After trying and failing multiple times to implement Scrum, Franklin Templeton reached out to Disciplined Agile to deliver value to the business faster, to create a tighter connection between business demands and technology, and to increase the ability to pivot swiftly in response to changing conditions.
CHALLENGE: Too Slow, Too Big
Franklin Templeton’s sales and marketing group needed to be able to move more quickly: technology was inhibiting the team’s ability to meet with clients and solve problems rapidly and responsively. Large-scale monolithic initiatives failed to address this problem and didn’t offer the flexibility to pivot as needed when business conditions changed.
“How do we get to a place where we’re delivering value to the business faster?”
SOLUTION: A Multi-Phase Approach
Franklin Templeton completed an initial round of training programs with its sales and marketing teams, focusing on specific projects and teams as well as key influencers from different areas and lines of business who could serve as champions across the organization.
Roughly six months later, improvements included a dramatic reduction in time to market compared to WaterScrumFall projects. Time to market decreased from more than 800 days to the point where teams eventually achieved continuous delivery of new features.
As time to market decreased, customer satisfaction increased: survey scores moved from 3.6 to 4.5 (on a scale of 1 to 5).
After beginning with training for project teams, the next phase of activity included focused coaching to help those teams learn to move with agility.
“Disciplined Agile changes everything, right? At some point it will touch everywhere in the organization, it will touch every process that we use.”
Karen Lewis,
Vice President, IT
Franklin Templeton
“Coaching really helps to say, 'Wait a minute, let’s think about this in a different way. How about if we tried this?’"
Franklin Templeton used the full suite of Disciplined Agile training offerings, including team-based training, Product Owner training, and training in agile for managers.
As Disciplined Agile spread across the organization, other efficiencies included leaner teams, fewer and less severe quality defects, quicker decision times, and a greater sense of empowerment among employees enjoying the autonomy that came with a new way of working.
“We definitely saw huge differences in terms of quality.”
Over time, Franklin Templeton trained 800 people in 10 countries in Disciplined Agile. It adopted a fully remote approach to training, and feedback surveys found that this was the most effective and popular way of bringing Disciplined Agile to the workforce.