T-Mobile is in the midst of an agile transformation. We’ll speak from our learnings on agile adoption at a very large company over the past few years. Many start with the teams where management thinks agile is just for them. But now that we recognize the need to expand to the enterprise, we are getting far more involvement from our leaders. We will address our lifecycle of adoption and some of the challenges that we need to confront to move to the next level of agile performance. For more information on Agile Management, please visit: http://ow.ly/QZT450fQA0d

1. Case Study: T-Mobile Agile Journey With
CA Agile Central
Bryan Nelson
AMT20S
AGILE MANAGEMENT
Digital Development Agile Practice Lead
T-Mobile

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The content provided in this CA World 2017 presentation is intended for informational purposes only and does not form any type
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Abstract
T-Mobile’s Digital Development team is in the midst of an Agile Transformation
encompassing T-Mobile.com, MyT-mobile.com, MetroPCS.com and T-Mobile Mobile
App.
I’ll speak from our learnings over the past few years as we wrestled with how best to
scale (from a handful of Sprint Teams to almost 100) and the role CA Agile Central
(formerly Rally) and the Agile Success Program has played.
Bryan
Nelson
T-Mobile
Digital Development
Agile Practice Lead

4. T-Mobile Confidential

5. Agenda
§ In the beginning…
§ But Then
§ Key Take Aways, Q&A
§ Until
§ And now
§ What’s next
1
2
3
4
5
6

6. In the Beginning… Things were pretty good
MyT-Mobile.com
§ Digital Platform Migration, 3 years ago
§ Successful Greenfield Program with
dedicated, cross functional resources
§ 10~ Sprint Teams
§ Using Agile Central to author, execute stories
§ Limited application of Portfolio Management

7. But Then… It wasn’t so good
MyT-Mobile.com
§ Digital Platform Migration completed: Back to
working with Enterprise Waterfall system
§ Waterfall Projects Schedule (6-9 months)
§ Resources (Business, Dev, Test) aligned to
projects instead of teams
§ BRD’s translated to Stories vs. Product Feature
mindset

8. But Then… It wasn’t so good
MyT-Mobile.com
§ Backlog health, coordination amongst teams,
dependencies, etc. was a mess
§ Months to do each phase of requirements
definition and high level design
§ Timelines not based on capacity planning
§ Team morale was low

9. Until… We changed things
§ Re-aligned resources to Teams
(Product, Dev, Test)
§ Focused on Product Management
Roadmap via Features
§ Matured in our understanding/usage of
CA Agile Central Portfolio
– Portfolio Items
– Capacity Planning
– Release Tracking
§ Realized the underlying principles were
from SAFe and needed to learn more

10. Until… We changed things
§ Learned from others
– Coaching from CA Agile Success
Program (ASP). Huge help.
– Observed CA Agile Central’s Big
Room Planning Oct 2016
§ Learned more about SAFe
§ SPC4’s: Coaches
§ POPM: 120
§ SAFe for Teams: 100 Dev, Arch
§ SAFe for Executives:
Directors, VP

11. Until… We Changed Things
Q3: First Big Room Planning
§ Alignment between
Business, Technology
and Architecture
§ Clear vision and roadmap
for the Quarter
§ Identify and coordinate key
dependencies

12. Until… We Changed Things
Q3: First Big Room Planning
§ Address, mitigate or accept known risks
§ A committed set of team and program objectives with a plan
that can be achieved based on capacity in Agile Central

13. T-Mobile Confidential
Key Outputs: Capacity Plan
§ Feature allocations
by Team
§ Feature
Prioritization and
Capacity across all
Teams

14. T-Mobile Confidential
Key Outputs: Release Tracking
§ Feature Progress
§ Breakdown of
Features/Stories
by Team and
Sprint
§ Sprint Progress
§ Dependencies
§ Issues

15. T-Mobile Confidential
Wins from BRP
§ Teams have a much better understanding of the
Product context and vision for the quarter and
beyond (why their work matters!)
§ Much better alignment and morale between
Product, Architecture and Dev
§ Increased accuracy of commitments based
on capacity
§ Better coordination amongst teams (dependencies)
§ Culture of collaboration, innovation, and fun
quickmeme.com

16. T-Mobile Confidential
Learnings
§ 1st BRP at T-Mobile: Now have a template that
can be leveraged by other Teams/Programs
§ Lots of prep needed (Features ready, room,
agenda, food)
§ Leadership support and presence from
Product, Arch and Dev is essential
§ Training on BRP for various roles is crucial
(120 Digital Services Product, 110 Dev Teams,
Arch)
Ebaumsworld.com

17. What’s Next… Scaling
§ MyTMO Next steps
– Pull in downstream dependent teams (cut
across org silos) to deliver value quicker
§ Other Digital Dev Properties following
– T-Mobile.com
– T-Mobile App
– Frontline Systems (Retail, Care)
– Total: 75 Teams

18. What’s Next… Scaling
T-Mobile Digital Transformation
§ Led by Agile Studio Team
§ Leveraging Agile Central to scale
across the Enterprise
§ 3000 active users
§ 100’s of teams/backlogs

19. What’s Next… Scaling
T-Mobile Digital Transformation
§ Other large Programs using
Agile Central to provide
transparency and better
plan/execute their work (HR)
§ Customer Journeys in progress
§ Agile Central/Clarity integration
in progress

20. Key Take Aways
§ Agile Transformation is tough and a
long haul.
§ Leadership support is crucial. Lead
by example.
§ Embedded Coaching is key for long
term success
§ Push forward and make progress.
Continuous Learning. Inspect & Adapt
scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net

21. Key Take Aways
§ How will your teams scale? What approach/framework will
you use? (SAFe, LESS, DAD, Srum of Scrums, Spotify, etc.
Agile Scaling Matrix)
§ What tool(s) will best help accomplish this (hint: sticky
notes probably won’t work for distributed teams). CA Agile
Central is one of the leading tools in the industry.
§ Who’s helping you? Coaches? Agile Success Program can
help with all of the above.

22. Q&A
T-Mobile Confidential

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Thank you.

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Agile Management
For more information on Agile Management,
please visit: http://cainc.to/CAW17-AM