEAM ADOPTED AGILE

THESE ARE THE THINGS WE FOUND MOST USEFUL , AND SOME UNEXPECTED LEARNINGS FROM BEING AGILE

THE PLAY: ARP & AGILE

The Bootstrap:THIS WAS A GREAT WAY TO GET A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T PREVIOUSLY WORKED TOGETHER ORGANISED INTO A TEAM, QUICKLY!

THE OUTCOME OF THIS WAS A TEAM CONTRACT;DEFINING HOW WE INTERACTED WITH EACH OTHER & WHAT WE EXPECTED OF EACH OTHER. THIS ALLOWED US TO HOLD EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE EASILY.

IT ALSO GAVE EVERYONE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR COLLEAGUES BACKGROUNDS & AN IDEA OF WHAT THEY COULD EXPECT FROM EACH OTHER IN TERMS OF WORK , WHICH WAS PARTICULARLY ENTERTAINING WHEN THE DEVELOPERS FOUND OUT I HAD A DEGREE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE & COULD UNDERSTAND (MOST) OF WHAT THEY SAID!

THE PLAY: SCENE 1 - BOOTSTRAP

The Board:MY FAVOURITE!

THIS WAS THE SINGLE MOST POWERFUL TOOL FOR THE PROJECT AND THE TEAM

THE PLAY: SCENE 2 – THE BOARD

The Bootstrap:WE USE THE BOARD IN OUR DAILY MEETINGS TO TRACK THE STATUS OF ASSIGNED TASKS as well as tasks not yet assigned i.e. in the backlog.

What THIS BRINGS TO THE TEAM AND PROJECT is: TRANSPARENCY ACCOUNTABILITY SELF GOVERNANCE EFFICIENCY

It has been such a powerful tool that I now use a board to manage my Rates Team, which is a more daily operational team. And, it has allowed us to move cards between the boards as work moves between the teams for testing etc.

But is it not for everyone….

THE PLAY: SCENE 1 - BOOTSTRAP

The Bootstrap:The unexpected LEARNING HERE WAS AROUND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HOW EXPOSED and INADEQUATE THIS PROCESS CAN MAKE a person FEEL. This wasn’t considered at the start of the project and wasn’t something we addressed in the bootstrap with the team. It’s very easy to see who isn’t coping or up to standard and that can be very embarrassing for the impacted person. Our experience was that this had a very NEGATIVE IMPACT on the team and project AS THE IMPACTED MEMBERS started TO DISENGAGE and became obstructive. They did eventually self-eject….

THE PLAY: SCENE 1 - BOOTSTRAP

The Iteration Planning:Originally, each iteration ended with a demo and retrospective. The retrospectives were very useful at the beginning while people were getting used to each other (and fun – our coaches brought Lego for us, and bouncy balls!). However, we eventually combined the demo and retrospective and then did away with them completely as the daily meetings and the iteration planning were sufficient for us.

An additional learning here was that this forced downstream systems to start to follow suit or at least plan around our cycle themselves, as only requests prioritised at the iteration planning session were considered for the next iteration – no exceptions!.

THE PLAY: SCENE 3 - ITERATION

THE PLAY: SCENE 3 - ITERATION

The Iteration Planning:We settled on a 2 week iteration cycle after a few weeks togetherIteration planning helped us to prepare for the work load coming down the line AND it meant that the team agreed on the work to be done in the next iteration, which meant better productivity.

We also found ITERATION PLANNING to be a great way of protecting the TEAM from “The ARSONISTS” i.e. the ill-considered business requests. This stops the team being distracted and provides structure.

