
achieving efficiency & flexibility with agile
The payments industry is rapidly developing and changing. From cards to smartphones,
payments are always finding a new “host” for processing the transaction. Coping
in such industry and staying ahead of change, when it is the only constant,
never comes easy.
Different management methodologies have been used not just in our company but every company with predominant a IT sector where flexibility and efficiency are the main priorities and one seems to stand out especially when it comes to mastering change – Agile.
First of All What is Agile?
Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster with issues.
More precisely, it refers to methodologies of software development based on the concept of iterative production, where requirements and solutions grow through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.

The value of Agile's growth is that it helps teams produce value more efficiently, with better effectiveness and predictability, and greater ability to adapt to change.
Within
Agile, there are even more methodologies like Scrum and Kanban, all of which
have an overarching Agile philosophy but, from the standpoint of implementation,
they all have a unique mix of practices, strategies, and terminology.
Until
recently, this methodology has been mostly connected to software development
because Agile’s initial advocates and the authors of Agile Manifesto were all software developers. Even the
constituting document was called the Manifesto for Agile Software Development
of 2001.
Fast forward to 10 years later, the Agile methodology has permeated all types and parts of organization, so now there is for example Agile in human resources and Agile in marketing agencies.
However, Agile is actually difficult to explain in words because first of all it is a mindset where, as the Manifesto says, individuals and interactions are more valuable than tools and processes.
Agile in nets group
It can sometimes be difficult to grasp Agile in a large corporation because it is not something that can be implemented quickly. This way of operating an organization redefines the exact notion of corporation, at least the one known for the past few decades.
While corporations are usually very inflexible and
follow a strict business model and strategy, Agile on the other hand can be compared to a living, growing organism that constantly adapts and changes
to explore new opportunities and in that way bring more value to the customer.
Moving away from the established structure requires changing the underlying mindset and accepting the new one. We are currently undergoing an internal structural change in which people are organized into product streams in order to be able to react swiftly to product changes and developments.
Here's what our product stream leaders had to say about the transformation and application of Agile principles:


Luka Ferlež, Head of Development, is leading the Processing Stream and he gave us insight of the application of Agile and SAFe as well as the value this brings to the processing stream:
How big is
the transformation?
The transformation process that we are undertaking is encompassing a large part of our engineering staff and organizational units. In total, in this transformation, over 200 of our employees are involved across Project Management, Product Management, Development, Testing and Application Management.
What can you tell us about the implementation of SAFe within our business unit?
We have started on this journey with a kick start from our colleagues in Nordics who had already implemented SAFe for the past year.
Using their
guidance and accumulated experience we have formed value streams that will
enable us to speed up the flow of value towards our customers. The three value
streams, Processing Services, Account Management Services, and Risk Management Services
then formed a total of 24 teams enabling them to support a wide range of
services grouped in product groups.
On this
basis we started to extend the implementation to our specific needs, retaining
the fundamentals of SAFe with additional roles as Test Managers, Release Managers
and Service Stability Leads to provide a high quality delivery experience for
the teams and our clients.
What will Agile bring to your value stream?
When we get
it right our biggest aspiration is to have an organization and culture that
will enable everyone to do the best work possible. To have a high degree of
transparency and understanding between customers and us, as well a continuous
learning and sharing experience.
Ultimately,
this would reflect in us having a better understanding of the needs of the
market and responding to those needs with greater flexibility and quality.


Danijel Balun, Team Leader, Product Management, is in charge of the Account Management product stream, and here's how they are applying Agile principles to their teams:
What principles of Agile method are you using
in Account Management Services?
On the
level of the stream, we are using the SAFe (Scaled Agile) methodology which
enables us to have a continuous delivery and continuous exploration and
improvement of new and existing products.
The main
principle is that the whole stream/team is included; therefore, every member of
the team has a part in product delivery. There is no hierarchy but every team
member role has a set of responsibilities and it has to ensure quality of work
before passing it to the next member of the delivery train.
The heart
of whole process is PI planning where every stream member is included in
planning and has a say in shaping a future delivery product.
By using
the DevOPS approach, we are ensuring that every product team build is
maintained by that same team to enable
continuous improvement and enable us to apply the principles of Design Thinking
in the near future.
In which
areas will these principles have the best effect, especially as seen from our
client’s perspective or even that of their end-clients?
In
every part of delivery, I would say. However, this will especially have the
best effect on product quality and product values. By including every team
member to contribute with his knowledge and experience, the quality of the
product exponentially grows (“It takes a village to raise a child”). Also, by
increasing product quality, we are delivering appropriate value to our
customers because with continuous delivery we are supporting their business
goals.


The third
value stream is related to Risk Management and Digital, and we asked Jelena
Kolega, Head of New Solution Design, what she thought were the best values
of switching to Agile:
How will this make prioritization easier to our people?
Prioritization
is something that causes headaches to many product managers. When it comes to prioritization,
there are several stakeholders in that process. On the one hand, you have clients
waiting with their requests which are crucial for them for many reasons.
Then
you have regulatory implementations required by card schemes (specific for card
processing related products) and, last but not least, you (as product manager)
have your product’s roadmap - list of functionalities, product
increments/enhancements that you’d like to develop. Where to start and how to
prioritize?
I’m
not sure that Agile and SAFe as a methodology will make prioritization easier.
This
methodology and working-in-sprints principles will raise awareness in teams and
product managers about developments that are going as planned and those that
are not going as planned. That will encourage teams and product managers to
stop projects which are not going as planned (early enough) and re-prioritize
tasks, for the benefit of all: clients, regulators, and the product itself.
How will this benefit our clients?
This new way of working should result in better planning of product development activities. Ultimately, that means that our clients will have accurate and timely information on when they can expect their requests to be implemented (resolved) and/or when new product will be in production. That will enable them to plan and budget their activities and future investments.
What is the future of Agile?
The Agile
methodology is not only limited to software development and it can potentially
revolutionize and change the corporate mindset. However, not all Agile methodologies
are applicable to every organization and it takes expert judgment to decide
what should be applied where.


For this
reason, we asked Morten Ankjær, Agile Coach from Deloitte, for his
opinion on the challenges of implementing Agile and the future of Agile in
fintech organizations:
What are
the challenges of implementing Agile in large corporations vs. in small
organization?
In smaller organisations or entrepreneurial networks, it is often easy to establish an overview of
ongoing projects and tasks and we can easily pull teams together and get
alignment on the vision and
direction. In large organisations work and people are often distributed to organisational
silos, sometimes even at
different locations.
The
size and organisational boundaries impede our ability to get alignment and
transparency in activities and to sort out dependencies amongst teams. So, when
implementing agile in a
larger organisation,
we need a system that can provide the network and operational procedures that
provide speed and innovation of the entrepreneurial network while leveraging
the benefits and stability of a large organisation.
Is the formal structure of Agile such as Scaled Agile Framework maybe more applicable to larger corporations?
Scaled Agile
Framework is in offset designed for delivering large solutions with teams of
teams and it provides the tools, processes, guides and principles for
establishing a dual operating system that brings the entrepreneurial network to
larger organisations creating better value sooner, safer and happier.
What is the future of Agile in fintech organizations?
The future
is agile as more and more of the organisation embeds agile thinking and value
to additional parts of the organization. Improving the ability to rapidly
respond to both internal and external threats and opportunities allows us to seize competitive advantage and market
share by organising now
and into the future, operating and delivering value and behaving, learning and
evolving to maximize human performance.