The API-Kitchen, scaled & Agile! This book describes, our experiences in scaling Agile. Pick your printed copy at the 'I love APIs' conference 2015 in San Jose . 12-15 October Best, Kay Lummitsch

1. 1
The Swisscom API journey #3
The API-Kitchen, scaled and Agile!

2. 2
“We aim to be crazy technology-
business-cowboys in a totally new role!”
~ Kay Lummitsch IT-Coach & API-Evangelist
A short note …
An amuse-bouche [1]
en API
“During two decades working in enterprise-soft-
ware-development, I never saw teams so engaged, so
happy and self-effective. This is perceivable at prod-
uct-house level, team level and in the face of each in-
dividual team member. That really rocks!”

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Content
About this book … 3
What happened so far ... 5
Still en-route? 6
Sous-videvs.Agilesaladwithleandressing 8
Deep-frozen decisions 10
Chianina grilled indirectly 13
Recipe for two hungry PMs 14
APIs stir-fried! 17
Pizza, Pizza! 18
We changed the way we cook 20
Collaboration al dente 23
Healthy frozen faces 24
OnbrewinganAPI-IPA ! 26
About Swisscom 28
Credits 30
References 32

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About this book …
Again – we do not want to provide a classical enter-
prise success story. We want you to join us on our stormy
journey to API Nirvana. Treat it as an invitation to share
non-competitive insights between enterprises.You’re very,
very welcome! *
In contrast to #1 and #2, references to API's are somewhat
rare in this issue. Most of our past problems were caused
by the way we were organized, the way we shared respon-
sibilities and the way we tried to be Agile. In this issue
we will show how we morphed from a scrumified-water-
fall-factory into high performing Agile Squads.
Zurich, October ‘15
* Join the ‘API program exchange group’ on LinkedIn

5. 5
edible blossoms

6. 6
What happened so far …
Since we wrote the 2nd edition we
changed almost everything. It feels like we
turned ourselves inside out. The way we
think, the way we work, the way we engage
and interact …
Questions that seemed important before
became irrelevant. New questions came up,
needing answers that we had never thought
of before. “We’ve got to rethink our Pret-
zel!”* became an often heard sentence in
our teams. We had great support from our
Innovation team (special thanks to Ioannis
Kalafatis), when jumping into the cold Agile
water. For those left on the edge of the pool,
* The Swisscom API journey #2
People may think: “We’re really about to
change our enterprise DNA!”
all of that was quite disruptive and some-
what confusing. We’re about to convince
them to jump into the water too – because
it’s fun to swim. And in the Agile pool, every
day is warm-water-day!

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Still en-route?
Of course. We speeded up massively!
Many, many thanks to Spotify for their awe-
some groundwork on how to scale Agile *
Lesson learned, challenge accepted!
Danke! Obrigado! Namaste! Thank you guys!
We created our first Squad seven sprints ago
(it also reflects on our time-terminology!)
The following chapters will try to make clear
how changes in attitude, coupled with Squad
set-up, changed almost everything beyond
our wildest expectations!
* Scaling Agile @ Spotify with Tribes, Squads,
Chapters & Guilds ~ Henrik Kniberg & Anders
Ivarsson Oct 2012, bit.ly/1L8CrgY

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© Andrew Mackinnon
The perfect crew:
Product Manager x 1
Technical Lead x 1
Engineers ≤ 4
Pizzas = 2
~ Thanks to Mr. Bezos for this advice!
+
+

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Sous-vide
[2]
vs. Agile salad
with lean dressing
Before we split our API-Factory into
Squads, it was easy to have a long-term
road-map aligned to the expectations of an
enterprise used to working with long-term
plans. But that doesn't work for us any more.
Our horizon has shrunk! Our Squads have
a six to eight week outlook (2 to 4 Sprints).
Everything beyond is somehow nebulous.
So we decided to maintain a two-month
roadmap towards a rather fluid vision.That
works for now, but this is typically where
slow-enterprise expectations clash with a
full Agile approach. As our Squads develop
their experience and groom their backlogs
with the benefit of business context and
customer-driven requirements we will be
able to push back the horizon further.
Consider the long-term plan sous-vide, com-
pared to the freshness of the Agile salad ...
How to leverage long term planning now?

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Honey, I shrunk the horizon …
the Agile horizon is much closer
than we thought!

