Client cases

9. September 2016

Enthusiasm became the framework for a pilot project at Frie Funktionærer

“I often made sure to visit the room where the pilot project was being implemented to see for myself how the work was progressing. There were many times I wanted to stay and join in, because over a surprisingly short time, the project had led to a strong team spirit where all the participants were bringing their respective competences to the table. Lasse Sørensen from Plan A Projects really radiates a personal conviction in the utility of the agile methodology, and it’s clear that the interplay between the methodology and his enthusiasm sets the framework for the project team being able to deliver results in the long run without getting worn out.

In fact, what we saw instead was strong relationships forming between our staff. After our close collaboration with Lasse, it’s clear to us that both the agile methodology and Lasse himself aims to create excellent results on time. It surpassed all of our expectations as the pilot project was completed a week earlier than planned – and with a better result than we normally would have been able to deliver.”

Ulrik Karlsen, Frie Funktionærer

9. September 2016

Scrum Master: I couldn’t have done it all without help from an agile coach

MIL Client cases

In connection with a large-scale agile SAP implementation project at a large Danish food company, Tom Bloch worked as a Scrum Master on the biggest of the seven teams. In addition to working with Lasse Sørensen from Plan A Projects, Bloch also appreciated being able to delegate some of his Scrum Master tasks to Lasse.

“As I was responsible for the biggest of the many teams involved in this project, it was difficult to find time to follow up on things with each and every team member, which you have to do in an agile project. Lasse had some spare time, so he offered to help out, which has been really helpful,” said Bloch, who was attached to the project via IBM.

WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIND TIME FOR EVERYTHING WITHOUT HELP

“It was especially the hardcore Scrum-related tasks he took care of, because that was where he could be most helpful in relation to the project. For example, he made sure to follow up on individual team members’ tasks and would then report back to me. It allowed me to better take care of the things that had to do with the business and process itself, and we were able to report on progress to the senior project management team so they could see whether we were making our targets. I would not have been able to find time for all of that without Lasse’s help,” Bloch added.

AGILE EXPERT

In addition to having him supporting his team, Tom Bloch also worked with Lasse Sørensen in his role as an agile coach for all 75 project staff, of whom only two had any prior experience with agile projects.

As Bloch explained: “Lasse is a great agile coach. He’s been the agile expert on this project and taught us all about the methodology. It certainly hasn’t been easy all the way through, as not everyone was equally excited about working with an agile approach, but he’s taken it all with a smile. More than anything, he’s taught us the methodology, and we’ve been able to consult with him throughout the process if we needed any help. There are lots of concepts you have to learn and relate to when you have never worked on an agile project before, but Lasse handled that extraordinarily well!”

GOOD TO BE ABLE TO JOKE WITH ONE ANOTHER

Concerning Lasse Sørensen’s contribution, Tom Bloch highlighted his specialist knowledge and positive energy: “Lasse has a huge amount of expert knowledge, but his best quality is probably his infectious enthusiasm. When things get a little stressful, it’s good to be able to laugh and joke with each other. He’s been great at that!”

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9. September 2016

Using an agile coach with a 100% focus on methodology has been a relief

MIL Client cases

As one IBM’s top three project managers, Winnie Thorgaard held the overall responsibility for the deliverables from IBM’s staff. She felt it was a great relief to be able to focus on that role while Lasse Sørensen from Plan A Projects took care of ensuring the project stayed agile.

“Plan A Projects has been able to uphold the momentum from start to finish,” Thorgaard said.

“When only two employees out of 75 had any prior experience with agile projects, it was no small feat convincing the remaining 73 that it was a good idea and to stick with it.

It’s one thing to visit and present some theories on how to go about things, but Lasse has also been extraordinary at showing how to put theory into practice. I am sure that there wasn’t a single employee who still couldn’t see the advantages of the methodology by the end of the project.”

STRENGTH IN PERSISTENCE

For my part, Lasse’s involvement has meant that I’ve been able to focus 100% on being responsible for the deliverables without having to worry about whether the staff were working in accordance with agile principles,” Thorgaard continued.

“At certain parts in the process I myself was tempted to take a few shortcuts, but then Lasse would be there, asking me if I really thought that was a good idea. The fact that he’s persistent is definitely one of his great strengths; he sticks with it to ensure that things begin to slip.

A GOOD SOUNDING BOARD

“Lasse has also been very useful as a sounding board when certain individuals in the project were not performing optimally within the methodological and project frameworks. In those instances, we would have a talk and arrived at different conclusions on how to solve the problem. Lasse is far more of the coaching type than I am, and he has been very complementary to my somewhat tougher management style because he is great at making people realise themselves what they need to do and why.”

