The pressure of implementing a scalable agile delivery model is nothing new for banks. It has become a question of when and how to start the change – resulting in many transformation initiatives around the globe and across the financial industry. Key drivers to embark on such an enormous effort are improving customer centricity, faster time-to-market, and operating cost reduction. Common success stories of implementing effective agile delivery models include UX/UI improvements in mobile banking applications, faster reaction to ever-changing compliance requirements (e.g., sanction lists), and economies of scale from integration of IT and operations in cross-functional teams thereby reducing overhead. These success stories have put modern delivery on the agenda of every financial institution. 

There are many common challenges we have observed in financial services during the evolution from a traditional waterfall model into a fully agile enterprise. There have been cultural challenges, suitability of technical infrastructure, right sizing governance and reporting structures – just to name a few. There is plenty of literature on how to tackle those topics, but in practice we observed one game-changing practice helping to overcome many of these pitfalls: Top-down budgeting. 

So what do we mean by top-down budgeting in an agile transformation context and why is it such a crucial factor? Download our latest whitepaper to learn more.