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Deep-frozen decisions
We’ve got the tendency, an urge
rooted deep within our culture, to seek
a consistent plan. We love to have con-
trol. Long-term decisions give us a sense
of control. But things change so fast – we
constantly revisit decisions that seemed
totally clear before.This requires enormous
trust in the way we change. Once a decision
is taken, it is vital that we stick to it until
there is a compelling reason to review.
Jeff said: “People who were right a lot of
the time were people who often changed
their minds.” *
He doesn’t think consistency of thought
is a particularly positive trait. It’s perfectly
healthy – encouraged, even – to have an
idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea
today.”
On the half-life period of decisions in a
rapidly changing environment …
* Quote taken from a blog of Jason
Fried after a meeting with Jeff Bezos,
bit.ly/1LLLbpE

12. 12 “The initial plan just gives us some factors,
on how to re-plan!”
~ US Navy consultant on USS Independence

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coarse sea-salt

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Chianina
[3]
grilled indirectly
Tuscany's white giant …
AbookonAPIswiththeword‘Kitchen’in
it’s title wouldn’t be complete without a recipe.
In the summer vacation 2015 I had the good
fortune to join my colleague and friend An-
drea Zulian in his house in Tuscany. Tuscany is
about eating!
Andrea and I had the best BBQ’s ever on his
veranda. We want to let you participate in
the experience. This recipe is based on best-
case scenario.
Agile Adaptations Always Welcome!
See next page >>

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Buy two T-Bone steaks from the Chianina beef – 3 pounds each
(YES – It’s not a typo!). You’ll need a BBQ that’s capable to handle
indirect fire. Once this is in place, make fire from dried olive wood.
Make sure the grill cabin is slightly below 170 F. Cut an arm-full of
fresh rosemary from your rosemary hedge and place it neatly on
the grill roast. Now put these beautiful steaks carefully onto the
rosemary bed. Keep the fire and the temperature even for the next
4 to 5 hours. Turn the steaks regularly.
Now pull the embers forwards so they are below the grill roast, and
caramelize the surface of the meat – 2 minutes per side is enough!
Showtime: Place the steaks on warm plates to rest, garnish with
coarse sea-salt, cracked black pepper and extra-virgin olive oil, add
a great red wine (Aged Chianti or Merlot). That’s it.
Bon appetite! If anyone asks for salad, bread, or fries …
the steaks weren’t big enough!
NB - We will have our first PM-Weekend in Tuscany … guess what’s
for dinner?
Hardware
BBQ
dried olive wood
Ingredients
two T-Bone Chianina steaks
fresh rosemary
coarse sea-salt
cracked black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil
Soulware
red wine
tuscan summer night
wine suggestions see references [4]
Recipe for two hungry PMs

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You shall not burn it!
Start early!
Do not overcook ‘em!Andrea Zuliam, PM

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We aim to deliver APIs en minute.

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>>
APIs stir-fried!
Light cuisine for health-conscious customers.
The new Squad-setup gives us the
freedom to make decisions based on full
responsibility for the API Product.The great
support and trust of the Product-House
leader enables us to deliver an a la carte
menu to the customer, instead of the huge
pre-Squad fixed menu *.
Seemingly overnight we’re able to deliver
Products without the need to know every
detail of the final solution in advance.
We’ve introduced solution design on a nap-
kin, as well as immediate alpha-exposure. A
sandbox environment is close to ready and
we’re about to start utilizing DevOps **. 4
months ago we would never have dreamed
about it!
* Pre-Squad lunches were huge, cold, and
rarely satisfied our guests’ appetite.
** Thanks to the operations-engineers for
their great engagement!

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Pizza, Pizza!
Setting up our first Squad, we tried
to follow Jeff Bezos’s Two Pizza rule. Ac-
tually, I started with four engineers, my
Technical Lead and myself in the role of the
Product Manager. Being six was perfect, but
the split of our former API-Factory in four
Squads meant the team grew to ten.
* hopefully – sometimes, somewhere.
We’d love to!
I feel lucky … I have experienced the ‘Two
Pizza team’before, so I know the difference
very well. It’s not a lack of commitment
and engagement, simply the fact that a
bigger team re-layers itself automatically.
It immediately feels and acts like a little
factory again. The complexity of the team
increases exponentially as you put more
people into it.
Having Mr. Bezos for lunch* …

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"Never have a meeting where two pizzas
couldn't feed the entire group." ~ Jeff Bezos

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We changed the way we cook
On kitchen culture.
We realized that the API program /
API-Factory approach was just the old world
disguised in an Agile coat. In the end we
saw that whatever we did, it had no im-
pact on the quality of our APIs or – even
more important – the satisfaction of our
customers.When we introduced the Squad
approach, it was a shock to realize that our
individual positions in the team could be
single-points-of-failure.
That really hurt – but nevertheless, it is
100% true. The former layered approach,
with its hierarchy of responsibilities, turned
out to be dysfunctional relative to our goals.
Now every Squad is a fully responsible
unit on its own, and the peer-to-peer and
inter-Squad relations are leading to more
and more excellence in the whole system!
We act as a group of friends, responsible
for their API-Products. From the very first
contact – until delivery to the customer.
This idea is not new, and closely reflects
Conway's law, which states:
“organizations which design systems ... are
constrained to produce designs which are
copies of the communication structures of
these organizations”
~ M. Conway 1968

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Once we saw this, the former
approach became absurd!
“For two software modules to interface cor-
rectly, designers and implementers must
communicate with each other. Therefore,
the structure of software systems will re-
flect the social structure of the organization
that produced it. Or, put simply, a layered
hierarchical organisation will produce a lay-
ered hierarchical system, whilst lean efficient
Squads will produce lean efficient APIs.
EUREKA!!”
~ M. Chalmers 2015

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Collaboration al dente
On finding the right kitchen-ware
In a layered world of silos, it’s un-
derstandable that every silo and every layer
uses its own tools. So did we!! Every de-
partement used its own tool, best fitted to
his world. We had long discussions about
which tool to use … which tool best fitted
all the needs of every stakeholder. Finally
we decided to use JIRA, configured such
that every party can be part of the game.
Now, we’re REALLY happy to have it.
Thanks to our JIRA experts!

