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Rolling out Agile in Paddy Power

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3Paddy PowerWhat you might already know

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• Formed in 1988• Over 3500 employees worldwide• 2012 Turnover €5.7 billion• 2012 Operating Profit €136 million

– UK €81.7 million– Australia €30.8 million– Ireland & R.O.W. €23.5 million

• Over 75% of profits from Online• Market leader in mobile

– First betting app in Appstore (2010)– Over 30% of online revenues

Paddy PowerWhat you might not know

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5Paddy PowerProduct Development

• Web Development• Mobile Development• Java Development• Scripting• Reporting

Paddy Power Development

Teams

• Betting Platform• Games Developers• Casino, Poker, Bingo software

Product Vendors

• Outsourced Development• Outsourced Testing services

Development Partners

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6Why move to agile?Scaling organisation

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7Why move to agile?Scaling organisation

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• Long delivery times for new projects• Difficult to adapt to UX research findings• Difficult interaction between BA & IT teams

– Long, detailed specs– Lengthy review & estimation process– High cost of change

• Communications overhead– Escalation meetings

Why move to agile?

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• Stakeholder engagement• Agreeing roles & responsibilities• Agile framework selection• Define training needs• Agree cross-functional teams• Proof – of – concept :– 2 teams– Q4 2012

Preparing for agileApproach

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• Have the people in the team that you need to produce releasable software

• Release at the end of sprints• Flexibility – inspect & adapt• Improve visibility

Preparing for agileGuiding principles

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• 1 day workshop for whole team• Engaged with external coach• “Training from the back of the room” –

discussions & exercises e.g. ‘best project’, ‘previous agile experiences’

• User story focus • Happiness door

Preparing for agileInitial training

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• Teams agreed on 3 week sprints• Unanimous adoption of Story Points

& Planning Poker• Used Kanban to ‘protect’ sprints

Executing the transitionKick-off and planning

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• User stories / Spec by Example• Test automation• Continuous delivery• Co-located teams• Continuous improvement led by teams• CSM & CPO training for people in those

roles

Executing the transitionChanging other work practices

14Executing the transitionPhased transition

10/10/2013

T1 Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum

T2 Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum

T3 Recruit Recruit InTeam Scrum Scrum Scrum x2

Scrum x2

Scrum x2

T4 Recruit Recruit InTeam InTeam InTeam Scrum Scrum Scrum

T5 Inflight Inflight Inflight InTeam InTeam InTeam Scrum Scrum

T6 Recruit Inflight Inflight Inflight Inflight InTeam InTeam Scrum

2013 Jan Feb Mar Apr May

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• Same transition planning steps as with internal teams

• Principles – Releasable code at end of sprints– Open communications & transparency– Fixed length sprints– Shared commitment to continuous

improvement– One team

• Mixed teams– PP : Product Owner role. BA & QA within teams– External: Scrummaster role. Dev & QA within

teams

Executing the transitionExternal teams

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• 10 cross-functional agile teams up and running• Improved morale of teams• Better interaction between business & IT teams• Shortened delivery times??• Reduces delivery risk• Facilitates small changes

Agile – the story so farResults

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• Preparing the organisation is key• Outside coach is a great help• Important that whole team & stakeholders train

together• Agree the principles, don’t dictate the details• Teams all adopted story points & converged on 3

week sprints

Agile – the story so farWhat we have learned

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• Interaction with UX & Design teams• Integrating Infrastructure / devops• Alignment with budgets / annual plans• Building guilds, tribes & continuing the evolution

along with other PP development areas

Agile – the story so farStill working on…

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• paul.hayes@paddypower.com

Keep in touch

@paulmhayes