This process also gave the team a sense of immediate achievement as tasks are actually completed in the cycle and value added. This feeds the team’s energy – I likened them to “Audrey” the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors, the more I gave them the more they wanted…

Dear Candice from June,Getting ARP stable and under control will be possible and quicker than you anticipated. The way that you will be working with the team now forces discussions to happen daily and good decisions are made often and swiftly. The bi-weekly retrospective and planning serves as a good time to evaluate whether we are on the right track or not, as well as building good team rapportI remember how much you are struggling to get feedback from developers. I know that the developers will disappear for long periods only to come back with half-baked solutions. This has all changed now. I get feedback far more often and I redirect them as needed. The team is now 5 developers. You know those concerns about onboarding new people? Well, all the people came onboard much quicker than expected. The way in which the team and work is structured allows for more collaboration and the new people can get into ARP much quicker. The development team (including me) had a bootstrap session. In the bootstrap every person had a chance to tell their story of why they are there. That allowed us as a team to start telling the "story of us". It lead to a team contract that was drawn up to satisfy everyone's values. This contract is being used to call out behaviour that damages the team.

THE REVIEW: DEAR CANDICE PART 1

So I have taken some ideas from the dev team to my ops team. The ops team now have their own board, fashioned around the board that the developers use. The main benefit my team and I get from this is visibility. The ops team has taken to calling the daily meeting "the board meeting"! If I look back at it now, I have learned a few things in the past few months:• If you hire the right people and get them working together well, great things happen.• Don’t believe everything you hear!• A KANBAN board is useful for everyone (including your family) and forces accountability without people feeling micro-managed.• Assign work to the team, not to a person. It has been an awesome experience and the project is the “poster project” for Agile in the bank. The project will over deliver and you will also be able to present this good news to senior management. The project will give you a set of management techniques that will stand you in good stead for the rest of your career.

THE REVIEW: DEAR CANDICE PART 2

THE OVERVIEW: HINDSIGHT

Where was our story taking us?CANDICE AND I WERE HIGH-FIVING AFTER A SUCCESSFUL BOARD PRESENTATION ON ARP AND AGILE

ARP BEING THE BEST STARTING POINT PROVEN VLAUE AUDITABLE

FRAMEWORKS

Where was our story telling us?BUT – REALITY QUICKLY DAWNEDBEING LIMITED COACHES - 2BURNING RESOURCES – DUE TO RESTRUCTUREFRICTION CAUSED – THOSE AGAINST AGILEINSECURITIES – COULD WE DO THIS IN A BROADER CONTEXT?WE PUT TOGETHER AND ALSO ADOPTED FRAMEWORKS THAT COVERED

ENGAGEMENT ENTERPRISE FLUENCY PRIORITIZATION

THE RESULT OF PRIORITISATION WAS THAT WE SHIFTED OUR FOCUS TO OUR BIGGEST TRADING SYSTEM AND ALSO TO INFRASTRUCTURE TEAM

ENGAGEMENT MODEL

ITERATIVE ENGAG

EMENT & STAKEHO

LDER MANAG

EMENT

ENTERPRISE FLUENCY

PRIORITIZATION

VALUE VS EFFORT

EASE OF ADOPTION

STRA

TEGI

C VA

LUE

PARKEDN

OT EVALUATED

TRADING SYSTEM

The Story Before: SILOS

WORK ALLOCATED TO INDIVIDUALS NOT THE TEAM – LOTS OF KEY MAN DEPENDENCY

NO TRANSPARENCY ON WHO WAS WORKING ON WHAT

MULTIPLE INFLOWS OF WORK IN THE TEA LEAD TO LOTS OF UNPLANNED WORK

ABNORMALLY HIGH STRESS LEVELS

TRADING SYSTEM: BEFORE

TRADING SYSTEM

The Story After: ONE PIPELINE OF WORK CHANGES THE GAME

WORK ALLOCATED TO THE TEAM, TEAM MEMBERS PULL WORK

WORK CATEGORISED BY TYPE RTB, ENH, TECH DEBT AND PROJECTS

MORE CONVERSATIONS HAPPEN BETWEEN TEAM MEMBERS – TEAM BECOMING SELF ORGANISED

REDUCE UNPLANNED WORK TO A MINIMUM

TRADING SYSTEM: AFTER

INFRASTRUCTURE

The Story Before:• PERMANENT FIREFIGHTING DUE TO PRODUCTION INCIDENTS

• 2 TEAMS MERGED EACH WITH THEIR OWN WAY OF DOING THINGS… BOTH GOOD IN THEIR OWN WAYS

• NEW MERGED TEAM OPERATING IN SILO’S

• LIMITED COMMUNICATION AND VISIBILITY WITHIN TEAM AND BACK TO BUSINESS, MISUNDERSTANDING OF WHAT BUSINESS IS TRYING TO ACHIEVE

