Across the financial services industry, organisations are increasingly seeking ways to improve and modernise their approach to end-to-end delivery, and adopting Agile practices continues to be the key method of achieving this goal. In this article, we look at lessons learnt and best practices from our recent successes of launching Agile release trains (ARTs).
According to the latest State of Agile report, among the firms who see Agile as a priority, 52 percent want to increase their speed to market and 44 percent are looking to ensure predictability in their delivery.1 The report further confirms that the adoption rates of SAFe – scaled Agile framework – increased from 37 to 53 percent in 2022. We are seeing similar increase rates of SAFe among the organizations Capco works with.
A key concept within SAFe is the introduction of an Agile release train. In its most simple form, an ART is a group of teams which are brought together under a single governance layer to incrementally develop and deliver continuous value to a customer or end-user. ARTs help remove traditional silos and bring business and technology teams together under a shared vision and purpose.
A key aspect of SAFe is the concepts of program increment (PI), where planning and delivering takes place in 8-12-week timeboxes, with each team working on an agreed plan and operating in two-week sprints. In addition, the ART model offers other significant benefits, which organizations may be less familiar with.
Based on our Adaptive Delivery practice’s recent successes in launching ARTs across the industry, we highlight key lessons learnt and best practices which can help organizations considering a transition to this model in 2023 and beyond.
1. Tailor your approach: Don’t be afraid to throw away the textbook
As a framework, SAFe provides all of the content and theory organizations need to launch an ART, but the practicalities behind this are not always achievable. Apply the 80-20 rule and tailor your approach based upon the structure of your organization and your business needs and outcomes.
An example of this is simplifying the agenda of PI planning, which historically have taken place over two full working days at a single physical location. Across the industry, organizations have embraced hybrid and remote working, and given the global nature and complexity of many financial services organizations and their agile teams working across multiple time zones, don’t be afraid to ‘throw away the textbook’ and run a reduced agenda. By tailoring your approach, you’ll find that many of the traditional activities such as the allocation of new work, team breakouts to develop plans and the drafting of each team’s PI objectives can be pre-determined and take place ‘offline’ ahead of Day 1 of PI planning to help reduce the overall time commitment required from global stakeholders.
2. Encourage collaboration: Ensure everyone communicates
Whilst one of the key benefits of an ART is bringing business and IT under one layer, collaboration between these teams doesn’t automatically happen overnight. Understand who your key sponsors and stakeholders are within the ART are and ensure that they a) attend regular governance forums and any subsequent breakout sessions, b) contribute to these sessions and provide their SME knowledges to drive the ART forward, and c) are encouraged to communicate and collaborate with each other outside of key sessions.
Once PI planning has been completed and each team is working on their agreed plans, there is a temptation for teams to operate in silos. Running key sessions such as a regular Scrum of Scrums, mid-PI reviews and retrospectives will encourage collaboration amongst the ART and enable best practices and lessons learned to be shared amongst the teams.
3. Go the extra mile: Tooling and reporting are key
Setting up and establishing best in class tooling and creating sophisticated reporting is critical to the management and success of any ART. 83 percent of Fortune 500 companies are now using Jira to manage their projects.2 We have seen this work effectively first hand across the organizations we’re working with.
Whilst creating a robust governance and reporting structure on Jira is key, go that extra mile by utilising the built-in capabilities of Confluence, which can be linked to Jira to enable sophisticated, real-time reporting through the creation of various dashboards and pages. Both Jira and Confluence enable real-time data-driven reporting that is connected to the delivery and flow of work. These tools can be tailored and automated to provide the building blocks of how you manage your end-to-end delivery, facilitate your regular ART governance forums and provide clear visibility and transparency into your pipeline across the ART.
4. Be patient: Change takes time
Anybody who has worked on or been involved with a large-scale transformation knows that embedding change takes time, especially when it comes to driving change in people. Research shows that 46 percent of people within an Agile transformation are resistant to change and do not recognise the full benefits of Agile3, and we have witnessed this on our projects.
When launching an ART, it is important to remind yourself that many of the colleagues involved in this transformation will be both familiar and comfortable with their existing ways of working and processes, which may have been in place for many years. Agile transformations take time and the key is to remain patient. For many colleagues within an ART, the change won’t happen overnight and it may often take two full PIs for them to start seeing the full benefits. Despite this, some tangible incremental benefits will emerge from the first PI, such as increased transparency. Over time colleagues will realise the benefits of attending key governance forums, introducing the ‘weighted shortest job first’ (WSJF) model to prioritise the backlog and updating Jira tickets on a regular basis. In the long term, further benefits such as increased speed to market, improved scalability and ongoing visibility into your pipeline and end-to-end lifecycle will also be realized.
As part of a continued focus on increasing the use of Agile methodologies, financial services firms are using SAFe as a framework and launching Agile release trains to help take significant strides on their Agile transformation journeys. While adhering to the ‘textbook’ will help along the way, it is important to tailor your approach based upon the structure, needs and goals of your organization. Leadership and people are key to the success of any ART, so encouraging collaboration is crucial as is allowing sufficient time for change to take place.
Contact us to learn more about this topic and how Capco can help you implement SAFe, launch ARTs and accelerate your Agile transformations.
1 https://digital.ai/resource-center/analyst-reports/state-of-agile-report/
2 https://everhour.com/blog/how-to-use-jira/#:~:text=According%20to%20Atlassian%2C%2083%25%20of,for%20their%20project%20management%20needs
3 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-only-42-agile-projects-succeed-how-coaches-can-seyed/?trk=pulse-article