Agile Transformation for Cross-Functional Teams

Background

Casumo, an online casino in the sports betting markets, approached Symphony Solutions in 2020 for an Agile Transformation to improve cross-team collaboration. Symphony Solutions’ Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) conducted assessments and provided Agile training for the team and leadership. The solution enabled a neutral view of bottlenecks, more efficient collaboration with technical teams, and a consistent focus on delivering customer value. A ten-step action plan was presented, resulting in minor fixes and ongoing process improvements. The Agile transformation brought positive change and optimization in the way the company operates. 

Client

Casumo is an award-winning online casino formed in 2012, operating on sports betting markets in Malta, the UK, Sweden, and Denmark. The company started out offering only casino games. Since 2018, they have expanded to sports betting through a partnership with another Sports Betting Experience Company.

Challenges

Casumo decided to reach out to Symphony to improve and develop a built-in quality approach and cross-team collaborative process for the delivery department that would later extend to the company overall.   

Solution

Symphony Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) office arranged assessment sessions as the main part of our Agile assessment services to detect any pain points, bottlenecks and apply root cause analysis that would enable further growth. 

Symphony LACE office adjusted its two-day Scrum Basics Course and conducted three full-fledged courses for different company levels in the course of our Agile training services for teams. These were remote trainings presented to a large number of participants. 

At Team Level

Scrum Basics Course introduced Casumo teams to Agile principles and Scrum basics. Certified trainers gave them practical skills to accommodate using Scrum in day-to-day work, sprint planning, execution, review. All covered topics included interactive discussions, practical exercises, workshops, process simulations.  

At the Product Management Level

1-day course for Product management level focused on the team and technical Agility, Agile product delivery, adept prioritization, Agile product predictability. A balance between the theoretical part and practice allowed the team in training to build a strong knowledge foundation, all the while developing a practical skillset to improve collaboration and team efficiency and prepare for work on real projects. 

At Business and C-Level 

A separate course for leadership from different departments offered a more long-term strategic approach to the company’s Agile transformation. This course introduced the Agile approach to the Leadership team across departments. Its purpose was to bring Agile fluency to the entire organization that would eventually help the client in reaching overall Business Agility.  

A ten-step action plan with recommendations customized per analysis and assessment results has been passed on to the customer:  

• Organize cross-functional teams – Small, self-managing, and autonomous teams consisting of specialists of diverse backgrounds and skillsets that consistently focus on delivering value. This is important as it promotes collaboration, accountability, and ownership, and encourages teams to focus on delivering value to customers. 

• Establish clear communication channels and escalation points for effective collaboration. This recommendation is essential to ensure that all team members are aware of their roles and responsibilities, and that there is a clear line of communication between them. This helps to avoid misunderstandings and ensures that issues are resolved promptly. 

• Foster agile framework process alignment. By aligning the agile framework processes, the team can work together effectively and efficiently. This recommendation would help to improve the overall productivity and quality of the team’s work. 

• Adjust roles and responsibilities to customer needs. This recommendation helps to ensure that the team is meeting the customer’s needs and requirements. It ensures that each team member is aware of their responsibilities and is working towards a common goal. 

• Shorten the feedback loop between development and business. By shortening the feedback loop between development and business, the team can respond quickly to changes and feedback. This helps to improve the quality of the product and ensures that it meets the customer’s needs. 

• Apply backlog prioritization techniques and market standards of the business requirements. This recommendation is important as it helps the team to prioritize their work and ensures that they are delivering value to the customer. It also ensures that the team is meeting market standards and is delivering a quality product. 

The teams received one month of support in implementing their newly acquired skills into practice, with dedicated full-time Agile coaches providing guidance, feedback, and sharing best practices. The coaches also “shadowed” the teams during all Scrum meetings to help facilitate events and provide support on all levels, as the 10-step plan concerned not only the team level but also other levels within the organization. This support helped to ensure a successful implementation of the recommended changes and fostered a culture of continuous improvement. 

Result

As a part of our Agile consultancy, our Agile experts presented a ten-step action plan, minor fixes in team alignment were implemented right away, two recommendations were not required, and three regard ongoing processes and will require continuous implementation.  

The introduced solution brought positive change and optimization in the way the company operates, enabling:  

• Neutral view on bottlenecks.   
• More efficient collaboration with delivery teams.   
• Consistent focus on delivering value to the customer as the primary goal.  
• Understanding impact of changing priorities and influence of business decisions on time-to-market delivery.