Over the course of 10 weeks, LRC went from ‘one of the worst’ departments for delivery time to ‘one of the best’ with BERTEIG’s REALagility Program.
Andrea Bonner, Senior Project Manager, Business Consulting Services, Land & Resources I&IT Cluster, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
Mapping Excellence with REALagility
With society’s growing dependence on digital and electronic communication systems, keeping Ontario’s ministries up-to-date with technologies that streamline inter- and intra-governmental communications is vitally important.
Ontario’s Land and Resources Cluster (LRC) program supports multiple ministries in the areas of information management and information technology. These ministries include Natural Resources; Aboriginal Affairs; Environment; Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; and Northern Development and Mines.
Previously, LRC was inefficient in serving the ministries for which it is responsible. After working with BERTEIG on several projects and implementing its REALagility Program, persistent and costly issues were resolved, producing a happier, more efficient team.
The BERTEIG Effect
BERTEIG’s REALagility program enabled a group of dedicated staff at LRC to quickly form a new crossfunctional, self-organizing team. They wasted no time. Within the first few days, the team rallied around a common goal and committed to delivering a handful of top-priority features. The whole team collaborated daily to deliver a potentially shippable (end-to-end) product increment within the first month of team formation. This was the first delivery of customer-recognizable value in over 2 years – a huge win for the organization as a whole.
The implementation of the REALagility Delivery Track cleared up a long-standing backlog of work and enabled the team to deliver services to its customers in a timely fashion. Even customers who had switched to other vendors started reestablishing ties with a delivery partner they could now depend on. The 12 steps of the REALagility Delivery Track are designed to provide teams with the knowledge, skills and encouragement to progress through the stages of team development known as “Forming”, “Storming”, “Norming” and “Performing”. With the support of BERTEIG consultants, the LRC team became empowered to sustain its dramatically higher level of performance far beyond the initial, intensive training and coaching engagement.
Key Business Benefits Identified
THE PROBLEM: LRC was failing to fulfill its promises to customers: failing to deliver services in a timely manner. Customers often experienced delivery-of-service delays of up to two years, which resulted in losing customers to outside vendors.
THE SOLUTION: Working with BERTEIG to streamline management teams empowered staff to use their managerial expertise and professional knowledge to make processes more efficient.
- BERTEIG was brought on-site to train and coach the team with the REALagility Delivery Track for creating high-performance teams.
- The project manager was able to navigate through the red tape of the organization and secure a dedicated room for the team.
- LRC decided to use the Scrum framework, forming a self-organizing, cross-functional team to accelerate the realization of high performance
THE RESULTS
Learn more about the Real Agility™ – Delivery Track.
After working with BERTEIG on six sprints over a 10-week period, the new team’s performance soon became recognized as THE standard in the organization.
- The rapid delivery approach of Scrum enabled the team to become empowered to discover and implement innovative solutions.
- The focus and immediate results of Sprints (2-week Scrum projects with concrete, measurable outcomes) bolstered team morale and pride in their work.
- Many of the team members from this project still reflect back to BERTEIG that this experience was one of the best work experiences of their careers.
“Our team was recently awarded provincial recognition at the Ontario Public Service Project Management Excellence Awards ceremony. This is a remarkable accomplishment that could not have been achieved without BERTEIG’s support.”
Andrea Bonner, Senior Project Manager, Business Consulting Services, Land & Resources I&IT Cluster, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