• MANY PIPELINES OF WORK - PROCESSES BEEN SHORTCUT

• EXPECTATION OF PROJECTS TO BE DELIVERED BASED ON A DISCUSSION

• OVERPROMISE AND UNDER DELIVER DUE TO UNKNOWN WORK LOAD

INFRASTRUCTURE: BEFORE

INFRASTRUCTURE

The Story Before:• PERMANENT FIREFIGHTING DUE TO PRODUCTION INCIDENTS

• 2 TEAMS MERGED EACH WITH THEIR OWN WAY OF DOING THINGS… BOTH GOOD IN THEIR OWN WAYS

• NEW MERGED TEAM OPERATING IN SILO’S

• LIMITED COMMUNICATION AND VISIBILITY WITHIN TEAM AND BACK TO BUSINESS, MISUNDERSTANDING OF WHAT BUSINESS IS TRYING TO ACHIEVE

• MANY PIPELINES OF WORK - PROCESSES BEEN SHORTCUT

• EXPECTATION OF PROJECTS TO BE DELIVERED BASED ON A DISCUSSION

• OVERPROMISE AND UNDER DELIVER DUE TO UNKNOWN WORK LOAD

TRADING SYSTEM: AFTER

INFRASTRUCTURE

The story After: SINGLE PIPELINE OF WORK PRIORITIZED BY BUSINESS VALUE

THE FIRST NEW ARTEFACT THE “BUSINESS GOAL FORM” – CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

CREWS ASSEMBLED TO DELIVER IN DOMAINS E.G. LINUX, WINDOWS ETC.

AS A TEAM WE NOW HAVE CONSTRUCTIVE DISCUSSION WHICH GETS EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE VERY QUICKLY AND LESS ABOUT THE TASKS

DOUBLE THE VELOCITY THAN WHEN STARTED, LIMITING WIP

BETTER VISIBILITY, HAPPIER STAKEHOLDERS

LOVE TO KNOW HOW MANY AGILE INFRASTRUCTURE TEAMS THERE ARE IN SA?

GUIDE TO THE ENTERPRISE FLOW

WHY THESE 2 EXAMPLES – THERE IS NO RECIPIE, TEAMS ARE DIFFERENT

POST THESE TEAMS WE SYSTEMATICALLY SET ABOUT TRANSFORMING THE REST OF THE TEAMS. PUSH AND PULL

SOME PUSHES LED TO CARGO CULTING THAT WE ARE COACHING THE TEAMS THROUGH

THE INFLECTION POINT CAME THIS YEAR WHEN IT WAS APPARENT WE NEEDED TO START SHIFTING THE ENTERPRISE

GOT THE SENIOR EXECS ON BOARD AND NOW WE ARE EXPERIMENTING ON HOW WE CAN ACHIEVE MINIMUM CYCLE TIME ACROSS ALL THE TEAMS IN THE ENTERPRISE VALUE CHAIN. NOT THERE YET BUT WE ARE EQUIPED TO MAKE THE CHANGES THAT WILL ALLOW US TO SUCCEED

CANDICE – GREAT PARTNER

BT MANAGEMENT – SUPPORT OF SABIR AND ALAN. DORON WHO HELPED WITH PUSHING WHEN THE PULLING SLOWED

AGILE A TEAM – COACHES – KEVIN, DANIE, CANDICE - THANKS FOR 2 YEARS OF DEEP COMMITMENT

AGILE ADVOCATES IN RMB – THANKS FOR YOUR ENERGY, TIME, RESILIENCE AND ENTHUSIASM

*WE ARE RMB*

THE BIG THANK YOU