Between Trapezes: Maintaining Fidelity While Switching Midstream from a CMMI-Driven Waterfall to an Enterprise Lean/Agile Transformation

Transcription

1 Between Trapezes: Maintaining Fidelity While Switching Midstream from a CMMI-Driven Waterfall to an Enterprise Lean/Agile Transformation SEPG 2013 Chad Haggerty, John Maher, Alok Kumar, Girish Dandekar

2 Agenda About Comcast Corporation Why Change 2011 The Process Transformation Journey The Need for Speed Change in Approach Why Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)? Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and SAFe Why Change 2013 Structured Agile Coaching Framework Structured Agile Implementation Framework Preliminary Adoption Results Sample Program Results Key Takeaways SEPG

3 About Comcast Corporation Comcast Corporation is one of the world's leading media, entertainment, and communications companies. Comcast Cable One of the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential and business customers NBCUniversal Owns and operates entertainment and news cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, local television station groups, television production operations, a major motion picture company and theme parks 1963 Founded in Tupelo, Mississippi by Ralph Roberts, with an initial 1,200 customers 1986 Customer base doubled in size to 1.2 million subscribers 2002 Acquired AT&T Broadband and became nation s largest cable provider 2009 Launch of the Comcast Customer Guarantee and an improved customer experience 2010 Introduced XFINITY, our service and technology platform delivering highquality TV, Internet, and voice 1972 First public stock offering on NASDAQ 1994 Became the third largest cable operator with approximately 3.3 million subscribers 2008 Made significant investments in innovation with Cavalry and DOCSIS Redefined our common purpose (Credo) 2011 Completed our transaction with GE to acquire majority interest in NBCUniversal SEPG

4 The IT Process Transformation Journey Oct Nov 2011 Jan July 2012 July Dec 2012 Jan 2013 Onwards CMMI Gap Analysis Cost Of Quality (COQ) Analysis Program Roadmap created Delivery Assurance formed to drive the process transformation Process definition and pilot based on CMMI-Dev at ML3 Wave-based approach to definition, pilot,and deployment Rollout of Performance Index (COQ) as a measure for success Organizational changes to better align portfolios, programs, teams Focus shifted towards Agile & Lean Team reorganized priorities and started building Agile process assets and bring in Agile experts Created Agile deployment toolkit, adopted SAFe for scaling Agile to enterprise level Agile deployment kicked off Focus: more on deploy & learn ; modify as needed Use Rally as standard tool to drive enterprise agile from portfolios to programs to teams Adopt SAFe to drive alignment from portfolio level and below Performance index is used to measure success along with deployment tracker SEPG

5 Why Change Problem Systems Engineering (SE) spends a significant time on non-value add activities (Support, re-work, appraisal, non project time, etc.) supporting our products and services. Objective Chartered by the SE SLT to increase SE's overall effectiveness and productivity in delivering high quality products and services by improving our processes, process controls, metrics, and tools with a collaborative and practical improvement approach. Goal In three years, significantly increase the time we spend on value add activities (working on new features, products, and services) The Performance Index (based on Cost of Quality) will be one of the metrics used to measure the increase in productivity. SEPG

6 The Need for Speed In January of 2012, Comcast needed to create a new Point of Sale (POS) System for one of our business partners to allow cross-selling of Products and Services in a 9 month timeframe. We decided to carve out business, development, and test resources, and leverage Agile and Lean practices at scale to develop the POS with our partner and accelerate our development process to meet the time frames. The project delivered on time, below budget and demonstrated the value Agile practices can deliver Increased Time to Market Increased Productivity Higher Quality This successful project, was a catalyst to change our approach to process Improvement. SEPG

7 Change in Approach FROM TO Waterfall lifecycle Define-Pilot-Deploy adoption cycle Train, then coach Large group training Coaches on call Agile lifecycle Deploy-coach-adapt adoption cycle JIT as part of coaching; localized training where appropriate Embedded coaches SEPG

8 Why SAFe? Adaptable to Comcast Similar to CoE thinking Need For Speed Agile CoE Agile Blueprint Dev. Program Need For Consistency Del. Assurance CMMI Processes Plug-n-Adapt OSSP Consistent with CMMI PATs SEPG

9 Delivery Assurance CMMI (What) and SAFe (How) OPD SAM RD OPF TS OT PI VER VAL IPM RSKM PPQA DAR REQM PP/PMC CM MA SEPG

10 Why Change Quantifiably increase our overall effectiveness and productivity in delivering high quality Services by improving our processes and practices with a collaborative and practical approach. 1. Establish an effective, integrated, fit for purpose Process Framework leveraging our SE guiding principles 2. Establish a self-reliant organization, where managers own process KPIs to drive improvements and employees effectively use our process framework 3. Establish organizational transparency leveraging KPIs to measure success and drive continuous improvement. 4. Collaborate with stakeholders, partners, and vendors to establish a common process framework, share best practices, and ensure open and transparent communications Resulting in Accelerated Innovation Improved Productivity Improved Quality of Deliveries Increased Collaboration and Communication across departments Increased Flexibility to meeting Dynamic Business Needs A collaborative environment to Continually Improve. SEPG

11 Structured Agile Coaching Framework Induction Kick-Off Execution Wind-up Orientation of Agile Coaches Assignment of coaches to specific projects/programs Orient the team on coaching Roles and Responsibilities Establish a Social Contract and set expectations Establish cadence Identify areas of improvements for project teams Train, coach and mentor teams Provide ongoing feedback Showcase benefits Identify Lessons Learned Ongoing Collaboration Supported by Common set of templates and presentations Weekly Meeting with coaches, Daily Standup Meeting, Online Forum, Online FAQs, Team Calendar Common Deployment Tracker Risk & Issue Tracker SEPG

12 Structured Agile Implementation Framework Coaching Framework Team Toolkit What to look for Standard Enterprise DB Program Toolkit JIT Training Links Portfolio Toolkit Guidance / Examples Change Mgt. Methods Capability Assessments Metrics SEPG

13 Preliminary Adoption Results Transformation leading indicators: Agile Blueprint adoption Rally (Agile implementation tool) adoption Legend: AdoptC - Adoption completed AdoptIT Adoption in progress AdoptIA Under assessment Legend: RallyC - Rally set up complete RallyIP Rally set up in progress SEPG

14 Sample Program Results Performance Index Development Defect Density 70.3% 60.4% 13.5% 9.9% Production Defects This business group has multiple scrum teams (10-12 teams) developing a UI based product Performance index trend shows an increase of 9.9% from January to August 2013 Rework trend shows a decline of 3.6% from January to August 2013 Defects / development-hour for this group has gone down by 45% Production Defects have gone down by 50% SEPG

15 Key Takeaways Adaptability and Flexibility In a large enterprise, it s key to adapt to the changing needs of the organization, no matter where we are in the improvement cycle (definition, deployment, adoption) Focus on what s important about your framework Since CMMI identifies the whats that benchmark capability or maturity, the interpretation of the practices needs to be according to their intent, rather than applied literally. It matters less how practices are implemented than whether they garner the outcomes they re intended to. Balance discipline with agility Contrary to many agile implementations, SAFe is extremely disciplined. This is required by large organizations that manage vertically, if only to manage the business effectively. Work with the culture Leverage existing initiatives and align as much as possible. As Herb Shepard once said, Never work uphill and Light many fires. SEPG

16 Questions? SEPG