Agile Odyssey: Case Study of Agile Adoption within A Health Insurance Company
- 1. An Agile Odyssey: A Case Study of Agile Adoption within a Health Insurance Company Alston Hodge, Agile Coach 2013 AgileIndy Conference March 8, 2013
- 2. My first week on the job... • “Our metrics do not show that Scrum is any better than waterfall.” – IT director • “I’m not sure Agile really works for us.” – IT manager • “So glad you’re here to tell us what we are doing wrong.” - ScrumMaster
- 3. Agenda • History • Assessment – Findings – Anti-Scrum Patterns – Root Causes – Impacts to the insurance company • Fixing the Problems • Lessons Learned
- 4. History • Nov 2007 – IT dept established Agile charter • Feb 2008 – IT dept created implementation plan, training campaign, pilot projects • Oct 2008 – IT dept created Agile Community of Practice • Oct 2009 – consulting firm recommended coaches • Apr 2010 – IT dept created Agile Maturity Model • Oct 2010 – BP survey highlighted Agile issues • Apr 2011 – hired first Agile coach, conducted organizational assessment • Oct 2011 – BP survey highlighted Agile issues
- 6. Assessment Topics • Scrum Training? • Following the basic Scrum practices? – Timeboxed work? – Goal of potentially deployable product? – Have a SM and PO? – Team maturity? – Retrospectives? – Demos?
- 7. Assessment Findings • 55% of people trained (mostly IT) • 53% of projects use some variation of Scrum • 70% global partner utilization • Sampled 35% of Scrum teams (47/136): – 13% (6 teams) practice “true” Scrum – 87% (41 teams) struggle with 4 or more key Scrum principles and practices
- 8. Anti-Scrum Patterns • Scrum-> Scrum-lite-> O-gile • Mini-waterfall approach • Multiple concurrent projects in Sprints – 83% have 3 or more projects • Teams with few or no retrospectives • Risks not being identified and managed
- 9. Lowest Lower Higher Highest Attribute Risk Risk Risk Risk Team Collocated Distributed Distributed Distribution Collocated Part-time Overlap No Overlap Product Lead multiple POs Owner 1 PO 2 (no lead) Product Complexity 1 system 2 systems 3 systems 4+ systems True Sprint Length 2 wks 4 wks 6 wks 8+ wks Projects per Team 1 2 3 4+ Scrum Advance Experience Expert Proficient Beginner Novice XP Advance Experience Expert Proficient Beginner Novice Team Truly cross- Specialized Structure functional roles
- 10. More Anti-Scrum Patterns • SM assumes some responsibilities of PO • No lead Product Owner • Stakeholders not attending demos • Inconsistent use of VersionOne • New teams adopting anti-Scrum habits of early adopters • IT PM, Business PM
- 11. Product Owner Team Scrum Master Simple Scrum
- 12. Product Owner 4 Product Owner 3 Business PM Product Scrum Owner 2 Team IT PM Scrum SME/Arch Master Product Owner 1
- 13. And some more…. • Individual performance measures • Workload exceeds capacity • Start most/all stories at same time • No sprint goals • No tracking velocity • Teams larger than 12 members • Separate testing from development
- 14. Sprint Models Model DSU DEV-SIT-UAT DEV-SIT-UAT DEV-SIT-UAT …. Model DS-U DEV + SIT UAT DEV + SIT UAT DEV + SIT UAT Model DDD-S-U DEV DEV DEV …. SIT UAT Model D-S-U . DEV SIT UAT Defects Defects DEV SIT UAT Defects Defects DEV SIT UAT
- 15. Assessment Findings • Top 10% teams (highest performers): – 93% with only one PO – 1.9 projects per sprint – 7.4 core team members – 6.8 yrs average company experience (POs) • Bottom 10% of teams (failing): – 56% with more than one PO (one with 7 POs!) – 4.6 projects per sprint – 12.1 core members/team – POs with only 1.8 yrs average company experience
- 16. Root Causes
- 17. Root Cause 1: Adapting vs. Adopting Scrum • “We need your help to adapt Scrum to fit our culture” – PMO Program Manager • “Perhaps we need to adopt the Values and Principles, and adapt the techniques and practices instead.” – Alston
- 18. Agile Values and Principles • Already complement our corporate values and principles. • Guide us in our daily decisions. • Are foundational, the core of what we believe to be true about us. • Generally accepted Scrum practices are based on Agile values and principles. • Changing the values and principles de- stabilizes our Scrum framework.
- 19. Examples • Choosing to not have retrospectives hampers: – Continuous improvement – Transparency – Sustainable development • Not tracking velocity hampers: – Continuous improvement – Transparency – Sustainable development
- 20. Root Cause 2: Adoption Viewed as an IT campaign, not a company campaign • Initiated and supported as IT campaign • Business partners not fully understanding the implications: – PO develops the backlog – PO prioritizes based on business value – PO approves story completion – PO decides when to release With Agile, the Business is in the driver’s seat!
