AGILE: THE AGILE GUIDE TO THE ENTERPRISE

JASON SUTTIE:
THE AGILE GUIDE TO THE ENTERPRISE

The Story:
THIS IS RMB STORY OF HOW WE ADOPTED AGILE IN THE RMB INVESTMENT
BANK A ROMANCE NOVEL FOR KNOWLEDGE WORKERS not ASHLEYMADISON
Who did we write this story for?
IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT ADOPTING AGILE IN YOUR ORG THIS IS FOR YOU,
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE OF WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN'T
The Synopsis:
WHAT WAS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE NEED?
THE SHIFTS IN THINKING AND BEHAVIOR OF INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS AND
ULTIMATELY THE ORGANIZATION
VALUE - HOW WE REDUCED OUR CYCLE TIME
SOME REAL LIFE, HANDS ON FEEDBACK
THE CHALLENGES THAT WE FACED AND ULTIMATELY WHAT WE DID ABOUT
THEM.
Hope you enjoy our RMB Agile Story
THE AGILE GUIDE TO THE ENTERPRISE

2012-2013 Focus on Survival
Start 2012
BUSINESS RESTRUCTURES
IT CENTRALIZATION & RESTRUCTURE
RESPONSIBLE FOR DEVELOPMENT & INTEGRATION, SPENDING MOST OF MY TIME
RECRUITING GOOD PEOPLE
End 2012
TASKED WITH SDLC – BASED ON PAST EXPERIENCE WITH MSF FOR AGILE
THE OPPORTUNITY HAD BEEN IDENTIFIED
JASON: HIS THINKING & POSITIONING

What was the shift
SHIFT TOWARDS VALUE AND CHANGING THE PHILOSOPHY OF THOUGHT OF OUR
PEOPLE
WHAT WAS CAUSING PEOPLE TO NOT IDENTIFY CHANGES TO MAKE THEIR
WORLDS BETTER – IT CAME DOWN TO MINDSET
 THE CAREER SHIFT
 THE SURVIVAL MODE
 THE PERSONAL SHIFT
 THE INTERNAL SHIFT
 THE INTERNAL WARFARE
 DO I DO SOMETHING MORE BOLD THAT MAY BE CAREER LIMITING
IT HAPPENED IN ME, THERE WERE MANY THINGS THAT LED UP TO IT WHICH WE
WILL TALK ABOUT NEXT
JASON: THE SHIFT IN MINDSET

THE SELL WAS “REDUCE CYCLE TIME” – ONE OF THE MANY POTENTIAL BENEFITS
THAT RESOUNDED WITH BUSINESS
FIRST I GOT BUY IN FROM MY OWN MANAGEMENT TEAM AND THEN THE BUSINESS
COOs
I QUICKLY REALIZED THAT I DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO DO MORE THAN STEER AN
AUTONOMOUS TEAM SO I SET ABOUT CREATING THE AGILE A TEAM (DRIVEN,
DANIE ROUX AND BSG)
WE DID AN OFFSITE WORKSHOP THAT SERVED TO ALIGN OUR THINKING
AT THIS POINT WE HAD A BIG HAMMER AND NOT MANY NAILS…IT STARTED WITH A
CONVERSATION BETWEEN CANDICE AND I AROUND DEVELOPERS
SETTING THE SCENE: RMB & BUS / BT

IN 2013, I INHERITED A TEAM KNOWN AS THE RATES TEAM WHO WERE (AND STILL
ARE) RESPONSIBLE FOR SOURCING MARKET DATA, TURNING IT INTO USABLE
INFORMATION AND DISTRIBUTING THAT DOWNSTREAM TO THE VARIOUS TRADING
SYSTEMS IN THE FSR GROUP FOR VALUATION AND CALCULATION OF PROFIT AND
LOSS ON DAILY BASIS.
ALONG WITH THEM I INHERITED THE SYSTEM THEY USED TO DISCHARGE THEIR
DUTIES, KNOWN AS ARP, THE AUTOMATED RATES PROCESS AND A 101
SPREADSHEETS THAT WERE WAITING FOR AUTOMATION…
I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS IN FOR
THE SCRIPT: THE STORY CANDICE & ARP

