Client story Auto Insurer Finds Effective Route on Agile Journey
The client needed a strategic partner to coach and equip leaders, teams and individuals to embrace an Agile mindset and empower Scrum teams.
By Insight Editor / 25 Jul 2019 / Topics: Application development Featured
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
Auto insurance
Size of company:
33,000 employees; 18,000+ employees in the claims division
Challenge:
The client needed a strategic partner to coach and equip leaders, teams and individuals to succeed on their Agile journey.
Solution:
- Agile enablement services
- Agile coaching
- Agility Health Check
Results:
- Established 3 standing Scrum teams
- Supported training & coaching
- Accelerated software delivery
- Improved user experience & product quality
Solution area:
Insight’s Digital Innovation solutions help clients incorporate emerging tech into their business operations to improve the customer experience.
To remain competitive in the market, an auto insurer that services more than 20 million policies identified a critical need to evolve its Waterfall approach to software development. The company wanted to speed delivery while also offering a higher-quality product and better user experience.
IT leadership in the claims division understood the benefits of developing iteratively using Agile and wanted to adopt the Scrum framework. Sponsors of the program established 10 Scrum teams. However, 10 months into the transition, a common challenge hindered transformation: How do you effectively train traditional IT talent into the new roles and mindset of Agile?
In order to improve the company’s Agile implementation and address the Organization Change Management (OCM) impact of moving to an Agile approach, IT leaders recognized a need for training and coaching support at scale. Insight emerged as a top strategic partner, and the automobile insurer committed to a three-month engagement to test-drive the value of the partnership.
The company wanted to speed delivery while also offering a higher-quality product and better user experience.
Working together for greater outcomes
The first priority for the insurance company focused on developing a new internal claims application. Used by more than 18,000 agents across the U.S., the existing platform functioned on outdated technology and offered a poor user experience. Insight provided the unique ability to support the client with Agile transformation and design thinking.
To help the client fast-track its strategic business objectives, we provided an Agile Enablement Lead to accelerate coaching and training. We also augmented the company’s existing development teams with a blended standing Scrum Team, which served as a model for quality product delivery through agility. The standing Scrum team combined our expertise in Agile and DevOps with the client’s expertise within its own domain.
Concurrently, we engaged Insight’s User Experience (UX) experts to collaborate with the client’s design team for the new claims application. Together with the claims agents, we gathered input during prototyping to better understand the key pain points. Because Scrum provides more frequent product iterations and feedback loops, we were able to accelerate development.
Change management around the Agile mindset
Effective OCM is a critical piece of an Agile transformation journey. Insight’s Agile coaching is resulting in leaders, teams and individuals successfully adopting an Agile mindset and way of working. But the most complex perspectives and skills are developed on the job, not in the classroom.
To help teammates transition to new roles within Agile and adopt an iterative approach to development, our Agile Enablement Team partnered with the client’s leadership to plan and deliver Agile workshops and coaching opportunities. This involved:
- Program-model coaching
- Scrum team coaching
- One-on-one Scrum Master coaching
- Observation of Scrum events
Agile coaching provided real-time, relevant learning moments spurred by Agile coaches with real-life experiences in various Scrum roles. Training and workshops quickly followed, with coaching help in the real-life application of skills learned in the classroom.
This model allowed us to scale coaching and real-time help to 13 Scrum teams in 4.5 months. Product coaching, including the launch of a new Product Owner Guild and Coaching Cohort, provided newer Product Owners with techniques to apply to their current work.
By engaging client teammates to create communities of practice, we helped empower employees within the organization to deliver trainings, coach peers and uplift the program as a whole.
This model allowed us to scale coaching and real-time help to 13 Scrum teams in 4.5 months.
But effective change management isn’t limited to an individual or team. The journey of an Agile practitioner is very different from traditional Waterfall roles. To ensure appropriate and seamless career growth, we established leadership coaching to better equip managers to help people in Scrum role advancement. Additionally, we collaborated with the company’s human resources department to map new paths for Agile practitioners.
Continuous improvement
Insight's Agility Health Check is an essential step in understanding an organization’s current agility and provides valuable insights to improve effectiveness.
For the auto insurer, we conducted an Agility Health Check through a team self-assessment to benchmark team growth in five key areas. The health check identified categories teams struggled with — and where we could help with coaching.
The sponsors of the project surveyed teammates every Sprint, and Insight’s engagement consistently yielded “best of the best” Net Promoter Scores with an average score of 78.
The impact of partnership
At the completion of the three-month engagement, the client saw the value of partnering with Insight to support its Agile enablement journey. The client increased its investment for a full year and created two additional standing Agile teams.
Today, Insight Agile coaches remain in place to help the auto insurer mature its Agile practices and produce high-performing teams. Claims leadership continues to cultivate a pipeline of potential leaders within the organization to act as change agents and coaches to help new Scrum teams and programs launch and be self-sustaining.
