Nationwide Application Development Center

Nationwide Application
Development Center
Lean Framework, Agile Principles, and CMMI®
The Path to Agility
May 26th, 2011
About Us
Tom Paider
Director, IT Applications, Application Development Leader
Masters in Business Operational Excellence, The Ohio State University
Six Sigma Black Belt
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Dustin Potts
Director, IT Applications, Application Development Leader
Development Staffing Leader, Application Development Center
Over 20 years experience in Software Development
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About Nationwide
Nationwide is one of the largest
insurance and financial services
companies in the world with over
$135B in statutory assets.
We provide insurance, retirement,
investments, and other products
to consumers in the US.
Companies include Nationwide Insurance,
Titan Insurance, Allied Insurance,
Agribusiness, Nationwide Financial,
Nationwide Retirement Solutions,
Nationwide Bank, VPI, among others
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About The Application Development Center
§  Centralized software development group focused on
process and technical excellence
§  Responsible for our most strategic application
development annually
§  A Lean software development organization leveraging
Agile practices
§  Operational Excellence is in our DNA
§  Culture of quality, predictable delivery, continuous improvement
§  Industry leader in software development
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Let s Get Started on our Journey!
§  Grassroots Beginnings
§  Lean, Mean, Coding
Machine
§  Why CMMI?
5
The Business View of IT
Origins of the Problem
§  Complexity: IT projects are viewed by the business as extremely complex
and hard to understand
§  Misdirection: IT often fails to grasp the intentions of the business when
building applications
§  Project Failure: projects often run over-budget, late, and fail to deliver the
expected benefits
§  Cost Focus: IT is often viewed as a cost center instead of a business
enabler
§  Speed: the reaction time of IT to changing business environments is
perceived as too slow
6
The IT View of Business
Origins of the Problem
§  Conflicting Priorities: the business is often unclear on what the priorities are
for the IT organization
§  Lack of Inclusion: IT is often brought into projects late and are not offered
the chance for collaboration
§  Multitasking: too many projects are assigned to IT at once
§  Gold-plating: excessive automation instead of doing the simplest thing that
works adds to complexity
§  Poor quality control: defect acceptance has become the norm and the
business does not want to invest in a quality product
7
The Real Problem?
8
Attacking the Problem
The Agile Movement Begins
Agile Grassroots Movement:
§  Began in 2004
§  Different coaches lead to localized
Agile processes
§  Lack of communication between
Agile teams
Agile
§  One project at a time (Pilot)
§  Each saw success, but had limited
impact on the overall enterprise
9
Agile at Nationwide
Coordination and Collaboration Begins
§  Began in summer of 2008
§  Harvested Agile best practices
§  Nationwide s leading Agile activists
together for first time
§  Focused on Scrum and XP practices
§  Created Nationwide s 21 Agile Tea
Leaves . Nationwide s Agile Manifesto
Agil
e
§  Agile Community is formed
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Nationwide s 21 Agile Tea Leaves
Whole Team
Simple &
Evolutionary
Design
Sustainable Pace
Open Workspace
Test Driven
Development
Iterations/Sprints
Daily Stand Up
Meetings
Refactoring
Iteration Planning
Meetings
Big Visible Charts
Continuous
Integration
Show & Tells
Retrospectives
Automated
Regression Tests
Frequent Releases
Customer
Collaboration
Technical Debt
Release Planning
Meetings
Collective Code
Ownership
Pair Programming
Story Cards with
Acceptance
Criteria
The Application Development Center
Now that we have the pieces, how
do we scale them?
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How Much Scale?
§  Hundreds of millions of dollars spent on building software
§  Thousands of IT associates
§  Development platforms include
distributed, mainframe, mobile,
and client-server
IT is the lifeblood of our industry –
our products are data and
information flows
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The Application Development Center
Enterprise Agile
§  In 2009, Nationwide forms the Application
Development Center
The New Problem…
§  Repeating localized success
§  Only a handful of successful Agile teams
Agile
§  Nationwide s 21 Agile Tea Leaves were
philosophy not process
§  A Framework was needed to scale Agile at
Nationwide
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A Framework for Agile… Lean
To Summarize: no reuse, no standards, inability to replicate
agile successes across the enterprise…
How to tackle these
problems?
Operational Excellence
rooted in a Lean
Application Development
Center
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The ADC Lean House
A Framework for Our Transformation
Operational Excellence
Learning Organization
Visual Management
The ADC
transformation focused
on creating a
sustainable system,
not implementing a
series of tools or
techniques. Culture
shifts were required in
staff and management.
Lean
Management
System
Leader
Standardized
Work
Daily
Accountability
Process
Lean
Development
System
On Your Side®
Constancy
of
Purpose
Disciplined
Management
Standardized
Work
Kaizen
Waste
Elimination
Problem Solving Culture
Employee Engagement
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Lean Development System
The Engine of a Lean IT Transformation
The Lean Development System governs how the actual work
is executed, improved, and monitored in the overall system.
The Development System:
§  Creates an efficient process sequence with the lowest
possible waste
§ 
Standardizes routine work items to allow our knowledge
workers the freedom to concentrate on value-added
activities
§  Empowers team members to continuously improve upon the
standards and improve the entire ADC with their ideas
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Standardized Work
Basis for Continuous Improvement
Standardization is not just for manufacturing environments.
Standardized Work applies as much to Information Technology as
it does to manufacturing and other industries.
