A description of how the Lean transition is progressing in the AS SW MES organization, a 500 people R&D group part of the Siemens Industrial Automation sector. The leading change agent that coordinates the Lean transition is the Enterprise Transition Community, a group that initiates, encourages, and supports the effort to introduce and improve the Lean transition. The transition is supported by the MES Software Factory, i.e. the collection of processes and tools that make possible the value creation in the software organization: key elements are the value stream management scaled at all levels of the enterprise together with a strong continuous improvement process.

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MES Software Factory
Andrea Bovenga, Sara Fazzari
Genoa Agile Day, May 2014

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• Conclusions 21
• MES Software Factory Process:
value driven built-in quality 11
• Enterprise Transition Community:
change agent for the Lean transition 7
• Siemens MES organization:
facts and context 3
MES Software Factory

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Global presence
Quick facts:
• Headquarters in Genoa, Italy
• SIMATIC IT product portfolio covering several vertical markets
• Roughly 500 people in R&D
• Development infrastructure based on a private virtual cloud:
• +1200 VM running daily
• +3500 VM stored
• +550 total users (+60% online daily)
• +158 centralized host servers
• 24x7 support from Microsoft and VMware
Portsmouth
São Paulo
Italy
Belgium
Huizingen
France
Genoa
Toulouse
Chippenham
Great
Britain
Romania
Cluji
ISO 9001 certification:

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Market and product
The market:
Manufacturing Execution Systems
(MES), software systems to
manage manufacturing operations
in industrial factories
The product:
SIMATIC IT suite, set of products
providing an integrated framework
to build MES applications

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MES Software Factory context
Product concept
elaboration through
effective interaction of all
actors in a balanced
system

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• Conclusions 21
• MES Software Factory Process:
value driven built-in quality 11
• Enterprise Transition Community:
change agent for the Lean transition 7
• Siemens MES organization:
facts and context 3
MES Software Factory

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The starting point
Rigid contracts
Misalignment
of market
needs

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Enterprise Transition Community: why, how
ETC main targets:
• Create environment to implement change
• Remove impediments
• Set shared goals and plan actions
• Keep management involved with the transition
ETC methodology (scrum-like):
• Release plan and 3-week sprints
• Team Foundation Server-based backlog
• Planning + demo & retrospective meetings
No HF culture

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Enterprise Transition: some history
2011 20132012 2014
•Training and coaching
•Experimenting practices (Scrum, Kanban,
TDD,…)
•Enterprise Transition Community
•Interdisciplinary teams
•Feature Driven approach
•TFS for scaled Agile process
•Report Center for dashboards and
KPIs
•Test Automation tools
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
•Systematic process application
•Continuous Integration
•Measure benefits
•Portfolio management

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• Conclusions 21
• MES Software Factory Process:
value driven built-in quality 11
• Enterprise Transition Community:
change agent for the Lean transition 7
• Siemens MES organization:
facts and context 3
MES Software Factory

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MES Software Factory Process
Visual
Management
Agile
Release Train
Built-in
Quality
Value Stream
management

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Value Stream management
Value stream visibility:
coordination at all levels to
allow complete traceability and
systematic feedback collection
PortfolioLevelProgramLevelTeamsLevel
Market inputs
Inbox
Other
Siemens
teams
Customer
support
R&D
Key partners
& customer,
system
integrators
Sales
Training
Center
Cross Industry
Ftr
Ftr
Ftr
Ftr
VALUE
Process
Ftr
Ftr
Ftr
Ftr
VALUE
Discrete
Ftr
Ftr
Ftr
Ftr
VALUE
Life Science
Ftr
Ftr
Ftr
Ftr
VALUE
Product family
VALUE
Epic
Epic
Epic
Epic
Team 1
VALUE
US
US
US
US
Team 2
VALUE
US
US
US
US
Team n
VALUE
US
US
US
US
Input
Input
Input
Input
Input
Product Manager

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Value Stream management
Input Epic
Feature
Macro development initiative cross products
and cross –release, corresponding to a
Business Case. Fullfills one or more market
inputs; nestable in sub-epics.
Self consistent development target (minimum
marketable feature), related to a specific product
and release; provides value to the final user,
contributes to the realization of an epic
Development target for a
single team, realized in one
sprint and tested “end-to-
end”, contributes to the
realization of a feature
Activity assigned to a
single team member to
realize a user story
Feature
User story
Inputs from the market and
other stakeholders
Task
Task
Feature driven approach:
to make sure that what we
develop is aligned to the
market

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Agile Release Train
QPM200
Sprint 1 Sprint 2
Stabilization
Sprint
Sprint 1 Sprint 2
Sprint 1 Sprint 2
Release 1.0
Release 1.1
Release 1.2
2
Stabilization
Sprint
Stabilization
Sprint
Product Portfolio
Management

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Built-in Quality
Multilevel definition of done
KPIs and continuous
improvement
SW quality:
Built into the process
Focus at all levels
Full scale quality
approach:
ensure that we achieve
the software quality that is
expected
Continuous
integration

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Built-in Quality
Problem-driven improvement process
After the bug fix, a systematic process starts to identify the root cause of the
problem and implement the proper corrective actions to prevent its reoccurrence
What: First-level cause analysis
When: At each bug report
Who: Developer/tester
What: Root cause analysis
When: Periodical basis (2-3 weeks)
Who: Dedicated person leading virtual team
What: Corrective actions identification
When: Periodical basis (2-3 weeks)
Who: Dedicated person leading virtual team
What: Corrective actions implementation
When: According to project scheduling
Who: Management and teams (backlogs)

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Built-in Quality
In Editing Proposed Selected Active Resolved Acceptance Closed
Meaning Draft Proposed for a
release
Selected for this
release
Ready for / under
realization
Ready for / under
integration tests
Ready for
acceptance
DONE
Owner PM or PO or
Architects
PM PO PO PO PM n.a.
Criteria to
reach this
state
• Link to parent
Epic [Originator]
• Title [Originator]
• Assigned to
Product version
[Originator]
• Link to Market
Input (opt)
[Originator]
• Business Case
[PM]
• Sponsor [PM]
• Value [PM]
• Rank [PM]
• Description [PM]
• Acceptance
criteria
[negotiation
PM + PO]
• Size [PO]
• Assigned to
sprint [PO]
• Analysis and
Design
completed
• Children User
Stories defined
[PO, involving
Architects and
Teams]
• Acceptance Test
defined (opt)
[negotiation PM +
PO]
• All children US
are in state
Closed
[PO of the
children US]
• Integration test
ready to start
[Integration Team]
• All Acceptance
Tests
successfully
executed
[Integration Team]
• All Integration
Test Cases
executed
[Integration Team]
• No Critical bugs
pending
[All Teams]
• Feature
accepted by
Product
Manager [PM]
Legenda:
PM = Product Manager
PO = Product Owner
Example of Definition of Done:

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Visual Management
An integrated reporting tells us about the progress of
the work and the software quality, and drives our
continuous improvement (KPI)

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Visual Management

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• Conclusions 21
• MES Software Factory Process:
value driven built-in quality 11
• Enterprise Transition Community:
change agent for the Lean transition 7
• Siemens MES organization:
facts and context 3
MES Software Factory

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Conclusions
Lean / Agile transition started 3 years ago
Achievements up to now
• Transition from waterfall to “agile release train” process
• Systematic project management approach
• Value stream visibility
• Structured process for requirements filtering and selection
• Solid basis for continuous improvement
Next steps
• Validate current approach over time
• Improve technical practices (e.g. continuous integration)
• Systematic portfolio management approach

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Questions?

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Thank you for your attention!
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