ARP WAS EXTREMELY UNDER-MAINTAINED AND UNDER-DEVELOPED FOR WHAT IT
WAS MEANT TO DO AND ITS CRITICALITY TO THE FSR GROUP AS A WHOLE.
 IT HAD 2 CONTRACT DEVELOPERS ASSIGNED TO IT WHO WORKED ODD
HOURS AND ONLY FOR SUPPORT – NO DEVELOPMENT.
 IT WAS UNSTABLE AND UNABLE TO RECOVER IN DISASTER SITUATIONS.
 TECHNOLOGY COMPONENTS WERE OUT OF DATE
 AND A HOST OF OTHER ISSUES…
Initially, I engaged with Jason to get dedicated resources and start addressing the problems
I could see, which I thought would take 3 months with 1 dedicated developer.
We eventually embarked on a tactical project to fix what became a long list of burning
issues. This took 6 months, from June 2013, with 5 dedicated developers
SETTING THE SCENE: ARP PRE-AGILE

THE TACTICAL PROJECT TEAM ADOPTED AGILE
THESE ARE THE THINGS WE FOUND MOST USEFUL , AND SOME UNEXPECTED
LEARNINGS FROM BEING AGILE
THE PLAY: ARP & AGILE

The Bootstrap:
THIS WAS A GREAT WAY TO GET A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T PREVIOUSLY
WORKED TOGETHER ORGANISED INTO A TEAM, QUICKLY!
THE OUTCOME OF THIS WAS A TEAM CONTRACT;
DEFINING HOW WE INTERACTED WITH EACH OTHER & WHAT WE EXPECTED OF
EACH OTHER.
THIS ALLOWED US TO HOLD EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE EASILY.
IT ALSO GAVE EVERYONE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR COLLEAGUES
BACKGROUNDS & AN IDEA OF WHAT THEY COULD EXPECT FROM EACH OTHER IN
TERMS OF WORK , WHICH WAS PARTICULARLY ENTERTAINING WHEN THE
DEVELOPERS FOUND OUT I HAD A DEGREE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE & COULD
UNDERSTAND (MOST) OF WHAT THEY SAID!
THE PLAY: SCENE 1 - BOOTSTRAP

The Board:
MY FAVOURITE!
THIS WAS THE SINGLE MOST POWERFUL TOOL FOR THE PROJECT AND THE TEAM
THE PLAY: SCENE 2 – THE BOARD

The Bootstrap:
WE USE THE BOARD IN OUR DAILY MEETINGS TO TRACK THE STATUS OF
ASSIGNED TASKS as well as tasks not yet assigned i.e. in the backlog.
 What THIS BRINGS TO THE TEAM AND PROJECT is:
 TRANSPARENCY
 ACCOUNTABILITY
 SELF GOVERNANCE
 EFFICIENCY
It has been such a powerful tool that I now use a board to manage my Rates Team, which is
a more daily operational team. And, it has allowed us to move cards between the boards as
work moves between the teams for testing etc.
But is it not for everyone….

The Bootstrap:
The unexpected LEARNING HERE WAS AROUND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HOW
EXPOSED and INADEQUATE THIS PROCESS CAN MAKE a person FEEL. This wasn’t
considered at the start of the project and wasn’t something we addressed in the bootstrap
with the team. It’s very easy to see who isn’t coping or up to standard and that can be very
embarrassing for the impacted person.
Our experience was that this had a very NEGATIVE IMPACT on the team and project AS
THE IMPACTED MEMBERS started TO DISENGAGE and became obstructive. They did
eventually self-eject….

