CASE STUDY: Agility implemented in an insurance company
Before beginning any change process, it is crucial to identify the challenges and needs of the business.
The teams organized a preliminary investigation carried out with the insurance company's services. At the end of this survey, the results showed a low level of agile maturity of the team, particularly on subjects such as transversality, team identity and iteration speed. The data provided a better understanding of individual and collective concerns.
Especially :
- Lack of communication between teams and business partners arising from the waterfall approach (waterfall) of the company in terms of product management;
- Overly cautious and slow mentalities that harm the advancement of the company;
- Obsolete software and technological shortcomings which caused a lot of wasted time and consumed a lot of manpower;
- The abundance of paperwork;
- Inter-team dependency: Stress levels increase when a team member is stuck and must wait for help from a colleague focused on other work. “This can lead to project delays, strained relationships and trust issues with business partners, who question whether products will be delivered according to original specifications and on time. »
- Outdated facilities, including isolated workspaces and limited collaboration areas.
read also: Implementing agile transformation
It was therefore necessary “provide tools to enable the organization to create the agile framework within which each individual team could work”. It was therefore not a question of providing a plan to build the company but of providing the tools and a vision to do so. This facilitates acceptance of change and strengthens the ability to adapt to the client's needs while allowing the team to determine how to work together. This is how the agile coaches suggested recommendations.
- Strengthen existing Agile practices by emphasizing the appropriation of responsibility for technical quality by teams, self-organization and continuous learning,
- Establish the use of a plan and a long-term project vision with forecast budgeting and empirical control of processes,
- Establish “fit for purpose” in discussions and decision-making using the Lean Canvas and acceptance criteria.
The strategic planning phase was therefore initiated using an organizational change tool: the Agile strategic map™. This allowed the company to consider and identify the success criteria necessary to move forward and become more agile.
From then on, it was necessary to define the levels of responsibility and priority, develop the “Growth Mindset” of the teams (culture of continuous improvement), put in place rules common to all and create an organized and hierarchical working framework. while setting clear delivery expectations. Thus, the coaches proceeded to:
- The establishment of a backlog initial product. This database allows product owners (Product Owner) provide newly launched teams with a clear understanding of the work to be done and the level of priority per value set;
- Team training, followed by a team charter day. She focused on agile practices while addressing the importance of Scrum events. For example, when it comes to sprint planning, although product owners bring in the work, it is the team's responsibility to say what they can commit to actually doing. “The goal is to establish agreement between the team and the product owner on what kind of value can be delivered over the next two weeks”;
- The culture of continuous improvement and innovation. Defining a team charter in addition to the Scrum values (commitment, courage, concentration, openness and respect) effectively makes it possible to create a culture that promotes sharing, learning and improvement. continuous for the teams and products developed;
- Encouraging teams to establish group norms. Like the fact that electronic devices are banned during meetings (even personal laptops). This rule is particularly beneficial when Daily Scrum when everyone must contribute to inspecting and synchronizing the team's progress towards the goal of the sprint;
- Team coaching by allowing all team members to have access to online coaching resources.
At the end of the process we could observe:
- Connected, autonomous and fulfilled teams
- Ease of communication
- Positive feedback from users
- Collaborative work
- Satisfied suppliers
read also Agile Method and Management by Evidence
At the end of the three months of intervention by the coaches, the teams became autonomous and the company gained agile maturity for the rest of its transition.
Do you also want to take the next step and start your own agile transformation? Or do you want to consolidate your transition process? Contact us to discuss
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