Situation
A workers’ compensation insurance provider was experiencing inconsistent deliveries, poor predictability, and slow speed to market. It engaged Sketch after attending a Sketch workshop with the Mid-Missouri PMI. Options for improvement included implementing basic agile practices, prioritization across stakeholders, reviewing current processes, and clarifying roles and responsibilities for product owners and Scrum Masters.
1. Missed deadlines
Every year, one team needed to update one of its core systems with new data, representing product configurations for the new year. The deadline for the update was early February, but the process always took until late March or April to complete.
2. Stalled projects
A second team was building a replacement for an existing system. An external vendor had analyzed the situation and created a large specification document. A separate vendor was hired to build the new system in conjunction with our client’s staff, but the effort was behind schedule. The client had yet to achieve any usable functionality. Leadership wanted ways to release incrementally and begin capturing value from their investment.
3. Immature agile methodologies
Our client had decided to make lean/ agile processes a core skill within their technology group, but none of the teams had deep experience in the area. Scrum Masters and Product Owners were struggling to understand expectations and how to help their teams improve. While they had attended agile classes in the past, they realized they needed help incorporating theoretical concepts into actual daily operations.
Get back on track
We began with a bootcamp for the development teams to establish a common understanding of the principles and practices we would apply. We also conducted a half-day session for leadership throughout the organization to understand the fundamentals, as some changes would impact the way the technology teams interacted with other departments.
Agile consulting approach
Following the training, a coach worked directly with teams and individuals to help them apply the concepts in their real-world operations:
- Attending each team’s Scrum events and providing guidance in the moment as questions came up, as well as feedback to the Scrum Master on ways to better facilitate them
- Facilitated workshops on estimation, story writing, and story splitting to apply concepts from training to each team’s backlog
- 1-on-1 coaching with key roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Management) to tackle specific questions and provide guidance based on direct observations
- Pairing with developers and testers to help with technical practices
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