1) Abhigya Pokharel is an Agile Project Manager at Ncell telecom in Nepal who led the company's transformation to Agile. Under the new Agile approach, Ncell launched 10 products in a year compared to only 4 in 18 months previously. Employee and customer satisfaction scores increased. 2) The transformation required a holistic approach that changed the company's values, processes, functions, teams, and leadership. This included empowering self-organized teams, adopting Agile ceremonies, using visualization tools, embracing failure, and focusing on continuous learning. 3) Challenges included cultural shifts, performance management, and ensuring business value. These were addressed through experiments, team commitments, alignment

1. Agile Culture for High
Performance
-Abhigya Pokharel

2. • Agile Project Manager, @ Ncell, Axiata (Nepal)
• Agile Scout - Driving the Agile Transformation Program
• Active member of Agile Nepal, organizing team member
for the Regional Scrum Gathering Nepal 2018.
CSM, CSP, CAL1, SAFE 4.5 Agilist,
ICP-ACC, PRINCE2 Practitioner

3. Key Takeaways
2. Holistic approach to change- the key elements for an organization to
transform
4. Servant leadership – to help your subordinates grow and unleash their
potential
5. How flow helps- through regular incremental improvements
1. Agile transformation journey at a leading telecom operator
3. Embracing change- for continuous improvement

4. Agile in Nepal
Official User Group
by Scrum Alliance
International
Conferences
Software Industry using Agile since 2012
- RSGN2018 (169 Participants, 11 nations)
CAL1, Scrum@Scale, CSD Certifications
- Fourteen Agile Professionals Meetups
- Two​ Asia Agile Forum Conferences
- Two​ CSM Trainings for 150 participants
- One​ CSPO Training for 45 participants
- Participation in Global Scrum Gathering
(Bangalore, Shanghai, Singapore)
75 CSMs in 2016
Scrum &
Kanban
Regional Scrum Gathering
Nepal 2018

5. Business
Overview
Declining
revenue/
declining ILD
OTT Threats
High
Competition :
NTC. Smart
Tel
Data Revenue
highest /
Opportunities
Ncell
Leading
Telco
Subs: 20M
GDP
Contribution
3.2%
Penetration:
45%
Largest tax
payer
Current Organizational Demographics

6. Ncell - First Wave of Agile
 Change in management in April 2016.
 Employee satisfaction score low- Happy Employees
 Low productivity/ less revenue
 Waterfall projects not delivering end results as expected
 Expected faster TTM with good ROI
 Build products with customer needs- Happy Customers
 Using Agile- launched 10 products in 1 year in 2018, compared to 4 products in 18 months in 2016
54
60
60
64
54
58
70
80
80
84
70
70
Career Development…
Communication
Empowerment
Operating Efficiency
Performance…
Teamwork
Employee Engagement Survey (2016 Vs.
2018)
2018 2016

7. Today. Tomorrow. Together.
Convert
Customers to
Fans
Convert
Employees to
Cheerleaders
Create an Agile
Organization
Business
Objectives

8. Holistic Approach to Change
Change
1. Values &
Beliefs
2. Practices,
Processes &
Tools
3. Functions &
Teams
5. Learning
4. Exemplary
Leadership
• Respect company values and change
• Clarity on what to implement
• Drive the end result
• Alignment
• Start with known frameworks
• Use of standard tools
• KPIs for measuring
• Breaking Silos
• Self organized teams
• Could be co-located
• Consistency across teams
• Change agents to implement the change &
frameworks
• Common vocabulary throughout the org
• Ask for help as required
• Trainings & Certifications
• Execute workshops to kickoff the
change
• Hypothesis & experimentation
• Active participation from all
• Inspire purpose to employees
• Create a sense of urgency
• Could be on a burning platform
• Focus on what I can give

9. Holistic Approach to Change – Values & Beliefs
Through demos- transparency- customer satisfaction
Appreciate customer feedback and Agile helps us to give avenues for customer
values
Teams represent the customer by working very closely with the customer

10. Holistic Approach to Change – Processes & Tools

11. Holistic Approach to Change – Functions & Teams
Team Building
Holi
Badminton
Competition

12. Holistic Approach to Change - Leadership

13. Holistic Approach to Change - People
Teams decide themselves what to do- form a team- some of them slowly become masters

14. Holistic Approach to Change - Learning

15. • Recharge & win
• Data/ Voice Packs
• Favorite 5
• Monsoon Offer
• Customer Lifecycle
Management
• Back Office Digitization
• Big Data Analytics
Platform
• Mobile Apps
• Self Managed Services/
Channels
• Chat Bots
Products and Offerings
Projects
Campaigns
• Constantly gather data, visualize that data in a context that generates
insights that can be acted upon.
• Addressing customer personas and micro segments.

16. Leadership Level Visualization

17. Team Level Visualization

18. Agile Delivery at Ncell
Ceremonies at Ncell
• Bi annual review of Products and Offerings
(Campaign Management)
• Monthly Calendar plan for Products and
Offerings
• Monthly Operational Meetings
• Daily Standups
• Sprint Planning
• Sprint Review
• Retrospective
5 Scrum teams and 3 Scrum Masters at
current who run Agile Projects and
Campaigns

19. Challenges
Cultural Transformation
• Empowerment
• Mindset Shift
• Work behaviors would not change easily
Performance
• Set and reach personal goals
• Train and develop your employees
• Identify and remove any roadblocks
• Focus on business strategy
Return on Action
• Financial impact
• Minimizing Risks
• Detailed reporting
User Engagement
• Energy/ Motivation
• Stakeholder buy-in
• Implementation of rules – do’s and don’ts to be
applied consistently across all the layers
Teams reluctant to engage Sprint backlogs keep on changing
Developers hate doing QA & documentation
Nobody understands Agile

20. Albatross Alignment
Fist of Five
Lean Coffee Experiments/ Prototypes/ Pivoting
Team commits first, before committing to client

21. YES
Failure: Integration of Data from all network elements, to analyze CAPEX utilization per BTS & Network Analysis
Lesson Learnt: Start with something small first. Once the result is visible plan for the next chunk.
Plan your work in Iterations.
Clear Communication: well planned & executed communication plan
Before
• Waterfall Model failed twice
• Project delivery in 1.5 years
• End result was not as expected
• Could not use the solution for the
customers
• Scraped the project
• CAPEX loss: 700,000 USD
After
• Used Agile
• Delivered 5 Use Cases in 6
Sprints
• End result as expected
• Using the solution for the
customers
• Phase 2 implementation on
going
• CAPEX : 450,000 USD

22. Agile Organization
Revamp the
workspace
Flexible working
hours
Extended
maternity leaves
Recreational leaves
Rewards and
recognition (Letter
of appreciation)
Slack time Vote of thanks
Visual boards/
Program walls
Celebrate success Fitness & wellbeing Hall of fame
Trust &
transparency
Delegating
authority &
empowering
employees
Process
simplification- in
terms of approvals
Create open
feedback culture
Career
development and
training plans
Secured
environment for
failing
Link performance
evaluation with
company values
Quarterly review of
targets ..
Today, Tomorrow, Together

23. धन्यवाद
abhigya1@gmail.com Abhigya Pokharel