Distributed Teams

Accenture Interactive
Accenture Interactive for Deutsche Telekom
Distributed Teams
FF through 20 years
of out- & in-sourcing
in software development
Dino Frese
June 2020

Distributed Conferences …
Let’s try something new for this talk / meeting MURAL:
https://app.mural.co/t/1nteractiveasgxpp9495/m/1nteractiveasgxpp9495/1592293745361/72bb289b24b02f80984e8fd0d08e95d22a3f4c0d

What usually happens when FF:

My “Bubbles”:
Computer
Science
RWTH Aachen
Work
at
Accenture
Work
with
Manila
Work
with
China
Work
with
Spain
Work
with
India
Work
at
ThoughtWorks
2000 2020
Time
2010
Work
at
Accenture
Live
in
US
Work
with
UK
Work
with
US
Work
with
IR, IN, PL
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dino-frese-84b74084/
https://www.instagram.com/frese.dino/
I am a husband and a father. I also love handball, music & cars.
I work at Accenture. I happily share stories around all of that.

Personal impressions – Today:

Personal impressions – A while ago:

So much has happened in the last 20 years:
2000 2020
Time
2010
iPhone launched in 2007
Tesla Model S launched in 2012
Amazon Web Services launched in 2006
Agile Manifest signed
Book: Continuous Delivery (Jez Humble, David Farley)
Netflix launches streaming in 2007
Book: Blue Ocean Strategy (Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne)
WhatsApp launched in 2009
Uber launched in 2010
Amazon Echo launched in 2014
Book: Lean Startup (Eric Ries)
Book: Agile software development with SCRUM (Ken Schwaber, Mike Beedle)
Gartner: How to Approach Customer Experience Management (Ed Thompson, Esteban Kolsky)
Concept: 6 Ds of tech
disruption (Peter Diamandis)
Essay: Law of accelerating returns (Ray Kurzweil)


I believe, distributed software development
changed during the last 20 years:
• There are more distributed development teams
• The motivation for distributing teams changed
from “cost-savings” towards “ability to scale”
Hypothesis:


I believe, distributed software development
changed during the last 20 years:
• There are more distributed development teams
• The motivation for distributing teams changed
from “cost-savings” towards “ability to scale”
… and it was boosted during the last months
Hypothesis

Work in 2000s

How “we” used to work:
Plan
Design
Build
Test
Production
Implemen-
tation
Unit Test
Detailed
Design
Integration
Test
Architecture
System
Test
Requirements
Planning
Production &
Maintenance
Waterfall: V-Model:

How “we” used to distribute & source:
Plan
Design
Build
Test
Production
Implemen-
tation
Unit Test
Detailed
Design
Integration
Test
Architecture
System
Test
Requirements
Planning
Production &
Maintenance
Waterfall: V-Model:
G
erm
any
O
ffshore
G
erm
any
Germany
Offshore

Barriers we hit:
Germany
Offshore• Location
• Timezone
• Language
• Culture
• Market
• Location
• Timezone
• Language
• Culture
• Market
Germany

Bridging the gaps in 2006:

Believes driving this approach:
•Factory
•Development of IT systems
can be standardized
•Results are foreseeable
and work is repeatable
•“Werkbank”
•Distributing work across locations
can be done “by process” step

Data & Proof

These methods and believes were a driver for businesses and growth:
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
400000
450000
500000
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Employees per year
Tata Consulting Service Accenture

Outsourcing à Distribution, Outsourcing got more:
Gartner: IT Outsourcing Spend as Percent of Total Spend
2009: Average of 20% 2017: Average of 27%

Outsourcing à Distribution, Outsourcing got more mature:
Gartner: Maturity of Approach to Outsourcing
2009: Beginner = 19% 2017: Beginner 8%

Work in 2020s

International Submarine Cables:

Tools:
2000 2020
Time
2010
Miro & Mural founded in 2011
Microsoft Teams released in 2017
Google Docs launched in 2006
GitHub founded in 2008
Zoom Founded in 2011
Slack initial release in 2013
WebEx Teams released in 2018
SAFe 1.0 published
PMI-ACP © Agile certified Practitioner
Spotify Engineering Culture

