National Geographic is just over a year into our Agile transformation. The process has been an evolution not a revolution. The focus has been on training, including at the executive level, to make incremental steps toward improving our Agile adoption and making sure we all are speaking the same language. Tracie will discuss the transformation to date and plans for the future, including office workspace redevelopment and continued management engagement.

1. Tracie Winbigler
winbigler@ngs.org
National Geographic Society
October 7, 2013

2. Agenda
§ History of National Geographic
§ National Geographic Products
§ Membership as a Key Initiative
§ Agile learning with Membership example
§ Agile Actions and Improvements

3. “The
advisability
of
organizing
a
society
for
the
increase
and
diffusion
of
geographic
knowledge.”

4. storytelling

5. Key Initiatives for the Society
§ Financial Health
§ Products, Services & Experiences
§ Market Reputation
§ Organization & Culture
§ Sustainable Business

6. Products, Services and Experiences
§ NG shares the work of top scientists, explorers
and storytellers
§ The content needs to engage an younger and
broader audience
§ Encourage everyone to participate as
contributors, members and supporters
§ Leverage new technology to create a community
§ Infrastructure to facilitate the consumer
experience and test new business models

7. Re-envisioning Membership
1888
2013

8. Agile Adoption for Membership Infrastructure
§ Shorter iterative development desired
§ Large development team created
§ Sprint work flow concept adopted
§ PMO managed the process
§ Minimal Viable Product concept introduced

9. Membership Platform Launch
§ What we did wrong:
– Agile Methodologies applied incorrectly
– Unclear business priorities and planning
– Backlog of unaddressed requests
§ Actions:
– Agile Assessment performed
– Company wide training (starting with Executives)
– Membership Team Reset
– Collaboration Space

10. Agile Assessment Results
IMPROVEMENT PLAN
KEY FINDINGS
Pluses
• Baseline Scrum Practices and Processes
•
Roles and Responsibilities
• Movement towards Product-Based Delivery
• Defined Teams
•
Deltas
•
Set up an Agile Program Office
•
Set up an Executive Portfolio Management
Council
• Maturity of Agile Practices and Processes
• Execution Across Organizational Silos
•
•
• Business Engagement in Agile
Fast Track the Adoption of the new SDLC
Process
• Integration and Deployment
• Product Discovery
Employ Kanban for Maintenance and
Operations
• 3rd Party Onboarding
• Collaborative Team Workspaces
Extend SDLC with Engineering and Release
Management Discipline
• Optimum Time for Change
• Management Support for Agile
Formalize Agile Improvement Teams w/ clear
•
Set up Product Innovation Teams

11. Agile Training Plan
• Executive Orientation
Ø 1 Session Completed
Ø 2nd offering due to successful results
• Organization Orientation
Ø 3 Sessions
• In Depth Training
Ø Certified Scrum Master
‒ Developer Leads and Project Managers
Ø Certified Scrum Product Owner
‒ Product Team

12. Membership Team Reset
Original Team Structure
Core Team
Data Team
Header Team
Revised Team Structure
Team 1
Team 2
New Structure
provides:
- addresses features
and functionality
Team 3
- cross platform
vision with leads to
assure dependencies
are addressed
Scrum of
Scrum
- provides for more
integrated teams, not
separated by
products / projects

13. Collaborative Workspace Floor Plan
• Huddle Rooms
• Lower cube walls
• Collaborative tools
• Integrated Teams
• Co-located Teams

15. Tracie Winbigler
winbigler@ngs.org
National Geographic Society
October 7, 2013