Reinvention Navigator

Agile Transformation Current State Assessment

28 Oct

Executive Summary

The Reinvention Navigator (RN) project is undergoing significant transformation with recent changes in leadership and team composition. This assessment analyzes the current state across key dimensions and provides recommendations for improvement.

Key Findings

• Recent transition of engineering teams from Europe/US to India (ATCI/ATCP)
• Product vision is clear but execution framework needs strengthening
• Team structure and ceremonies need alignment with agile principles
• Governance and planning processes require standardization
• Value stream optimization opportunities exist across the delivery pipeline

Rating Scale

🔴 Red: Significant gaps requiring immediate attention
🟡 Yellow: Partial implementation with improvement needed
🟢 Green: Generally effective with minor improvements possible

1. Organization Context

Product Vision & Strategy

Rating: 🟢 Green

• Strengths:
  • Clear product vision focused on change management
  • Well-defined strategic roadmap with phases
  • Strong alignment with business objectives
  • Clear understanding of customer needs
• Gaps:
  • Limited visibility of long-term roadmap to delivery teams
  • Product strategy communication needs strengthening
• Recommendations:
  • Implement quarterly strategy alignment sessions
  • Create product strategy visualization for teams
  • Establish regular roadmap review cadence

Team Structure & Roles

Rating: 🔴 Red

• Strengths:
  • Clear leadership structure established
  • Defined roles for product and engineering
  • Good technical expertise in teams
• Gaps:
  • Large team sizes (40+ developers in single team)
  • Siloed QA team structure
  • Limited cross-functional team implementation
• Recommendations:
  • Restructure into 5-7 cross-functional teams
  • Integrate QA into development teams
  • Define clear team missions and boundaries
  • Implement Scrum of Scrums for coordination

Current Challenges

Rating: 🟡 Yellow

• Strengths:
  • Good awareness of challenges
  • Active leadership engagement
  • Improvement initiatives in progress
• Gaps:
  • Knowledge transition gaps from previous teams
  • Inconsistent planning processes
  • Limited end-to-end value stream visibility
• Recommendations:
  • Create knowledge sharing framework
  • Standardize planning processes
  • Implement value stream mapping

2. Value Stream Assessment

Strategy to Product

Rating: 🟡 Yellow

• Strengths:
  • Clear product ownership
  • Regular stakeholder engagement
  • Established prototyping process
• Gaps:
  • Late requirement refinement
  • Limited backlog grooming
  • Unclear acceptance criteria
• Recommendations:
  • Implement rolling wave planning
  • Establish regular backlog refinement
  • Create definition of ready

Product to Development

Rating: 🔴 Red

• Strengths:
  • Basic Scrum ceremonies in place
  • ADO tool setup complete
  • Technical expertise available
• Gaps:
  • Late sprint planning
  • Requirements not ready before sprints
  • Large work items
  • Limited cross-team coordination
• Recommendations:
  • Implement one-sprint-ahead planning
  • Strengthen refinement process
  • Break down work items
  • Establish dependency management

Development to Customer

Rating: 🟡 Yellow

• Strengths:
  • Automated deployment pipeline
  • Regular releases
  • Customer feedback channels
• Gaps:
  • Long release cycles
  • Limited production metrics
  • Reactive support model
• Recommendations:
  • Optimize release process
  • Implement monitoring
  • Create proactive support model

3. Tools & Technology

Development Tools

Rating: 🟢 Green

• Strengths:
  • Azure DevOps implementation
  • Automated deployment
  • Clear branching strategy
• Gaps:
  • Inconsistent ADO usage
  • Limited metrics collection
• Recommendations:
  • Standardize ADO usage
  • Implement metrics dashboard
  • Enhance automation

Collaboration Tools

Rating: 🟡 Yellow

• Strengths:
  • Confluence documentation
  • Teams communication
  • Miro for design
• Gaps:
  • Multiple tool repositories
  • Inconsistent documentation
• Recommendations:
  • Consolidate documentation
  • Create information architecture
  • Standardize tool usage

