Project Background
Bournemouth based telecommunication company, 4Com plc aim to revolutionise the way businesses work through their communication services.
4Com provide business telephony and supporting products and services to a range of clients. 4Com are a forward thinking company and can boast appearing on the Sunday Times “Top 100 Best Small Companies To Work For 2013” list.
Employing over 250 people, with an ever growing development department, 4Com approached McKenna Consultants with the aim of instilling an Agile mindset and implementing an Agile adoption within the department. McKenna Consultants successfully delivered our 3 step Agile adoption process consisting of executive consultancy, Introduction To Agile training course and follow up team Agile coaching.
The Challenge
4Com plc were similar to many other of our growing clients. Growth brings many challenges such as alignment, quality, flow of information, team dynamics and synchronisation.
Some challenges specific to 4Com were:
- Introducing the role of a Scrum Master
- Coaching Product Owners
- Agile testing
- Implementing new Agile concepts
- Creating and maintaining a sustainable a process that works for them
- Creating a structure to support them for future growth
The Solution
In order to firstly assess the current situation and plan an effective Agile adoption strategy, McKenna Consultants began with a 1 day executive leadership Agile consultancy session. This was a hands on session led by McKenna Consultants with key stakeholders from 4Com plc.
Through various techniques and tools from our consultancy toolbox, McKenna Consultants and the leadership at 4Com devised the following strategy:
- 1 Day An Introduction To Agile Training Course
- 4 Days of on site Agile team coaching
- Follow up Agile healthcheck
- Repeat on a team by team basis
Delivery
McKenna Consultants delivered the agreed Agile adoption strategy on site in Bournemouth at the 4Com plc offices. The progress of the adoption was managed closely through regular contact with the leadership team prior, during and after the training.
As a result of the training, the teams had helped shape their own Agile process, gained clarity and a level understanding on the Agile roles and responsibilities, felt like they were “more of a team” and importantly, significantly improved their productivity. McKenna Consultants used various metrics with the ScrumMaster(s) through their chosen Agile project tracking software to track the impact on productivity that the adoption had.
“Agile training was a new thing for us at 4Com and it was important that we had the right partner to help us get it right. McKenna Consultants made the process simple, clear and valuable through their approach. Their experience and knowledge was obvious to see. The leadership consultancy was eye opening, training courses educational, practical and fun, and the team coaching was hands on enabling. Through a single hour long team exercise, we received so much value that it justified the entire training investment! We are continuing to work with McKenna Consultants and would recommend them to any company looking to not only learn Agile, but to make it stick too.”
Ro Irving, CTO