Enterprise Transformation Leader

Sabrina
C E Noto

Not another agile consultant. Someone who has actually done this. At the highest level, in the hardest environments, with results you can measure.

20+ years across defence, NHS, financial services, retail, utilities, telecoms, and enterprise software. Large-scale programmes spanning Land, Air, and Sea domains. Board level and delivery level simultaneously, because that's the only way change actually lands.

UK & Italian National Contract · Consulting · Permanent
£3M
Cost savings, MBDA
24in18
Months delivered
25%
Faster delivery cycles
40+
Teams transformed
Sabrina C E Noto
NHS Finance Defence Retail Utilities Telecoms Public Sector
Purpose & direction

What drives the work

Vision

To create a working world where transformation is truly human-led: with heart, driven by purpose, and built on trust.

Organisations where leadership is authentic, people feel seen and heard, and change is something that inspires, empowers, and uplifts. Not something to be feared or survived.

Every organisation has the potential to evolve into something better — not just more efficient, but more human, connected, and capable. That is what we work toward, together.

Mission

To empower leaders and organisations to navigate change with clarity, confidence, and agility.

This is hands-on, honest work. Embedded alongside your organisation, not parachuted in from outside. Getting to the heart of what matters. Cutting through complexity and noise. Aligning strategy with real action.

Building leadership capability from the inside out, so that when the work is done, it stays done. Meaningful, lasting, and something your people are proud to be part of.

Goal

Transforming together: clarity, confidence, and EWoW.

Clarity
Cut through complexity. Align strategy with action. Make the path forward visible to everyone, not just those at the top.
Confidence
Build capability from the inside out. Leaders and teams who trust themselves and each other to deliver.
EWoW
Evolved Ways of Working: a methodology built for how organisations actually work, not how frameworks say they should.
Explore EWoW
Why me

What makes me different

"I don't arrive with a framework and leave when it's installed. I stay until the organisation can run without me."

That's the principle behind every engagement. From NHS digital services to large-scale defence programmes to FTSE enterprise software. The goal is always the same: leave the organisation permanently stronger, not permanently dependent.

20+
Years experience
8+
Sectors
70k+
Global community
EW o W EVOLVED WAYS OF WORKING
My methodology Built over 20 years Not a certification
Complex programmes. Real delivery pressure.

I've led transformation across some of the most complex programme environments you'll find: large-scale defence programmes spanning Land, Air, and Sea domains, enterprise software at scale, NHS digital services, and multi-national financial services operations. Real delivery pressure, real consequences, measurable results: 24 months of scope delivered in 18, £3M in savings, transparency where there was none.

I work across every level — at the same time

I coach C-suite executives on adaptive strategy and work with ground-level teams on daily practices in the same engagement. Most consultants sit at one altitude or the other. The ability to move between board-level alignment and team-level delivery, translating fluently between the two, is what makes change actually land rather than stall at middle management.

I build capability, not dependency

My goal on every engagement is to make myself unnecessary. At MBDA I reduced consultancy reliance by 75% by building high-performing internal teams. At IRIS I coached 500+ staff across all levels, creating enduring organisational muscle. Organisations that work with me don't need to keep re-hiring. They leave with the skills, frameworks, and confidence to sustain change on their own.

A methodology I built — not one I was sold

EWoW (Evolved Ways of Working) isn't a certification I hold. It's a model I developed across two decades of watching what actually works when organisations try to change. It blends Agile, Lean, and traditional governance in a way that respects constraints rather than ignoring them. Organisations that work with EWoW end up better at running themselves.

20 years across eight sectors

Defence, NHS, financial services, utilities, telecoms, public sector, retail, enterprise software. Transformation patterns repeat across sectors, but the language, culture, and constraints don't. That breadth means I can recognise what's genuinely a new problem versus a familiar one in unfamiliar clothing, and that pattern recognition accelerates everything.

EW o W EVOLVED WAYS OF WORKING
I've built things, not just advised on them

Direct Agility has been running since 2013. Agile World, which I co-founded, has 70,000+ members globally. I co-created the Scrum Alliance CAL leadership certifications as the UK representative. These aren't lines on a CV. They prove that I understand what it takes to build something from nothing, sustain it, and make it matter.

