1. The Discover Card Acquisitions’
Modernization journey
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2. Where we were
How did we start?
Where we are
The modernization journey and key decisions helped propel the
transformation
What do we use to measure our progress
How data and metrics help us tell a better story
What am I going
to talk about
today?
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3. Agile
is not a technology-only
transformation
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4. Organization Alignment is the foundation
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NowBefore

5. 2016-2018
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Productivity
Predictability
Time to Market
Doubled in 2017
Only 30% increase in 2018
Doubled in 2017
Stayed flat 2018
Improved in 2017
Stagnant in 2018

6. So... What else in our way for continued progress?
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1 in 10 have
domain knowledge
3 Skillsets needed
Up to 4 months
ramping Up time
4 handoffs from
idea to user story
creation
3handoffs in
Sprints
5 teams required
to release to prod
PeoplePlatform Process
1 Monolithic
Application on 2
different platforms
Lack of 24x7
availability
Plateaued Productivity Stagnant Cycle Time
Increased Defects

7. We have to modernize
platform, people, and how
we operate.
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8. Define architecture vision
Credit Decision
Identity
Prospect
UX
Servicing
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Event storming
Map customer journey and actions taken along the journey
Domain driven design
Group actions into bounded context
Event-driven architecture
Domain services interact through events
Fraud Svcs Application Svcs
Decision Svcs Bureau Svsc
DB - Data
Owned
EVENT LOG
DB - Data
Owned
EVENT LOG
DB - Data
Owned
EVENT LOG
DB - Data
Owned
EVENT LOG
Publishing
Publishing
Event Publishing
Event Publishing
Event Consuming
Event Consuming
Event Consuming
Event Consuming
Event Consumers will listen to all event and
persist intrested events + React to qualified
events
State changes will
be persisted as
Event Log and will
keep track of
Business Events.

9. Vision without execution is
hallucination
- Thomas Edison
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10. Create execution strategy
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Strangler pattern
Start small, iteratively
migrate capabilities to
new platform
Build, measure, learn

11. Enable our people
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12. Drive automation thru CICD, build program-wide capabilities
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Code Quality Check
Security Scan
Performance Testing
User Journey Testing
Blue/Green
Deployment
Canary Release

13. Evolve operating model and process
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Streamline product pipeline, focusing on “why?”

14. Legacy Modern
Change Failure Rate
Mean Time to Restore
Metrics to measure speed, quality & maturity
~120% ~5%
~5-8 Hrs ~< 30 Min
Best of all, no more sleepless nights for installs!
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Mean Time to Repair
~2 hrs – 2 days~3 days – 4 weeks
Error/Friction Rate
~4.7% ~2.0%
Lead time to change
~16 – 52 weeks ~4 – 16 weeks

15. How do we sustain & grow?

16. Measure
LearnBuild
People and culture of continuously learning
Communities of
Practice
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Team & Program
Level Metrics
Health
Assessment &
Retrospectives

17. Questions?
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