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Healthy frozen faces
What happens if you are responsible
for the costs of an API?
An enterprise delivery unit is used
to follow processes regarding development,
testing, documentation, tools and so on.
Following all these cumbersome, prede-
fined, policy driven rules is quite costly.
Doing it this way, you do not really appre-
ciate the costs. But this changed completely
when we switched to the Squad approach.
In the daily standup meeting, I often raise
the question: “Would we decide it that way,
if we had to pay it from our own money?”
After careful pondering – the answer is of-
ten: “No, we would do it differently!”
That’s how we find new ways to get things
done more effectively and less costly – and
therefore – much quicker.

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germanicecreammenu1970's

27. 27
On brewing an API-IPA
[5]
!
about really cool stuff ...
Tom Weeks (VP, Customer Success
at Apigee) and I met in June in Switzerland
for a handful of meetings. Waiting in the
sun we started to talk about the stunning
fact that we both are passioned in APIs and
IPAs. So what could be closer than bring
these passions together. The first API-IPA
was born! As soon as Tom came home he
started to brew and me and my designers
started to sketch the label.
Cheers fellas!

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taken at:
The Rock, Cambridge

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About Swisscom
Swisscom is Switzerland’s leading telecom provider with its headquar-
ters in Worblaufen, close to the capital city, Berne. With over 20,000 employees
it generated turnover of CHF 2.82 billion in the first quarter of 2014. Swisscom
is one of the most sustainable companies in Switzerland and Europe.
What we stand for
As a trustworthy companion in the digital world, we want to win peo-
ple’s hearts, make things simple and shape the future so our customers feel
safe and at ease.
Products and services
Swisscom offers mobile communications, fixed networks, Internet and
digital TV to corporate and residential customers. We are also one of Switzer-
land’s largest providers of IT services. We build and maintain the mobile and
fixed-network infrastructure, transmit broadcast signals and own shares in
media companies.

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Our employees
Swisscom employs more than 17,000 staff at locations throughout
Switzerland, around 1,000 of whom are apprentices. Around one in three
have direct daily contact with customers, either in sales or customer service
departments. Swisscom offers its staff excellent working conditions within
the framework of a collective labour agreement.
Who we work for
The Swiss telecommunications market has an estimated annual turno-
ver of around CHF 17 billion. Our market share varies between one- and three-
fifths, depending on the field. Swisscom has decided to focus on residential
customers, small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations.

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Credits
Author: Kay Lummitsch
Passionate change maker | IT-Coach | Catalyst
API-Evangelist, Swisscom Zurich – Switzerland
mail: kay.lummitsch@swisscom.com
mobile: +41 79 154 47 81
linkedIn: Kay Lummitsch
Co-Author: Matt Chalmers
Apigee – Customer Success, Cambridge – Great Britain
mail: mchalmers@apigee.com
mobile: +44 7812 995958
linkedIn: Matt Chalmers
Design: Maude von Giese
Graphic Designer, Basel – Switzerland
mail: maude.vongiese@gmail.com
mobile: +41 79 269 94 50
linkedIn: Maude von Giese

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Webversions: Edition #3
bit.ly/1L8PNd9
Edition #2
bit.ly/1DnIETv
Edition #1
bit.ly/1basqBk
Links: swisscom.ch
developer.swisscom.com
@swisscom_api
Special thanks to: The whole API product house team and all supporting units
Christin Schmidt (Business-Coach)
3nd
edition, October 2015

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[1]
An amuse-bouche [a‚myz‘buſ] (plural amuse-bouches) or amuse-gueule [a‚myz‘gœl] is a single,
bite-sized hors d’œuvre. ~ Wikipedia
[2]
Sous-vide (/suː‘viːd/; French for "under vacuum") is a method of cooking in which food is sealed
in airtight plastic bags then placed in a water bath or in a temperature-controlled steam environ-
ment for longer than normal cooking times. ~ Wikipedia.
[3]
The Chianina (Italian pronunciation: [kja‘niːna]) is an Italian breed of cattle, formerly princi-
pally a draught breed, now raised mainly for beef. It is the largest and one of the oldest cattle
breeds in the world. The famous bistecca alla fiorentina is produced from its meat. ~ Wikipedia
[4]
The wine
Merlot: bit.ly/1KQFgls
Chianti: bit.ly/1FMtLfN
Alternatively: bit.ly/1FMtQ34
... and of course: bit.ly/1VsogKv
[5]
India pale ale (IPA) is a hoppy beer style within the broader category of pale ale. ~ Wikipedia
References

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