As teaser for the full presentation at the upcoming Scrum Deutschland Day on November 17, 2017 in Duesseldorf Germany: War Stories - “… and yet it moves": About obstacles and impediments on the path of transforming a software engineering team distributed across 3 continents towards agile methods https://www.prowareness.de/agenda-scrum-deutschland-2017/

1. Agile War Stories
“… and yet it moves"
About obstacles and impediments on the path of
transforming a software engineering team distributed
across 3 continents towards agile methods
with contributions from
Nicolas Dürr & Volker Sameske
Wolfgang Hilpert
Agile Café – Düsseldorf
27. September 2017
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 1

2. Speaker Background – Wolfgang Hilpert
Product & Technology Leader in various roles
◦ Chief Technology Officer, Head of Engineering / Software Development, Chief Product Owner
◦ @ startup, mid-size and industry leading ISVs incl. IBM, MSFT, SAP
◦ Entire product life cycle from idea on drawing board, design, development, market introduction & adoption
◦ Within plan-driven & agile product development environments
Initiated and led several lean & agile transformations
◦ @ SAP (Netweaver), @ AGT International, @ Sophos (NSG)
◦ Product owner, Scrum master, scaled agile (SAFe)
◦ Established cross-functions for User eXperience, Quality Management & Engineering Excellence, Product Line
Architecture and Program Management
Personal
◦ Husband & father of 2 children (19 & 15 years old)
◦ Football player, runner (HM), cross-country skier
www.linkedin.com/in/whilpert
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 2

3. Context
The product development of a team with over 200 engineer at 5 globally
distributed locations had to be organized such that one software product with a
bunch of functional and significant quality improvements could be delivered on
a single day.
In this talk we discuss techniques and concepts that have been applied to drive
the agile transformation and the scaling of agile methods within a mid-size,
globally distributed enterprise. We talk about challenges that we faced and
measures to address these.
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 3

4. Scrum Teams and Lab Locations
Vancouver (CA) Budapest (HU)
Karlsruhe (DE)
Bangalore (IN)
Ahmedabad (IN)
• >200 Engineers in 5 locations
• Different cultures – region &
company
• Diverse skills, processes, tools
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 4

5. Predictibility Issues – version before
Case – Timeline: Lack of Predictability
◦ v1 required 35% more time than initially planned
◦ Long path towards Concept Commit
◦ More time spent for stabilization than for development
Reality
Plan
Planning
Development
Hardening
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 5

6. Some War Stories
➢Which level of support does the agile transformation need?
➢Scaling agile methods – yes!
➢However, based on which framework?
➢„Scrum hurts. Really?“
➢Metrics & Transparency help to make the current state and developments visible.
➢How does an 18-months product roadmap fit into an agile project plan?
➢How do agile Scrum product owner and a product manager fit together?
➢How can the agile transformation of global organizations distributed across locations, time zones &
cultures be successful anyway?
➢Is the application of agile methods a necessary or sufficient condition for a successful product
development?
➢Doing agile vs. being agile
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 6

7. Some War Stories
➢Which level of support does the agile transformation need?
➢Scaling agile methods – yes!
➢However, based on which framework?
➢„Scrum hurts. Really?“
➢Metrics & Transparency help to make the current state and developments visible.
➢How does an 18-months product roadmap fit into an agile project plan?
➢How do agile Scrum product owner and a product manager fit together?
➢How can the agile transformation of global organizations distributed across locations, time zones &
cultures be successful anyway?
➢Is the application of agile methods a necessary or sufficient condition for a successful product
development?
➢Doing agile vs. being agile
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 7

8. Buy-in for Agile Transformation on all levels
Leadership provides the
frame for the transition
Teams own the execution
Agile
Development
Agile
Support
Development Level
Management Level
Executive Level
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 8

9. Buy-in for Agile Transformation on all levels
◦ Some teams delayed their agile transformation
◦ Historical reasons
◦ Interface issues
◦ Resistance to adoption
◦ This hurts a lot:
◦ Yet we were able to generate important insights.
◦ We discussed it, we decided to improve in collaboration between
teams and alligned all teams to an agile approach.
◦ This takes time. Respect that and don‘t force people.
June 2016
Agile
Development
Agile
Support
Development Level
Management Level
Executive Level
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 9

10. Foster new experiences and change will
happen
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 10

11. Boundary Conditions
11
Don‘t disrupt agile transformation
◦ Transparency -> Burn up chart of accomplished product increment
◦ Quality -> early tests, significantly reduce defects previous vs. next rel.
◦ Predictability -> 4 months delay vs. 2 weeks (previous vs. next release)
◦ Stay true to core agile principle, e.g.
◦ Magic triangle, commit only based on estimates provided by the engineers
◦ Still a lot of runway for improvement (TA, UT, etc.)
Provide visibility of roadmap for annual business planning
◦ Visibility into 12 months vs. 3 months
Quality =
f ( S / R / T mix)
Resource Time
Scope
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT.

12. Some War Stories
➢Which level of support does the agile transformation need?
➢Scaling agile methods – yes!
➢However, based on which framework?
➢„Scrum hurts. Really?“
➢Metrics & Transparency help to make the current state and developments visible.
➢How does an 18-months product roadmap fit into an agile project plan?
➢How do agile Scrum product owner and a product manager fit together?
➢How can the agile transformation of global organizations distributed across locations, time zones &
cultures be successful anyway?
➢Is the application of agile methods a necessary or sufficient condition for a successful product
development?
➢Doing agile vs. being agile
Probable topics of my presentation at
Scrum Deutschland 2017
on November 17th, 2017
https://www.prowareness.de/agenda-scrum-
deutschland-2017/
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 12

13. Doing Agile vs. Being Agile
Kanban boards, daily scrums, sprints Agile mindset, intent-based Management
„Scrum, BUT …“
„Cargo Cult Agile“
~20% Benefit
▪Some ability to adapt to changing priorities
▪Improved visibility, communication
▪Increased productivity
▪Early tests, better transparency of realistic
quality status, improved quality
▪Reduced risk
„Joy at work“ „#1 workplace“
„delighted customers“
~200%+ Benefit
▪Customer delight
▪Joy at work, Employee Engagement
▪Innovation, creativity
▪Leadership at all levels
▪Continuous learning
Practices ≠ Mindset
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT. 13

14. Doing Agile ≠ Being Agile
14
Don’t ‘Do’ Agile. Be Agile!
–Alan Kelly
Stop ‘Doing Agile’. Start ‘Being
Agile’!
–Jim Highsmith
How to get to a state of being agile?
• Good agile practices that are necessary, but
not sufficient.
• Early indicator for being agile:
Truly empowered product owner(s)
 Long, thorny journey;
will hurt, needs coaching
Doing Agile
Executing the practices as closely as possible
to “as prescribed” description, and trying to
“inspect and adapt” to remove impediments
to achieving the “as prescribed” execution.
Being Agile
Internalizing the mindset, values, and principles
then applying the right practices and tailoring
them to different situations as they arise.
09/27/2017 © COPYRIGHT 2017 WOLFGANG HILPERT.