Why is standardization in the ADC important?
Maintains a consistent level of quality
Stabilizes the working condition
Allows for the judgment of normal from abnormal conditions
Enabling
Waste Elimination
Increased Productivity
Improved Morale
Foundation for Improvement Activities
Kaizen, Continuous Improvement, and A3s
Relentless Pursuit of Perfection
/kai ‫ י‬zen/ - continuous incremental improvement
Kaizen is a philosophy of continuous improvement that pervades
throughout all areas and aspects of the organization. It is embedded in
our culture and becomes a part of who we are in the ADC.
Nationwide ADC Continuous Improvement
§ Applies to both formal kaizen events and kaizen eyes – everyday
continuous improvement to root out waste
§ Is driven by practitioners
§ Provides a governance mechanism for pushing changes into our
processes
§ Utilizes A3s to ensure PDCA thinking as well as other lean tools
such as 5 Whys, Fishbone, etc.
Lean Management System
A Necessary Pillar for the Lean House
We teach our associates how to be lean workers, but
forget to teach our managers how to be lean leaders.
Lean Processes Need Lean Management!
Without the Lean
Management System, the
gains of implementing a
Lean Development System
cannot be supported and
maintained.
Lean
Production
System
Standardized
Work
Kaizen
Waste
Elimination
Problem Solving Culture
Employee Engagement
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Leader Standardized Work
Traditional management places
emphasis on getting results at
the expense of process and
system thinking.
This creates short-term gains,
but frequently causes long-term
pain.
Leader standardized work ensures leaders use systems thinking
and focus on training others, managing flow, and eliminating waste.
Standardized work is the tool used to ensure this focus happens
automatically every day in a lean organization.
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Leader Standardized Work in the ADC
Standardized work is specific and focused on value adding
activities. Different levels in the organization have varying
amounts of standardized work versus discretionary work.
Decreasing amount of standardized work
Team Leaders
•  Lead standup
meeting
•  Setup visual
management system
for the day
•  Periodic updates of
visual system
•  Attend management
standup
•  Gemba walk with
manager
•  Review blocker
board
Directors
•  Lead management
standup meeting
•  Gemba walk with
each team
•  Inspect visual
management system
periodically
•  Review daily
accountability board
•  Attend executive
standup meeting
•  Review continuous
improvement board
Executives
• Lead executive
standup meeting
•  Gemba walk with
each team (weekly)
•  Review daily
accountability board
•  Review continuous
improvement board
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Daily Accountability Process
Ensuring Leaders are Focused on Value
Team
ADL
ADE
•  Daily Standup Meeting
•  Local Team Topics
•  Daily Standup with Team Leads
•  Operational and Improvement Topics
Three interlocking tiered meetings,
less than 15 minutes each. Focus is
on process and results.
•  Daily Standup with ADLs
•  Operational, Improvement, Trends
All meetings utilize part of the Visual Management System to
drive discussions and assignments. Each meeting also serves to
ensure the VMS is updated and accurate.
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Fusing Lean and Agile Practices
All Together Now
Operational Excellence
Learning Organization
Visual Management
Lean
Management
System
Leader
Standardized
Work
Daily
Accountability
Process
Lean
Production
System
On Your Side®
Constancy
of
Purpose
Disciplined
Management
Standardized
Work
Kaizen
Waste
Elimination
Problem Solving Culture
Employee Engagement
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ADC Franchise Model
How Good Are We?
§ Our Desire: World Class
Development Center
§ CMMI as Measuring Stick
§ CMMI represents industry best
practices in engineering, project
management, and organizational
practices
§ Burning Platform: Achieve CMMI L3 in
9 months
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CMMI L3 (Defined)
Level 3 Process Areas (11)
•  Requirements Development
•  Technical Solution
•  Product Integration
•  Verification
•  Validation
•  Organizational Process Focus
•  Organizational Process Definition
•  Organizational Training
•  Integrated Project Management
•  Risk Management
•  Decision Analysis and Resolution
Level 2 Process Areas (7)
1.  Requirements Management
2.  Project Planning
3.  Project Monitoring and Control
4.  Measurement and Analysis
5.  Supplier Agreement Management
6.  Process and Product Quality Assurance
7.  Configuration Management
CMMI L3 Success!
§  Application Development Center
(ADC) achieves CMMI L3!
§  Completed in 9 Months
§  Zero Weaknesses
§ Among 1st to Achieve CMMI L3
while leveraging Agile and Lean
Processes
I ve never had a CMMI assessment with
zero weaknesses in my 19 years of doing
them
- Nationwide CMMI Lead Assessor
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How Did We Do It?
§  Eat Your Own Dog Food!
§  Leveraged Agile Practices for Initiative
§  Practitioner-Led
§  Creates Buy-in with Team
§  Simplest Thing that Works
§  Complexity Leads to Confusion
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Where Are We Today?
§ 
World Class Development Center
§  26 teams and counting
§  Documented Development
Processes
§  Supporting Curriculum
§ 
§ 
Maturity Assessments
Metrics
§  High Performing Teams
§  15% better than industry average
§  Unprecedented Quality Levels
How It All Fits Together
• Benchmarking
• Burning Platform
CMMI
• Enterprise
Scalability
• Management
System
• Standard Work
• Kaizen
Lean
ADC
Agile
• Software
Development
• Quality
• Predictability
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Application Development Center
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Thank You!
Dustin Potts
[email protected]
Tom Paider
[email protected]