William White

Working with our implementation partner, IBM, we employed Agile frameworks for the first time ever on an SAP program within the company. This required the formation and training of 24 Agile teams and the establishment of Scaled Agile Framework roles and events. We had the additional complexity of having a multi-vendor environment. The benefits of Agile were apparent within just a few sprints as we learned that initial timelines were not reasonable and that critical improvements were required across several fronts. We took these corrective actions, set more realistic goals, addressed critical blockers, and improved team communication and collaboration.

The program was launched to massively improve and consolidate the consumer website experience for purchasing products and booking experience events, such as tours and dining reservations. It involved the creation of a front- and back-end toolset that could be easily adapted for local use within the companies' diverse market types, 180 countries. Agile frameworks were a critical enabler for the work as this involved testing new technologies and platforms as well as experimenting with the user experience for the consumer. Data from the front end was used to give feedback on what was working and what needed to be improved.

Collaborated with the leadership team to form a new Agile Release Train of 110 members to tackle this ambitious global program with the goal of delivering cross-functional reporting for both leadership dashboards and team-level use. Worked with the team from goal setting to establishing team topology through training and launch. Supported the team through several cycles of PI planning, ensuring the delivery of their MVP and guiding their adoption of DevOps practices as the product was launched in markets around the world.