Situation

Our Client, a large multinational company, has embarked since a few years in an ambitious journey aimed at leveraging digital technologies to transform its (core) business. One of the stated objectives of this journey is to extend its traditional offer and develop a new set of software-based products, which can be responsively delivered to customers through the web (e.g., TV entertainment, Cloud storage, etc.). Developing this new offer has proved to be a significant challenge for our Client, which has requested Open Web Technology to identify and roll-out a set of pragmatic measures to boost its ability to deliver software-based products.

Approach

By working in close collaboration with the different Business Units of our Client's organization (both B2B and B2C), we have crystallised a simple set of pragmatic recommendations. In particular: The roadmap for software-based products has been clarified by focusing on a limited number of projects, evenly distributed across Business Units. We supported Business Units in the screening and selection of relevant projects. In order to boost project teams' ability to deliver, software-based products have been organized like mini-startups, called “Squads”. The concept of Squad is inspired by the organization published by Spotify (a music streaming company founded in 2006) and has been adapted to our Client's size and organization (see details on Spotify Squads model. Each Squad is a full-time and multi-functional team (including both business and IT skills) with long-term perspective, composed of maximum 10 members and working in one unique location. The Squad “CEO” has the ability to take decisions and is fully responsible for the product. Some key Enablers must be provided to Squads: a set of APIs to facilitate the integration of new software-based products with the back-end infrastructure and processes; an Elastic Cloud infrastructure, providing rapid access to a scalable architecture while guaranteeing operational excellence; specific HR processes to recruit and nurture the new entrepreneurial and IT skills required. An overall “Mentor” for software-based products has been appointed at Top Management level, in order to guarantee coordination and synergies across Squads while fostering a new mindest and culture in the company.

Our Client's organization is now fully equipped to deliver innovative software-based products, with short release cycles of max 6-9 months.

4
Squads
<10
People / squad
6-9
months to release

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