Nationwide Insurance has transitioned many of its IT teams to agile methodologies like Scrum and seen improvements in areas like on-time delivery, system quality, and availability. It is now looking to apply lean principles across the entire delivery lifecycle to further optimize flow and reduce waste. The organization aims to establish continuous delivery practices empower the business through increased automation, visibility, and trust in development outcomes.

2. CARMEN DEARDO
DEVOPS TECHNOLOGY LEADER,
NATIONWIDE INSURANCE

3. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
THRIVING IN A DYNAMIC, HIGHLY-­REGULATED WORLD
16+
MILLION
POLICIES
$345
MILLION
CONTRIBUTED
TO NONPROFITS
AND COMMUNITIES
SINCE 2000
1#
WRITER OF
FARMOWNERS
7LARGEST
HOME INSURER
th
$195.2
BILLION
IN ASSETS
8t
h
LARGEST
COMMERCIAL
INSURER
$25.3 BILLION IN REVENUE FOR 2014
33,000 Nationwide associates
serve customers in every state
1#
CORPORATE LIFE
WRITER
FOUNDED IN 1926
BY MEMBERS OF
THE OHIO
FARM BUREAU
8LARGEST
AUTO INSURER
th
IN THE U.S.
#1PET & SMALL
BUSINESS
INSURER
#91ON THE
FORTUNE
500 LIST
3

4. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AT NATIONWIDE
8000+ IT PROFESSIONALS
20INDIVIDUAL
IT UNITS
4
200+ AGILE / LEAN
STANDING TEAMS
800+ BUILD PROJECTS
EXECUTED ANNUALLY
35%
ANNUAL INCREASE
IN NUMBER OF
AGILE TEAMS
65%
OF ALL PROJECT
WORK DONE BY
AGILE TEAMS
CI CT CD
ESTABLISHED
PRACTICES
NEXT PHASE: APPLICATION OF LEAN
ACROSS THE DELIVERY LIFE CYCLE
OF
AND
BALANCE
INNOVATION
DISCIPLINE
FIRST PHASE: AGILE DEVELOPMENT

5. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
RESULTS / IMPACTS: SO FAR, SO GOOD
80%
86%
REDUCTION IN
HIGH DEFECTS
REDUCTION IN
CRITICAL DEFECTS
OF AGILE TEAMS MOVED INTO TOP
TWO INDUSTRY QUARTILES (QSM)
82%
INCREASE IN
USER’S OVERALL
SYSTEM
AVAILABILITY
70% PREVIOUSLY
60%
VS
90%
ON TIME
DELIVERY
DELIVERY
PRODUCTIVITY
SYSTEM AVAILABILITY
QUALITY

6. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
AGILE OPTIMIZES THE MIDDLE OF THE DELIVERY VALUE
STREAM
6
Wait states due to starvation of
prioritized work flow into backlogs
Wait states due to contention for
downstream environments and
manual processes
Agile DDT
Deploy & Operate
Steer Develop & Test
Water-­SCRUM-­Fall
SPEED
TIME
Teams waiting for work
due to “discrete”
planning processes
Delivery slowed down
by manual and high
ceremony processes
High Acceleration
during Design,
Develop and
Acceptance Testing
0

7. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
INHIBITORS TO LEAN DELIVERY
7
Wait states due to starvation of
prioritized work flow into backlogs
Wait states due to contention for
downstream environments and
manual processes
Agile DDT
Deploy & Operate
Steer Develop & Test
Water-­SCRUM-­Fall
SPEED
TIME
Teams waiting for work
due to “discrete”
planning processes
Delivery slowed down
by manual and high
ceremony processes
High Acceleration
during Design,
Develop and
Acceptance Testing
0
WORK VARIANCE
ANNUAL PLANNING
REDUNDANT SOURCES AND SYSTEMS
DEPENDENCIES WAIT STATES
LACK OF INTEGRATION
MANUAL ACTIVITIES
LACK OF VISIBILITY
60% COST / TIME BEFORE BACKLOG

8. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
CD SOLUTION: CONTINUOUS DELIVERY PIPELINE
Standardize “Work” input
(e.g. Business Value,
Defects, Operations)
Provide impact analysis,
Dashboard views and multi-­
application continuous delivery
Provide direct, automated
control & traceability over
deployment activity.
RTC
(Rational
Team
Concert)
UCR
(UrbanCode
Release)
UCD
(UrbanCode
Deploy)
Release
Dashboard
Release
Scheduling
Deploy
8

9. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
CD GOAL: EMPOWER THE BUSINESS
9
AUTOMATE
Replace time-­consuming manual processes based on out-­of-­date information
with automated deployment policies that use real-­time information synched
from systems of record.

10. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
CD GOAL: EMPOWER THE BUSINESS
10
VISUALIZE
The combination of dashboard and dials gives the business the visibility and
control to drive at a much faster pace than is currently possible.

11. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
CD GOAL: EMPOWER THE BUSINESS
11
TRUST
Increase trust in development outcomes which historically has been an
impediment to speed.

12. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
CD GOAL: EMPOWER THE BUSINESS
12
EMPOWER
Provide Business Areas the ability to deliver as fast as they need (and are
able) based on their own determination of cost, risk, and value.

13. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
CD GOAL: EMPOWER THE BUSINESS
13
EMPOWER
Provide Business Areas the ability to deliver as fast as they need (and are
able) based on their own determination of cost, risk, and value.

14. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
UrbanCode
Integration
Tasktop UrbanCode
Plug-­in
VISIBILITY VIA REAL TIME INFORMATION
14
Schedule
for Release
Monitor Release
Gate Environments
Orchestrate
Deployment
Automate
Deployment
PRODUCT
MANAGER
Work Request
QA
Tasktop
✔
DELIVERY OPPORTUNITIES
ENTERPRISE AND SYSTEM VIEWS
DEPENDENCIES AND IMPACTS
QUALITY, SECURITY & TEST STATUS
AUTOMATION
DEPLOYMENT STATUS
MORE AUTOMATION LESS VARIANCE
RTC UCR UCD

15. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
FOUNDATIONAL MODEL
15
DEVOPS
Business Enabling Responsiveness
Reduced Lead Time for Changes
Monitor Everything
Continuous Delivery
Automated Infrastructure
Continuous Integration
Automated Testing
Version Control Everything
PRACTICES
High Trust
Innovative
Performance Oriented
Empowered Associates
Reduce Variation
High Cooperation
CULTURE
Continuous Flow & Visibility
Lean & Agile Principles Product Centric
System Flow Amplify Feedback Loops Continuous Experimentation

16. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
16
DEVELOP A DEVOPS ROADMAP
MAP TO DELIVERY
VALUE STREAM
PRIORITIZE
LOOK FOR INTEGRATION
OPPORTUNITIES
HOLISTIC
FUNDING
EXPERIMENT
EMPOWERMENT
X

18. “YOU HAVE TO THINK
HORIZONTALLY.”

19. “LOCAL OPTIMIZATION
IS THE ENEMY OF
LEAN DELIVERY.”

20. “AUTOMATION
REQUIRES PATTERNS,
PATTERNS REQUIRES
ELIMINATING VARIANCE.”

21. “HARD TO MANAGE
WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE
…OR MEASURE.”

22. “TECHNOLOGY
IS THE FUN PART,
CULTURE
IS THE CHALLENGE.”

23. ©2015. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies
HERE’S WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR HELP WITH…
23
• Investing in the IT Delivery Value Stream
Enterprise Architecture in terms of ownership,
resources and priorities
• More effectively managing DevOps Associated
WIP to avoid local optimizations
• Infusing a self-­service culture for providing
Infrastructure related services
• Creating an agile business planning culture which
ensures continuous funding and flow of work
• Support of resources who are driving “disruptive
CI activities”