Experience Report : Agile transformation & implementation - Cisco Video Business

Experience Report :
Agile transformation & implementation
Cisco Video Business
N.S.Venkateswaran, Anil Thattil
March 2015
Overview
Cisco Team

2© 2013-2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. NSV
Agenda
Introduction
Why & Our Agile Journey so far
What is unique in our Agile transformation
Q&A
1
2
3
4

Introduction – N.S.Venkateswaran CSP, CSPO, CSM
N.S.Venkateswaran
Scrum Master
Cisco
• Over 14+ years of hands on experience in defining
execution strategy for complex & distributed business
accounts & programs in the area of product development
& delivery using both waterfall and Agile methodologies.
• 4+ years as an agile practitioner in global enterprises.
Experienced in Agile transformation of mid & large size
programs (30 - 320+ people)

Introduction – Anil Thattil - CSPO
Anil Thattil
Senior
Product Manager
@Cisco
• 17+ years of embedded domain experience, with focus in
the area of product management, development & delivery
using both waterfall and Agile methodologies.
• Agile practitioner and Senior Product Manager at Cisco
Video

Introduction
SD Zapper
Set top box
HD Zapper
Set top box
HD PVR
Set top box
Video
Everywhere
Hybrid / 4K
Set top box
Video Gateway IP
Set top box

Introduction
 Launched by over 47+ Pay TV Service Providers
 Cumulative 78+ Million subscribers
World Map of Cisco Video Customers

Why Agile for Cisco Video Business
• Disruptive technologies evolving in the Pay TV space & fast pace of
changes occurring in TV viewing space and the need to outpace
competitors in market place
• For employees to focus and have fun @ work.
• Improve predictability to launch a complex feature to our customers
e.g.: In the past for few complex features, we planned to deliver in 6
months vs. actual delivered in 1 ½ year

Agile Journey so far
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!
You are now
ready to
Optimize!
You are now
ready to Scale!
Prepare Get Started Mature

 We had transformed at the
 Organization level
 Execution level
 People level
Preparation for our Journey

• Two key decision points as pre-conditions for preparing your journey
• Executives decide whether adopting agile is what they need for their
organization & business and do they have the Org structure to support it.
• Executive and Senior Management commitment
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!
Traditional Pro - Agile teams
Organization Structure

Component 3
Team members
Team Leads
Team Managers
Director
Component 2
Team members
Team Leads
Team Managers
Director
The Reporting Structure (in the past)
General Manager
Team members
Team Leads
Team Managers
Director
Integration & ValidationComponent 1
Team members
Team Leads
Team Managers
Director
Team members
Team Leads
Team Managers
Director
Project Mgmt.
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!

Component 1
Component 2
Component 3
Other stakeholder components
Integration &
Proj. Mgmt.
Testing (QC)
Integration
Software
Project
Managers
Project A Project B Project C
D
e
li
v
e
r
y
We had to move to…… Reporting Structure (Pro-Agile)
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!

Cluster A Cluster B Cluster CProduct Owners
Strategy &
Technology
Scrum Masters
Product Managers
General Manager
Scrumteam
Scrumteam
Scrumteam
Scrumteam
Scrumteam
Scrumteam
Scrumteam
Scrumteam
Scrumteam
Preparation for our Journey Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!

The Execution Model
(In the past)
System
Architecture
Team members
Team Leads
Team Managers
Director
Component 1
Component 2
Component 3
Component n
Comp. Design
Coding
Comp. Testing
Release
Design,coding,testi
ng and release
Design,coding,testi
ng and release
Design,coding,testi
ng and release
Integration
Project A
P
R
O
D
U
C
T
Integration
Project B
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!

The Execution Model (In the Present)
P
R
O
D
U
C
T
System Architecture
Scrum Team 2- project A
Scrum Team 3 – project A
Design, code, integrate, test and
release
release
Scrum Team1-project A
release
Scrum Team 2 – project B
Scrum Team 3 – project B
release
release
Scrum Team1- project B
release
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!

