How does it feel like to adopt Agile in a Singapore SME? What are the lessons learned along the way? This is a story of excitements and struggles Titansoft being through in last 10 years, from a small 5 people team to 150 people across different countries.

1. From Chaos to Control,
from Control to Freedom
Agile Journey of a Singapore SME &
Our 5 Lessons Learned
By Titansoft & Yves Lin

3. About Us
2006 2008 2013
People
Developer
2011
100k
Concurrent
Users
60k
Concurrent
Users
2015
Gold Award

4. 2005 - 2008 2012 - 2013 2014 - Current2009 - 2011
Different Ages as We Progress

5. EXIT

6. EXIT
My regular seat

7. Photo Credit: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/bad-news-superman-scientists-discovered-7485822

8. Photo Credit: http://list25.com/the-25-most-powerful-superheroes-of-all-time/

9. Age of
Heroes
2005 - 2008 2012 - 2013 2014 - Current2009 - 2011
Different Ages as We Progress

10. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2005 2006 2007 2008
5 people resigned
Human Resource Trends
Average Headcount HR Turnover Rate

11. Organization Chart

13. Oops…
No More Heroes
Photo Credit: http://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/4151957/Simon+cowell/28#28

14. Wait a minute!
Who will “Save the World” now?

15. How to keep the world safe without heroes
What we have tried up till 2016
- Delegation
- Job Rotation
- Training
- Coaching
- Collective Code Ownership
- Operates in unit of team

16. Lessons Learned #1
Always Rely on a Team,
Not Individuals.
(When sustainable is what you want)

17. Photo Credit: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/My-Side-Your-Side-Double-King-Size-Duvet-Cover-Bed-Set-Grey-Navy-Red-Plum-Her-/380922098968

18. Age of
Heroes
2005 - 2008 2012 - 2013 2014 - Current
Age of
My Turfs
2009 - 2011
Different Ages as We Progress

19. General
Manager
Development
Team
Team
QA Creative IT HR
Organization Chart – Year 2009
Functional Departments

20. General
Manager
Development
Front End
Team
Back End
Team
QA Creative IT HR
Organization Chart – Year 2010
Specialized Teams

21. General
Manager
Development
Front End
Team
Back End
Team
Production
Front End
Team
Back End
Team
QA Creative IT HR
Organization Chart – Year 2011
Production Maintenance VS
New Project Development

22. 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Product Incidents Trend
Monthly Average Incidents
Incidents Reduced by 50%

23. Human Resource Trends
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Average Headcount HR Turnover Rate
10+ people resigned every year

24. You are too slow!
How to Deliver Software Faster?

25. How To Deliver Software Faster?
What we have tried up till 2016
- Change Organization Structure
- Back End / Front End Specialist
- Production / Development Teams
- End to End Teams
- Technical Practice
- Individual / Team Code Ownership
- Continous Integration
- Change Scope
-Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Secret Developer Toolbox (No test, hard-code, etc) #1
#1. Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum

26. Lessons Learned #2
Software Delivery is Easy,
Maintenance is the Hard Part.
(If your product is successful)

27. Photo Credit: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/My-Side-Your-Side-Double-King-Size-Duvet-Cover-Bed-Set-Grey-Navy-Red-Plum-Her-/380922098968

28. Photo Credit: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/powerful-images-show-life-soldier-6716098
Photo Credit: http://www.b88104069.com/archives/1271
What I Expected
What I Really Do…

29. Photo Credit: http://velvetchainsaw.com/2010/01/15/radically-relational-the-social-conference/
Let’s make people replaceable!

30. Photo Credit: https://davidkanigan.com/2012/06/25/the-modern-troubleshooting-flow-chart/

31. Age of
Heroes
2005 - 2008
Age of
SOPs
2012 - 2013 2014 - Current
Age of
My Turfs
2009 - 2011
Different Ages as We Progress

32. Organization Chart
Matrix Structure
2 Bosses
General
Manager
PMO
Project
Mgr.
Project
Mgr.
…
Front End
Dev.
Front End
Front End
…
Back End
Dev.
Back End
Back End
…
QA
QA
QA
…
Creative IT HR

33. Product Incidents Trend
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Monthly Average Incidents
Stabilized

34. Human Resource Trends
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Average Headcount HR Turnover Rate
Lowest turnover rate 12%,
7 people

35. Product Downtime Trend
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Monthly Average Downtime (Minutes)
Downtime increase over
200%

