In this presentation we discuss our approach to balance alignment with autonomy of teams to help teams across the business to transition to an agile way of working

1. “Push or Pull?”
Agile leadership models
supporting a learning organization
and culture
Wolfgang Hilpert & Robert Mederer
HERE Technologies

2. Push System
© 2018 HERE | HERE Internal Use Only
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6LUg-siJVs
3
“Lucy Chocolate Scene”
Start
here

3. Speaker Profiles
© 2019 HERE5
Wolfgang Hilpert Robert Mederer
• 25+ years of Software Product Management &
Engineering leadership experience
• Former co-founder of startup
• Various leadership positions at leading software
vendors - IBM, Microsoft, SAP –
& mid-size ISVs
• 12 years of Agile leadership experience
• Currently on fourth organizational Agile
transformation
• VP Business Agility @ HERE Technologies
• 15+ years of Software Product Engineering & Delivery
experience
• Engineer & Technology Leader by heart
• Created and delivered various web, service and mobile
experiences on large-scale
• 10 years of Agile + DevOps Experience
• Coached and Transitioned many teams to modern
software development
• Currently driving parts of an Agile & DevOps
Transformation
• Senior Manager Business Agility @ HERE Technologies

4. © 2019 HERE6
01
Introduction
02
Towards Business Agility
03
Alignment vs Autonomy
04
Alignment Applied
05
Conclusion

5. Push vs Pull System
9
PUSH Principle vs PULL Principle
Push
Push systems overwhelm capacity, creating turbulence, rework, waste and delay
Pull systems have a steady flow that provides predictability
Demand authorized work
© 2019 HERE

6. Push vs Pull
© 2019 HERE
Work on the system
Resistance Agile
Push Pull
Top-down Bottom-up
Tell Co-Create
Sell &
Listen to argue
Explain &
listen to understand
Make Invite
Convince Inspire
Alignment Autonomy
Pull Success
Patterns
WH

7. “Where does Agile stand in 2019?
“It is the best of the times and the worst of times…”
… the age of wisdom ... the age of foolishness,
… the epoch of belief … the epoch of incredulity,
… the season of Light … the season of Darkness,
… the spring of hope … the winter of despair,
… everything before us … nothing before us,
… all going to Heaven, … all going direct the other way…
Charles Dickens,
A Tale of Two Cities ( 1859)
WH

8. Hold up a
mirror
To show something as it is
without any value
judgements or analysis
WH

9. Learning from GE‘s Journey to adopt Lean Startup
© 2019 HERE13
Top-down implementation
Process ahead of mindset
Reliance on M&A
WH
“GE is famous for creating
and religiously implementing
processes for managing
virtually everything we do.
The task of transformation is
no different.”
“GE is famous for creating
and religiously implementing
processes for managing
virtually everything we do.
The task of transformation is
no different.”

10. Stalled Agile Journeys
© 2019 HERE14
Agile as important dynamic of
software development
Software developers challenge well-
established management practices
Fails to win support from top
management
Agile leaders and coaches dismissed
WH

11. It is the worst of times….
• Agile merely as ceremonies - Doing Agile – not being agile
implementing the motions of Agile without significant benefits
• Consultants selling “get Agile quick” schemes
• Scaling frameworks that are often just another name for bureaucracy
• Some firms are using Agile to create sweatshops
• A huge amount of fake Agile going on
• Agile conflicts with the goal of maximizing shareholder value
• In this sea of BS, genuine Agile is getting hard to identify
WH
© 2019 HERE

12. Towards Business Agility

13. Waves of Agile
Business
Agility
Agile @
Scale
Agile
teams
WH
© 2019 HERE

14. Age of Agile Imperative
HERE Way of Working Foundation
Law of the
Customer
Law of the
Small Teams
Law of the
Network
WH
© 2019 HERE

15. 19
Pre-Agile
• Assume effective individual contributors.
• Individual contributors need to move to a team-based way of working.
• Some agile principles implemented
Deliver
Customer Value
• Customer focus while capturing value frequently
• Line of sight to the customer and deliver business value.
• Product owner prioritizes Backlog according to Customer Value
Scaling the Network
• Scale Agile through value streams.
• Eliminate waste that come from cross team handoffs.
• Create a stronger delivery ecosystem through transparency
and co-creation
Grow high-
performing Teams
• Establish HP Leadership Teams, Engineering Teams and Enabling Function Teams
• Cross functional teams align around common purpose and shared goals.
• Establish Agile Roles and Role clarity
• Adopt the HERE Way of Working
Towards Mastery • Continuous Improvement
• Learning Organization
Shift Team Culture (Way of Working): 3-9 months*
Shift team to squad (Agile Structures, Roles and Incentives): 6 - 12 months*
Shift to deliver Customer Value: 6 – 12 months*
Shift Organization to growing, learning, adapting organism (learning organization) : 6 – 36 months*
RM
© 2019 HERE

