fast & predictable : lightweight release framework promotes rhythm & flow
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FAST & PREDICTABLE
Amy Farrow | Steve Greene
Agile 2008 Conference, Toronto August 2008
A Lightweight Release Framework Promotes Agility through Rhythm and Flow
Safe Harbor Statement “Safe harbor” statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements including but not limited to statements regarding our expected future revenue, GAAP diluted earnings per share, expected tax rate, anticipated shares outstanding,and concerning the potential market for our existing service offerings. All of our forward looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions proves incorrect, our results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make.
The risks and uncertainties referred to above include - but are not limited to - risks associated with possible fluctuations in our operating results and cash flows, rate of growth and anticipated revenue run rate, errors, interruptions or delays in our service or our Web hosting, our new business model, our history of operating losses, the possibility that we will not remain profitable, breach of our security measures, the emerging market in which we operate, our relatively limited operating history, our ability to hire, retain and motivate our employees and manage our growth, competition, our ability to continue to release and gain customer acceptance of new and improved versions of our service, customer and partner acceptance of the AppExchange, successful customer deployment and utilization of our services, unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate, fluctuations in the number of shares outstanding, the price of such shares, foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates.
Further information on these and other factors that could affect our financial results is included in the reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and in other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2007. These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Information section of our website at www.salesforce.com/investor. Salesforce.com, inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
Why should you listen to us?
Agility @ Scale
Predictability through Rhythm & Flow
What do we mean by scale?
43,600+ Customers
1,000,000+ Subscribers
150 Million+ transactions per day
30+ Scrum Teams
3 Major Releases per Year
1 Codeline
How did we get here?
Big Bang Agile Transformation
How do you optimize the release in this environment?
Guiding Goals and Principles
predictability consistency
on-time delivery
simplicity rhythm
flow
scalability
team empowerment frequent delivery
optimize the whole of the release
What did we come up with?
Lightweight Release Framework
simple, unambiguous
Light on Milestones
Release Kickoff Alignment from the start
Highlight business objectives for the release
Light on Milestones
Feature Freeze
All new features meet “done” criteria
Start of Release Sprint, transition from “potentially releasable” to releasable
Light on Milestones
Release Freeze End of Release Sprint, product and release meet release criteria
Light on Milestones
Release!
Release deployed to all customer-facing environments
Release Manager
Scrum Master for the release
Release Manager
Servant Leader
Release Manager
Partnership with teams
Engaged from inception to deployment
Release Manager
Resolve systemic release issues impacting team success
Promote regular visibility and analysis into overall health and state of the release
Visibility & Transparency
Release Health
Daily Release Health & Quality Visibility
Release Health
Release-by-Release Comparisons
Rhythm & Flow
Rhythmic Cycles
Rhythm
Flow
Ritual
Feb
Release
Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov
Release & Sprint Rhythm
Release
Benefits of Framework
On-time Releases
Elimination of gaming of dates
Organizational alignment
“Just enough” structure to enable agility
Team empowerment
Predictable release size
Optimizes the whole of the release
Builds trust internally and with partners & customers
What’s next?
Continued scalability & growth
Promoting a cyclical rhythm across the entire Technology & Products organization
Optimizing how work flows within and across the Technology & Products organization
Interfacing with non-Agile teams