Chad Sheridan, CIO, Risk Management Agency, USDA

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ITSM DEVOPS CONFERENCE
BEYOND PRACTICE: EXPLORING, DISCOVERING, &
DRIVING BUSINESS VALUE
CIO, RISK MANAGEMENT AGENCY, USDA

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RMA BACKGROUND
• RMA Administers Federal Crop Insurance Program
• Covers $110 billion liability, $10 billion premium
• Last year $9 billion indemnity
• Small agency (~450 employees) partnered with 18 companies that sell and
service 1.2 million insurance policies

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WHY CHANGE?

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WHY CHANGE?
• Multi-year projects
• Over-budget
• Behind Schedule
• Not delivering expected capabilities
• Production system instability
• Year-long backlog of changes
• Business impacting outages
• Maintenance costs limiting development
Disciplined Program and Project Management Will SAVE THE DAY!

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INITIAL RESULTS

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TIME FOR AGILE

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BUF - AGILE

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AGILE/DEVOPS CULTURE
• Not just development—all phases of the lifecycle
• Role of product owners
• Program/Project Management
• Leadership role
• #ChangeAgents

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RMAGILE

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WHAT DID WE LEARN?
• Agile development cannot succeed
without an Agile culture
• Be aware of the white space
• In oversight and management –
extreme engagement with light
fingers

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PRACTICE IS NOT ENOUGH!
• The big question of our time is not Can it be built? but Should it be built?
--Eric Ries
• What do we do with the improved ability to deliver at speed, or the cost
reductions brought through a continuous delivery pipeline?
• What was the one essential element that drove the turnaround in The
Phoenix Project?

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ITSM DEVOPS CONFERENCE
Thanks for coming!
Let us know what you thought!