This document describes the implementation of a Kanban system at a large energy company to achieve enterprise agility. It discusses how the company lacked process transparency, had a waterfall development approach, and IT was seen as unresponsive by the business. Kanban practices like visualization, limiting work-in-progress, and collaborative improvement were used. This reduced the backlog from 800 to 350 items within 4 months while new requests remained the same, improving productivity. The key lessons learned were to take an incremental approach to change, focus on shifting mindsets, and collaborate at all levels to sustain transformations.
4. Company Competitors Customers
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Large Energy Distributor in Victoria is looking to achieve Enterprise Agility within IT and Business
5. • Lack of Process Transparency
• Low Decision Making (Priority of
work)
• Waterfall/Prince2 process
• Automated systems/rigid
processes
• Lot of WIP clogging the teams
• Push driven (fungible resource
mindset)
• 2500+ employees
• Lack of big picture
understanding
• Low Commitment
• Low Accountability
• Functional/Siloed
• Leadership hierarchy
• Cost & Efficiency driven
• Central Customer services
model
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Structures
Processes
People
Industry
• Energy distribution
• Regulated by Govt.
• Facing technology disruption
from battery storage
• Low commercial focus
11. Transformation: Change Adoption curve
Innovators – 2.5%
This is new – so it’s cool!
Early adopters – 13.5%
It’s interesting but I want
to learn more. Early majority – 34%
I want to know what other
people think.
Late majority – 34%
If I have to – I guess.
Laggards – 16%
We have always done it this way.
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Courtesy: Linda Rising
12. Context ImplementSituation LearningThinking
• Enterprise wide system change requests including small to
large changes.
• Lack of business engagement
• Lack of accountability on part of teams
• Highly dissatisfied business stake holders
• Backlog grown to > 800 outstanding issues
• ~ 80 new feature/change requests every month
Transformation: Pick a high visibility problem with enterprise wide impact
Case Study
13. Context ImplementSituation LearningThinking
Questions:
• Where to locate this new project team?
• Where is the product owner?
• Scrum needs all the roles co-located
Decisions
Kanban is the humane “start with what you do now”
approach to change
Transparency
Balance
Respect
Understanding
Collaboration
Customer focus
Agreement
Leadership
18. Improved Decision Making
• Created pipelines of work by business units
• Prioritise (based on Value) collaboratively with business stake holders
at wall every fortnight
• Working with Delivery teams to Estimate (Effort) the prioritised
backlog every fortnight
• Simple T-Shirt Sizes (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) for Value and Effort
• Rank = Value / Effort (WSJF)
• Setting the rules of engagement
• Every team will only work from a prioritised backlog etc.
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23. • An expedition approach for agile transformation is required –
acknowledge different teams will adopt agile at their own pace.
• Organisations are too difficult to change – establishing a long term goal at
start but be prepared to adapt and set short term goals.
• Use change adoption curve to your benefit – move people towards the
innovators group.
• Focus on people to change the mindsets & beliefs.
• Use process as a tool to shape behaviours not to control people.
• Use depth of Kanban process to improve your system.
• Collaborate at all levels and build coalitions to make the change happen
and take roots.
Learnings: Sustaining long term change …
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