SpringOne 2021 Session Title: Saving the DoD $800M: How Portfolio Management is the Missing Link Between Agile and Waterfall Speakers: Jackie Ho, Staff Product Designer at VMware; Oscar Chacon, Portfolio PM at United States Space Force

1. Lt Oscar Chacon
United States Space Force
Saving the DoD Money:
How Portfolio Management is the
Missing Link Between Agile and Waterfall
Jackie Ho
VMware Tanzu Labs

8. Section 31 @ Kobayashi Maru
Kobayashi Maru
Section 31
Thousands of users
United States Space Force
Combined Space
Operations Center (CSpOC)
7 application teams, 9+ applications,
30+ developers
Cloud Native Platform
Built on Cloud Foundry
Strategy - Planning - Tasking - Support
Space Tasking Cycle
Delivers capabilities that
support

10. Kessel Run and Section 31

11. "You're only successful because you're
replacing easy user workflows. Your apps
are simple and you aren't doing any
integrations and automation."

12. "Section 31 is just focused on individual
user value. We have higher priorities with
greater mission impact that need to be
worked on."

13. "Well we're building a complex system of
applications so of course it's going to be
harder and take longer. You're just
building cute apps."

14. So we created our first portfolio
and portfolio team.

15. Demonstrate that an organic
software factory can build a
system that solves bigger
problems end-to-end
GOAL

16. Additional Challenges
● Scaled to 5 teams without any leadership changes
● Teams were focused exclusively on user value

17. 5 TEAMS
8 APPS
TEAM MAKEUP
Product Managers
Product Designers
Engineers

18. What did that actually look like?

19. Me!

20. Balanced Portfolio Team
Portfolio Product Strategy
Empowered and Aligned Teams
Stakeholder Management
Working Closely with Teams

21. TWO KEY FACETS
Balanced Portfolio Team
Fully Dedicated Portfolio Team

22. The Balanced Team
Lean Startup
Product Manager
Engineering Product Designer User Centered
Design
Extreme
Programming

24. TWO KEY FACETS
Balanced Portfolio Team
Fully Dedicated Portfolio Team

25. Separation of concern between types of leaders
Portfolio Team
focuses on delivery of
product outcomes.
Director(s) handle
budgets, allocations,
external enterprise
priorities, and thinking
about how to scale.
Practice Leadership /
“Managers” focus on
practice health and
practitioner growth.

26. Balanced Portfolio Team
Portfolio Product Strategy
Empowered and Aligned Teams
Stakeholder Management
Working Closely with Teams

27. PORTFOLIO PRODUCT STRATEGY =
What problems should we solve
Which team should work on which problem

28. PORTFOLIO PRODUCT STRATEGY =
What problems should we solve
Which team should work on which problem

29. Portfolio Product Strategy
INPUTS
● Research done by Portfolio Team
● Research done by product teams
● Mission Value (based on stakeholder
feedback)
● Organizational Value (value to
teams/products outside our portfolio)
● What are teams currently working on
OUTPUTS
● Portfolio Bet
● Vision Statement
● Outcomes Cascade
● OKRs (Portfolio and Team-Level)
● Portfolio Milestones
● System Roadmap

30. What are OKRs
Objectives
“Where do I want to go?”
Key Results
“How do I know if I’m getting
there?”
OKRs help with:
● Focus
● Alignment
● Commitment
● Measurement
● Ambition

31. i
n
c
l
u
d
e

32. Balanced Portfolio Team
Portfolio Product Strategy
Empowered and Aligned Teams
Stakeholder Management
Working Closely with Teams

33. Empowered & Aligned Teams

34. How Outcomes Cascade to the Team Level
Each team’s roadmap is
aligned 100% to portfolio
outcomes and priorities.

35. Balanced Portfolio Team
Portfolio Product Strategy
Empowered and Aligned Teams
Stakeholder Management
Working Closely with Teams

36. Stakeholder Management
We collaborate with mission
stakeholders ensuring they
understand our approach and
collaborate on defining the
higher level desired outcomes
and objectives that cascade to
the team level.

37. What is Mission Value
User Value
Business Value ��
In the commercial world...
User Value
Mission Value
In our DoD world...

38. Balanced Portfolio Team
Portfolio Product Strategy
Empowered and Aligned Teams
Stakeholder Management
Working Closely with Teams

39. Examples: Working Closely with Teams
● Fortnightly check-ins
● Help with risks or blockers
● Pair on user stories / solve engineering challenges
● Attend and collaborate on user interviews
● OKR development
● Prioritization of efforts on their roadmap

40. Where are we today?

41. On track to deliver our integrated
system with at least 4 integrated
apps.
TODAY

42. Portfolio model adopted by rest
of our organization.
TODAY

43. OUR PORTFOLIO DELIVERY MODEL HAS ALLOWED US TO
Meet the bigger integrated mission system
that the DoD is used to getting

44. OUR PORTFOLIO DELIVERY MODEL HAS ALLOWED US TO
Meet the bigger integrated mission system
that the DoD is used to getting,
while delivering incremental capabilities to
operators along the way

45. We couldn’t have done it without... Platform!
Platform Agility, Reliability, and Security: Can
You Really Have it All in the Federal Sector?
Sep 1, 11:05 - 11:30am PT
Driveway to Highway: Driving Outcomes with
Infrastructure as a Product
Sep 2, 10:05 - 10:30am PT
Check these two other SpringOne talks

46. Thanks!