How “we” work today:
Stakeholder
Interview
Vision
Goals
PO
SEC
DEV UI/UX
Backlog
Epics / Stories
Acceptance
Criteria
Definition of ready
Retro
Start
DEV Team
Code
Build
Test
To do WIP Done
Planning
Definition of done
Smoke Tests
Integration Test
Security Tests
Load Tests
F1 F2 F3 F4
Production
+
Release on demand
F1
F2
F3
F3
Deploy
6 Week Ramp-up 2-3 Week sprints
24/7 Operation
Monitor
Operate
A/B Testing
Deploy

Team1
Micro
Service
Hosting EU
DE
• Agile
• Cross-Functional
• Autonomous
• Continuous Integration & Delivery
• Test Driven Development
• Decoupled

Team1 Team2
Micro
Service
Hosting EU
DE
• Agile
• Autonomous
• Decoupled

Team1 Team2 Teamn…
Domain1
Micro
Service
Hosting EU
DE BENL UK …
• Agile
• Autonomous
• Decoupled

Domain1 Domain2 Domain2…
Value- & Portfolio-Management
Micro
Service
Hosting EU
DE BENL UK …
• Agile
• Autonomous
• Decoupled
• Budgeting & Value
• Dependencies
• Escalations

Micro
Service
Hosting EU Hosting Americas Hosting Asia Hosting CN / RU
DE BENL UK …
…?
US CAN IN CN… … …
• Agile
• Autonomous
• Decoupled
• Dependencies
• Escalations
• Performance
• Redundancy
• Localization
• Cultural Fit

Micro
Service
DE BENL UK …
…?
Budget
Source1
Budget
Source2
…
Budget
Sourcen
• Agile
• Autonomous
• Decoupled
• Dependencies
• Escalations
• Sponsorship
• Stakeholders
• Performance
• Redundancy
• Localization
• Cultural Fit

How “we” distribute & source today:
Micro
Service
DE BENL UK …
…?
Budget
Source1
Budget
Source2
…
Budget
Sourcen
• Team à Location
• E2E Responsibility
• Driven by Outcomes

Shift in mindset & culture:
V-Model
Waterfall
Agile
Project Product
Hierarchical
Org-Charts
Autonomous
Teams
Complicated
environments
Complex
Environments
Monolith Microservices

Quotes:
“Software will account for 90 percent of future
innovations in the car,” Herbert Diess, March 2019
“Im Rahmen der Partnerschaft wird Volkswagen ein
neues Entwicklungszentrum für die Automotive Cloud in
Nordamerika gründen”, Press Release September 2018
VW Group Strategy 2025: “Software-Enabled Car
Company: Our brands have long set standards in
technology, design and quality with their vehicles. They
inspire customers and achieve economic success. That
alone will not be enough in the future. Digitalization is
fundamentally changing the car, the automobile is
becoming a software product.”

References:
1300 team members – all remote
“The Remote Playbook”
“The Remote Work Report”

COVID19 Boost

The Shock:
#WorkFromHome

More intense Microsoft Teams usage:
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
01.07.19 01.11.19 12.03.20 19.03.20 30.04.20
Mio. Daily Active Users of Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams
1 week
6
weeks

Outlook on Distribution

What happens now?

What happens now?
Business as usual Disruption with COVID19
Fully embrace
the “new”
Adopt
the “new”
Opportunistic
Change
“a bit more
flexible”
Fear and
back to “old”

Biggest lever for success in distributed teams (according to my experience)
Trust vs. Time
Time
Trust
& Intimacy
Face-2-Face Remote Face-2-Face Remote
Trust (& Intimacy) vs. (remote) Time
Working mode
Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing
(Bruce Tuckman, 1965)
2-4 weeks Up to 3 months Up to 2 weeks

Shift in semantics for “Distributed”:
Micro
Service
DE BENL UK …
…?
Budget
Source1
Budget
Source2
…
Budget
Sourcen
Location of
Teams
Location of
Governance
Location of
Sponsors
Location of
Hosting
Location of
Market
Location of
Teams
2000s 2020

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