Outcomes

Measurable results

24→18
Months: scope delivered ahead of schedule

24 months of programme scope delivered in 18 months across MBDA defence programmes, through structured planning, dependency management, and delivery visualisation.

£3M
Cost savings, £1M reinvested into capability

Generated across MBDA's multi-national defence programmes. Approximately £1M reinvested directly into programme improvements and capability building.

25%
Faster delivery cycles

Achieved through structured portfolio planning, OKRs linked to customer milestones, and Lean Portfolio Management across 23+ teams at Direct Agility.

40%
Improvement in transparency

Real-time delivery visualisation via Jira, BigPicture, and Advanced Roadmaps. This gave leadership accurate programme data for the first time across multiple engagements.

40+
Teams transformed at IRIS

Enterprise-wide transformation as Head of Transformation at IRIS Software Group, standardising delivery frameworks across multiple UK locations while maintaining team autonomy.

30%
Improvement in cross-team collaboration

Across programmes where Big Room Planning, quarterly planning cycles, and structured communication cadences were introduced, closing the gap between strategy and delivery.

Career

Professional experience

2023 — Present
Lead Transformation Consultant
MBDA UK Ltd
Defence — Air, Sea & Land

Leading transformation across three large-scale defence programmes spanning Land, Air, and Sea domains simultaneously. Multi-national stakeholder environment across UK, France, Italy, and Germany. Operating at executive level and delivery level across complex engineering, governance, and leadership structures, including programme recovery and realignment where delivery had stalled.

Implemented 2-day Big Room Planning to align leadership, engineering, and delivery teams. Introduced OKRs linked directly to customer and contractual milestones. Established multi-level portfolio governance (Initiatives → Epics → Delivery). Enabled real-time delivery visualisation through Jira, BigPicture, and Advanced Roadmaps. Improved dependency management and risk visibility across complex cross-team interfaces.

Outcome
Delivered 24 months of programme scope in 18 months. Generated £3M in cost savings with ~£1M reinvested into programme capability. Measurable improvements in delivery predictability, cross-domain alignment, and leadership confidence.
2021 — 2022
Enterprise Agile Coach
888 / William Hill
Financial Services / Gaming

Supported transformation across UK, Malta, and Poland operations. Shifted the organisation from annual to quarterly planning cycles. Established Agile Centres of Excellence and coached Scrum Masters into Agile Performance Leads, a capability uplift that outlasted the engagement.

Outcome
Improved planning cadence, investment alignment, and leadership confidence across a geographically distributed organisation.
2020 — 2021
Senior Transformation & Leadership Coach
Mastek / NHS Digital / NHS England
Public Sector / Healthcare

Supported organisational shift from project-based to product-focused delivery during a period of intense pressure on NHS digital services. Coached senior leaders and teams on new operating models, increasing predictability and stakeholder confidence.

Outcome
Improved delivery predictability and stakeholder satisfaction by aligning investment and resources with value-driven outcomes.
2019 — 2021
Head of Agile & Transformation
IRIS Software Group
Enterprise Software

Led enterprise-wide transformation across 40+ teams and multiple UK locations. Standardised delivery frameworks while maintaining team autonomy, a balance most transformation programmes get wrong. Improved leadership visibility of delivery progress and risks across a complex, distributed organisation.

Outcome
Scalable agile adoption across distributed teams. Leadership now had real-time visibility of delivery status and risk, for the first time.
2021
Agile Consultant
Greggs plc
Retail & Consumer

Defined enterprise agility framework and supported the transformation roadmap across a well-known, operationally complex consumer business.

2020 — 2021
Senior Transformation & Leadership Coach
Mastek / NHS Digital / NHS England
Public Sector / Healthcare

Delivered transformation and leadership coaching across public sector organisations during a period of intense pressure on NHS digital services. Transitioned organisations from project-based to product-focused delivery models. Coached senior leadership on organisational design and delivery strategy.

Outcome
Improved delivery predictability and stakeholder satisfaction by aligning investment and resources with value-driven outcomes.
2013 — Present
Director & Transformation Consultant
Direct Agility / Direct Agile Ltd
Consultancy — Multi-Sector

Founded and led transformation programmes across defence, utilities, telecoms, finance, and public sector organisations. Designed and embedded Evolved Ways of Working (EWoW). Partnered with executive boards on Target Operating Model design, strategic goals, portfolio governance, and cross-functional delivery alignment. Built enterprise-wide delivery visualisation ecosystems using Jira, Confluence, and Advanced Roadmaps.

