Practical experience on how transformation change supposedly should work according to orthodox theory - and how I experience to work out in practice including recent experience of scaled lean agile in Nordea.

1. Practical implications
of
thinking and acting differently
Doctor of Management (Ph.D) Mikkel H Brahm
Head of Architecture, Nordea | Digital Banking

2. Practical examples of Orthodoxy
Outcome
Mean /
Objective
Mean /
Objective
Mean Mean MeanMean
Linear
Causality
=>
Predictable

3. Practical examples of Orthodoxy
Mean Mean
Mean
Mean
Outcome
Organisation / needs in t0 = organisation / needs in t1
i.e. we control when the organization does and does not change
t0 t1

4. Practical examples of Orthodoxy
Elias: Idealization of stable states
Process-reduced language
Analyze Design Execute
Unfreeze Change Refreeze
(Kurt Lewin)

5. The v-model assumes
that you can hand over
the entire outcome of your work
Practical examples of Orthodoxy

6. Practical examples of Orthodoxy
AS-IS LOGICAL
AS-IS PHYSICAL
TO-BE LOGICAL
TO-BE PHYSICAL

7. STRATEGY
SOURCE:
McKinsey Organization Design Service Line,
McKinsey 9 Golden Rules report
2013
SOURCE:
Leavitt, Harold J.
“Applied Organizational Change in Industry”
in Handbook of Organizations pp 1144-70
1965
5 decades of improvements …
… without progress

8. Taking the attitude of the other is what allows us
to understand their perception of us – and allows us to “fit in”
Rather than pursuing an unattainable level of predictability,
why not improve instead our ability to observe and understand?

9. George Herbert Mead describes “the attitude of the engineer”
as an enlarged sense of social self and attitudes of others

10. To engineer something helpful, we must understand both
the person we are trying to help and their journey (fulfil need)

11. Case: Agile@Nordea
How can we become “at our best” more of the time?

12. 12

13. In a fragmented and uncertain market,
we seek evolution rather than revolution
Open innovation Observation

14. Deposits
Loans
Investments Mortgages
Property Trading
Treasury
Nordea is not one business – it is as a group involved in
many businesses and business models with many counterparties
Our current strategy is less about a safe bet,
and more about keeping options open

17. Collaboration is needed both between aspects of Architecture,
lines of Business, and between group, partitions & initiatives
Hub
Capability
Area

18. Architecture as a matrix between federated partitions and initiatives
Digital Sales
Software
Architecture
Product
Ownership
Mobile
development
Web
development
Competency
Areas
… Hub NHub 2Hub 1
CAL
CAL
CAL
CAL
CAL
HLHL
Hub Architecture Team
Business
Capability
Architecture
Team
Support Hub Lead to understand Capability Architecture
visions and design Hub Architecture vision accordingly to
guide business value realization
Support Business
Capability owner to
develop capability
architecture vision
describing how
capability can be most
efficiency delivered
Support Hubs to
understand and
mitigate impact on
Capability of proposed
solutions
HL
Deliverables
• Hub Architecture Vision
• QBR & roadmap support
• Hub backlog refinement
• Epic Definition
• Enabler Epic identification
• Epic architecture deep-dives
Deliverables
• Feature descriptions
• Solution architecture design
• Architecture Debt Capture
Deliverables
• Business Capability Architecture Vision
• Target, as-is, transition architecture
• Capability architecture standards
Solution level
Support POs and teams in defining solution
architecture for Epics applying guidelines of the
Hub Architecture Vision and, if relevant, the
more detailed Epic Architectures and Non-
Functional Requirements on Epic level.
Hub level
Portfolio level Support portfolio is aligned to strategy (as part of QBR in giving feedback to Hubs) and Hubs are executing according to right scope
Deliverables
• Strategic Theme Definition
• Capacity Allocation
• Hub initiation / retirement
Architecture presentation in
portfolio discussions (QBR)

19. Factions of
Architecture
do not
necessarily
agree
on which
approach to
adopt

20. Architecture cadence must match Initiative cadence
now +6 months +18 months +3 years +5 years
Too late to
influence
More detail and
Comprehensive
Less detail and
more ad hoc
Direction and
Outlines
Focus on goals, not on means – e.g. Guide Decision-making and Development
Beware of an approach so heavy-weight
that you do not have time to produce quality content.

