The Planet as Our Stakeholder (EN) - handout.pdf

Climate awareness and action in Agile Teams - Reducing the IT carbon footprint. Practical steps toward creating sustainable Agile Teams.

1. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

2. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Planet Earth as Our Stakeholder
Marjolein Pilon
Ambassador of Climate Awareness in IT

3. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

4. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Planet Earth as Our Stakeholder

5. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Planet Earth as Our Stakeholder
Finding Ways to a Green Future
Marjolein Pilon
Ambassador of Climate Awareness in IT

6. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Initiatives
World Work

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No worries
No needfor
panic, with
the right
actions
we’llbefine
Onlydrastic
action can
save us
There’s
nothingwe
cando,
we’re
doomed
How do you feel about our
planetary challenges?

8. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

How it started

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Ourimpact
on the
planet
We have
until2030
TheChallenge
Cut our
carbon
emissions
Tokeep ourclimatesafe andstable

10. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

The IT Carbon
Footprint
Data centers
consume1 to
2% of global
energy usage
Includingproduction
andlifecycleof devicesIT consumes
4% of globalenergy
usage
2030 forecast:
IT willconsume8% of
globalenergy usage
2040 forecast:
IT willconsume14% of
globalenergy usage
Harvard Business Review.
https://hbr.org/2020/09/how
-green
-is-your
-software

11. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

The IT Carbon Footprint
The carbon
footprint of IT is
largerthanthat
of aviation
If the Internet were a
country, it would be 7th on
the list of largest polluters.
It’s carbon footprint is
comparable to South
Africa’s

12. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

The Gap
Climate-
neutrality
must be
achievedby
2050
In order to
reachthat
goal we must
cut carbon
emissionsby
at least55%
in 2030
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
2023203020402050
IT Carbon Footprint
Current pathwayParis alignment

13. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Era of EconomicGrowth
Era of Regeneration
Short Term
Scarcity
Independence
Consumption
Long Term
Balance
Interdependence
Sustainability
Limitlessdata
storage
Maximum
performance
Short hardware
lifecycles
Value for
costumers
Waste
Green Architecture &
Principles
Circularhardware
Sustainableculture
Balanced
value
Minimized
wasteA New Era
of IT
Jump!

14. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Learnings from
my Agile Teams

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Balancing business needs against environmental impact
1. Ask new questions
Add the same value but emit less carbon

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StartStart the conversation
AskAsk new questions
FindIdentify the low
hanging fruit
Green
Grow Green -
Start with a
first step
2. Get started

17. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

3. Small steps
Actions -Workingon/Recentlydone:
1.Cleanedup oldcode andrepos
2.E2E tests run lessoften(only1x per day)
3.Kubernetesmemory andCPU resources are reducedtominimum requirements
4.Test andacceptanceenvironments disabledoutsideoffice hours
5.Unit tests andsecurity scans onlyrun in Productionpipeline runs
6.DONE (byseveralScrum Masters): Addplanetas a stakeholder totheuser story template
7.Limit CI/CD Pipeline "DependaBot" !The Planetas Stakeholder: Limit CI/CD Pipeline "DependaBot" -Jira(atlassian.net)
8.Clean up unusedAWS stuff & data
9.Analysis: Whenare ourservices used?
10.Insightintocurrentenergy consumptionteam FAAM
11.Reducenumberof deployments(via commitmessage)

18. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Teams’ small steps for the planet
A large bank
1.Getting rid of development environments that are not used.
2.Stopped unnecessary load and stress tests.
3.Optimized the use of log files. This resulted in significant savings. The policy was that they transfered log files to cold storage after a month. But they kept the application log on disk for sixty days. Analysis showed that they no longer consulted those log files and so they chose to remove them from disk after fifteen days.
4.One team offers a document (PDF) in many places in our customer journeys. They always check how many pages the PDF has and place a text with a leaf icon next to the document stating how much CO2 the customer saves by storing it digitally.
5.We built a pipeline that allows us to shut down the test environments and all the applications we have running during the night and on weekends. We have made this pipeline so generic and dynamic that other teams can easily reuse and configure the template.
6.We have now found a way to run our Java applications server-less. We compile the code to machine code so that the application can sleep and start up very quickly when a user needs it. We do thisusingGraalVM.
7.Disabled one of the acceptance environments, because it cost time and resources to roll out new software without any benefits. That saved 12 servers and 2 TB of data, so 5 tons of CO2 savings per year.
8.One team developed a script that disables applications at times when they are not needed.
Dutch Railway company
1.Planneda digital clean-up day.
Dutch Power GridCompany
1.Discusstheimpact on theplanetin refinements
2.SustainableIT challengeduringthePI planning.
Another Dutch Power Grid Operator
1.A data team at Enexis has adjusted a setting in their Data Warehouse, so that after 1 minute of inactivity the warehouse (virtual server on which queries are executed) shuts down, saving us 10% on credit consumption.
2.At Enexis, teams also continue to switch off/transfer old systems to 1 new stack - and they are looking to get rid of multiple platforms.

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4. Embed in Way of Working
DoD-Team Excavators
•The code has been reviewedandthereview commentshave been
processed.
•The code is in GIT.
•Feature branches have been mergedtomainandcleanedup.
•The code has been rolledout toAcceptanceandProduction.
•The acceptancecriteria have been met technicallyandfunctionally.
•End-to-end test has been createdandallend-to-end tests pass.
•Withregardtoenergy consumption, unnecessaryresources are identified
andshutdown.
•Incorrect documentationwillbeupdated.
•Security checks have been carriedout.
JiraUser Story Template -Team BASiC
User Story Description
•As [customer/user]
•I want [functionality]
•Sothat[value]
ClimateImpact
•Whatactions do we carryout toreduceourimpact on theplanet?
AcceptanceCriteria
•Whenis thisstory completed?
Dependencies& Risks
•Whatdependenciesdo we have fromotherteams?
•Whatuser storiesmust becompletedbeforewe canstart thisone?
Working on:
-Adding the Planet as a stakeholder in the Architecture Principles

20. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

5. Make progress visible
•Findmetricson energy usageof your
team
•Tag thestoriesthatare positiveforthe
planet
•Share progressin theSprint Review

21. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Principlesand
guidelinesfora
Green architecture
Scrum Master
•Growinga culture of
sustainability
•Coaching andfacilitatingthe
team in a green way of
working
•Promoting thegreen
vision, ambitionsand
practices
Product Owner
•Expressingand
promoting a visionon
sustainability
•Prioritizingvalueforthe
environment
•Includetheplanetas a
stakeholder
Developers
•Self-managing for
sustainableproducts
•Addinggreen practices
andtoolingtothe
development standards
•Building andsharing
knowledgeon sustainable
IT practices
Sustainableproduct
development &
innovation
Sustainabilityin
valuecreationSustainabilityin
IT
Sustainable
Scrum Team
Visionon
sustainablevalue
Providing value
metrics for business
sustainability
Providing climate
impact metrics
Providinggreen
tooling
A vision and
ambitions on
sustainable IT
Climate impact
in Sprint Review
& Retrospective
Climate impact
in Definition of
Done
Value for
environment in
Backlog
Green IT Organization
EmbeddingGreen Waysof Workingin the(IT) Org
VisionaryleadershipStructureTeam autonomyContinuousimprovement

22. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Interaction
Round 1: Brainstorm
What is needed to halve your company’s IT carbon footprint
by 2030?
1.Write yourideason post-its (1 ideaper post-it)
2.Discussyourideaswithyourtable
3.Plenary: present 2 or 3 ideastothegroup
Round 2: Circle of Influence
How can you contribute from your role?
1.Plot your ideas in the circle of control - influence - concern
2.Discuss with your table: Which ideas in the outer circle(s) can you make smaller
(or reformulate) and thus shift into your sphere of influence/control?
3.Share your findings in plenary
Round 3: First Steps
What first steps can you take?
1.Write your personal first steps
2.Share them on thewall
3.Don’tforgettowritethemforyourselfandtake themhome!

23. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com

Think big, start small

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New perspective
Deep
Democracy

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Feedback

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Inspiration & resources
https://www.jeckstein.com/sustainability/

27. in/marjoleinpilon | @marjoleinp12 | www.TheAgilePlayground.com | www.ThePlanetAsAStakeholder.com