BIP.Monticello was engaged by one of the top four U.S. banks to assist in enhancing their business process management (BPM) system through Agile methodologies. BIP.Monticello’s focus was on practical implementations, emphasizing streamlined customizations alongside their preexisting capabilities. Leveraging our expertise in agile management, we aimed to standardize approaches to product management and optimize their team’s potential to deliver under an aggressive timeline. Key highlights of our engagement centered around:
Team Collaboration and Delivery Risk Mitigation:
Establishing guardrails and processes to minimize delivery risk amid team expansion and scope growth.
Performance-Oriented Agile Culture:
Implementing Agile methodologies and metrics to foster a performance-driven culture within the organization.
PROJECT BACKGROUND:
Our client had stagnated in their agile journey, in figuring out where they could improve next. As a result, the overall product quality began to drop and team morale was beginning to drop in tandem. They needed a fresh perspective on how they can move forward in their agile journey while maintaining their unique work culture. BIP.Monticello applied their novel agile expertise and found improved performance and communication outcomes among development and business teams, resulting in a more cohesive workflow.
ENGAGEMENT OBJECTIVES:
Team Collaboration and Delivery Risk Mitigation:
Our initial objective focused on managing the client's expanding team structure as the initial project has exceeded twice its initial scope. The client was going to increase the team’s resource count by 75% and new communication channels and cadences needed to be implemented. BIP.Monticello instituted new reporting and communication channels through their project hub for business and development leadership communication. BIP.Monticello then introduced SAFe best practices, facilitating cross-team collaboration as a response to mitigate the rising delivery risk. BIP.Monticello introduced SAFe ceremonies to enact feasibility assessments and eliminate workflow impediments as they came up. As an immediate result, these meetings replaced several meetings from developers and managers at all levels and deferred out of scope features for mission critical features.
Performance-Oriented Agile Culture:
BIP.Monticello advised on the implementation of best practice agile metrics and methodologies to identify bottlenecks and identify key performance factors of high output teams as well as inform business leaders on when to pivot. Cycle time and flow velocity as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) enhanced the teams' accuracy in estimating project completion to 98% assurance. BIP.Monticello implemented the agile refinement meeting to clarify requirements within the business day. As a result, feature development was completed 30% faster than their previous release.
BUSINESS VALUE
This engagement underscored the transformational impact of Agile methodologies in enhancing processes, empowering teams, and leveraging technology for organizational success, aligning with strategic business objectives.
Post implementation, the reduction of redundant meetings led to increased focus, saving 2-4 weekly meetings per team member by consolidating discussions into the Scrum of Scrums sessions. This resulted in an additional 1-2 hours daily for focused work.
Introduction of flow velocity metrics enabled leadership to make confident decisions about project scope and timelines, enhancing agility in prioritizing urgent features.
SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Technical Skills Needed: 2/5
Agile Project Management: 5/5
Scale of Project: 3/5
Program Management: 4/5