Stream: AppDev
Time: 11:15 - 12:00
There was a perception that using Mainframe was slow, clunky and outdated. Difficulties were seen in serving the 4m+ customers. With 30% growth expected in the near future, it seemed the only answer was to move away from the mainframe to cater for their needs. However, a bold decision was made to stay on the mainframe and introduce a new way of working to clear over 30yrs of technical debt and modernizing the delivery approach. A Product mindset was introduced to a community that has never worked using Agile methodologies. Changes often took more than 5 months to complete. However, two years on, there is a change delivered to delight the customer every two weeks. This is how we achieved it.
In 2021 we embarked on a journey to modernise our technology estate and more importantly, our ways of working. We wanted to move to an enduring product/ platform DevOps based model, to create an empowered community of technical experts that understood the business needs, were comfortable to challenge it and experiment using new tools/processes to deliver iterative and incremental value to the customer. Quicker, at a higher Quantity and with increased Quality.
We were in a state where all transformation was funded through a temporary vehicle, we lost people/ skills regularly when that funding stopped. Our support function was in a separate division of the business, not very close by. There was a lack of continuity between the two sides. Mainframe was seen as legacy/ old/ clunk tech, with no future inside L&G with committed long term visions to move away from it.
A key enabler was gaining the support of senior leadership in the strategy. Of investing in our capability on the mainframe to adopt a much more modern platform based thinking, with a mainframe suitable for 21st century software development practices. With an open mind to try something different and pivot without mercy if needed. We call this the ‘Why not’ approach. Generally speaking, we are often wrong about our hypothesis. How wrong we will only know based on quantitative feedback. The goal is to gain that feedback as soon as possible to validate our thoughts and accelerate forwards if they are positive.
Two years later we're winning awards for our modern mainframe CI/CD capability, completely transforming how we deliver and think about change on the mainframe. Switching from a project to product mindset with Agile values and principles at the core, continuous improvement way of thinking, we're now up to 60 releases since the inception of this journey, averaging ~1 per sprint. Environment/ data provisioning can be done in minutes instead of months, and a much more modern way of thinking, developing and delivering changes, proving within L&G and across the industry that the mainframe and applications on it, can survive with current technological advancements!
Some of the work we have done has naturally driven a cost and carbon conscious culture and is a true reflection of successful implementation of our Green Ops framework.
One of our core ambitions when we set out our journey was to transform our Mainframe Developers, Test teams into T-shaped Mainframe Engineers to create multi skilled engineers. This includes individuals comfortable with undertaking tasks within all stages of the SDLC and eliminating dependencies within the team- often seen as the split between devs and testers and we had significant success on this with our Pension Admin System’s Community of Practice and the continuous training culture we had.
We welcomed uncertainty and challenges faced as key learning opportunities along our journey. This has allowed us to start based on an ideal and widely accepted Agile SDLC but continuously tweak it to meet the unique needs of L&G.
A strong community has now been established which provides high visibility to any changes made.
This allows everyone to learn from one another even if not directly involved.
The aim of this is to help cross-skill the team, increase their individual areas of expertise and eliminate as many dependencies as we can.
This created an enduring team where knowledge is not lost as often seen by temporary projects.
With L&G’s ambition to build a better society, creating a low emission business is one of the key consideration factors for all work done.
Benefits can be seen not only through financial risk mitigation and new business but also our reduction of our carbon footprint through finding efficiencies in mainframe usage.
We've transformed our mindset and capability over the last 2 years, to a true platform-based model, which has been hugely exciting.
We’ve delivered value to the customer faster and with a higher quality than ever seen before within L&G.
However, this is just the beginning. We continue to improve and optimise how we work and seek to adopt learnings from across the industry that will continue to push us to modern and greater ways of working.
We'd love to expand on these topics and bring to life our experiences throughout this journey.
There is currently no attachment for Mission Improbable : From 10 to 60 Mainframe releases within two years
Email: praneeth1.jayarajah@landg.com
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