THE BACKGROUND
A leading Canadian financial institution envisioned leveraging data and artificial intelligence to revolutionize client experiences and establish a competitive edge in the marketplace. To achieve their ambitious short and long-term strategic objectives, the institution recognized the need for highly efficient delivery processes and practices. Significant advancements were essential across both foundational and experimental initiatives.
Achieving these goals required a well-organized team structure, clear understanding of objectives, and precise budget allocation. Ensuring that teams were aligned, priorities were set, and resources were managed effectively was crucial to driving their data and AI strategy forward.
THE CHALLENGE
The financial institution's data and AI practice was facing significant hurdles in achieving their strategic goals. The primary challenges included: Inconsistent Delivery. The lack of a standardized delivery approach led to missed deadlines and inconsistent project quality, impacting overall business performance.
- Squad Organization, focus, and misalignment between delivery team and leadership. Team organization did not reflect agile best practices and unclear roles caused confusion and hindered cohesive work efforts.
- Backlog Management Issues: Without a systematic approach, backlog management was chaotic, reducing productivity and workflow efficiency.
- Budget Oversight: Poor budget management resulted in inaccurate forecasting and uncontrolled spending, leading to uninformed decision making and frequent budget overruns.
- Low Agile Maturity: Despite adopting agile practices, the teams struggled with implementation, leading to suboptimal processes and limited agile benefits.
These challenges created a complex environment, making it difficult to achieve the institution's strategic objectives.
THE SOLUTION
To tackle these challenges, we provided experienced Scrum Master services across the institution's data and AI practice, focusing on:
Improving delivery effectiveness
Implementing agile best practices and fostering continuous improvement, we standardized delivery processes for predictable and reliable outcomes.
Enhancing transparency and feedback
Establishing clear processes and communication channels, we ensured all stakeholders had visibility into project progress and challenges. Encouraging engagement and continuous feedback.
Optimizing budget management
Introducing disciplined planning and tracking mechanisms, we controlled spending and adhered to budgets, ensuring better financial oversight and informed decision making.
Boosting team culture
Through effective leadership and facilitation, we improved team spirit, cohesion and morale, encouraging collaboration and resolving conflicts.
Elevating an agile mindset
Providing guidance and mentoring, we ingrained agile principles, enabling teams to operate efficiently and adapt to changing demands.
This comprehensive approach addressed immediate challenges and laid the foundation for sustained improvement, resulting in consistent delivery, organized squads, effective backlog and budget management, and higher agile maturity.
THE RESULT
Dura Digital’s scrum master expertise, helped lead the client to significant improvements:
Improved Squad Organization
Expanded from two to four squads, improving Agile focus and team engagement through themed work.
Effective Backlog Management
- Streamlined JIRA boards by squad, increasing clarity and workload visibility.
- Aligned epics with strategy, broken into manageable tasks for quarterly execution.
- Enhanced story grooming with product owner and scrum master oversight.
- Leveraged on JIRA automation to facilitate Epic and Stories decomposition in a standardized manner.
Better Budget Control
Reconciled budget between initial commitments and forecasts, identifying an 11% variance over budget. Regular financial reviews triggered timely decisions, including new hires when budget permitted.
Higher Agile Maturity
- Cultivated urgency and self-sufficiency, reducing reliance on project managers.
- Velocity improved from 57% to 72% over eight sprints, with concise reports accelerating feedback loops.
- Introduced Lead Time to establish a resolution time baseline, and measure CI/CD automation effectiveness.
Increased Team Collaboration
Developed an inclusive, supportive team culture, fostering open communication, feedback, and shared achievements.
These outcomes not only met immediate goals but also established a foundation for future growth in their data and AI initiatives.
Services Provided
- Agile Coaching
- Scrum Master services