1. ‘Agile For All’- Transformation
Journey in a Telco
-Abhigya Pokharel
2. • Sr. Project Manager, @ Ncell, Axiata (Nepal)
• Agile Scout - Driving the Agile Transformation Program
• Active member of Agile Nepal, organizing team member
for the Regional Scrum Gathering Nepal 2018.
CSM, CSP, CAL1, SAFE 4.5 Agilist,
ICP-ACC, PRINCE2 Practitioner
3. Agenda
2. Holistic approach to change
4. Servant leadership
5. How flow helps
1. Agile transformation journey for a telco
3. Embracing change
4. Agile in Nepal
Official User Group
by Scrum Alliance
International
Conferences
Software Industry using Agile since 2012
- RSGN2018 (169 Participants, 11 nations)
CAL1, Scrum@Scale, CSD Certifications
- Fifteen Agile Professionals Meetups
- Two Asia Agile Forum Conferences
- Two CSM Trainings for 150 participants
- One CSPO Training for 45 participants
- Participation in Global Scrum Gathering
(Bangalore, Shanghai, Singapore)
75 CSMs in 2016
Scrum &
Kanban
Regional Scrum Gathering
Nepal 2018
6. Why Transform?
Employee satisfaction score low- Happy Employees?
Low productivity/ less revenue
Waterfall projects not delivering end results as expected
Expected faster TTM with good ROI
Build products with customer needs- Happy Customers
Using Agile- launched 10 products in 1 year in 2018, compared to 4 products in 18 months in 2016
54
60
60
64
54
58
70
80
80
84
70
70
Career Development…
Communication
Empowerment
Operating Efficiency
Performance…
Teamwork
Employee Satisfaction Survey (2016 Vs. 2018)
2018 2016
7. Holistic Approach to Change
Change
1. Values &
Beliefs
2. Practices,
Processes &
Tools
3. Functions &
Teams
5. Learning
4. Exemplary
Leadership
• Respect company values and change
• Clarity on what to implement
• Drive the end result
• Alignment
• Start with known frameworks
• Use of standard tools
• KPIs for measuring
• Breaking Silos
• Self organized teams
• Could be co-located
• Consistency across teams
• Change agents to implement the change &
frameworks
• Common vocabulary throughout the org
• Ask for help as required
• Trainings & Certifications
• Execute workshops to kickoff the
change
• Hypothesis & experimentation
• Active participation from all
• Inspire purpose to employees
• Create a sense of urgency
• Could be on a burning platform
• Focus on what I can give
16. Typical Agile Delivery
Ceremonies at Telco X
• Bi annual review of Products and Offerings
(Campaign Management)
• Monthly Calendar plan for Products and
Offerings
• Monthly Operational Meetings
• Daily Standups
• Sprint Planning
• Sprint Review
• Retrospective
5 Scrum teams and 3 Scrum Masters at
current who run Agile Projects and
Campaigns
17. Challenges
Cultural Transformation
• Empowerment
• Mindset Shift
• Work behaviors would not change easily
Performance
• Set and reach personal goals
• Train and develop your employees
• Identify and remove any roadblocks
• Focus on business strategy
Return on Action
• Financial impact
• Minimizing Risks
• Detailed reporting
User Engagement
• Energy/ Motivation
• Stakeholder buy-in
• Implementation of rules – do’s and don’ts to be
applied consistently across all the layers
Teams reluctant to engage Sprint backlogs keep on changing
Developers hate doing QA & documentation
Nobody understands Agile
18. Albatross Alignment
Fist of FiveLean Coffee
Experiments/ Prototypes/ Pivoting
Team commits first, before committing to client
19. YES
Failure: Integration of Data from all network elements, to analyze CAPEX utilization per BTS & Network Analysis
Lesson Learnt: Start with something small first. Once the result is visible plan for the next chunk.
Plan your work in Iterations.
Clear Communication: well planned & executed communication plan
Before
• Waterfall Model failed twice
• Project delivery in 1.5 years
• End result was not as expected
• Could not use the solution for the
customers
• Scraped the project
• CAPEX loss: 700,000 USD
After
• Used Agile
• Delivered 5 Use Cases in 6
Sprints
• End result as expected
• Using the solution for the
customers
• Phase 2 implementation on
going
• CAPEX : 450,000 USD
20. Agile Organization
Revamp the
workspace
Flexible working
hours
Extended
maternity leaves
Recreational leaves
Rewards and
recognition (Letter
of appreciation)
Slack time Vote of thanks
Visual boards/
Program walls
Celebrate success Fitness & wellbeing Hall of fame
Trust &
transparency
Delegating
authority &
empowering
employees
Process
simplification- in
terms of approvals
Create open
feedback culture
Career
development and
training plans
Secured
environment for
failing
Link performance
evaluation with
company values
Quarterly review of
targets ..
Through demos- transparency- customer satisfaction
Appreciate customer feedback and Agile helps us to give avenues for customer values
Teams represent the customer by working very closely with the customer
VPN approval would take 4-5 managers’ approvals
Culture of empowerment & delegation
Start trusting your employees
Breaking Silos– collaborating and communicating
Making personal connections
Families are connected – co located
Story of pregnant lady in the team.
High performing employee turns in low performer due to personal problems.
Agile coach helps him out.
Teams decide themselves what to do- form a team- some of them slowly become masters
Story of team Using open source- in house development to create chat bots (Axiata Analytics Centre/ Axiata Digital Labs)
System view- see end to end
New to Agile – Trainings and Workshops on Scrum/ Kanban/ Agile Leadership
DISC personality assessment
Formed 2 teams where Scrum was adopted first. Launched 2 major campaigns in 6 sprints
Campaign Management: - For pool of demands, put a portfolio level visualization on the monthly status of campaigns to be launched in the market. Same done for projects
Visualization shows campaigns on hold/ terminated- waste of resource – learning for better calendar planning for next time
With the visualization you could predict the monthly revenue from campaigns at a high level.
Discovery Kanban- Portfolio level visualization for Campaigns/ Projects.
Once Requirement and Technical Feasibility Analysis is completed- campaign/ project is committed by the Scrum Team.
Scrum team uses Delivery Kanban for status updates/ visualization of campaigns/ projects.
End to end visibility of the portfolio
Teams would not speak on Daily Stand Ups. Reluctant to engage
Sprint backlogs keep on changing while the sprint is ongoing
Developers do not want to do QA & documentation
Nobody understands Agile
Smallest team member’s NO is respected
Secure environment for failing
Not letting team burn out
Committing together, before committing to client
Lean Coffee
– team of employees from all the Opcos of Axiata, each year
Motivating employees and rewarding the highest performing employees each year
American ecologist and Economist- Prof @ University of Maryland.
Could change from a state of order to a state of disorder