In Estonia, Omniva delivers 18 million parcels per year. In 2018, we set the goal to completely renew our information system by Christmas which is our busiest time of the year. We also opened a brand new logistics centre with the most modern automated sorting line in the Baltics. Without Agile, Christmas could have been very sad in Estonia…

1. How Agile Saved Christmas in
Estonia
Mart Nael
Vygantas Kazlauskas

2. Our Story
Mart Nael
CTO

3. Today’s Talk
Our journey from big projects to continuous value delivery
Practical examples
Importance of data and analytics

4. Starting Point
When it will
be ready and
how much
will it cost?
I want to get
quick
feedback
and ability to
adjust.

6. The Problem
Feature Feature Feature
User Interface
Back-end
Gateway

7. Operating Model 2018
North Stars Strategic Company
Priorities
Tactical Company
Priorities Technology Priorities
What is important
and why?
Product Portfolio
and Roadmap
What is now and
what is next?
• How we will achieve
our goals?Product Team
• How we will achieve
our goals?Product Team
• How we will achieve
our goals?Product Team
Net Profit
Employee
Experience
Customer
Experience
Channels and
Services
Logistics
Processes
Support
Processes

8. Technology Organization 2018
• Introducing Product Teams
• Introducing DevOps
• Introducing Data and Analytics

9. 2018 Retrospective – The Not so Good
• We did not fully manage to agree how to work together across value chain
• Different understanding of Product Owner role
• DevOps or Dev vs Ops
• Misalignment in Technology leadership
• Employee experience was not on good level
• All the above
• People management
• Change management and feedback loop
• Working environment

10. Hypothesis
• Measurable business and product outcomes are not defined.
• Decisions are done based on gut feeling and sometimes financial metrics.
• Lot of work is done in parallel and process rules are not applied.
• Planning and tracking is based on work items (features and functionalities), not outcomes
and metrics.
• Business and product development is fragmented and does not integrate business and
technology capabilities.
• Practices and processes to solve business problems are not context specific – same
process for everything.
• Unclear responsibilities.

11. So we have to…
• Be honest.
• Understand context.
• Figure out our endgame.
• Set guiding principles.
• Make it real.

12. Value Chain Map

13. Endgame
• Everyone in the organization knows to whom, why and what type of value is created and understand
how it will be measured.
• There is a transparent cost and value planning and tracking.
• Teams get constant feedback on how their work is helping to improve business outcomes.
• Teams have the information, resources, competences and authority required to meet the needs of their
users.
• There is agreed set of principles guiding organization.

14. Doctrine.
Set of principles that are useful in every context and therefore we follow them.
We know our users and focus on user needs.
We use a common language.
We use systematic way of learning.
We remove bias, do not duplicate and manage inertia.
We think fast, inexpensive, simple and small.
We use appropriate methods and are pragmatic.
We think effectiveness over efficiency and optimize flow.
We use small user focused teams and provide purpose, mastery and autonomy.

15. Technology Organization 2019
Key changes:
• Product Management function
will move to business
• Engineering teams will have
end-to-end responsibility
across development and
operations
• Engineering Manager will
have both people
management and delivery
responsibility

16. Four Levels of Product Governance
Governance Level Deliverables Participants Horizon
Business vision North Stars Supervisory and
Management Board
3-5 years
Business objectives
and budget
Product portfolio with
measurable
outcomes and
budgets
Business
Management
1-2 years
Initiatives Outcomes achieved
and budget spent
Business Managers,
Product Managers,
Engineering
Managers
3-6 months
Product development Work done, in
progress and
pipeline
Product Managers,
Engineering
Managers
1-3 months

17. Three Types of Funding

19. Value categories:
- Increased revenue
- Increased efficiency
- Compliance and risk mitigation
Initiatives are scoped up to 3 months size in
effort.
Next and In Progress phases have Work in
Progress limits enforced.
Each phase has Definition of Ready and
Definition of Done.
Cycle Time and Lead Time is measured and
continuously improved.
Ideas Next In Progress Done Released
User need
identified
Initial value and
effort identified
Priority assigned
Solution defined
Value and effort
analyzed, KPIs
defined
Acceptance criteria
defined
Priority assigned
Solution built
Solution user
accepted
Solution deployed to
live
Solution is in use
and acceptance
criteria is met
KPIs are showing
value created
Stakeholder
accepts that
solution is
delivering
expected
outcomes and /
or defined work
is competed
Hypothesis Driven Business / Tech Initiatives
We believe that [functionality] will lead to [business outcome]
and this can be proven when [measure]
Process Rules

20. Tech in 2020
All teams aligned to measurable business outcomes.
Business product ownership fully integrated into everyday workflow.
Truly multi-disciplinary user focused teams across organization.

21. How it is in practice
Vygantas Kazlauskas
Engineering Manager

22. €30 million project plan
Develop new
Infosystem
Build new
logistics center
building and
automated sorting
line
Operational
during Christmas
2018

23. From project to product

24. Minimum Viable Product
Up and running during
Christmas 2018
Integrate E2E
with old info
system
Replace
features with
value based
deliveries
Develop only
what’s needed
for logistics
center
operation

25. Tallinn Logistics Center

29. Thank you!