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CIS675 – Agile Project Management

Case Study 1: Pearson Successmaker Submitted by: Ankit Koul

Case: Pearson’s Successmaker: Putting the Customer First in Transforming Product Development Processes, T. S. Raghu and Collin Sellman, The Richard Ivey School of Business (W11744). Key elements:   

Traditional vs. agile software development Managing and evaluating changes in development methodologies Relationship between development methodologies and market performance

Summary: The case touches on the leadership challenges for Greg Adams-Woodford as he tries to make Pearson SuccessMaker a “success”. He not only has to design a roadmap for the higher adoption in the market, but also for encouraging people to adopt Agile as a methodology. People are often resistant to change, and this contributed to bigger challenges for Greg Adams-Woodford. The shift to agile mindset also allowed for a shift in the business roles as Product Managers began to contribute more to design of the product and took ownership of the product. Another problem which came forward was the lack of estimation abilities which let the teams to miscalculate the sprint velocities.

Questions: 1. How do product and software development methodologies influence a firm’s ability to respond to market demands?

Having a change in a company culture to product mindset can work wonders. This my experience in my previous company. For now, let’s call it Company X. I worked for Company X, when it underwent transformation from a normal delivery approach to working within realms of OKR’s. OKR means Objectives and Key Results. We define what objectives we need to achieve and what key results help us achieve those objectives. Two of the OKR we defined in out team at Company X were “Product Mindset” and “Build for change”. This meant whenever we developed code, we thought out as to how this would help better the product for our customers and how it will cater to customer needs. This

CIS675 – Agile Project Management

“psychological” mindset was a great boost for our tam and it helped us generate ideas for innovation. Talking about Software methodologies, It is amazing how changing how do we the same things impacts our efficiency. Agile to me is really efficient in a fast paced , changing technology environment. For ever evolving customer needs and the need for fast paced delivery, Agile helps us deliver frequent and better. We have feedback from our previous iterations and continuous prioritizations helps us meet business requirements.

2. Transition from waterfall to agile a) What benefits did Pearson realize in making the shift to agile?

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Following the principle for teams to be co-located in agile, Adams-Woodford reduced the offshore presence which had fostered miscommunication in the past. If new functionalities were presented to the team, it was sometimes turned down as scope creep. This was reduced after an assimilated team which was co-located. Product management owned the product after shifting to Agile. This gave the product team more autonomy to work on avenues to better the customer experience. Agile training for every employee allowed for a common platform to share and discuss ideas. What downsides might be associated with this shift?

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The QA found itself disorganized at times after the shift to agile. This was mainly due to minimal documentation in agile. The QA’s were accustomed to follow detailed requirement plan for testing. Managers and Team Leads were slow to adopt to concept of not delegating tasks. This was mainly triggered by resistance to change. suggests that this can be overcome by harboring trust and engagement. (The Balance Careers, 2019) I believe Adams-Woodford should have given further thought and discussion on going forward with a methodology because the cry for change to Kanban from many a developers depicts some possible scope of improvement. I would not call this a downside but rather an upside, because it shows us that employee want to be engaged in process improvement.

c)What firm or market circumstances are more likely to benefit from a waterfall or agile methodology?

CIS675 – Agile Project Management

Industries where process are set, timelines are definitive, and testing is not required till the end or integration can be effective in Waterfall methodologies. An example would be a production line environment, where testing is required after the product is developed. In a production line, the timeline is definitive. So, we can always increase the money or resources to achieve those goals. (Segue Technologies, 2019) I would recommend Agile methodologies and its framework – Scrum and Kanban for all Software engineering projects. Agile can be implemented in some shape, form or fashion. It is great for self-organizing teams to deliver in iterations. In ever changing digital era, we can consume customer feedback to deliver a value product. 3. Should Adams-Woodford focus on the SuccessMaker product, or become involved in a company-wide agile initiative? Why? I believe Adams-Woodford can work towards both roles. He is heavily vested towards the SuccessMaker product and should drive it. He has seen the product’s transition and methodology changes over time. I can see him take this product to greater heights. I also believe he should be an Agile transition coach. This would help him get a better understanding about agile adoption trends. This could also help him differentiate which frameworks to choose between Scrum and Kanban. With these experiences, he could enrich the feedback loop for SuccessMaster where he could apply his learnings.

4. Within the SuccessMaker team, should Adams-Woodford agree to follow the recommendations from his developers to move from scrum to Kanban? Why, or why not?

I think this needs to be discussed with the whole development team along with relevant stakeholders. All inputs should be considered and then a trial and error method should be applied. This would involve switching between different frameworks of Agile and finding the right fit. It is always a fail forward and fail early approach which helps us understand our strengths and weaknesses. The case mentions: “Development teams switched from one feature to another”. This tells me that the teams do neither have an efficient Scrum master nor a competent Product owner. It is the responsibility of a Product Owner to stop feature switching in between sprint and a Scrum master to advise on Agile principles. My analysis here would be that if features can be prioritized for 2-week period then the team should work with Scrum and better estimate their velocity take previous sprints as inputs.

CIS675 – Agile Project Management

However, if features or stories tend to present themselves on adhoc basis and technical support tasks have a higher priority, then Kanban can work best.

Conclusion: This case has discussed the journey of SuccessMaker product and of Adams-Woodfort with it. It tells us about a very challenging yet very common situation a company can find itself in. With my experience, I can say that transitions can only make you more experienced and if a strategic plan fails, it is also a step forward. It is very difficult to follow a plan when people are resistant to change and criticize a small roadblock but leaders have to rally the team in a positive environment. This can be done by effective communication and transparency.

Citations:

The Balance Careers. (2019). How to Spot Resistance to Change in Your Company. [online] Available at: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-resistance-to-change-1918240 [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019].

Segue Technologies. (2019). Waterfall vs. Agile: Which Methodology is Right for Your Project?. [online] Available at: https://www.seguetech.com/waterfall-vs-agile-methodology/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019]. Case Study: Pearson Successmaker : Putting Customer First [Ivey]...