21. Change is constant i.e. no more projects as
temporary organization of change
Funding
Bucket
Run the
Business
Change the Business
Hub = Solution Train
People with Business competence and IT competence
Funding
Bucket
Hub = Solution Train
People with Business competence and IT competence
Funding
Bucket
Hub = Solution Train
People with Business competence and IT competence

22. App
BFF
Service
ESB
Service
Back
End
Supplier
Sector
Partner
App
Partner
Portal
end-to-endORG
end-to-end
The hand-over dilemma:
what sender knows ≠ what receiver needs to know
Max 9
+
One of each
=
Dev + 8 Mgrs
Agile dilemma:

23. We seek empathic connection to our customers and end users
via personae with emotions, hopes, wants and pains

24. Journey Map: 3 meter long posters becomes a focal point
as we struggle to fit everything into one simplified model

25. Confidence vote: Teams express confidence
and commitment with 0-5 fingers raised

26. Program Board: As teams commit to deliver,
a shared plan emerges through negotiation

27. We seek to shorten Build – Test – Learn loops
concerning what we cannot predict

29. Even with all the refactoring, we still believe we will get to a better match to customers needs this way
in the same time that we could have delivered an undesired solution by following the old V-model

32. The Agile (Scrum) principles can clash with the Lean principles

33. Not all Architects prefer to lead on the “construction site”
rather than model and write guidelines from the “Ivory Tower”

34. So far, we are mainly modelling “as sketch”.
We maintain very few coherent enterprise models.
UmlAsBlueprint is a UmlMode that focuses on completene
The essence of (UmlAsSketch) sketching is selectivity
The promise of (UmlAsProgrammingLanguage
as) a higher level language (is that it is) … more
productive than current programming languages.Martin Fowler

36. GOOD UGLYHARD
Incremental value creation,
demos, benefit realization,
and relentless continuous
learning and behavioural
changes
An intimate and empathic
relationship to the customer
and customer validation
Permanent change
organization i.e. no
(re)allocations to projects
Trusting people and pushing
decisions down to the
organizational level with
competence to decide
Accepting that also
architecture has to be
developed incrementally
and accepting refactoring
Transitioning from
Ivory Tower to Building Site
(technical) Leader
Trying to transform from
waterfall to lean-agile
without CI/CD
(and environments)
Disconnect between funding
structure and change
execution structure
We say that we “accept
unpredictability” but have a
hard time accepting that
sometimes shit happens

37. Summary
Different ways of thinking about change

38. ENTERPRISE
Intentional process of doing and organizing business
emerging from enabling/constraining figurations of relationships always in flux
ARCHITECTURE
Organisation of structuring structures
including human conventions and mechanisms

39. We need a multi-disciplinary approach
Complex Responsive
Processes of Relating
Systems Theory
people technology
action
structure
?
ANT is first of all a negative argument

40. Take different perspectives
i-i, i-o, o-i, o-o
Team, Company, Market, Society are all just subsets of
organizing = patterning of relationships always in flux
Consider carefully when you
need more or less stability
Conversations – and action in general – can take
more fluid or more formalized forms
Choose carefully when to
play or pass
Trust (social capital) can be built up (not given) over time,
but it can be lost very quickly and dramatically
Small incremental changes
are less difficult to validate
Changing structuring structures can have unpredictable
effects, and can be dificult to recover from
Choose carefully whom to
oppose and whom to back
Many people want to influence the organization
in similar ways to Enterprise Architects
Some observations and options

41. • Find out what you are architecting
• Find out who is building / making decisions on what you are architecting
• Find out which questions the builders / decision-makers have
• E.g. how to build in a desirable, viable, feasible (, …) way
• Find out who also wants to supply such answers
• Find out which of these could be allies and which are opponents
• Do whatever it takes to provide the needed answers / guidance
Universal Architecture Method

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