[Case Study] [EN] Making LeSS work in the public sector

The Belgian Federal Pension Service (SFPD) was applying Scrum for a couple of years and like many others, we were struggling to get it working at scale, with over 16 teams. Early 2018 we organised some courses on SAFe and LeSS to find our own ways, at the same time discovering the importance of Technical Excellence, a cornerstone to make LeSS work for an organization.
We set off on a journey towards a LeSS flip in January 2019. Before we could flip, we first had to make significant changes to how (and how often) we release software. With the 'No More Majors' community of volunteers, we managed to get to a state of Continuous Delivery in a matter of months.
Then it was time for the teams to flip and the learning to really start! 18 months later, we have come a long way, and today Technical Excellence remains our biggest challenge. We are currently working patiently towards effective Continuous Integration, requiring massive changes to our SW architecture and test automation. Slowly but steadily, we're building up the necessary skills, using coding katas, mob programming and a whole lot of experiments.

We'd like to share our story interactively and hopefully get ideas from you on some of the difficulties we encounter today!

Speakers:

• Olivier Costa -
  Active as LeSS coach at SFPD payments teams since summer of 2019.
  Keywords : insight, humour, patience

I believe that it is necessary for people to work together more effectively. Most IT-professionals that I encountered are very good technicians but poor collaborators. This, to me, is a key problem in the industry and the root cause of so many failing projects.

Another problem is that the software delivery process is often managed like a construction process, while it is actually a creative process, which requires a completely different leadership style.

I found in the agile movement a practical way to better both problems. There's also a lot of common ground with the lessons of my aikido teachers. So I eagerly study and combine these two domains, for the benefit of both myself and my colleagues & customers.

https://co-learning.eu/trainer-list/trainer-profile/?id=4296&full_name=Olivier%20Costa
https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviercosta/

• Tom Jans -
  For a few years now I’ve been working as an Agile Coach inside my own organisation: the Belgian Pension Service. Nearly a year ago, I got promoted to being a Scrum Master in the LeSS bubble in our organisation.
  When I came into contact with Agile & Lean, I found a way to solve problems: breaking them up into small parts that I can tinker with and figure out quickly how they work. I used to work in machine engineering, that was exactly how I solved problems then. And now I could do it in the world of software.
  Apart from being passionate about my job, I’m also a proud (and sleep-deprived) father of 3 wonderful young children, I play squash and I play boardgames, and I’m a practicing stoic.

I find it hugely satisfying to get people aligned on good ideas. I love to get things moving and lead by example. I believe the best ideas are simple ideas but that simplicity is hard to achieve.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomjans/