Agile replaces Waterfall in Finance, Identity Management and GIS

The Agile processes to replace waterfall practices were defined and implemented, while process improvement opportunities were identified for 7 teams and 70 people, located in the USA and India.

The Challenge

• The existing waterfall method culture which had to be replaced by agile at all management levels.

The Intervention

• Initial training and road-map planning with the management for about five days (on-site).
• Coaching the Product Owners in the initial stages of preparing the Product Backlog (off-site).
• Helping the teams with planning and retrospectives in the first two sprints (on-site/off-site).
• Remote Involvement with the teams for 2-3 days in a month (off-site).

The Outcome

• Predictability of the output increased drastically from all the teams. The business teams are able to meet their external commitments to clients, which was not happening earlier.
• Early (daily) detection of development risks helped immediate risk handling.
• Continuous re-prioritization of the work in case of development risks or client changes.
• Teams working in regular hours instead of 12-14 hours as was happening earlier. This also improved the team morale.
• Productivity improved due to test automation and several other process improvements.
• An optimum level of documentation maintained which was absent earlier.
• Tester and developer pairing reduced the number of defects.