The Iteration Planning:
Originally, each iteration ended with a demo and retrospective. The retrospectives were
very useful at the beginning while people were getting used to each other (and fun – our
coaches brought Lego for us, and bouncy balls!). However, we eventually combined the
demo and retrospective and then did away with them completely as the daily meetings and
the iteration planning were sufficient for us.
An additional learning here was that this forced downstream systems to start to follow suit
or at least plan around our cycle themselves, as only requests prioritised at the iteration
planning session were considered for the next iteration – no exceptions!.
THE PLAY: SCENE 3 - ITERATION

THE PLAY: SCENE 3 - ITERATION
The Iteration Planning:
We settled on a 2 week iteration cycle after a few weeks together
Iteration planning helped us to prepare for the work load coming down the line AND it meant
that the team agreed on the work to be done in the next iteration, which meant better
productivity.
We also found ITERATION PLANNING to be a great way of protecting the TEAM from “The
ARSONISTS” i.e. the ill-considered business requests. This stops the team being
distracted and provides structure.
This process also gave the team a sense of immediate achievement as tasks are actually
completed in the cycle and value added. This feeds the team’s energy – I likened them to
“Audrey” the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors, the more I gave them the more they
wanted…

Dear Candice from June,
Getting ARP stable and under control will be possible and quicker than you anticipated.
The way that you will be working with the team now forces discussions to happen daily and good
decisions are made often and swiftly. The bi-weekly retrospective and planning serves as a good time
to evaluate whether we are on the right track or not, as well as building good team rapport
I remember how much you are struggling to get feedback from developers. I know that the developers
will disappear for long periods only to come back with half-baked solutions. This has all changed now.
I get feedback far more often and I redirect them as needed.
The team is now 5 developers. You know those concerns about onboarding new people? Well, all the
people came onboard much quicker than expected. The way in which the team and work is structured
allows for more collaboration and the new people can get into ARP much quicker.
The development team (including me) had a bootstrap session. In the bootstrap every person had a
chance to tell their story of why they are there. That allowed us as a team to start telling the "story of
us". It lead to a team contract that was drawn up to satisfy everyone's values. This contract is being
used to call out behaviour that damages the team.
THE REVIEW: DEAR CANDICE PART 1

So I have taken some ideas from the dev team to my ops team. The ops team now have their own
board, fashioned around the board that the developers use. The main benefit my team and I get from
this is visibility. The ops team has taken to calling the daily meeting "the board meeting"!
If I look back at it now, I have learned a few things in the past few months:
• If you hire the right people and get them working together well, great things happen.
• Don’t believe everything you hear!
• A KANBAN board is useful for everyone (including your family) and forces accountability
without people feeling micro-managed.
• Assign work to the team, not to a person.
It has been an awesome experience and the project is the “poster project” for Agile in the bank. The
project will over deliver and you will also be able to present this good news to senior management.
The project will give you a set of management techniques that will stand you in good stead for the rest
of your career.
THE REVIEW: DEAR CANDICE PART 2

THE OVERVIEW: HINDSIGHT
Where was our story taking us?
CANDICE AND I WERE HIGH-FIVING AFTER A SUCCESSFUL BOARD PRESENTATION
ON ARP AND AGILE
 ARP BEING THE BEST STARTING POINT
 PROVEN VLAUE
 AUDITABLE

FRAMEWORKS
Where was our story telling us?
BUT – REALITY QUICKLY DAWNED
BEING LIMITED COACHES - 2
BURNING RESOURCES – DUE TO RESTRUCTURE
FRICTION CAUSED – THOSE AGAINST AGILE
INSECURITIES – COULD WE DO THIS IN A BROADER CONTEXT?
WE PUT TOGETHER AND ALSO ADOPTED FRAMEWORKS THAT COVERED
 ENGAGEMENT
 ENTERPRISE FLUENCY
 PRIORITIZATION
THE RESULT OF PRIORITISATION WAS THAT WE SHIFTED OUR FOCUS TO OUR
BIGGEST TRADING SYSTEM AND ALSO TO INFRASTRUCTURE TEAM

ENGAGEMENT MODEL
ITERATIVEENGAGEMENT&STAKEHOLDERMANAGEMENT

PRIORITIZATION
VALUE VS EFFORT
EASE OF ADOPTION
STRATEGICVALUE
PARKEDNOTEVALUATED

TRADING SYSTEM
The Story Before:
 SILOS
 WORK ALLOCATED TO INDIVIDUALS NOT THE TEAM – LOTS OF KEY MAN
DEPENDENCY
 NO TRANSPARENCY ON WHO WAS WORKING ON WHAT
 MULTIPLE INFLOWS OF WORK IN THE TEA LEAD TO LOTS OF UNPLANNED
WORK
 ABNORMALLY HIGH STRESS LEVELS