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Halfway into the project, when Lasse’s role switched from agile coach to Scrum Master, Thorgaard observed an interesting attitude change among the employees: “When he was the agile coach, he was going from team to team, ensuring that everyone was following the methodology. Some of the staff probably found that irritating and thought that it was easy enough for him to lecture them on how to do things when it wasn’t him who had to actually do it,” Thorgaard laughed. “But when he took on the role of Scrum Master on one of the teams, he really got the chance to show what it was all about.”

DELIVERED ON TIME – WITH NO OVERTIME

“That team had almost ground to a halt, but he still managed to get them to the finish line with no one having to work extra hours,” Thorgaard continued. “He helped them by breaking the tasks down to as detailed a level as possible, leaving no room for loopholes, and then he engaged with each one of them and got them to commit to the process. Once they set their own goals for how and when to finish what, they got a completely different sense of ownership, and Lasse was incredibly systematic in following up on each individual’s progress. It is largely thanks to him that that particular team succeeded!”

INFECTIOUS PASSION

“Our collaboration with Lasse has been faultless. Firstly, his infectious enthusiasm and honest, confidence-inspiring personality makes him easy to work with, and he always does what he says he will. Furthermore, he is incredibly well prepared and has an enormous theoretical toolbox, from which we all have learned a lot in practice. Yet one of his greatest strengths is probably that he is so passionate. You can really sense his conviction in this methodology, and it rubs off on everyone around him,” Thorgaard said.

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9. September 2016

Project Manager: An agile approach is easier to work with

MIL Client cases SAP

Business Project Manager Søren Bech has employed the agile methodology in connection with two complex SAP implementations in a large Danish food company. He was supported by Lasse Sørensen in his capacity as an agile coach. The methodology was unfamiliar to everyone working at the company, and even though the first attempt was a great success, Hansen found that the project work became even easier the second time.

“When we worked with an agile approach on the first SAP project, none of us here in the company had any experience with agile project management,” Hansen explained. “The second time, approximately half of the project staff had some familiarity with it, which meant that we could draw upon a lot of prior experience in the new project. For example, we now knew how to go about making a product breakdown structure and had a much better idea of what our objectives were.”

Physical presence is an advantage

“In many ways it’s really helpful to have people who have tried it before,” Hansen continued. “You don’t have to repeat as many things, and those who are unfamiliar with the methodology can ask the others for advice. Things have run more smoothly with this second project because of that. I particularly think that those who were physically present throughout the project found it easy to adapt, because they could see that the agile work approach gave the project a logical structure. When all sub-tasks are written on a single whiteboard, it’s easier to understand what needs to happen, but it does require you to be physically present, of course.”

Important that everyone stays true to the methodology

“On the other hand, there have been some subcontractors who have not found as easy to understand why they had to work in accordance with an agile approach, as they were perhaps used to working in a completely different way. However, we realised after the first project that it was important for everyone to stay true to the methodology, so we have made sure no one strays from it. Eventually – and fortunately – it became a process that ran itself, not least internally.”

Well-prepared after the first project

Lasse Sørensen was attached to both projects as an agile coach, but he was less present on the second one. As Hansen explained: “In the first project we needed Lasse’s help quite often as we had no prior experience with agile project management, but in the second project we felt we were capable of handling things more independently. So we mostly used Lasse at the very beginning of the project and when we moved between sprints. One of the things he was excellent at was helping each of the teams make the plans they had to, after which the rest of us with prior agile experience from the first project could take over. It’s been a really good mix.”

Many advantages to agile project management

Hansen has found many advantages to agile project management, particularly in relation to the big picture and planning. As he explained: “Thanks to the product breakdown structure, you get a much better sense of how the solution works. It’s all visualised on a shared wall, which makes it very easy to see what kind of solution you are about to deliver and what is needed to deliver it. In other words, the agile methodology gives you a good short-term plan which you can constantly re-evaluate as the work progresses. It works really well!”

A methodology nerd with an infectious enthusiasm

Although they did not require as much specialist advice in the second project, Hansen is still pleased to have had Sørensen along for the ride both times.

“Lasse is great at what he does – a real methodology nerd, and I mean that in a good way. He made sure we got off to a good start and that we got an overview and shared understanding of what we had to do. Furthermore, he always shows up in high spirits. That’s how he gets people on board, even though they sometimes want to cut corners. So he definitely had a knock-on effect that has been beneficial for the project,” Hansen said.

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9. September 2016

App development project became the start of an agile project approach at Daman

MIL Client cases Daman

Daman is a digital agency specialising in the pharmaceutical industry. As Daman had a limited timeframe to develop a new app for one of the Danish administrative regions, the company wanted to work in a more agile way than had previously been the case. In order to get off to a good start and ensure that the agile mindset was maintained throughout the project, they were assisted by an agile coach from Plan A Projects.