Outcome
25% faster delivery cycles, +30% collaboration, +40% transparency across programmes. 23+ teams aligned to strategy through structured portfolio management.
2004 — 2018
Earlier Roles
Environment Agency / DEFRA · MoneySuperMarket · Northumbrian Water · EE / Orange
Government · Utilities · Telecoms · FinServ

Transformation Lead, Delivery Lead, Agile PM, and Senior QA & Technical Delivery roles across regulated industries. Modernised delivery approaches, improved service resilience, and built cross-functional collaboration in complex, compliance-driven environments. The grounding that informs every enterprise engagement today.

Portfolio

Work & thinking

Case studies

Anonymised to protect client confidentiality
Defence · Multi-Programme

Delivering 24 months of scope in 18 — across three simultaneous defence programmes

Programme Recovery Portfolio Governance Multi-national
Situation
Three large-scale defence programmes across Land, Air, and Sea domains with no unified delivery visibility. Leadership across UK, France, Italy, and Germany was operating in silos. Milestones were being missed. There was no single view of risk or dependency across work packages.
What I did
Introduced multi-level portfolio governance (Initiatives → Epics → Delivery). Implemented 2-day Big Room Planning to align leadership, engineering, and delivery across nations. Introduced OKRs linked directly to customer and contractual milestones. Deployed real-time delivery visualisation via Jira, BigPicture, and Advanced Roadmaps, giving leadership accurate programme data for the first time.
Outcome
24 months of programme scope delivered in 18 months. £3M in cost savings with ~£1M reinvested into programme capability. Cross-domain alignment and delivery predictability established for the first time across all three programmes.
Enterprise Software · 40+ Teams

Unifying fragmented delivery across a 40-team enterprise — without losing autonomy

Operating Model OKR Design Scale
Situation
A fast-growing enterprise software organisation with 40+ delivery teams across multiple UK locations operating independently: no shared planning cadence, no consistent delivery framework, and leadership with no visibility of cross-team progress or risk. Investment decisions were being made without reliable data.
What I did
Designed and implemented a scalable delivery operating model, standardising frameworks while preserving team autonomy. Embedded OKRs, quarterly planning cycles, and leadership forums across all 40+ teams. Coached 500+ staff at every level. Built real-time delivery visibility for the executive team for the first time.
Outcome
Fragmented delivery unified into a coherent, transparent ecosystem. 25% improvement in delivery cycle speed. Leadership gained real-time visibility of status and risk across all teams — enabling confident investment decisions for the first time.
Financial Services · Multi-Country

Shifting a global organisation from annual planning to quarterly delivery — in three countries

Planning Transformation Capability Building Leadership Coaching
Situation
A major financial services organisation operating across UK, Malta, and Poland on annual planning cycles: too slow to respond to market change, investment misaligned with delivery capacity, Scrum Masters without the skills or authority to drive improvement. Leadership sceptical of agile practices.
What I did
Designed and implemented a shift from annual to quarterly planning cycles across all three geographies simultaneously. Established Agile Centres of Excellence in each location. Coached Scrum Masters into Agile Performance Leads with real organisational authority. Built leadership confidence through targeted coaching and visible early wins.
Outcome
Planning cadence transformed across three countries. Investment decisions now aligned to delivery capacity. Internal capability built to sustain the change — no ongoing external support required.

The EWoW Model

Evolved Ways of Working — my methodology
EW o W EVOLVED WAYS OF WORKING

"It's not about frameworks — it's about evolving organisations in ways that stick."

EWoW is an adaptive, human-centred approach I developed across two decades of hands-on transformation. It blends Agile, Lean, and traditional methodologies — not to replace what works, but to evolve it. It covers the full transformation stack: from Target Operating Model design and portfolio governance through to team-level delivery practices.

Applicable to
Head of Transformation Director of Transformation Portfolio Director Programme Director TOM Lead Strategy Execution Programme Recovery
T
Target Operating Model design

Designing the organisation you need to become: structure, ways of working, governance, and capability. Then choosing the tools and methods to get there.

P
Portfolio governance & delivery

LPM, investment prioritisation, and funding decisions that connect board intent to programme execution. Including programme recovery.