- 21. IT left with un-answered Questions • Service Provider vs. Business Partner • IT projects vs. Business projects • What to do with PMs? • Scrum-> Scrum-lite-> O-gile?
- 22. Root Cause 3: Accelerated Contract/Offshore Utilization • 2008 – 60% company, 40% contractor • 2011 – 30% company, 70 % contractor • Source of business innovation cut in half
- 23. Look at the numbers • US health insurance experience – 160+ years as an industry – Over 80% of Americans with healthcare insurance today • India’s health insurance experience – 12 years experience in industry – Less than 6% with healthcare insurance (as of 2010)
- 24. Root Cause 4: ADD – Agile Deficit Disorder • Symptoms – Difficulty in focusing – Hard to develop self-discipline (team & organizational) – Commitment issues – Scrum Buts – Resistance to Transparency – Workload exceeds capacity “We need to take on this additional work because it is important. But it goes without saying that we can’t let anything fall off the plate.” – IT manager
- 25. Impacts to the Insurance Company
- 26. Collaboration Challenges • Agile Community of Practice stalled • Increasing collaboration issues • Increase turnover (company, vendors) in some areas • Decline in Partnership survey scores – Innovation – Communications – Ownership • Increased use of PMs (IT and Business)
- 28. Update the training • Use experienced SMs and Pos as trainers • Focus more on the “Why” of key Scrum concepts • Lots of new resources available now • Address the common Anti-Scrums • Introduce eXtreme Programming – Continuous integration – Paired programming – Automated testing
- 29. Key Concepts of Scrum • Transparency • Prioritize Business • Commitment Value • Continuous • Incremental Improvement development • Collaboration • Minimal documentation • Discipline • Sustainable pace • Stop.Inspect.Adapt • Iterative development • Cross-functional teams • Swarming • Retrospectives • Sprint planning • Product Demos
- 30. Re-build the Agile Community • Coach’s Corner • BUZZ (internal social media) • Tips and Tricks (12 guidelines) • Agile tract in Learning Week • Monthly Corporate Scrum Gatherings • Agile Team of the Year Award • Louisville Agile Forum • Partner with regional Agile groups
- 31. Coaches Coaches Coaches Coaches Coaches Coaches Coaches
- 32. Promote Value of Coaching • organizationally agnostic - not subject to the same pecking order, enabling them to tell the hard truths that may need to be said • help teams develop self-discipline and good habits • provide needed on-the-job learning and mentoring opportunities soon after training
- 34. Training with Coaching Coaching
- 35. Promote Value of Coaching • Challenge teams to address the difficulties they face rather than sweep them under the rug. • bring both tried and new practices and processes to the team and organization reducing the degree of trial and error. • bring an outside view of the organization, team and individuals and remove intrinsic bias and interpersonal issues.
- 36. “Grow your Own” Coach • Internal coach program – 6 months to “coach the coach” – Full time commitment – Workload of 12-15 teams – Already knows the business • Limitations – Agile experience limited to one company – Not organizationally agnostic – No previous coaching experience
- 37. Educate Business leadership • Find the champions • Educate top down and bottom up • 30 minute intro to Scrum • Provide Product Owner learning plan • Solicit their help to champion Scrum • Sell the idea of external coaches • Help Business “take back the reins”.
- 38. Educate IT leadership • Find the champions • Provide Agile PM learning plan • Address the unanswered questions: – Are we a Service Provider or Partner? – How to develop Agile PMs? – Do we understand and accept the risk of offshoring? – Are we serious about Scrum adoption?
- 39. Treat the ADD • Guidance of prioritizing projects/features • Help teams develop self-discipline • Educate on myth of multi-tasking
- 40. Address Collaboration Issues • Lack of trust - team building exercises • Triangulation – Painters Pyramid – Matthew 18 • 360˚ Surveys • Monthly joint meetings
- 42. LLs for the Company • Involve the Business from beginning • Utilize external coaches for first year • Honor Scrum values & principles – Be transparent – Be honest
- 43. LLs for an Agile Coach • You can lead a horse to water… • Culture is hardest to change. • Got to know when to quit.
- 44. A company has to decide for itself… • Do you want to be a Guppy or an Olympic Swimmer?
- 45. Product Owner 4 Product Owner 3 Business PM Product Scrum Owner 2 Team IT PM Scrum SME/Arch Master Product Owner 1
- 46. Product Owner 4 Product Product Owner 3 Owner 2 Business PM Lead Product Owner Scrum Team Scrum Master SME/Arch IT PM
- 47. Questions?
- 48. Contact me! • alstonehodge@gmail.com • Twitter: @alstonhodge • Join me each month at the Louisville Agile Forum – Farm Credit Mid-America (1601 UPS Drive, Louisville) – 4th Wednesdays (6PM) • Call me at 502-631-3175