Change Agent Role: A Successful Transformation

into Agile Organization(Intel® MKL Case Study)

Intel Agile and Lean Development Conference - 2014

Presenter: Irina Filippova

May 22nd, 2014

Authors:Irina Filippova (Change Agent)

Vlatko Mrsic (Agile Change Coach)Craig Garland (Change Sponsor)

Agenda

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Organizational Challenge & Opportunity1

Challenges that Change Brings2

Approaches to Overcoming Challenges3

Conclusions4

Who Are We?

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A team of 45 engineers and mathematiciansproducing Intel® Math Kernel library

Dispersed around globe across two continents and located in 4 time zones

Domain experts in high-performance optimizations of math routines

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Intel® MKL Used on the World’s Fastest Supercomputers*

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What Motivated Us to Change?

Increasing number of platforms/processor variants to support

Resource pressure (more to do with fewer people)

Increased business impact of product

Growing recognition that we could not deliver on expectations if we continued with the Status Quo

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Challenges and Opportunities

Traditional top down management style

Empowered, self-organizing team members

Low developer productivity (long build, test and cycles)

Continuous integration, rapid release capability

Lack of visibility in progress toward goals

Full transparency of plans and deliverables, frequent stakeholder input

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Which way to go? Through collaboration with Org manager, Intel Agile coach and team Program Manager, we studied options for improving our execution

We found that the SCRUM development model was a good fit to meet our challenges

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Introducing Change to the Org: Finding the Right How

Practice without understandingRisk: Major disruption of execution

Discussion of all optionsRisk: Analysis paralysis

MKL Transformation Case Study:A Retrospective

What went well?

Was our approach right?

What we could have done better?

What is the best way to continue transformation?

Finding the Right HOW for MKL

Practice: MKL team’s transformation

Theory: John Kotter’s the 8 step

change model

Kotter’s 8-Step Model

Sources: John Kotter “Leading Change”; graphics source:

Make it stick8

Don’t let-up7

Create short-term wins6

Enable action5

Communication for buy-in4

Get the vision right3

Build guiding teams2

Increase urgency1

Creating a climate change

Engaging & enabling

the organization

Implementing & sustaining the change

Creating a Sense of Urgency

Manager:

Help others feel a gut-level determination to move and win, now

• Started talking about transformation 2 quartersin advance – conversations appeared to be crucial in paving the ground

• “Inspired the heart”

• Key Learning: “why” question is critical to answer

* Source: J.Kotter The 8-step change process

Building a Coalition

Manager + Change

Agents

• Reorganized the team to empower proven leaders to implement the change: POs, SMs

• Key learning: “Empower” the key players was the key success factor . It’s possible to implement a change even if you have only 10% strong change advocates on your team

Putting together a group with enough power to lead the change

Developing a Change Vision

• Communicated the new org structure

• There were many unanswered unknowns

Clarify how future will be different from the past

• Discussions were “too” philosophical

• Key learning: what you really expect from a change is a behavior, not a “process”

Communicating for Buy-in

• Communicated the new org structure and roles: six scrum teams, 2 POs

• 4 days of trainings before Sprint 0: Introduction to Scrum, Scrum Roles, Agile Estimating

• Key Learnings: engagement from a leader changes the scene; immersive kick-off is required

Ensuring that as many people as possible understand and accept the vision

Enabling Action

• Heavily invested in tools and automation

• Organized the mechanics: set schedules for 6 scrum teams, configured backlog tool

Removing as many barriers as possible and unleashing people to do their best work

• Teams defined their working agreements and “done” criteria

• Key Learnings: “let things go” idea was quite challenging to embrace

Creating Short-Term Wins

• After 5 months, did a team wide retrospective.

• No MKL team deliverables missed

Creating visible, unambiguous success as soon as possible

• Among division products, MKL has best NPS 52% (average for SW products 24%)

• Key Learnings: Agile made us more disciplined and focused

Where Are We Going Next?• Theory tells

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Don’t Let Up: Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change

Make It Stick: Anchor New Approaches in Your Culture

Practice shows that getting to the next level is far more complex than the initial change.

What Our ExperienceTold Us

Bring the rest of the org onboard4

Build change coalition3

Find change sponsor 2

Learn about organizational change frameworks1

Change is a

Process

Q & A

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