36. There must be bad apples!
How to Measure Productivity?

37. How to Measure Productivity?
What we have tried up till 2016
- Time Sheets
- Team KPI
- Department KPI
- Kanban
- Measure Development Outputs
- Measure Process Efficiency
- Measure Product Outcome

38. Lessons Learned #3
What You Measure will Improve.
(Or at least it appears so)

40. Photo Credit: Tomas Li

41. Photo Credit: Michael Ong

42. Photo Credit: Tomas Li

43. Age of
Heroes
2005 - 2008
Age of
SOPs
2012 - 2013
Age of
Post-Its
2014 - Current
Age of
My Turfs
2009 - 2011
Different Ages as We Progress

44. General
Manager
Product
Dev. 1
End to
End Team
Product
Developer
Product
Developer
…
End to
End Team
Product
Developer
Product
Developer
…
Product
Dev 2
End to
End Team
Product
Developer
Product
Developer
…
Creative
Product
Dev…
IT HR
Elite Team
Organization Chart
Product Oriented
Departments

45. Product Incidents Trend
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Monthly Average Incidents
Reduced by 40%, incidents are
mostly from old projects

46. Human Resource Trends
Average Headcount HR Turnover Rate
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Turnover rate ~ 10%

47. Product Downtime Trend
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Monthly Average Downtime (Minutes)
Downtime reduced by 80%

48. Photo Credit: http://arceysbibleminute.com/?p=1697

49. Huh? What did you say?
How to Communicate Better?

50. How to Communicate Better?
What we have tried up till 2016
- Accept Failures
- Retrospectives
- Facilitation
- Visualization
- Recognize Assumptions
- Satir Iceberg Model
- Open Space Technology

51. Lessons Learned #4
There are Millions Shades of Grey.
(Besides black and white)

52. Age of
Heroes
2005 - 2008
Age of
SOPs
2012 - 2013
Age of
Post-Its
2014 - Current
Age of
My Turfs
2009 - 2011
Different Ages as We Progress

53. Top Keywords in Our Journey
Age of
Heroes
Age of
My Turfs
Age of
SOPs
Age of
Post-Its
Commitment
Req. Change
Bug Fix
Urgent
Support
Responsibility
Plan
Schedule
Rewrite
Best Practice
Accountability
Procedure
Training
Efficiency
Metric
Ownership
Self-organizing
Effective
Team
Assumption

54. Top Emotions in Our Journey
Age of
Heroes
Age of
My Turfs
Age of
SOPs
Age of
Post-Its
Interesting
Frustrated
Excited
Proud
Nervous
Excited
Interesting
Content
Tired
Nervous
Tired
Surprised
Frustrated
Nervous
Interesting
Excited
Interesting
Happy
Thoughtful
Content

55. Tools We Explored Along the Way
Product
People
Process
MBTI
Kanban
UX
DISC
ISO
27001
KPI
PMP
Facilitation Coaching
ITIL
One Page
Concept
Technical
Practices
Continuous
Integration
HR Practice
Scrum
Agile
Data
Science
Satir
Model

56. Metrics for People, Product and Process
Money
Users
Frequency of Release
Interactions within team
Interactions with other teams
Product

57. Metrics for People, Product and Process
Money
Users
Frequency of Release
Interactions within team
Interactions with other teams
Product
Lead Time
# of Reworks
# of Retrospectives
% of time on Manual Work
% of time on Repetitive Work
Process

58. Metrics for People, Product and Process
Laughter
Post-Its Usage
HR Turnover Rate
Noise Level in Office
Topic of chitchat
People
Money
Users
Frequency of Release
Interactions within team
Interactions with other teams
Product
Lead Time
# of Reworks
# of Retrospectives
% of time on Manual Work
% of time on Repetitive Work
Process

59. So, What’s Next?

60. Lessons Learned #5
“When You're Finished Changing,
You're Finished.”
-Benjamin Franklin

61. EXIT
Where I sit now

63. Special thanks to:

64. Summary
1. Always rely on a team, not individuals.
(When sustainable is what you want)
2. Software delivery is easy, maintenance is the hard part.
(If your product is successful)
3. What you measure will improve.
(Or at least it appears so)
4. There are millions shades of grey.
(Besides black and white)
5. “When you're finished changing, you're finished.”
Age of
Heroes
2005 - 2008
Age of
SOPs
2012 -2013
Age of
Post-Its
2014 -
Current
Age of
My Turfs
2009 - 2011

65. THANK YOU
yves@titansoft.com.sg
blog.titansoft.com.sg