16. Alignment enables Autonomy
© 2019 HERE20
Enterprise alignment on practices enables team autonomy
WH

17. How the British Army’s operations went agile
© 2019 HERE21
Justin Maciejewski:
“If you’re going to be very modular and agile about
the way you allocate resources, people need to be
speaking the same language.”
Source: McKinsey Quarterly, October 2019
WH

18. HERE Way of Working Alignment
© 2019 HERE22
HERE WoW is a
Mindset
• Desire continuous learning
• Confront uncertainties
• Embracing challenges
• Not afraid to fail (to learn)
• Feedback is about current capabilities
RM

19. HERE Way of Working Alignment
© 2019 HERE23
HERE WoW is a
Mindset
Described by
Values
Agile Manifesto – Values:
• Individuals and interactions over process and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following the plan
RM

20. HERE Way of Working Alignment
© 2019 HERE24
HERE WoW is a
Mindset
Described by
Values
Defined by
Principles
Agile Manifesto – Principles:
• Early and continuous delivery
• Welcome changing requirements
• Deliver working software frequently
• Business people and developers work together
• Build projects around motivated people
• Face-to-Face communication is best
• Working software is how to measure progress
• Maintain a sustainable pace
• Attention on technical excellence
• Simple design, simple code
• Self-organizing teams are best
• Continuous feedback
RM

21. HERE Way of Working Alignment
HERE WoW is a
Mindset
Described by
Values
Defined by
Principles
Manifested through
Practices
RM
© 2019 HERE

22. HERE Way of Working Alignment
HERE WoW is a
Mindset
Described by
Values
Defined by
Principles
Manifested through
Practices
ScrumKanban HERE
RM
© 2019 HERE

23. Alignment vs. Autonomy
27
Foundation & Line-of-Business Practices
Line of Business Practices
Alignment
Autonomy
Enterprise Foundation
Engineering
Finance
People
Brand
et al
RM
© 2019 HERE

24. Alignment vs. Autonomy
28
Engineering Practices – Common vs. Specific
Unit Specific Practices
Alignment
Autonomy
Foundation Common Engineering Practices
Tribe 1
Tribe 2 Communities of Practice
 DevOps Metrics
 Technical documentation
 Inner-Source
 Testing automation
 Synchronized cadences
 Empirical forecasting
 Secure Coding
Tribe 3
et al
Tribe 4
RM
© 2019 HERE

25. Alignment vs Autonmy Applied

26. HERE Agile Playbook – Co-Created
1. Agile Strategy
Vision and requirements
2. Agile Design Principles
Fundamental guiding course
3. Agile Leadership
Change role of leadership
4. Way of Working
Way of Working Foundation & Practices
5. Structure
Building organizational units
6. People
Agile Mindset & Roles
7. Accountability
Govern distribute responsibilities
8. Metrics
Measure success
9. Execution
Perform the Agile Transformation
Content
WH
© 2019 HERE

27. Alignment on Team & Roles

28. Team principles
© 2019 HERE34
From Team to Squad and to Domain Team
WH
SQUAD Model Domain Team
• Establish Agile Roles (PO, SM)
• Separation of Concerns
• Cross functional
• Long lasting (forming–storming–norming–
performing)
• Work travels, rather than people

29. Alignment - The Functional View - Roles
35
Separation of Concerns
Customer
Value
Value
Proposition
Product Management
Value
Delivery
Product Ownership
Value
Development
Product Engineering
Way of Working
Improvement
Scrum Master
Customer
Value
WH
© 2019 HERE

30. POPM
https://280group.com/wp-content/media/Product-Owner-vs.-Product-Manager-Role-Visualization.png
 100% Full time-role
 Break down features into Epics
and User Stories
 Ensure stories are „Ready“
 Backlog refinement including
user story prioritization
 commit strictly according to
available capacity (“pulls
work”)
 Close collaboration w/ Squad
 Release forecast and tracking
 Defect Management
 Customer advocate in
engineering
 Challenge engineers on
business value of technical
investments
 Challenge PM on business
value of features
 Alignment with our JTBD
 Feature prioritization
 Ensure features are
“Ready”
 Product Roadmap
 Business case realization
 Portfolio management
 Product Strategy
 Business value definition
 Segmentation
 Buy vs. Build
 Competitive analysis
 Pricing, promotion, place
 Forecasting
 End of life
 Shared Vision / Roadmap
 Release Planning
 Feature refinement
 Positioning & Value definition
Sharpen and emphasize the role of a Product Owner
 The Product Owner is responsible for delivering the product and addresses the Squads’ need for real-
time input on user stories and requirements.
 A general rule of thumb is that “Product Manager is more strategic and outward customer-facing
while Product Owner is more tactical and inward team-facing”
WH
© 2019 HERE