S
Strategy execution

OKRs, quarterly planning, and cascaded goals that close the gap between what leadership decides and what teams deliver.

A
Adaptive governance

Governance that enables speed. Critical in regulated, defence, and complex programme environments.

C
Capability, not dependency

Every engagement builds internal skills. Success means the organisation no longer needs external support.

Evolved Ways of Working — EWoW
A complete transformation system — from strategic vision to daily team delivery. Click any tab to explore.
The EWoW delivery hierarchy connects strategic intent to team-level execution. Each level feeds the next — top-down direction, bottom-up visibility. Click any box for detail.
Strategic
Vision
The north star. Shared direction that gives meaning to every team's work.
Strategic goals & OKRs
Measurable outcomes linked directly to customer and contractual milestones.
Portfolio
Big Room Planning
Quarterly 1.5–2 day event. All teams. Commitment, visibility, risks.
Initiatives
Direction and milestones set by senior leads. Prioritisation of key activities.
Value stream mapping
Aligns structure around value delivery, not silos.
Programme
Epics
Breakdown of Initiatives. Owned by engineering leads. Key BRP output.
LPM & programme syncs
Bi-weekly cross-functional visibility on delivery, risk, dependencies.
Team
Stories & tasks
Daily delivery. Real-time Jira tracking. 15-min team syncs.
Team syncs
Psychological safety, accountability, collaboration. Agile or traditional.
Top-down → Vision Initiatives Epics Stories ← Bottom-up visibility
Four pillars define the operating structure. Each has its own delivery and communication method. All four must work together — no pillar succeeds in isolation.
01
Leadership
Vision, strategic goals, board-level alignment
02
Programme planning
LPM, BRP, portfolio governance
03
Engineering delivery
Epics, engineering leads, work packages
04
Team delivery
Stories, tasks, daily syncs, Jira
Select a pillar above to see its responsibilities.
The EWoW coach works across all four pillars
Each pillar lead is the domain expert. The EWoW coach provides the connective tissue — ensuring methods, tools, and rhythms work across all four simultaneously.
The EWoW communication rhythm provides structured visibility at every level — from board to team. Each sync has a distinct purpose and audience.
Quarterly
Big Room Planning
1.5–2 day event. All teams + leadership + engineering. Sets Initiatives and Epics. Gathers blockers, risks, opportunities.
InitiativesEpics committedCross-team deps
Bi-weekly
Leadership LPM sync
Reviews delivery progress. Addresses issues and risks. Real-time visualisation fed bottom-up from team boards.
Delivery healthRisk escalationDecisions
Weekly
Engineering sync
Engineering and function leads. Progress in Jira. Blockers feed upward. Cross-function collaboration.
ProgressBlockersCross-function
Daily / 3x week
Team sync
15 minutes maximum. Progress, blockers, collaboration. Psychological safety and team accountability.
ProgressBlockersAccountability
Continuous
Real-time visualisation
Data flows bottom-up through team → engineering → leadership boards. One view of whole-programme health at any time.
Bottom-up dataLive view
The principle
"Data top-down, bottom-up in the day-to-day real-time. Traditional governance and evolved delivery — working together, not against each other."
EWoW uses two complementary tools — each with a distinct purpose. They are not integrated via API. They run in parallel, informing each other through structured process.
Primavera P6
The north star
Master schedule, cost estimates, technical risk, resourcing, and milestones. The contractual baseline. Provides the "now and future" view that anchors all delivery decisions.
Master schedule & critical path
Business & customer milestones
Estimated cost & FTE resource
Schedule risk analysis & baseline
Managed by planning & project controls. Time Now Updates (TNU) keep the schedule current.
Jira
Real-time delivery
Holds the issues teams need to perform over the quarter to achieve Initiatives and OKRs. Day-to-day delivery visualisation, task flow, and progress tracking.
Real-time Epics & Stories tracking
BigPicture for programme-level view
Advanced Roadmaps for planning
LPM Kanban board for leadership
Data flows bottom-up: team boards → engineering board → leadership LPM board.
Why no API integration between P6 and Jira?
P6 is a contractual planning and costing tool. Jira is a real-time delivery visualisation tool. They serve different purposes at different cadences. Automating the link creates data conflicts and undermines both systems. The two run in parallel — informing each other through structured process (BRP, TNU, programme syncs), not automation.
EWoW maps to the 6 Enablers of Business Agility — ensuring transformation covers the full organisational system, not just delivery processes.
1
Organisational culture
OKRs promote transparency and outcomes over outputs
Psychological safety built through team sync structure
Continuous improvement through retrospectives
2
Leadership & management
Leadership sync ensures alignment and intentional steering
Vision and goals set and communicated by leaders
Adaptive decisions enabled by real-time data
3
Organisational structure
Work package syncs coordinate across delivery structures
Value stream mapping aligns structure to value, not silos
Four-pillar model provides clear ownership at every level
4
People & engagement
Team syncs empower teams and foster psychological safety
Big Room Planning drives engagement and shared ownership
Agile, Kanban, or traditional, adapted to context
5
Governance & funding
OKRs tie funding decisions to outcomes, not projects
BRP aligns prioritisation and funding with value streams
Work package sync governs deliverables across horizons
6
Ways of working
Agile, Kanban, traditional: core to team-level delivery
Sync cadence supports continuous learning loops
Value stream mapping drives leaner ways of working

