Customer Stories
A team-first approach in a DevOps transformation
ABN AMRO embarks on a DevOps transformation, pushing aside a technical angle and ushering in a customized team-first approach crafted by Xebia consultants
Operating in a DevOps model enables organizations to reduce their time-to-market and operational costs associated with various systems. At the same time, it increases employee engagement. With the help of Xebia Consultants, the ABN AMRO DevOps transformation program was adapted to meet the different needs of the departments, while also supporting the department management teams.
Accelerate implementation success within a DevOps transformation
Why
DevOps Consulting & Coaching
What
Ensure a smooth transition to the new operating model
How
Banking for Better, for Generations to come
To support ABN AMRO's mission, the bank established a DevOps transformation program, which changed the current operating model of having separate development and operations departments. The ambition is to break down the walls between silos and have cross-functional, autonomous teams.
Having cross-functional, autonomous teams is a crucial organizational design concern: a team with all the required skills to design, build, and operate software will increase quality and throughput. Specialist teams (and silos) on the other hand create more hand-overs, delaying the flow of business value. Research studies have shown that feature delivery that leaves a team has an increase of about tenfold until it is in production.
Context and Culture require a Customized Approach
ABN AMRO's DevOps transformation is a full-fledged IT transformation, affecting the current way of working, technical landscape, and culture. Given the organization's size, there are several subcultures, based on different forces, such as market, customer type, or technology stack.
Culture defines the context, and context shapes culture. The context can be understood as a business purpose combined with the processes and technology. For example, the context of a department responsible for reporting to regulators differs from that of a department developing mobile solutions for retail customers. For a successful transformation, the context of a department and a team is crucial; every context is unique, governed by different constraints and levels of complexity, and a blueprint transformation does not work.
Xebia witnessed companies that started with a form of blueprint transformation, applying a one-size-fits-all approach across the organization, rather than using a set of guiding principles and creating solutions that can respect the different contexts and constraints.
When transforming, be gentle
With knowledge and insights gained through a series of workshops and interviews about the current status quo, Xebia facilitated the move to the second phase of the DevOps transformation: the sensible transformation approach. The goal is to achieve a balanced state in which cross-functional teams are end-to-end responsible, have stable systems, and the ability to deliver additional value to the product portfolio. At that point, we would talk about DevOps as an operating model.
Since the team started to measure their DevOps metrics, the management team has insights on the status, allowing them to adjust the roadmap. The roadmap is not a blueprint, and as more teams are going on this journey, the strategy needs to be re-evaluated and adjusted.
Becoming better with every feature delivery
The roadmap led to a phased transformation approach, where teams are first-class citizens and the transformation is not treated as just another technology shift. It provided clarity on the teams' responsibilities and boundaries, allowing them to declare their intentions based on their mission.
About ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO is one of the top 3 banks in the Netherlands. It offers a full range of banking services to individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large corporations. ABN AMRO operates globally with its range of financial services. Currently, the bank has approximately 19,000 employees, with 6,500 employees working in IT.
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