Agile best practice
3 min read
Suncorp accelerates agile transition with Easy Agile Programs
Thu Jun 08 2023
Suncorp is one of Australia's largest financial services companies, offering a range of insurance and banking solutions across Australia and New Zealand. When the organization recently changed direction to focus on a more agile path, Scrum Master Dexter Driver quickly saw they needed to find a better way to complete the planning process.
“When managing our projects, we had previously used the Waterfall approach or a mix of Waterfall with Agile,” said Dexter. “After changing direction to go down a more agile path, I began looking for tools to help us with that transition.”
Building effective plans with the right level of detail
To align with the organization’s focus on agile, Dexter began looking for a solution to help improve collaboration and simplify the planning process while maintaining sufficient detail within the plan. “The goal was to be able to produce and present quarterly plans that work for us,” said Dexter. “That meant the plan had to have enough detail for the teams to collaborate while also being quick and easy to understand”.
Intuitive from the start
“From the first time we used it, it was very simple. It was very quick to understand, and I didn't need to go through any training.”
Dexter found Easy Agile Programs was easy to use and intuitive from the very start. The drag-and-drop functionality allowed for easy organization and a clear prioritization of tasks, saving valuable time for the teams. “It does what you need in a very simple, easy way,” said Dexter. ”We can share a simplified view while improving communication and the quality of our planning”.
By using Easy Agile Programs, Dexter found three clear benefits for the business:
Improved dependency mapping
With a clear view of inter-squad dependencies, Dexter explained that teams could better understand and manage their dependencies and reliance on each other. “For the last few quarterly planning events, it's been much easier to communicate our plan and provide a clearer timeline, especially to some of our executive managers,” said Dexter.
Streamlined communication
The integration of Easy Agile Programs into the planning process meant that teams no longer had to move between two different platforms. “The ability to look at increments while we’re planning is probably one of the biggest things that is helping us in our day-to-day work,” said Dexter.
Enhanced collaboration
The simplified view combined with the quarterly planning events has helped create clear communication between teams, executives, and stakeholders. “Not only can they see the plan, but it makes it easier for us to talk to them and explain things as we go along,” said Dexter.
Easy Agile Programs becomes Suncorp’s preferred planning tool
Thanks to clear benefits around clear planning, communication, and collaboration, it wasn’t long before Easy Agile Programs became the preferred tool to complete the quarterly planning cycle.
“Easy Agile Programs is very easy to use, and it's made communication across teams a lot easier and more effective. So, my advice to anyone interested is to just give it a go”.