Thought leadership

Ready to publish on Direct Agility blog
Target Operating Model

Why TOM design fails before implementation even starts

Most Target Operating Models fail not in execution but in design. The org chart gets drawn, the layers get named, and everyone assumes the hard work is done. It isn't. The hard work is answering three questions that most TOM processes never ask: What decisions need to be made differently? What behaviours need to change? And what does the organisation need to stop doing? Without those answers, even the best-designed model will be ignored within six months of launch.

TOM Lead Director of Transformation
Publish on Direct Agility →
Portfolio Governance

The real reason portfolio governance breaks down — and it's not the framework

Every portfolio governance failure I've seen has had the same root cause: the people making investment decisions don't trust the data they're being given. Not because the data is wrong — though it often is — but because the people producing it don't understand what decisions are actually being made. Governance breaks down at the seam between leadership intent and delivery reality. Fix that seam and the framework almost doesn't matter.

Portfolio Director Head of Portfolio
Publish on Direct Agility →
Programme Recovery

The first 90 days in a programme that's already behind schedule

Walking into a programme that's in trouble is one of the most demanding things a transformation leader does. Everyone is defensive, the data is unreliable, and the pressure to show quick wins conflicts with the need to properly diagnose what's wrong. I've done it multiple times. The pattern is always the same: the stated problem is rarely the real problem. The first 90 days aren't about fixing anything — they're about earning enough trust to find out what actually needs fixing.

Programme Director Recovery Specialist
Publish on Direct Agility →

Speaking & media

Podcast & Events

Agile World

Co-founder and CEO of the Agile World global platform — podcast, events, and community spanning 70,000+ members across languages, geographies, and economic backgrounds. Regular speaker and host on enterprise transformation, leadership, and ways of working.

Visit Agile World
Conference & Festival

Agile20 Reflect Festival

CMO and Trustee of the Agile20 Reflect Festival — an international conference shaping how the global transformation community thinks about leadership, delivery, and organisational change. Conference speaker and facilitator across multiple events.

Speaking footage coming soon
Contact me directly to discuss speaking engagements
Affiliations

Professional contributions

Scrum Alliance
Co-creator, CAL Certifications

UK representative and co-creator of the Certified Agile Leadership (CAL) certification programme — shaping how agile leadership is defined and taught globally.

Agile World
Co-Founder & CEO

Global podcast and events platform with 70,000+ community members. Agile World makes agile knowledge accessible across languages, geographies, and economic backgrounds.

Agile20 Reflect Festival
CMO & Trustee

Shaping industry conversations through global events. Conference speaker, facilitator, and regular contributor to the international agile and transformation community.

Recommendations

What clients say

Sabrina has been an amazing leader in agile transformation, always prioritising customer needs and team inclusivity. Her flexibility and willingness to adapt have driven exceptional outcomes, building a collaborative environment where everyone's skills shine.

Rachel Penfold
Agile Practitioner, MBDA

Sabrina excels in driving organisational transformation and leadership empowerment. Her expertise in Agile frameworks, Lean principles, OKRs, and quarterly planning ensures meaningful business outcomes. Her warmth and strategic focus make her a trusted partner.

