program selection system

KeyCorp, a financial institution with $100 billion in assets, has been working hard to get our new projects started fast, on the right path, with a solid foundation. We took the advice of the famed rock band The Beatles, when they sang, “Come together, right now.” This session shares a program we developed called Agile Connections, which brings people together early in a project to get it started on the right foot. I will also provide my outline, sample agendas, tips for planning, and suggestions for making up your own.

WHAT IS KEYCORP KeyCorp, a financial institution with approximately $97 billion in assets, has a development organization with 1,500 associates across 2 major domestic development centers and 3 offshore centers supporting 800+ applications. We have been progressing down the agile path for 2 ½ years.

PROPOSAL In a large organization, how do you get a new project started fast, on the right path, with a solid foundation? Our culture was such that, when anything new was brought into the organization, our approach was to send people to training. In this case, we sent Managers to ScrumMaster training, our business partners to Product Owner training, and the developers to yet a different training class. It didn’t work, our projects were still starting slow.

So at KeyBank, we took the advice of the famed rock band The Beatles, when they sang, “Come together, right now.” We’ve established a program called Agile Connections, which brings together the product owner, stakeholders, ScrumMaster, team, and support partners early in a project to get it started on the right foot.

• Step 1 is to connect the product owner, stakeholders, ScrumMaster and their managers through a 2-hour Agile Overview.
• During steps 2 and 3 we add the core team and support partners to the mix. During these steps we provide an Agile Workshop and Project Jumpstart. This step is typically 3 days. • Step 4 is to provide ongoing coaching to the project team to ensure the “connections” built during the first three steps remain in tact.

Most of the hands-on work to get the project started occurs during the 3-day Agile Workshop and Project Jumpstart, where everyone involved in delivering the project comes together in the same room. At the conclusion of the workshop the team walks out with a high-level release plan, the beginning of a product backlog and their first sprint planned. More importantly, they walk out with the confidence to continue down the agile path. Why? Because this isn’t a classroom “training” approach. This is an interactive workshop that focuses on one project. The project team learns a technique, practices it, and then applies it directly to their project.

The Agile Connections Workshops have been extremely successful. Here is some of the feedback we’ve received. “we should have spent our time in this workshop rather than in creating a requirements document”; “crtitical to the progress we’re making”; “we understand now it’s a business project with technology components”; “huge wow for me”.

TAKEAWAY: My intent during Agile2008 is to enable participants to walk out of the room with the confidence that they too could develop and deliver an Agile Connections Workshop. I will provide my outline for the workshop, sample agendas, tips for planning a workshop, and suggestions for making up their own.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ACT I Scene 1 – HELP! - Agile was introduced April 2005, by the time we looked up, we realized that we had left our clients behind. Scene 2 – Nowhere Man, please listen - Our product owners were frustrated.
Scene 3 – We Can Work It Out - Product Owner Class didn’t work for us.

ACT II Scene 1 – Here Comes the Sun - We created Agile Connections. Scene 2 - All Together Now - Agile Connections Workshops have been extremely successful (see feedback in appendix).

ACT III Scene 1 – Twist and Shout - Business partners are our marketing tool.
Scene 2 - With a Little Help from My Friends - Pay It Forward philosophy—coached ScrumMasters to develop/deliver Agile Connections Workshop. Scene 3 - The Long and Winding Road - What did we learn? - What are we doing about it?

APPENDIX From our Director of Development: • Agile Connections Workshop has been critical to the progress we’re making. From our product owners: • I believe that all the time spent on pulling together our requirements document would have been better spent in a workshop like this, talking about the project and what the options for development approach could be. It allowed all of the participants of the project to hear the same message about what Agile methodology is and how to best utilize it. Best value - now. Doesn’t have to be the “cadillac”…implement, gain value…enhance ! Get revenue going! Huge “wow” for me. From our development teams: • We understand that it’s all about the product owner. We understand that these are business projects with technology components versus technology projects. A good product backlog is a mainstay. From our ScrumMasters: • This is the best start to a project that I’ve ever had. It was extremely valuable to learn a technique and then apply it to our project. The fact that we discussed each story gave everyone an excellent overview of other team member needs. This would have been weeks worth of e-mails, and even then I don’t think we would be this far along.