The main problem we were asked to help solve was scope instability: for years, the organization had been fighting to receive the entire scope upfront and, as time passed, this became less and less possible. Our customers’ (Telecommunication Service Providers) business required better responsiveness and flexibility. In the session we will describe our approach for the implementation: evolution. How we helped the managers to evolve and in parallel evolved our coaching practices. The session will show many examples of successful attempts at evolving and also of failures (which provide great opportunities for learning). The session should be a good kick-starter for lean agile implementation.

1. Information Security Level 1 – Confidential
© 2012 – Proprietary and Confidential Information of Amdocs
Goodbye Scope Anxiety
Hello Agility
An agile implementation case study
Yaki Koren
Amdocs

2. “Amdocs has a proven
track record with
demonstrated
transformation
capabilities in various
service provider
accounts around the
world.”
Amdocs Delivery
4000
PROFESSIONALS
Global foot print with
develoDev Managerent centers
around the world (inc. Israel,
India, Brazil)
100+
PROJECTS running in parallel
Proven track record of 95% successful project delivered on budget, on time, with quality
and at large scale
Industry standard 60% -
“Amdocs has
shown it has the
size, scale and
stability to reliably
supply telecom
software
professional
services to CSPs.”

3. Our projects are complex
3
Typical project, developing over 8 weeks
• 1 Delivery manager
• 2 program managers
• ~ 7 develoDev Managerent directors
• ~ 13 project managers
• ~ 20 team leaders
• ~ 80 Developers/Testers
• ~ 8 products

4. Scoping Anxiety - Amdocs
4
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rabih/
Scoping Develop SST System Test UAT

5. Scoping Anxiety – Our Customers
5

6. Kanban
6

7. Yuval Yeret
7

8. Information Security Level 1 – Confidential
© 2012 – Proprietary and Confidential Information of Amdocs
Our Kanban Journey

9. Where do we start?
9

10. The Kanban Core Practices
●
● Manage the flow
● Limit the WIP
● Make policies explicit
● Implement feedback loops
● Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
10

11. Creating the flow
11
Persevere
Digest

12. Creating the flow
● Initially there is no pace
● Some managers do with the board, some use EVM
V1 V2
12
V3
V4

13. ● Slowly yet surely
● Identify board substitutions
● Notice questions in daily meetings
● Adapt policies
● Adapt board
13
2 Releases
5 Drops
16 Products
(Card color represents product/product group)
90 card assignees (Team leads / experts)
200 users

14. A specific release

16. Infra Board
16
Environments board
Infra: revolution!

17. The Kanban Core Practices
● Visualize the flow
●
● Manage the flow
● Limit the WIP
● Implement feedback loops
● Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
17

18. Make policies explicit
18

19. New Conversations
● Dev Manager: Task 123’ detailed design is done.
● Delivery Manager: Were test cases designed?
● Dev Manager: Test cases? That’s testing.
● Delivery Manager: Right. It should be completed with design.
● Dev Manager: Why?
● Delivery Manager: Test design may impact design. You can’t
start dev.
● Dev Manager: But they don’t have anyone available. They’re
up their neck testing the previous release.
● Delivery Manager: OK, then we should help them. If we help
them they will probably have someone to help you.
19

20. The Kanban Core Practices
● Visualize the flow
● Make policies explicit
●
● Limit the WIP
● Implement feedback loops
● Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
20

21. Managing the flow:
The Daily Meeting Challenge
● Getting away from micro management
● What do you do with all these blockers?
● Are all these cards moving anywhere?
● Focusing the team
● How do I know I’ll get there?
21

22. Managing the Flow
Knowing where you are
2222
464437
266
Drop 2 Drop 3 Post
D
e
l
a
y
Pace is predictable

23. The Kanban Core Practices
● Visualize the flow
● Make policies explicit
● Manage the flow
●
● Implement feedback loops
● Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
23

24. Limiting WIP
24

25. The Kanban Core Practices
● Visualize the flow
● Make policies explicit
● Manage the flow
● Limit the WIP
●
● Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
25

26. Implement feedback loops
26
● Formal retrospectives are still scarce

27. The Kanban Core Practices
● Visualize the flow
● Make policies explicit
● Manage the flow
● Limit the WIP
● Implement feedback loops
●
27

28. Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
28
Back to Leadership

29. Our Coaching Strategy
29
4 coachers in Israel………2 in India……..1 external consultant

30. Where are we today?
30

31. Results!
● Major release in production, unprecedented quality*
● Easier to accept scope changes
● Drastically reduced program management technical effort
● Sustainable develoDev Managerent: reduced HR peaks
and valleys
● People filled with new energy
● Less micromanagement, more empowerment
● Too early for the numbers…
31

32. Summary – Key success factors
● Strong leadership with a good reason to change
● Courage
● Discipline to keep evolving
● Patience, letting things evolve slowly but surely
● Understanding of Lean/Agile
32

33. Thank you