Shifting Gears: UnionBank kicks-off DevSecOps Transformation with Two Pilot Teams
Since the full launch of its agile transformation in 2018, Union Bank of the Philippines did not put its foot on the brake and drove to a different speed. Instead of being disrupted by technology and its advancements, the Bank pioneered banking disruption and ushered the organization into a whole new track – becoming a technology company with banking capabilities.
The organization committed to ‘Pedal to the Metal’ in 2020 and is going ‘Full Throttle’ this 2021. As we usher a new age in the Bank in time for its 40th anniversary, we all wonder what could be next after going full throttle?
The Agile transformation prepared us for the pandemic. The future is unpredictable, and the economy is volatile. Being at the forefront, we are perfectly positioned to take our transformation to the next gear.
Two pilot teams are launched recently to jumpstart the transformation and adopt the new ways of working – Project Storm and Project Venus. From Agile Squads, these teams are identified as Value Stream Teams and are tasked to deliver innovations faster, more efficiently.
The onboarding is scheduled for three days. Executives of the Bank were invited to deliver inspirational messages at the start of the event. Day 1 was graced by the Bank’s Chief Information Officer and IT Services and Operations and Shared Services Group Head, Mr. Dennis Omila.
He shared how he sees our next level of transformation as a way of “shifting gears and driving the team to the destination”. He believes that we have reached our limits, and we must shift gears to accelerate further. Here’s an excerpt of his keynote message at the start of the DevSecOps transformation workshops for the pilot teams – Storm and Venus.
“We have accelerated, but for those of you who drive a manual car, you put first gear, second gear, third gear, if you step on the gas pedal to the metal without shifting gears, ‘yong revolutions per minute mo magre-redzone yan at mag-o-overheat. Essentially, you cannot just step on the gas. You need to shift gears. And sabi ko, ‘What are the indications that we’ve hit a certain limit, and we can’t seem to go faster anymore?’ And I think you’ve seen a lot, whether that’s from a capacity issue, resources doing the par because we’re not perfect. Compared to the others, I think we have accelerated maybe all the way up to fourth gear. But I don’t want us to be at the fourth gear, because the others will catch up one way or the other. We should continue to move forward now. And to shift gears, we need to change mindsets, evolve roles, secure new tools, move to DevSecOps.”
He also did not fail to reassure the Value Stream Teams that the Management is with them in this journey and is willing to invest in what is necessary to take us to the transformation to the next level.
Mr. Omila pointed out the importance of having ‘real partners that share a common purpose with the Bank.’ In this transformation, UBP partnered with Deloitte for the People and Process side and with Red Hat, Amazon Worldwide Services, and VMWare for Technology.
For Mr. Omila, the pilot groups are the ambassadors of DevSecOps. He even shared Simon Sinek’s ‘Law of Diffusion of Innovation’ where he stated that people embracing transformation is a social phenomenon, and for it to happen, there have to be early adopters.
“Majority of people won’t do it unless something new happens in somebody else’s tribe, that’s the reality to it. You are here in the early adopters group, and you are the one who are going to show, that huge majority, ‘Oh, they’ve done it, and we want to do it also’. You are our ambassadors to help the huge majority to cross over to the chasm.”
One of the most memorable parts of his welcome speech was when he shared the resignation letter he wrote during the first transformation which he carried on his coat for two MANCOMs. For him, the resignation letter meant resigning from his role and apply to a new position with the challenge of transforming and upgrading.
“We continue to evolve. We need to keep on transforming, shift gears to be better, and I’m with you. We’re doing it together,” he shared.
He ended his welcome message with an encouragement to the pilot teams, “In this transformation, it will not be perfect, we’ll go through some challenges, but I’m looking forward. And I’m really glad that we’ve started this journey already. I draw strength from all of you guys. Sometimes, it’s really scary, keeps me awake at night, but knowing you will be there with me, you know, just the bunch of, you know, crazy, amazing, wonderful, UBP family. So I wish you all the best and I’m excited to see the newer, better versions of you moving forward.”
The launch activity followed through and focused on:
-getting the pilot team on board
-defining what DevSecOps is for the Bank
-introducing the roles of every member
-an overview of what Value Stream Teams (VSTs) are
Deloitte’s Executive Director for Human Capital, Indranil Roy led the next part of the program, the onboarding primer.
He opened the next part of the program by sharing a perspective on the philosophy behind the transformation, “This is not just to combine Dev and Ops together, or Dev, Sec, and Ops together. The philosophy is to go from idea to value delivery. It’s like one stream, a river where the water needs to flow from idea to value creation with the customer all the way.”
Read more about UnionBank’s shift to DevSecOps here: https://www.ubphenom.com/phenom/shifting-gears-to-devsecops/