4. Governance & Steering

Metrics & Measurements

Rating: 🔴 Red

• Strengths:

  • Basic velocity tracking established
  • Release metrics available
  • Azure DevOps reporting capabilities in place
  • Some team-level metrics being tracked

• Gaps:

  • Limited value stream metrics
  • No quality metrics framework
  • Missing predictability measures
  • Inconsistent metrics across teams
  • No consolidated program-level dashboard
  • Limited visibility into team performance

• Recommendations:

  • Implement value stream metrics (lead time, cycle time)
  • Create quality dashboard (defects, technical debt)
  • Establish predictability measures (velocity, burndown)
  • Define program-level KPIs
  • Set up automated metrics collection
  • Create central reporting dashboard

Governance Forums & Steering

Rating: 🟡 Yellow

• Strengths:

  • Leadership team established (Jason, Nandita, Ksenia, Carly, Sangeeta)
  • Weekly leadership connects happening
  • Basic escalation paths exist
  • Product management oversight in place
  • Regular release planning meetings

• Gaps:

  • Unclear decision-making framework
  • Inconsistent program-level ceremonies
  • Limited cross-team coordination forums
  • Ad-hoc stakeholder management
  • No standard governance cadence
  • Missing risk management process
  • Limited visibility into program status
  • Informal prioritization process

• Recommendations:

  1. Establish Tiered Governance Structure:

     • Strategic Steering (Monthly)

       • Leadership team
       • Strategic decisions
       • Portfolio prioritization
       • Resource allocation

     • Program Sync (Bi-weekly)

       • Product Managers
       • Engineering Leads
       • Progress review
       • Dependency resolution
       • Risk management

     • Scrum of Scrums (Weekly)

       • Scrum Masters
       • Team Leads
       • Cross-team coordination
       • Impediment resolution

  2. Implement Standard Meeting Cadence:

     • Release Planning (Monthly)
     • Backlog Refinement (Weekly)
     • Sprint Reviews (Bi-weekly)
     • Program Demo (Monthly)
     • Stakeholder Updates (Bi-weekly)

  3. Create Clear Decision Framework:

     • Decision rights matrix
     • Escalation paths
     • Risk thresholds
     • Change control process
     • Exception handling

  4. Establish Program Artifacts:

     • Program board
     • Risk register
     • Dependency matrix
     • Status reports
     • Performance dashboards
     • Release calendar

  5. Define Communication Framework:

     • Stakeholder mapping
     • Communication channels
     • Reporting templates
     • Meeting structures
     • Information flow

5. Priority Focus Areas

Immediate Actions (0-30 days)

1. Team Restructuring

   • Break down large teams
   • Create cross-functional teams
   • Integrate QA into teams

2. Planning Process

   • Implement one-sprint-ahead planning
   • Establish refinement cadence
   • Create planning standards

3. Metrics Framework

   • Define key metrics
   • Create dashboards
   • Implement tracking

Short Term (30-90 days)

1. Value Stream Optimization

   • Complete value stream mapping
   • Identify bottlenecks
   • Implement improvements

2. Engineering Practices

   • Strengthen technical practices
   • Enhance quality processes
   • Improve automation

3. Governance Framework

   • Establish decision framework
   • Create escalation paths
   • Implement review cadence

Medium Term (90+ days)

1. Continuous Improvement

   • Implement retrospective actions
   • Enhance practices
   • Scale successful patterns

2. Capability Building

   • Technical training
   • Agile coaching
   • Leadership development

Next Steps

1. Review assessment with leadership team
2. Prioritize recommendations
3. Create detailed implementation plan
4. Establish tracking mechanism
5. Begin immediate actions

Appendix

Assessment Methodology

• Document review
• Stakeholder interviews
• Tool analysis
• Process review
• Metrics analysis

Key Stakeholders Interviewed

• Product Management
• Engineering Leads
• Scrum Masters
• Technical Leads
• Team Members

Reference Documents

• Ways of working documentation
• Release planning documents
• Team structure diagrams
• Process documentation
• Tool configurations