TRADING SYSTEM
The Story After:
 ONE PIPELINE OF WORK CHANGES THE GAME
 WORK ALLOCATED TO THE TEAM, TEAM MEMBERS PULL WORK
 WORK CATEGORISED BY TYPE RTB, ENH, TECH DEBT AND PROJECTS
 MORE CONVERSATIONS HAPPEN BETWEEN TEAM MEMBERS – TEAM
BECOMING SELF ORGANISED
 REDUCE UNPLANNED WORK TO A MINIMUM

INFRASTRUCTURE
The Story Before:
• PERMANENT FIREFIGHTING DUE TO PRODUCTION INCIDENTS
• 2 TEAMS MERGED EACH WITH THEIR OWN WAY OF DOING THINGS… BOTH
GOOD IN THEIR OWN WAYS
• NEW MERGED TEAM OPERATING IN SILO’S
• LIMITED COMMUNICATION AND VISIBILITY WITHIN TEAM AND BACK TO
BUSINESS, MISUNDERSTANDING OF WHAT BUSINESS IS TRYING TO ACHIEVE
• MANY PIPELINES OF WORK - PROCESSES BEEN SHORTCUT
• EXPECTATION OF PROJECTS TO BE DELIVERED BASED ON A DISCUSSION
• OVERPROMISE AND UNDER DELIVER DUE TO UNKNOWN WORK LOAD

INFRASTRUCTURE
The story After:
 SINGLE PIPELINE OF WORK PRIORITIZED BY BUSINESS VALUE
 THE FIRST NEW ARTEFACT THE “BUSINESS GOAL FORM” – CLEAR
UNDERSTANDING OF BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
 CREWS ASSEMBLED TO DELIVER IN DOMAINS E.G. LINUX, WINDOWS ETC.
 AS A TEAM WE NOW HAVE CONSTRUCTIVE DISCUSSION WHICH GETS
EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE VERY QUICKLY AND LESS ABOUT THE TASKS
 DOUBLE THE VELOCITY THAN WHEN STARTED, LIMITING WIP
 BETTER VISIBILITY, HAPPIER STAKEHOLDERS
 LOVE TO KNOW HOW MANY AGILE INFRASTRUCTURE TEAMS THERE ARE IN SA?

GUIDE TO THE ENTERPRISE FLOW
WHY THESE 2 EXAMPLES – THERE IS NO RECIPIE, TEAMS ARE DIFFERENT
POST THESE TEAMS WE SYSTEMATICALLY SET ABOUT TRANSFORMING THE REST
OF THE TEAMS. PUSH AND PULL
SOME PUSHES LED TO CARGO CULTING THAT WE ARE COACHING THE TEAMS
THROUGH
THE INFLECTION POINT CAME THIS YEAR WHEN IT WAS APPARENT WE NEEDED
TO START SHIFTING THE ENTERPRISE
GOT THE SENIOR EXECS ON BOARD AND NOW WE ARE EXPERIMENTING ON HOW
WE CAN ACHIEVE MINIMUM CYCLE TIME ACROSS ALL THE TEAMS IN THE
ENTERPRISE VALUE CHAIN. NOT THERE YET BUT WE ARE EQUIPED TO MAKE THE
CHANGES THAT WILLALLOW US TO SUCCEED

CANDICE – GREAT PARTNER
BT MANAGEMENT – SUPPORT OF SABIR AND ALAN. DORON WHO HELPED WITH
PUSHING WHEN THE PULLING SLOWED
AGILE A TEAM – COACHES – KEVIN, DANIE, CANDICE - THANKS FOR 2 YEARS OF
DEEP COMMITMENT
AGILE ADVOCATES IN RMB – THANKS FOR YOUR ENERGY, TIME, RESILIENCE
AND ENTHUSIASM
*WE ARE RMB*
THE BIG THANK YOU

AGILE: THE AGILE GUIDE TO THE ENTERPRISE

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