Abstract—ORG, fictitious name, is a large company with complex-globally distributed projects that has recently started a ”big-bang” transition to agile. About a year ago the new CIO announced it was time to aim for faster deliveries and decided on a company-wide roll-out to agile, including legacy systems. In this paper we report on an interview-based qualitative study that aimed to identify the reasons of why the company is moving to an agile approach, the steps towards becoming agile took during this first year of work, and the main concerns of senior management given the size of the company, the complexity of the projects developed, and the team’s global distribution. We interviewed 18 senior managers, including members of the board committee that assess the CIO in strategic decisions. Our findings add to the current literature on the topic by discussing the transformation in a large-complex scenario that, to the best of our knowledge, has never been reported in literature.

1. IN A LARGE-COMPLEX GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED COMPANY
Greice Roman
greice.roman@acad.pucrs.br
Sabrina Marczak
sabrina.marczak@pucrs.br
Alessandra Dutra
alessandra.dutra@pucrs.br
Rafael Prikladnicki
rafael.prikladnicki@pucrs.br

2. In our experimentation with Scrum (…)
we found that small teams can be
flexible and adaptable.
LINDA RISING AND NORMAN S. JANOFF
AG COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, 2000
“
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3. fifteen years go by...
Agile Conference ‘09
ESEM ‘13
Information and Software Technology ‘11
IBM Global Services ‘10
Addison-Wesley Professional ‘12

4. some practices of agile transformation
in small projects

5. how does the transformation occur
in largely-distributed projects?

6. To understand this question
we interviewed managers at ORG from the USA and from Brazil

7. projects are complex
interconnected and distributed
IT teams are globally distributed
mainly in Latin America and in Asia
Waterfall-structured organization
an annual project roadmap
ORG background

8. We asked them about:
(1) The reasons to aiming to become agile
(2) Which steps have been taken so far
(3) Which concerns they have about the transformation

9. why Agile?
1. the reasons

10. to deliver faster to the customer
to reduce the time window between
requesting and receiving
to reduce communication gaps

11. first steps
2. the actions taken

12. Reorg
Training and Coaching
Pilot Projects
Mixed Methods: ScrumBan
Communities of Practice

13. Initial concerns
3. the concerns

14. agile only in specific IT departments
customers still unaware of the agile initiative
complex software applications
legacy systems
global distribution of the teams
lack of documentation

15. Discussion

16. First Steps
Pilot projects was one of the successful factors at Gap
Training teams is an incisive step
(new mind set, self-training, trial and error, changing priorities)

17. First Steps
At Primavera Systems is common the adoption
of mixed agile methods
CoPs was a successful practice in Ericsson

18. Concerns
Open issues:
complex ecosystem of applications
we found challenges in a distributed environment and on a project with dependent projects
customer collaboration
topic of a research agenda for agile in large-scale

19. global distribution of the teams:
not imply or affect the quality of working practices
old technologies and legacy systems:
Inspect and Adapt and Go Slow to Go Fast
Concerns

20. agile transformation is not simple!
mainly in complex cases
ORG is moving towards the same direction of most
successful transformation cases reported in literature!

21. we will interview professionals that have participated on a
transformation in large companies
to identify good practices
our main work is to propose a guideline
for companies to acquire fluency in such setting
And now...

22. !
Greice Roman
greice.roman@acad.pucrs.br
Sabrina Marczak
sabrina.marczak@pucrs.br
Alessandra Dutra
alessandra.dutra@pucrs.br
Rafael Prikladnicki
rafael.prikladnicki@pucrs.br