The session / content is about the challenges faced and lessons learnt while doing Agile in an IT services organization

1. Srinath Chandrasekharan, CSM
Senior Manager - Consulting
HCL Technologies

2.  The IT Landscape
 The Challenges
 Our Approach
 Learning's

4.  $ 6.2 Billion
 Spread Across 31 countries
 Multiple Domains
 Service mix includes
 BPO
 Engineering services and R & D
 Enterprise Applications
 Infrastructure Services
 Custom Applications
1 Lakh +
employees
1000 + active
projects

5.  Other large IT players
 Infosys
 TCS
 Wipro
 CTS
 + many medium and small companies…
 Most projects won through competitive
bidding.. Margin’s play a major role….

6.  CMMI was a USP
 as customers looked for predictable, repeatable
process.
 Spread across domains and technologies, this was a
task huge task…
 All companies aspired for various levels…
 …. 5 was great, lower ones were acceptable…
 Heavy documentation needed lot of checks…
 Documentation became the focus and evidence was
largely document based… compliance to processes
became the focus instead of innovation

7.  Were more ‘Command and Control’….
 following the rule was common …
 deviations needed to be ‘approved’…..QA group
was the gatekeeper
 specialization was considered good in
processes, technologies, domains…
 creating smaller , specialized groups within the
large organizations…..led to creation of silos

12.  For many client’s going agile means…..
 Not giving the requirement in full, yet expecting
a functionally working feature….
 Changing the requirements within sprints..
 Not having to commit to the teams in terms of
time…..
 Getting changes implemented was inbuilt into
Agile framework and thus avoided heavy and
bureaucratic

14.  Estimation became a problem..
 How do you estimate when you don’t know what
to develop…. Yet you need this for winning the
bid…..
 No industry published data to fall back on… SP
are relative and many people don’t understand
it…

15.  What’s the best methodology…
 People used to spoon feeding…
 Every step and outcome listed in CMMI…but Agile
prescribes an open culture ……
 What’s Scrum ? DSM ? Reviews? Sprints ?
 Should I have a standard Agile process across all
projects ? If yes, is it Agile ? If not, how do I
compare?

16.  Some clients don’t care about them…
 So do we ask the teams not to waste time on
them and use it more productively ?
 Even if we collected for the other projects
 nothing can be analyzed for a comparison
 No baseline report…
 Can’t get data for RFP’s
 Can’t compare which methodology will provide
better results…..

18.  Formed CoE
 All got trained on CSM
 Created some process material around Agile
(predominantly Scrum)
 Created training material similar to CSM
 Assessed / worked with projects implementing
scrum
 Studied other Agile methods and created
processes, so as to increase our basket of
offerings….
 Forums for addressing questions..CoP

19.  Started getting involved right from the RFP
stage… so as to understand clients maturity
and expectations from Agile.. And if needed
correct them…
 Assessed projects for applicability of Agile
 Training for client business / IT teams
 Session for sales team….very important..
 Sessions for Senior Management….
 Self learning modules on the Learning
Management System….

20.  Gathered experiences from different
projects on FPP
 Evolved a guideline on fixed price contracts
for Agile
 Educated Senior Management

21.  Created a structured process around Scrum
and some XP practices
 Structured training program
 Leveraged existing QA group to continuously
check projects for consistent implementation
and regular feedback
 Getting involved with teams for 2-3 sprints
 Focused sessions with teams on estimation,
story writing etc.

22.  Made a set of metrics as core, ensured that
these are gathered by all teams for every
sprint…
 Published a report which said how are
projects doing.. Without comparing them
 Used CSAT as a common measure, across
Agile and Non-Agile projects as well.
 Collected qualitative data (team stress,
weekend working, client pressure, etc.) to
support the other data.

24.  Proactively take Senior Management along at
all times. Agile should be well thought out
instead of being knee- jerk
 CoE was focused a lot on projects and delivery
teams, left senior management interaction to
project teams.
 Sales teams / senior management involvement
was as and when needed, so there was no single
approach to Agile.
 Cultural change needed was slow to take off.

25.  Top-down and bottom-up working together
 While teams were becoming Agile, management
was not.
 Metrics from traditional methodologies were still
expected from teams, resulting in pressure on
teams.
 Support for teams was problematic, in many
areas.

26.  Get a delivery sponsor who can speak for you
at various forums
 Important to spread awareness and intricacies of
Agile.
 Get buy in from delivery teams for activities
done by CoE and not be seen as an ‘outsider’.

27.  Focus on tooling and skills ….along with
processes
 While Scrum was becoming popular, XP practices
were largely ignored.
 Some practices were questioned for cost
effectiveness (Pair Programing, TDD).
 Leveraging projects experience was not well
established.

28. c.srinath@hcl.com
Srinath_cs@yahoo.com