Review by
Component 1
Experts
Review by
Component 2
Experts
Design by
Component 1
Experts
In the Past
Review by
Component n
Experts
Pro - Agile
Review by
Moderators
Design by
Component 2
Experts
Design by
Component n
Experts
Design by
SCRUM Team
Preparation for our Journey Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!

• Moderators are Part of SCRUM, act as gatekeepers to ensure sanity of code architecture
• Team have BUILT SUFFICIENT Moderators for Reviews
• Horizontal reviewers have TRANSFORMED to Vertical Moderators
• Moderators GUILD is used to SYNC-Up across Vertical Activities.
Developers
Moderators
MAIN TRUNK
Defects / User Stories
Project Team 2
SCRUM
Team 1
SCRUM
Team 2
SCRUM
Team 1
SCRUM
Team 2
Feature Team 2
Feature Team 2Feature Team 1
Project Team 1
SCRUM
Team 1
SCRUM
Team 2
SCRUM
Team 1
SCRUM
Team 2
Feature Team 1
ReviewsReviews Reviews
Project Team 2
Defects / User Stories
Project Team 1
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!

 Individual preferences were considered while performing the
transition of traditional Managerial
(Program/Project/Team/Component managers) roles to Agile roles
(Agile leadership roles [SM, PO, EM])
 Moved from fancy hierarchical designations to profession based roles
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!
Role Clarity

Values: Agree on the values of your
Agile organization. These are what the
organization will believe is possible.
Culture: Define the culture you want
and drop what you don’t want.
Choose how you want the
organization to normally operate.
Rules: On the values and culture you
will strictly adhere to the Rules of
Scrum for optimal operational and
visibility of obstacles.
Practices: Decisions about practices are
value based. Progressively increase you
agile maturity through development and
adoption of practices. Start basic and
then scale to your whole organization.
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!
Culture & Values

Preparation for our Journey - Values
 Do the right thing for the organization, ahead of team and self.
 Continuously learn and improve; always challenge established
practices – think what we could do better.
 Trust, appreciate & respect others regardless of their roles,
positions, etc.
 Be open to new ideas; never be defensive.
 Be a servant leader – help people do their best.
 Take personal responsibility for business as if it was your own: “if
anything has failed it’s my fault”.
 Team work – it is the team that wins or loses, not an individual!
 Enjoy what we are doing.
 Be courageous – to stand up, speak out and DO
THE RIGHT things.
 Integrity – be open and honest about what I say
and what I do.
 Be Authentic – be who you are; give no room to
politics.
 Be Passionate about what we do!
 Be Purposeful - understand WHY we are doing
what we are doing.
 Be Transparent – to be open in what I say and
what I do.
Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!

Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!
You are now
ready to
Optimize!
You are now
ready to Scale!
Prepare Get Started Mature

Get Started with our journey
 Executive team had gone through 5 full days of Agile training.
 The first scrum team of our organization was of Executives for the
project “Agile Transformation”.
 The backlog had team/batch formation, classroom trainings for each
batch and kick starting the sprint for each project and so on.
 Hired external coaches
You are now ready to
Optimize!

Planning the batches
Batch 1
Start end
- - - - - - -
• Each batch had 60 to 70 people spread across 4 to 5 project/product backlogs
• There was a primary coach for each batch
• Each batch was handheld for 6 sprints (12 weeks)
2 external & 2 internal coaches
Batch 2
Batch 3
Batch 4
Batch 7
Optimize!

Evolution Agile Transformation Steps
Leadership Team
Identified
(T – 2 weeks)
Team co-located
Leadership
Training : PO, SM,
Architect & EM
(3 Days)
Leadership
workshop:
Creating Backlog
(1 week)
Team Training
(3 days)
Mini Sprint (1
Week)
Team Coaching
(6 Sprints)
Active Coaching
Done: Continued
Support
• All external members of
team are included as well
(end-to-end Architects…)
• Working with delivery team
to include them in this
cycle
Optimize!