Michael Royle
Chief Engineer & Head of Spear-EW, MBDA

If you're looking for an empathetic Agile coach who truly understands technology, Sabrina is your go-to. She excels in coaching everyone from executives to team members, making her the perfect partner for any transformation journey.

Keith Williams
Director, IRIS Software Group

With her encyclopaedic knowledge and real-world Agile experience, Sabrina stands out as the best Agile coach I've worked with. Her collaborative, patient, and practical approach helps teams achieve transformative results, even in challenging environments.

Colin Lacey
Head of Product Management, IRIS

Sabrina is like a photon: dynamic, impactful, and able to connect at every level. Her leadership, technical understanding, and human touch made her indispensable. She's an inspiring force who truly appreciates her team's hard work.

Mahesh Krishnamoorthy
Shop Direct

Sabrina is the most passionate and down-to-earth coach I've met. Her ability to listen, ask insightful questions, and mentor Scrum Masters and leadership is unmatched. Her energy and support create a genuinely fun and engaging workplace.

Mugdha Gadre
888 / William Hill
Sectors

Sector experience

Defence & Aerospace MBDA — 3 programmes
Healthcare / NHS NHS Digital / England
Financial Services 888 / William Hill
Enterprise Software IRIS Software Group
Utilities Northumbrian Water, DEFRA
Telecoms EE / Orange
Retail & Consumer Greggs, MoneySuperMarket
Public Sector Environment Agency

If delivery is the problem,
let's talk.

I work with boards, heads of transformation, and programme directors who need someone who can operate at executive level and make change real at the delivery level. Simultaneously. Whether you're designing a Target Operating Model, building portfolio governance from scratch, recovering a programme under pressure, or embedding lasting transformation across a complex organisation: get in touch directly.

Looking to work with me?

Direct Agility is my consultancy — one-to-one transformation support, tailored to your organisation. No jargon, no fluff, just honest advice and real-world experience.

Visit Direct Agility
Core capabilities & tools
Enterprise Transformation Target Operating Model Portfolio Governance Lean Portfolio Management Programme Recovery Strategy Execution Operating Model Design OKR Design & Cascade Big Room Planning Governance & Risk Investment Prioritisation Complex Programmes Defence Programmes Leadership Coaching C-suite Influence Cultural Change Agile · Lean · Hybrid Value Stream Mapping Jira BigPicture Advanced Roadmaps Primavera P6 Confluence Miro
Thinking

Latest writing

I write about transformation, leadership, and ways of working — the things I see every day that don't make it into case studies. All posts live on the Direct Agility blog and on LinkedIn.

Transformation

Why most transformation programmes fail before they start

The problem isn't the methodology. It's that the organisation was never actually ready, and nobody said so. Here's what readiness really looks like.

Read on Direct Agility →
Leadership

The gap between strategy and delivery isn't a process problem

Every leadership team I've worked with knows what they want to achieve. Most can't tell you how that intent reaches the teams doing the work.

Read on Direct Agility →
Ways of Working

Agile in regulated environments: what the textbook gets wrong

Governance and compliance aren't the enemy of agility. But applying frameworks without adapting them to real constraints is a guaranteed way to fail.

Read on Direct Agility →
All posts on Direct Agility Follow on LinkedIn
Beyond the work

The person behind the programmes

Outside of work I live with two miniature dachshunds, Izzabella and Annabella, who have strong opinions about everything and absolutely no interest in governance frameworks. They keep me grounded in a way no methodology ever could.

I train daily. The discipline that comes from showing up consistently, regardless of how you feel, applies equally well in the gym and in a programme that's three months behind schedule.

I'm also mid-way through a home renovation. Anyone who has managed a building project will tell you it has a lot in common with enterprise transformation. Unclear scope, competing priorities, stakeholders with different visions of the end state, and a budget that always needs revisiting. I find this oddly comforting.

UK & Italian

Dual nationality, which makes multi-national programme environments feel very familiar.

Agile World

Co-founder and CEO of a global podcast and events platform with 70,000+ members. Built from scratch alongside everything else.

Scrum Alliance

UK representative and co-creator of the Certified Agile Leadership certifications, shaping how leadership is taught globally.

Agile20 Reflect

CMO & Trustee. Conference speaker and facilitator across the international transformation community.

Sabrina C E Noto