Never Bet Against an Agile Team
Background
A large organisation needed to provide maintenance workers with an app on their iPads that would enable workers to get their job information needed for the day, complete and update job information based on what they did and submit their timesheets against the work. Workers in the field needed something that was quick and easy to use and helped them perform their main role - which was to complete the physical maintenance work.
The leaders of the organisation assumed that it would be easy to provide this capability as the organisation had just purchased and implemented a very large enterprise IT system that possessed the functionality to generate jobs, known as work orders, from a world-class vendor. As a bonus, the famous IT vendor also had a work order iPad app that allegedly was well integrated into their backend enterprise system that field workers could start using “right away” on their iPads.
As soon as the iPad work order app was rolled out, there were complaints that started to come in from field workers. The work order app was slow to connect and took twenty minutes to download jobs. Staff complained of frequent crashes and timeouts where they would lose the information they were trying to download or send back to the office.
In response, the vendor, with its worldwide presence and infinite resources, conducted meetings, analysis, and problem-solving sessions with ‘experts’ for over 12 months. Bugs and errors were ‘fixed’, and new versions of the app emerged, but the real issues – the issues that the field workers desperately needed to be fixed – were not addressed.
The Turning Point
The organisation eventually gave up and looked for a different solution and fresh approach. They decided to build the iPad app internally.
During this time, I was asked to set up and lead some Agile development teams to focus on digital initiatives such as mobile and web apps. It had become clear that having some internal development capability would provide significantly improved solutions that were higher quality and even yield cost savings.
Once established, the Agile Mobile Development Team worked closely with workers to design a highly usable mobile app that directly focused on the day-to-day needs of workers. The team was highly passionate and motivated to ensure the workers would be delighted with the solution and worked tirelessly to ensure a high-quality app was built that was practical for field use.
The app was developed using Agile principles and techniques over a 9-month period. The development process involved experimentation, discovery, close collaboration with workers, extensive field testing, and iterative development to ensure usability, and seamless integration with the vendor backend system.
The Result
Before the launch, management was understandably nervous as the field workers were skeptical after the broken promises made by the original vendor. Thankfully, the launch was a stunning success. The app's intuitive design was effective, requiring only a brief walk-through for workers to get them started. The field workers were particularly thrilled with the app’s performance. When they were using previous versions of the vendor’s app, they were waiting twenty minutes to download their jobs. Now, they only waited seconds. Additionally, they no longer experienced the crashes that were a regular ‘feature’ of the previous apps they had trialed, and they were thrilled with the intuitive user interface that reflected their needs and demands of the job.
What Made the Difference?
Why did an in-house team outdo a worldwide company with large resources on app delivery? My team created an app in less time and cost and genuinely delighted customers with the result.
Here are my conclusions for this truly remarkable success:
The team adopted Agile values, principles, and techniques.
A true obsession with focusing on the customer & end users of the software
Emergent design practices involving experimentation and design thinking
Embedded user experience design and testing techniques into all aspects
Good technical practices, automation, and thorough testing that focused on quality
A fantastic and diverse team that was highly skilled and carefully selected for success
A continuous improvement culture that was fostered by the team coach
A strong organisational culture that provided a supportive environment
Genuine partnerships between business and technology leaders
Servant leadership that supported the team rather than restricting or ‘managing’ it
Never bet against an Agile team that is motivated and obsessed with focusing on the customer and end-user – they will easily outperform seemingly world-class vendors with huge resources that may be motivated by other factors.
How Styk Consulting can help
We have extensive experience in setting up and leading both small and large Agile capabilities in organisations and helping businesses get the most out of their technology and people investments. Contact us today if your business or technology needs transformation in order to improve your business performance.