Pivotal’s mission is to [transform how the world builds software](https://content.pivotal.io/blog/we-transform-how-the-world-builds-software). We believe in the core tenets of _Do What Works_, _Do The Right Thing_, and _Be Kind_. We express those beliefs every day through our commitment to following XP practices and principles, such as sustainable pace, test driven development, continuous integration, and pair programming. While Pivotal has had a long history with XP, it’s been on the Pivotal Cloud Foundry project that we have been applying those practices and principles to our approach to Program Management. That’s the story I’d like to tell you about in this experience report.
During the last four years the Cloud Foundry R&D team within Pivotal has grown from around 10 two-pizza teams to over 60. We’ve scaled from two offices to eight that now spread across the globe. Adoption of the Cloud Foundry Platform as a Service (PaaS) by over half of the fortune 500 has increased the stakes we’re working under and the responsibilities created by a mature, successful product (a good problem to have!). Our growth has been consistent and shows no signs of slowing down, and all along the way we’ve used XP principles to adapt our systems to new challenges that scaling presents.
In my role as the Senior Director of Program Management I’ve been around for this journey and the many lessons we’ve learned along the way. In that time, we’ve grown the TPM team, defined what Program Management means within Pivotal’s context, tried many experiments, and continue to leverage the learnings of a few that have worked out well.
