Agile Startup Squad at Kimberly-Clark

Agile Startup Squad at Kimberly-Clark

25-Sept-2013

Introduction

• Erik Barnes ([email protected])– 28 years with K-C• 5 years in the PMO• 2.5 years of Agile coaching

• Joanna Foster ([email protected])– 14 years with K-C• 8 years in Project Management ($100K-$1.5M)• 2 years of Agile coaching

Agenda

• Organization and Background• Purpose of the Startup Squad• Agile Framework• Transformation and Startup Challenges• Success Ingredients• High-Level Startup Process• Accomplishments

Kimberly-Clark: Leading the world in essentials for a better life

• Founded 141 years ago in Neenah, WI• 58,000 employees in 59 countries worldwide• Nearly one-quarter of the world's population purchase our products

every day• Leading brands sold in more than 175 countries

IT Services Organization

• 130 concurrent projects (XS/S/M/L/XL)– Goal is to release or complete all XS-L in six months or

less• Large SAP shop with some best of breed• 700+ K-C ITS team members– Four major regions

• Cognizant and TCS partners

Background

2012: Agile Framework completed, started 1st global project in Europe,Piloted 1st Agile team (product focus)

2011 2H: Startup Squad formed, began coaching other projects

2013: Changed focus from project to product/team, began quality metrics, expanded Squad cross-functionally, started more global Agile teams in LAO & A/P

2011 1H: Piloted Agile with one project

Purpose of the Startup Squad

• Start up and coach teams and projects• Ensure quality of team execution– Conformance

• Transform organizational culture– Facilitate our internal Agile user group– Publish Agile newsletters

• Continuously improve– Maintain the Agile Methodology (Framework)– Adapt as the culture changes

Agile Scrum Framework

Product BacklogRelease Plan

Sprint Backlog& Grooming

Sprint SprintReview

SprintRetrospective

Onboard TeamRefine BacklogEstimate WorkEstablish Cadence

Sprint Zero

UserTesting

Implement

Sprint 1-N

Monitor & Control (Financials, Risks, End User Training, Organizational Change Management, Communication)

Transformation & Startup Challenges

• Distributed teams• 3rd party vendors• Senior stakeholders wanting fixed scope and

timelines• Dedicated and focused teams– Large teams– Shared resources– Common to move resources

Success Ingredients

• Senior sponsorship for the concepts• Focused Squad team• Simple, common Agile tool• Marketing & generating excitement and demand• Teams with open minds and willingness to try• Allow teams to self organize within the Framework• Smaller teams• Transitioning from coaching teams to coaching coaches– Agile regional champions– Creates scalability

High-Level Startup Process

• Initialization (Squad Leader)– Select a team from the backlog– Socialize with mid-level management and get buy-in– Work with the future ScrumMaster to get commitment– Assign a coach

• Sprint Zero (Squad Coach)– Explain the process and train the team (1-2 hours)– Help plan the 1st sprint (1-3 weeks)

• Sprint 1-N (Transitions from Coach to ScrumMaster)– Get started (daily standups and retrospectives)– Provide on-the-job training and feedback– Disengage as the ScrumMaster feels comfortable (2-3 months)

Accomplishments

• Average 3+ new teams per month• Startup up takes about 2-3 months• Work in Process (WIP) is about 10-12 teams• Tracking 42 teams– 30 product teams– 12 project teams

• 300+ users• 4 Agile coaches, 3 champions– NA, LAO, Asia Pacific

Team Testimonials

• The use of daily standups for this project, with the inclusion of both business and vendor resources, is what kept this project on track and able to deliver a month earlier than anticipated despite the need to wait for an SAP outage for the final install. The daily standups allowed the team to flag issues quickly and setup follow up discussions to get them addressed, as well as to resolve any email miss-communications.

• Due to this, the vendor stated they would be recommending daily standups for all their customers.– The flexibility of the short planning cycles allowed us to:– shift work around while we worked through resource constraints– adapt to changes in the Dev, Qual, Prod system as we upgraded SAP– adapt to landscape needs of other project teams– consistently implement value to the business in short cycles

• The team and I enjoyed the visibility and the flexibility which agile brings, and we would definitely leverage it again.

Team Testimonials

• I was asked to deliver an 18 month project effort in 8 months. This would not have been possible without the agile methodology! – Our dedicated and focused approach is kept on track with daily stand ups and

discussion around the burn down chart; – a ScrumMaster who is committed our success; – and lastly we are able to work as an efficient project machine because our sprint

retrospectives help maintain an open and candid dialogue between core team members.

• All of these items are working together to deliver our project in a shorten timeframe. – Our implementation vendor is amazed at our velocity and has asked if K-C would

consider co-authoring a business case on our project efforts.

Team Testimonials

• Agile definitely improved my productivity by giving me better visibility into my work load. It helps me to keep track of what (all) I am actively work on, what is waiting on someone else, what is yet to be worked on and what is blocked.

• Agile tool gave the ability to see the workload of developers and It has become a central planning tool to ease the resource constraint and find alternatives. We discuss blocked tasks in stand-up meeting. It gave the opportunity to involve team lead if necessary and resolve quickly.

• I think Agile gave the opportunity for teams to come up with a sort of baseline on time spent on system support and system enhancement/improvements in a sprint. This in turn helped us to improve the work planning and deliver what we have committed to business.

Agile is Global at K-C!

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