As banks emerge as tech companies, keeping up with industry peers, mitigating threats from competitors, and equipping themselves with the latest technology is critical in the value chain. Our client, a large UK bank, recognized this and decided to transform to Agile working methods to stay ahead in the ever-evolving market. By embracing Agile ways of working, the bank can now take advantage of opportunities in new technology and be more adaptable and responsive to dynamic business needs. It would also enable their customers to take advantage of the latest technologies.
With over 15 years of experience, we have engaged in various Lines of Business (LOBs) with this bank, which chose us again for their Agile transformation project. Our critical focus points for the project were:
- A unified way of working across service lines
- Transparency throughout the chain
- Excellent communication between agile coaches
The client was facing some significant challenges that were affecting their business outcomes in multiple areas which included:
- Inconsistent alignment of their playbook and blueprint
- Difficulty adapting and sustaining practical and effective working methods
- Struggling to drive their target operating model across all service lines from the top down.
Despite having Agile transformation on their radar for years, they were unsuccessful in implementation until they engaged Virtusa to lead the way.
Onboarding
Designed to bring newly formed POD teams up to the minimum level of operational agility. This 8-week program assesses the team's current maturity level and starts the coaching to increase by at least one maturity level.
Incubation
Driving cross-pollination through role-based chapters and communities of practice (COPs). Our goal is to stabilize the implementation of ceremonies and make them self-sustained with clear roles and responsibilities. In the next four weeks, we will observe and assess the sustainability of what we've taught and make adjustments where needed.
Maturity coaching
We helped them institutionalize practices and scale their maturity by 2-3 levels. Our minimum 4+ week program gave our clients the tools and resources to succeed.
Our solution also included the following:
- Multiple Hub-and-Spoke models
- Agile practices for teams at different levels, including central team, line of business, and service line levels
- Open chapters for product owners and Scrum Masters at the service line level so that the client can create communities of practice explicitly tailored to their individual needs.
- Community of practice across the entire wholesale IT instead of only at the service line level
- Breaking the silos of different service lines and bringing them together in a chapter to share best practices for work.
- Dashboard for visualizing metrics across various agile, engineering, and DevOps practices to view real-time progress and take corrective measures.