Now you are ready
to run your 1st
Sprint!
You are now
ready to
Optimize!
You are now
ready to Scale!
Prepare Get Started
Mature

Mature our journey
 What is Technical debt?
You are now
ready to Scale!
Accumulated Interest due to poor
software/code architecture, system
design, engineering practices, software
development within a codebase

Mature our journey
Ways to deal with Technical Debt (TD)
• Creating a working agreement with teams to adhere to
strict Definition of Done
• Ensuring no TD is added to any new code written
• Look at the past journey and clearing all the TD that gives
ROI.
• We had Technical Debt Reduction Day (one day- All
hands including Senior management) every month
• Identifying and prioritizing the Technical Debt related
stories in every backlog distributed per sprint
• Effective engineering practices by formation of Guilds (like
Code Moderation Guild, Let’s Coffee, Review boards
etc…)
• Introduced techniques like pair programing, Test Driven
Development, eXtreme Programing etc… with the
guidance of the technical coach
You are now
ready to Scale!

 What is an Obstacle?
Mature our journey
Anything that slows a team down from
delivering to Done
Often the hardest part of removing
obstacles is recognizing them
You are now
ready to Scale!

Mature our journey
Scrum Team’s Board
Program Board
(Program leadership board –
SM/EM/PO)
Moved if cant be resolved
inside team, Obstacle
Card is Moved, Not copied
Exec Board
Moved/Visibility transition at expiry of
48hr Time box (+ Common sense) for
Program Leadership. Obstacle Card is
Moved, Not copied
> 96 Hrs.
(Visibility)
Conversations/Fe
edback
( 48 – 96 Hrs.
Conversations/Fe
edback
0 – 48 Hrs.
SM
Tracking
EVERY
day until
closure
Future
Obstacles
movement is
at the
discretion of
SM
Obstacle Resolution / Visibility Flow
You are now
ready to Scale!

 Systemic obstacles
 Poor Build, CI Infrastructure
 Poor Automation Infrastructure
 Shortage of competencies
 Inflexible software architecture
 Ways to deal
 Poor Build, CI Infrastructure
 Invest in improving the CI Infra with 4hr, 12hr, 24 hr. and 48 hr. CI
 Poor Automation Infrastructure
 All hands in deck e.g.: Technical Debt Reduction day (one day in a month)
 Shortage of competencies
 Invest in technical coach and Introduce techniques & engineering practices like pair programing, TDD, XP
etc… with the guidance of the technical coach
 Inflexible software architecture
 Define and move to modular software architecture
Mature our journey You are now
ready to Scale!

 To sustain our way forward, we need to create sufficient
 Internal process champions
 Internal technical champions
& The Journey Continues…………………
Mature our journey
You are now
ready to Scale!

 Cisco dEV Play book as a framework
 Starting point and a framework (Not a mandated rulebook) which enabled
us to learn and share the methodologies & practices within Cisco.
 Strong commitment from top management to perform all agile
practices.
 Adopted a top down training model.
 Hired and appointed external coaches for our business unit and
invested in developing internal coaches
 Emphasis on Individuals and Interactions through physical scrum
boards rather than using the tools
 Rolled out various Guilds (product owner, scrum master… ) which are
self driven by like minded people
What is Unique in our Agile transformation?

 Some of the unique challenges we faced during this journey
 Beginners
 People want to know their roles
 Stepping into each other roles
 Intermediate
 Ceremonies were not happening properly
 Shortage of cross functional competencies within the team
 Now
 Systemic issues are slowing down the teams
 Arrest User Story spillover
 Maturing on engineering practices (XP, TDD, pair programming…)
What is Unique in our Agile transformation?

Q & A

Experience Report : Agile transformation & implementation - Cisco Video Business

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