A large retail corporation utilizes Apex's Agile and Product Management capabilities to assess their current and future state, identify gaps, define their delivery model, and help with training and education.
SITUATION
Driven by a desire to accelerate new products to market, our client, a large retail chain, was seeking a skilled partner to guide and advise them through their Agile transformation. Our client had experienced difficulties in planning and delivering due to cross-team interdependencies and unclear roles and responsibilities. Because they lacked Agile transformation expertise internally, they needed a partner who could assess their current and future-states, analyze gaps, help define their Agile delivery model, and suggest employees best-fit roles to meet objectives. Additionally, our client required assistance training and building employee education around Agile mindset and delivery model to support their efforts long term, beyond the initial transformation.
Agile Adoption in Five Months
SOLUTION
We provided guidance on Agile transformation objectives and set guiding principles based on our client’s current state. Initially facilitating a ‘Big Room’ planning exercise including 70+ team members responsible for delivering software value to market, thereby enabling effective planning and execution. 5 client teams participated, ranging from development and test to program management, to plan collaboratively in the ‘Big Room’ session. Once the guiding principles were set by the group, Our team supported our client through their transformation by:
- Developing training and facilitating learning sessions
- Implementing Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) elements to acclimate teams to delivering with Scrum principles
- Establishing metrics and structures for working in an Agile environment
- Providing coaching and on-the-job education to all five client teams as they began delivering in sprints
- Developing a Scrum Master community and their new Release Train Engineer
RESULT
As a result of our capabilities in Agile, our client was able to successfully adopt their new Agile framework within five months. We provided a toolkit for large-scale planning and coordination, improving product delivery, and predictability. Our solution transformed at least five client teams, including establishing five Scrum Masters and an Agile Release Train of around 70 resources using the program. Our team continued to provide guidance, ongoing coaching, and training as needed while the client was building maturity until they reached a sustainable steady state.
