Take Your Time, We're In A Hurry...: Setting Up The Agile Method

The Agile approach raises a lot of questions. This approach leaves room for people, allowing projects to move forward by building on good work, accomplishments and victories.

With an agile approach, the focus is on value creation and the mobilization of each team in its own unique environment.

Each team has a physical work wall where ALL deliverables or everyone's tasks are pinned. The to-do list is now on a team level rather than on an individual level. The progress of the team's work is planned during a 15-minute stand-up meeting at the beginning of each day where tasks are assigned on a voluntary basis.

There is a common and clear team objective and we experience a pull model rather than a push one, with a "sprint" of deliverables, the output of which is the delivery of a quality project within an optimized timeframe. The emphasis is therefore on the work to be accomplished rather than on "who does what". The information that circulates in real time within the team becomes an added value to move projects forward.

Moreover, it promotes knowledge sharing, mutual help and skills development within a team for each project while respecting the capacity of each individual.

Thanks to the implementation of agile teams, customers see their projects progress much faster. There are many advantages to this approach.

1. More collaboration : Our teams are composed of competent people who are committed to customer satisfaction. Frequent communication allows them to align decision-making with the team's objective and the mandate of a project. The agile approach facilitates information sharing, peer training, individual development and empowerment. One for all, and all for one!
2. Overview of the different tasks : Visualizing the work with Post-it® notes that progress through the phases of the project, identifying the size of each workload, obstacles and what's on hold is a planning strength. Such awareness makes it possible to concretize the work progress, to notify fulfillments and to underline victories! Several indicators may emerge from this approach and allow a better mid-term and long-term planning in order to manage client requests and expectations more effectively.
3. Significant value creation : Like the agile approach on software development (SCRUM), each deliverable has a value. We take advantage of the knowledge gained by an entire team along the way to adapt and move the project forward. Each completed deliverable represents an important part of the project and is considered a small victory. By doing so, we accumulate victories and multiply the added value.
4. Higher velocity : The focus is on the work to be done, not on the people doing it. The obstacles to projects are visible and are removed more quickly since they are addressed as they arise. As we see what is underway, the propensity to "start" fades and the focus shifts to "finish" things. Making work visual allows to focus on what is important, to finish off things before starting new ones and to give a positive boost to what you are doing. Without pressure, the velocity increases naturally.

With the agile and continuous development approaches, Soucy focuses on elements that support organizational values, such as teamwork and commitment toward excellence, while bringing direct benefits to client projects.