Building a Collaborative Culture for Enhanced Product Quality and Efficiency on a Large-Scale Banking Project

Background

One of ControlPlane’s most pioneering and long-standing projects has been partnering with a global bank for over three years to reduce the business risk posed by ineffective secrets storage. This collaboration was underpinned by Agile and DevOps principles and resulted in a solution that enabled an engineering team to securely introduce secrets into application environments across multi-cloud and multi-platform architectures.

In this case study, we will go behind the scenes and explore how introducing Agile ways of working resulted in continuous improvement across a range of different areas of this ecosystem, including greater collaboration, enhanced cost efficiency, faster time to market, higher quality increments, and enhanced project predictability, which subsequently delivered business value to our client.

Agile Ways of Working

Our Agile specialist trained and continuously coached the client team responsible for secrets engineering in iterative development, collaboration, and triaging customer feedback to deliver value more effectively. The team worked closely together, frequently communicated, and adapted quickly to changes, enabling them to continuously deliver high-quality releases that meet the bank’s evolving needs.

The team was guided to actively seek ways to make small, incremental changes to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and quality. This led to a culture where all team members became co-creators in identifying opportunities for improvement and implementing changes to achieve better outcomes and enhanced performance.

Building a Collaborative Culture

The team was coached to prioritize building a collaborative culture where teamwork and collective success were valued over individual achievements. This shift in mentality created an environment where employees felt motivated to work together towards common goals. By fostering a sense of camaraderie and mutual support, our consultants laid the foundation for effective collaboration and teamwork.

Redefining Success Metrics

The team re-evaluated and redefined metrics of success to align with its new collaborative culture. Instead of focusing on individual performance, our Agile specialist incentivized team success by introducing metrics that measured collective achievements. This shift encouraged permanent employees and our consultants to work together towards shared objectives, leading to cross-pollination of knowledge and improved overall performance and productivity.

Establishing a Strong Network

Recognizing the importance of information sharing and collaboration, our consultant supported the team by investing in building a large, robust network within the bank, which helped workaround complex bank processes that were previously slowing down delivery. This network facilitated easier communication and knowledge exchange, enabling teams to access the information they needed and the approvals required to perform their tasks effectively. As a result, work became more meaningful, and employees felt supported in delivering the holistic set of tasks needed to achieve valuable outcomes.

Achieving Operational Improvements

By fostering agile ways of working and a collaborative culture, the team achieved significant operational improvements across various areas, including:

• Improved product quality and reduced bugs through enhanced collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Enhanced cost efficiency through better utilization of resources and reduction of waste.
• More predictable schedules with clear milestones, achieved through transparent communication and effective project management.
• Well-defined requirements and shared understanding of common goals, leading to greater clarity and alignment among team members.
• Greater visibility into project progress and risks, enabling proactive decision-making and risk mitigation.
• Unified team vision and reduced personnel changes, resulting in improved continuity and stability within teams.
• Improved team dynamics and teamwork, leading to increased morale, motivation, and overall satisfaction among employees.

Conclusion

By prioritizing collaboration, redefining success metrics, and fostering a supportive work environment, our Agile specialist successfully shaped the culture within the secrets engineering team to significantly improve product quality, collective effectiveness, and project predictability. This case study highlights the importance of underpinning delivery with collaborative, iterative principles to generate holistic success.

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