Talk at RailsCamp Cologne 2014 about the agile transformation of InVision.

1. O r g H a c k i n g
F o r F u n A n d P r o f i t

2. 7 Years Ago…

3. …we were
successful!

4. …we were
a market leader.

5. …we were
international.

6. 250 employees!

7. IPO!

8. …it was
serious business!

9. …everything was great!

10. Everything was great?

11. Bullshit.

12. Sales-driven
Development

13. Deadline-driven
Development

14. Main Product:
3m Lines of C++

15. Monolithic Architecture

16. Big Ball of Mud

17. 3500+ Open Bugs

18. No Innovation

19. Customers Not Happy

20. Many Managers

21. Micromanagement
Bureaucracy
Little Kingdoms
Finger Pointing
Politics
Grave Wars

22. No fun!

23. It was horrible!

24. You’d better run away…

25. …or you hack your org out
of this shit.

26. P e t e r B o l l e n b e c k
I w o r k a t I n V i s i o n
@ p b o l l e n b e c k
p e t e r . b o l l e n b e c k @ i n v i s i o n . d e

27. I E T F R F C 1 3 9 2
„A person who delights in having an
intimate understanding of the internal
workings of a system, computers and
computer networks in particular.“
H A C K E R

28. H T T P S : / / S T A L L M A N . O R G / A R T I C L E S / O N - H A C K I N G . H T M L
“[...] little respect for the silly
rules that administrators like to
impose [...]”
H A C K E R

29. H T T P S : / / S T A L L M A N . O R G / A R T I C L E S / O N - H A C K I N G . H T M L
“[...] exploring the limits of what is
possible, in a spirit of playful
cleverness.”
H A C K I N G

30. Intimite Understanding
Little Respect
Playful Cleverness

31. Differences:
Feedback takes days, weeks
or months -
not milliseconds

32. And:
It’s people, not bits

33. T h e h a c k s

34. L e a v e t h e B o r g
O r g H a c k # 1

35. „You will be assimilated.
Resistance is futile.“

37. Philosophy
Structure
Processes

38. Innovation Speed

39. Without the Borg:
You are free to choose…

40. …and you are forced
to think on your own

42. Results:
Agility
Less Overhead
Innovation Speed

43. R e m o v e S u i t s
O r g H a c k # 2

44. „Clothes make the man.“

45. You can pretend
to be someone else

46. A suit is often used to
weaken arguments by
declaring status

47. So we’ve removed all suits

48. Results:
More „real“ people
More rational thinking
More relaxed attitude

49. T i t l e . d e s t r o y _ a l l
O r g H a c k # 3

50. […]
Technical Consultant
Application Consultant
QA Engineer
QA Manager
Software Engineer
System Architect
Business Analyst
Development Manager
Project Manager
Program Manager
[…]

51. Little fences everywhere

52. Titles separate and
differentiate

53. „Not my job“

54. So we’ve removed all
titles

55. Results:
Better collaboration
Thinking out of the box

56. K i l l t h e K i n g s
O r g H a c k # 4

57. T H E P E T E R P R I N C I P L E , L A U R E N C E J . P E T E R , 1 9 6 8
„In a hierarchy, every employee tends
to rise to his level of incompetence“

58. Management replaces trust

59. Managers got
„back to work“…

60. …or left.

61. Teams get aligned with a
very lean sync layer

62. Results:
More creativity
Less bureaucracy

63. S h r i n k t h e T e a m
O r g H a c k # 5

64. Playful Exploration

65. 5-10 ⇢ 4-6 ⇢ 2-4

66. Smaller teams work better

67. Shared vision
Determination
Full accountability

68. Results:
Better conflict resolution
Streamlined communication
No internal waterfall

69. S t a y a w a y f r o m D r o i d s
O r g H a c k i n g A d v i s e # 1

70. T h r o w a B o m b
O r g H a c k i n g A d v i s e # 2

71. K e e p g o i n g
O r g H a c k i n g A d v i s e # 3

72. Q & A