Beginning of Agile @ Credit Union
Credit Unions are unique. They have to comply with all financial regulations and be technologically competitive with BIG BANKS. To survive they have to constantly stay ahead by providing the best banking experience for their members (customers are referred as members) without compromising security or compliance to grow and retain their membership base.
Adding Agility is not an easy choice in any financial institute, but it was even tougher in a Credit Union environment that's a 'Not for Profit' organization.
When I joined Credit Union, I realized that they were in a sweet-spot of being Agile for two reasons:
2. Their size; they are a mid-sized financial institute, neither too small or too big.
In 2011, Credit Union was going through the biggest merger in the history of Credit Unions; We have just merged with Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union and the migration project was driven by PMO with a traditional project management method. Adding any kind of Agility at that moment was impossible due to the fact that the project had already started and it was complex.
Once the merger was complete by June 2011, a small project was initiated which had a fixed delivery date and I realized that this project was a perfect candidate for promoting Agile in this organization. But, in just weeks I realized that the team was opposing this change and were not getting used to the SCRUM terms; I decided to step-back and think of a different approach to add some Agility while avoiding distractions.
Instead of using Agile/Scrum terms, I started with Agile principles and came-up with two very generic principles that blend both Agile and Credit Union principles. I asked for:
1. High Project Visibility
2. The Highest Business Value in the Shortest Period of Time
Behind the scenes I was following Scrum, but instead of forcing this change on the team, I asked for high project visibility by clearly defining the roles like Product Sponsor, Product Owner, Team (Development + QA + Analyst) and making sure that every team member knew where they were in the project and who was working on what tasks at all times. I also asked to deliver the highest business value in shortest amount of time by delivering the product in increments based on the Product Owner prioritized list of features. This allowed us to follow two week sprints that delivered a potentially shippable product in short increments.
We had four big successes until now that gave us high visibility and recognition in the organization:
· Management started to realize the value of these two principles and provided their support to continue being Agile.
· Development teams were happy with constant wins and a steady paced delivery of projects, thus increasing productivity.
· QA was over-whelmed with high project visibility and high quality products that eliminated stress during releases.
· Members were excited to see new features on a regular basis.
At Credit Union it is important not to abandon the traditional Waterfall approach and is equally as important to build Agile thinking in the organization. Our goal is to "Educate by Example," not through training sessions.
Looking at the first few project successes, our teams believed that they were just lucky the first time. But when the same teams had continuous victories they were forced to come to the realization that this success was not by luck but from a well-planned effort to utilize Agile to our advantage.
Management has agreed to integrate Agile as part of their PM Office and has directed us to execute all future development projects using Agile.
Our future goal at Credit Union is to provide "Higher Business Value in the Shortest Amount of Time" and continue to use Agile methods as much as possible for all future projects including Enterprise and even Non-Technical projects.
It might take some time for us to gain full support and build a real Agile culture, but we have already seen the benefits of being Agile; the Credit Union was able to deliver more innovative products to their members in the shortest time frame.
Thanks to our Management, making Agile a part of our PM Office makes it easy for all of us to continue being the evangelist and promoter of Agile thinking.
Being Agile in a traditional environment can be challenging but is not impossible if it's approached intelligently and customized the right way.
Disclaimer: This article, is not validated or sponsored by Credit Union. It's wholly a personal experience of our contributor.
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