Introduction

A large Fortune 50 company attempted a large scale agile transformation. After an initial phase of training and assessment, teams were reverting back to old ways of working, and the transformation as a whole was at risk of ending.

Background

A large international company declared they must become agile, and a transformation group formed. Experts were brought in to identify core agile practices, training, and a roll-out schedule that focused on intensive training and assessment with a custom maturity model. It became clear after two years that the transformation stalled out, and people were reverting back to their old way of working and the transformation group needed a new approach.

Approach

My approach was broken down into two main components. The first was to demonstrate results-oriented transformation by working as a coach within a group within the client organization. My efforts focused on identifying agreed-upon pain points, and using agile methods to relieve them while providing metrics to support the improvement.

From this baseline I worked with the head of the transformation to show how to formalize the same type of engagement throughout the organization. This led to creating a set of guidelines for other coaches to better engage in their areas. This further led to working with a team of executives on the overall transformation on creating rapid results.

Conclusion

By the end of my transformation engagement we accomplished a number of things, but the primary one was to save the transformation from stagnation and rejection by shifting to partnering with group leaders on measurable improvements.

Some other results include:

• Improving development capabilities of 500 teams
• Providing predictable measures for delivery
• Improved partnership and relations with the CIO
• Sustained desire for transformation going on 3 years
• Wider adoption of technical practices like CI and automated testing
• Blueprint to rapidly onboard teams and projects in under 3 months