YOOX NET-A-PORTER: Coordinating five agile teams through a £1bn e-commerce re-platform

We provided the Scrum Master and PMO backbone on a £1bn programme re-platforming YNAP's e-commerce solution to IBM WebSphere Commerce, delivered by Salmon. Over 12 months we coordinated five agile teams against strict client deadlines: facilitating agile delivery, managing onboarding logistics and equipment, streamlining communication between the client PMO and the delivery teams, and maintaining transparency through weekly reporting. The teams met their deadlines with a high standard of collaboration, and the programme closed with strong client satisfaction. Tight operational processes are what held that together across five parallel teams.

With one operating rhythm everyone trusts and a single source of truth about the state of the work. On YNAP's £1bn re-platform we ran a dual Scrum Master and PMO model. Agile facilitation sat inside the teams so each kept its cadence, and a PMO layer above them owned reporting, dependencies and operational logistics. Communication between the client PMO and the delivery teams was streamlined, so questions had one route in and answers had one route out, and weekly reporting kept the whole programme transparent. Five teams met strict client deadlines for 12 months on that footing.

At scale, yes, and YNAP is the evidence. Five agile teams inside a £1bn re-platform each had their own cadence, but somebody still had to hold the cross-team picture. That meant dependencies, onboarding logistics, equipment, travel, and one version of progress the client PMO could trust. We ran Scrum Master and PMO as a dual model, not as rivals. Agile facilitation gave the teams their rhythm and the PMO gave the programme its transparency through weekly reporting. Teams met their deadlines and collaboration stayed strong. That is what a PMO is actually for.

It was a £1bn programme, with five agile teams coordinated through a 12-month Scrum Master and PMO engagement. Salmon was re-platforming YOOX NET-A-PORTER's e-commerce solution to IBM WebSphere Commerce, and the scale demanded tight coordination against strict client deadlines while staff transitions and operational logistics were managed in parallel. Streamlined communication, weekly reporting and one operating rhythm across all five teams kept it aligned, because alignment is the constraint at that size. The programme met its deadlines with strong client satisfaction.

IBM WebSphere Commerce. Salmon delivered the re-platform of YOOX NET-A-PORTER's e-commerce solution, and we provided the Scrum Master and PMO backbone that kept five agile teams aligned to the client's deadlines across 12 months. Our part was delivery coordination. We facilitated agile delivery inside the teams, streamlined communication between the client PMO and the internal teams, and maintained transparency through weekly reporting, with onboarding logistics and equipment handled centrally so the teams kept their hours for delivery. The programme progressed efficiently and met its deadlines.

The coordination problem is the same. Multi-team delivery with a single source of truth, many actors, shared dependencies and one operating rhythm everyone trusts is what agentic transformation faces at scale, just with agents among the actors. The YNAP engagement proved that discipline across five teams on a £1bn programme. What it took was one operating rhythm the five teams shared, a single route for questions between the client PMO and the delivery teams, and weekly reporting nobody had to reconcile. Dependencies were handled before they turned into missed dates, and the teams held strict client deadlines for 12 months.

By giving communication one spine instead of many threads. On the YNAP re-platform, Salmon's five agile teams delivered against YOOX NET-A-PORTER's strict deadlines, and we sat in the middle: streamlining communication between the client PMO and the internal teams, maintaining transparency through weekly reporting, and coordinating the operational detail (onboarding, equipment and travel) that otherwise leaks into delivery time. When both sides trust the same version of progress, escalations get faster and surprises get rarer. The teams met their deadlines and the client's satisfaction was strong.

Treat transitions as an operational discipline. The YNAP re-platform ran for 12 months across five agile teams, and staff transitions were part of the terrain, so we managed onboarding logistics and equipment centrally. A new joiner arrived to a working setup and a clear picture of the programme, not a fortnight of finding their feet. Weekly reporting and streamlined communication with the client PMO did the rest, and delivery stayed efficient enough to meet strict client deadlines throughout.

Yes. We spent 12 months providing the Scrum Master and PMO backbone on YOOX NET-A-PORTER's £1bn re-platform to IBM WebSphere Commerce, coordinating five agile teams against strict client deadlines that were met. That is e-commerce delivery at serious scale. Staff transitions, onboarding logistics, equipment and travel were handled centrally, communication between the client PMO and the delivery teams ran through one streamlined route, and progress stayed transparent through weekly reporting. The programme closed with strong client satisfaction, which at that size is a statement about coordination more than about any one team.

They did. The teams met the client's deadlines with a high standard of collaboration, and tight operational processes produced a well-executed project and strong client satisfaction. At £1bn scale that is not luck. Five agile teams shared one operating rhythm, communication between the client PMO and the delivery teams ran through a single streamlined channel, and weekly reporting kept progress transparent enough that problems surfaced while they were still cheap. Deadlines hold when coordination is somebody's actual job. That is what the 12-month Scrum Master and PMO engagement existed to do.

If a partner does the building, yes. A retail AI operating model that stops at your own org chart leaves the busiest seam in the programme undesigned, because decisions, dependencies and reporting all have to cross it anyway. YOOX NET-A-PORTER's £1bn e-commerce re-platform was delivered by Salmon across five agile teams, and the coordination backbone was scoped to cover both sides of that boundary rather than the client's side alone. Across 12 months the teams met strict client deadlines and the programme closed with strong client satisfaction. Agents change who does the work, not who has to agree the picture.

Everything that keeps the programme running but does not build anything. On YOOX NET-A-PORTER's £1bn re-platform the PMO layer above the five agile teams owned cross-team dependencies, onboarding logistics, equipment and travel coordination, so a team's own hours went into delivery. Nobody on those teams was chasing kit for a new joiner or assembling a status pack. Weekly reporting came from that layer too, and the client PMO saw one version of progress instead of five. The teams met strict client deadlines across 12 months on that split. Where nobody owns that work, five teams end up doing it badly in the margins.

By making the state of the work visible rather than by issuing instructions. A Scrum Master and PMO backbone manages nobody's people, which was our position across the five agile teams delivering YOOX NET-A-PORTER's £1bn re-platform. What we had instead was one operating rhythm, weekly reporting the client and the delivery teams both trusted, and a single streamlined route for questions between the client PMO and the teams. A dependency or a slip that is visible in the week it happens gets handled by the people who own it, long before it needs an escalation. That held for 12 months against strict client deadlines.

The shared picture, long before the code does. Two teams keep each other honest in a corridor. At five, on something the size of YOOX NET-A-PORTER's £1bn re-platform, dependencies surface late, each team reports progress in its own dialect, and a question to the client takes a different route every time. Nothing looks broken from inside a team, so it tends to get found at a deadline. That is why coordination on that programme was a dedicated Scrum Master and PMO job for 12 months rather than something five team leads squeezed in, and the teams met their deadlines with strong client satisfaction at the close.