31. Alignment on Visibility
of all work including improvement items

32. Suggestion: Impediment Backlog
What causes most of your frustration today?
OSS review process? Security approvals? Manual steps? Pending reviews? Insufficient coordination?
Most impediments are asked to be resolved within a Squad with self-organization
Some are not in control of the Squads. For this, capture a impediment backlog with the Scrum Master.
Feature Squad
Scrum Master
Feature Squad
Quality of life improvements
impediments not in control of the Squad
capture in each Daily Scrum
or in Sprint retrospectives
discuss and find
existing solutions
impediment backlog
Tribe Leads and CTO
escalate with a proposal
WH
© 2019 HERE

33. Alignment on Metrics

34. Alignment: Metric types
Measure progress of the Agile Journey
A. Input Metrics
e.g., number of people
invested, number of trainings
sessions attended;
Leading indicator
A. Input Metrics
e.g., number of people
invested, number of trainings
sessions attended;
Leading indicator
B. Output Metrics
e.g., test coverage, or number
of units produced, number of
clients served;
often real time indicator
B. Output Metrics
e.g., test coverage, or number
of units produced, number of
clients served;
often real time indicator
C. Outcome Metrics
e.g., number of new customers
incl. revenue, workforce
engagement, Customer NPS;
often trailing indicator
C. Outcome Metrics
e.g., number of new customers
incl. revenue, workforce
engagement, Customer NPS;
often trailing indicator
RM
© 2019 HERE

35. Agile Metrics
Considering the useful many
to identify the vital few
© 2019 HERE44
WH

36. Holistic, Competing Metrics
Unlocking Agility, Jorgen Hesselberg, Addison-Wesley 201745
Viewed as trends over time help provide meaningful view of continuous improvement
and drive a more agile way of working
Building the
things right?
Building the
right thing?
Building at the
right speed?
Metrics
 Net Promoter Score (NPS)
 % Sales from New Offerings
Metrics
 Escaped defects
 Mean time to Recover (DevOps stability)
 Change Failure Rate (DevOps stability)
Metrics
 Flow Efficiency
 Lead Time (DevOps throughput)
 Delivery Frequency (DevOps throughput)
WH
© 2019 HERE

37. Holistic, Competing Metrics
48
The Sweet Spot in a dynamically balanced system
Building the
things right!
Building the
right thing!
Building at the
right speed!
Metrics
 Customer Net Promoter
Score (NPS)
 % Sales from New Offerings
Metrics
 Mean time to recover
 Change Failure Rate
 Escaped defects
Metrics
 Flow Efficiency
 Lead Time
 Delivery Frequency
WH
© 2019 HERE

38. Data-Driven Improvement – Survey Data
• DevOps Capability Assessment of software engineering teams
• Gives recommendations how to influence your organization’s
performance
• Focuses on capability building as levers to improve your
outcomes
• Benchmarks with industry data of over 30 000 technical
professionals
• Source for annual “Accelerate State of DevOps Report” since
2014
© 2019 HERE51
DevOps Research & Assessment (DORA)
Technical Capabilities Version Control
Continuous Integration
Deployment Automation
Trunk-based Development
Test Automation
Architecture
Teams Empowered to Choose Tools
Test Data Management
Security
Process Capabilities Team Experimentation
Change Approval Process
Visibility of Customer Feedback
Visibility of Work in the Value Stream
Working in Small Batches
Measurement Capabilities Monitoring
Failure Notification
Use of WIP Limits
Visual Management
Cultural Capabilities Job Satisfaction
Organizational Culture
Learning Culture
DORA Capabilities (2018)
RM

39. Conclusion

40. Learning from Microsoft’s Journey of getting Agile At Scale
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/10/29/microsofts-sixteen-keys-to-becoming-agile-at-
scale/#605ec70615ce
 Get good at the science of Agile and Scrum but don’t be overly prescriptive
 Don’t copy others:
learn from others
 Build the culture you want …
and you’ll get the behavior
you’re after
 Stop trying to
predict the future
 Optimize around
customer feedback
WH

41. Summary
© 2019 HERE54
• Agile – whether you call it Agile or not
• Agile is a journey
• Agile In Name Only doesn’t work
• Agile For Software Only’ isn‘t sustainable
• Agile needs both top-down and bottom-up
to drive beyond hierarchy
• There is no perfect model …
• Overcome resistance
• The right level of Alignment enables Autonomy and
empowerment
• Profitability is a result – not the goal of Agile
WH
• Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix,
and Microsoft
• Inspect and Adapt
• Learn from failure
• Learn from others, don’t just copy
• Listen
• Go where the Energy is
• Co-Create Solutions
• Focus on using Agile to solve
real business problems
• Help develop “Lighthouse”
• Hold up the mirror
• it’s about the shift in mindset
• needs to be holistic

42. Thank you
© 2019 HERE