Last week, I was joined by my colleague Martin Higgins and a panel of insurance leaders for Novarica’s latest Agile Special Interest Group. The conversation touched on many of the hot-button items surrounding the Agile methodology, including the shift from projects to products, the importance of synergy between business and IT when delivering projects, and the historical fluctuations between federated and centralized IT organizations.
Our panelists Elaine Forsyth of Prudential Financial, Abby Hosseini of Mercury Insurance, and Nestor Lopez of ProSight Specialty offered a wide range of approaches, techniques, and lessons learned from their experiences implementing and supporting Agile organizations.
Projects to Products
Our discussion kept circling back to organizations evolving to become more product minded and focused. Our panelists talked about the challenges they faced when taking on this change, along with the added benefits of making the move. One of the main benefits mentioned was that Agile teams focused on products are more durable and less likely to have someone pulled off to work on a different project. There is also increased ownership and accountability when organizations build teams that are responsible for the life cycle of a product as opposed to one project in a product life cycle.
Participants in the Special Interest Group focused on the difficulties of defining products; many wanted to make the move toward product-focused teams but struggled to define products. Panelists had several suggestions for overcoming this hurdle, but they stressed the importance of targeting what is best for their organization. For example, a product could be as granular as a capability that is shared by many lines of business; there is no perfect definition of what a product needs to be.
IT and Business
Each of our panelists discussed the importance of building strong IT and business relationships when moving forward with Agile. Agile support must be extended outside of IT in order for it to truly be implemented. Product management, for example, is better suited and more effective on the business side of the organization. Business will always be a large driver in any organization’s culture, especially the finance department.
If organizations can’t create synergy between IT and business, IT won’t have financial support, and the business won’t be focused on removing impediments for innovation to thrive. One of our panelists talked about the role transparency plays in improving business and IT relationships. The business cannot be a passenger in this journey, it needs to be a co-pilot. Business needs to know where IT is going; however, it is just as important for the business to trust IT to deliver incremental value over time.
Federated and Centralized
IT organizations have historically fluctuated between federated and centralized models. Novarica VP Martin Higgins talked about this history and how organizations are beginning to return to federated models. While centralized models offer more control, lower costs, and eliminate redundancies, they often do not support the innovation and speed that federated models can bring an organization. While there is the potential for redundancy as well as overly siloed business units in federated models, organizations can spend less time focusing on what can be shared and more time focusing on moving quickly. However, a happy balance can be struck and should be striven for. Organizations need to understand the benefits of both models and diversify their approach.
We look forward to revisiting these topics in a few months. If you’re interested in joining us on July 15, please find the registration link here.
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