Improve software development speed beyond your customer’s dreams with Lean

Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012

3 & 4 October, 2013
Paris, France

How combining agility and lean
increases velocity?
From theory to practice


Back to 2011: Theodo is a promising twelve people software
development company
Theodo in 2011

12


Theodo is growing… and is facing 3 big problems
People are leaving

Techically strong

2x

¼ of the team
Coincidence?


Clients are unhappy

No flexibility
Frustration


Operating margin is too low

Extra time

No Budget


Back to basics: a service company should make its clients
happier
The problem we chose to pick


We consider different hypothesis trying to find the cause of our
problem
A set of hypothesis

1. Is our technical team good enough?
2. Is our development methodology efficient enough?
3. Do we develop the right features to make our
clients happy?
4. Do we invest enough in nurturing our relationship
with our customers?
5. Are we too expensive?
6. Do we select the proper clients?
7. Are we in the right market?


And pick one: is our development methodology efficient
enough?
The cause of our problem

1. Is our technical team good enough?
2. Is our development methodology efficient enough?
3. Do we develop the right features to make our
clients happy?
4. Do we invest enough in nurturing our relationship
with our customers?
5. Are we too expensive?
6. Do we select the proper clients?
7. Are we in the right market?


We take a look at what web leaders do
The 4 web leaders

9


What do the web leaders do to develop great softwares?
The web leaders software development methodology

Agility

Scrum


We give agile methodology a try on a new project: Suivi+ Mobile
This is a complete disaster

Development times

x 3

Developed Features

=


Though we implemented every artifacts of Scrum
The Scrum methodology


The Scrum Guide urge the product owner to get involved
Quote from the Scrum Guide about Product Owner’s responsibility

“For the Product Owner to succeed,
the entire organization must respect
his or her decisions”

PO = Theodo developer
Client = “I don’t have time”


How can we involve our client in his project?
A new set of hypothesis

1. De we have to better explain the benefits of Scrum to
our clients?
2. De we work on the right projects?
3. De we work with the right clients?
4. Are we expensive enough? Maybe the budget is not
important enough to make our clients involved
5. Does the fixed price contract create enough incentives
for our client to get involved?
6. De we need a project leader after all?
7. Is actually this Scrum thing just hippy stuff?


We tried to investigate the hypothesis number 5
The cause of our problem

1. De we have to better explain the benefits of Scrum to
our clients?
2. De we work on the right projects?
3. De we work with the right clients?
4. Are we expensive enough? Maybe the budget is not
important enough to make our clients involved
5. Does the fixed price contract create enough incentives
for our client to get involved?
6. De we need a project leader after all?
7. Is actually this Scrum thing just hippy stuff?


Web leaders rely on their own internal teams
We look again at the web leaders’ model

Technical teams are employees

Time = money

Productivity


In our organization the price is fixed
Theodo project organization

Fixed price model

1 week to get
feedbacks

3 month to get
proper validation


Of course charging on a time spent basis is harder to sell
Clients are reluctant to uncertainty

Risk averse client


But we seize the opportunity to combine Scrum with time
based fees on a new project with Autoplanning.fr
The project is a success

Client is involved
Client is happy

No extra time


However we have hard time selling this new model
Almost every clients prefer the flat fee model

No
Thank
You


But a drink at the end of the Youcare project challenge our
commercial strategy
Quote from Adrien Falcon

“You are the experts, you should
give no choice to your client but
impose the model that will lead his
project to success
Adrien Falcon - Cofounder Youcare


It was a hard decision to make
The Theodo dilemna


But we eventually decided to adopt this model for all new
projects
Theodo turnover


With astonishing results
Theodo turnover

x3


With astonishing results
Theodo turnover

x3

30%
New
clients

70%
Loyal
clients


Our clients are satisfied
Client recommendation: a key KPI

99%

ready to recommend Theodo


Our clients are satisfied because we are fast
Clients testimonials on Theodo speed
What do you think about the velocity of the team?
Excellent

70%
Very good

Good

Ok

Deficient

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%


Three main ingredients make us go fast
Theodo recipe

1/ Light open source technologies

2/ High-potential developers

3/ The Theodo Production System

Lean


Boards are a simple yet very powerful tool
The power of board
Cutting-edge
technology

concrete

open

Face to face
communication

Immediate
feedback

Non-verbal
communication


Let’s take a look at a specific board
The BTP Consultant Board


Burndown charts enables to raise and address issues fast
An on-going burndown chart of the BTP Consultant project

« We are late »


They identified that a lot of tickets were to be validated
The cause of the problem


Burndown charts enables to raise and address issues fast
The burndown chart at the end of the sprint


But the burndown chart does not tell what clients think
The Theodo questionnaire

Velocity?
Coaching
Relevancy?

Standard

8/10

Client’s voice
is the real
indicator for
success


I showed it to Antoine Contal who made a relevant comment
Antoine Contal statement

I can’t see it
on the board


The Theodo Questionnaire has to be communicated to the whole team
The Theodo questionnaire is pinned on the board

That’s better


It appears to be a very stimulating tool for the development team
Valentin Brajon testimonial

It motivates us
to go faster

That’s better


Theodo is growing so we hire people
Theodo recruitment campaign

A new

every 2 weeks

50% of

were not there last year


Scrum dojo is the key to sustain growth
A Scrum dojo session

Practice agility
On real projects

Improving quality of
boards

In a workshop

Increasing
transparency


Scrum Dojo helped us find ingredients of Theodo success
Elements that was created after Scrum Dojo


Boards became so efficient that we now use them for
everything at Theodo
The different Theodo boards
Project board

Sales Board

Hiring Board

Strategy board


Theodo growth relies on three main points
Theodo key success factors

Between clients and the
development team
Scrum + Lean

Respect for


Questions ?
benoitcl@theodo.fr
+33 6 62 81 95 50
www.theodo.fr

Thank you


Points are virtual money that can be converted into real one to
celebrate the end of the project
The team project bonus


More about Lean IT on the conference website:
www.lean-it-summit.com

Improve software development speed beyond your customer’s dreams with Lean

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