Software Company Case Study

Embedding New Ways Of Working

Background

The software house of a hugely respected public body had previously tried and failed with Scrum. They needed innovative digital services that would keep pace with the continually changing environment in which it operated. The leadership had recognised that Scrum was an ideal framework to achieve these outcomes but were struggling to make it stick. Users had become disillusioned with lagging services and expected more than they were getting. The imperative for the organisation was to deliver value quickly to maintain the trust of the user and support the critical capabilities of the organisational.

How We Worked

The first thing Agile Monster did was to try and understand exactly how the organisation wanted to measure success. We did this by 1-1 interviews with key client personnel, augmented with questionnaires. Once we really understood what the client wanted, we could then engage directly with the teams.

Again, the first thing we wanted to understand here was what the team already understood about Agile in general and Scrum specifically. We took a baseline using a ground-breaking survey tool that measured six critical aspects of the team and their environment: Stakeholder Concern, Team Effectiveness, Team Autonomy, Management Support, Responsiveness and Continual Improvement. Once we understood these vital areas, we could then tailor our Incubation Sprint to target those areas of most concern. These tailored workshops were given to each team separately to help build the trust that would be needed for the subsequent steps in their agile coaching journey.

Results

Within 2 weeks of the Incubation Sprint, all 3 teams felt much more confident working with each other within the Scrum Framework. They now had: a common understanding of the Agile Mindset, a Definition of READY, a Definition of DONE., a Team Contract, an agreed method of Relative Estimation, an agreed process for conflict resolution and a Sprint schedule with agreement on how and when Scrum Events would occur plus much more. And most importantly, they now knew why Scrum depends rapid feedback loops gained by a sense of mutual accountability for delivering value to the user quickly.