“We contacted Plan A Projects because we wanted to start working in a more agile way with our projects, and we needed someone with substantial experience to help us on the right track,” said Andreas Dam, CEO at Daman. “I also think it’s exciting that Plan A Projects incorporates positive psychology into their project management model. As a manager, it’s important to me that the project team is happy, and Plan A Projects’ model helps make working together on these projects a fun and positive experience.”

Someone to lend a hand

“Our project manager, Jens, had gone on a three-day course about agile project management at Plan A Projects, but hadn’t tried working with agile projects in practice,” explained Dam. “Which is why it seemed appropriate to bring them on board, giving Jens someone who could lend a hand.”

Jens Jakobsen, the project manager, agrees: “It’s been great having an agile coach who could help us get going and who could answer all the questions that popped up along the way.”

New team with limited agile experience

The project Daman was working on was about developing an app for one of Denmark’s administrative regions. The region wanted an app that could function as a support tool for people who had been hospitalised for heart failure and who had to regularly register and report different facts about their health to the Danish health services. The project team was comprised of Jens as the project manager, two user interface designers and two app developers. The two app developers were subcontracted from an external app development studio, meaning that it was a team that was not used to working together and where most of them did not have much practical experience working with an agile approach.

Training and agile coaching

“Ole from Plan A Projects began by training us on how to use their agile project management model so that the whole project team had a common understanding of how we were supposed to work together,” said Jakobsen. “He also worked as an agile coach throughout the project and made sure that we stuck to the model instead of falling back into old habits. It’s worked really well.”

Project owner involvement from the beginning

“Having Plan A Projects attached to this project has had a huge effect,” said Jakobsen.

“For example, they insisted that the project owner – our client – had to be present at the initial planning meetings together with the whole project team. It was a brilliant idea because it ensured that she became aware of what would be complicated to do and what would be easy to do. That way it became easier for her to prioritise where to invest our resources so that she could get the best possible product out of the financial and time restraints the project had.”

Good use of resources

One of the reasons Daman wanted to start adopting a more agile approach was that they wanted to become even better at meeting their clients’ expectations and needs. The new project model has equipped them with a number of tools they can use going forward. As Jakobsen explained: “This whole mindset with involving the client so he or she can help us figure out which parts to scrap as or when needed has been really useful. All in all, we have learned to utilise some interesting new mehodology and found ourselves challenged on how to best utilise our resources and raise the learning curve early on in the process.”

Well-prepared for future agile projects

“I feel very well-prepared for the agile projects we’ll be starting up going forward. I’ll probably still be using Ole as a sounding board the first few times, especially during the planning stage and if I encounter any challenges along the way where it would be good to get expert advice. But now we have lots of new ideas on how we can go about doing things, and it is going to be exciting to implement these into our next project,” Jakobsen concluded.

Facts about Daman’s app development project

The entire project took approximately 4½ months, counted from the day Daman began its initial analyses of what the client wanted to have developed to the day the project was completed. Users also tested and tried out the app in this period, and the way it was used was analysed by Daman together with their client. The client has been very satisfied with the project, and preparations are currently underway to set up a new project to carry the app into phase 2.

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3. September 2016

The project management team’s extended agile arm when implementing SAP

Katrine Client cases Cases, SAP 0 Comments

When a large Danish company had to implement SAP, there was a firm deadline set from the very beginning that the top project manager, Sune Slemming, was determined to adhere to. That is why he chose to take an agile approach. With over 70 staff attached to the project, of whom only a couple had any prior experience working in accordance with agile principles, he decided to bring in external assistance: Lasse Sørensen from Plan A Projects, who was attached to the project as an agile coach and later also as Scrum Master.

“The agile methodology was unfamiliar to the organisation, so we needed a coach,” said Slemming. “I once attended an after-work meeting where Lasse had been invited to speak about the agile methodology, so I was sure that he was the right person to ask. Not only because he had a lot to offer in a purely methodological sense, but also because I had the feeling that he was trustworthy and could function as my extended arm in the organisation.”

MADE THE METHODOLOGY COMPREHENSIBLE AND MEANINGFUL

“It has been a very large and complex project in which Lasse has without a doubt exceeded our expectations,” Slemming continued. “With so many people it can be difficult to reach everyone, but he succeeded at selling the methodology really well and making it comprehensible and meaningful to everyone involved. When you have to work in accordance with a methodology you’re not familiar with, it’s easy to put up a fight, but Lasse created an understanding as to why people had to the things they were being asked to do.”

CONCRETE WORKING TOOLS

“It was one thing for me and the other project managers to say that we wanted to run an agile project, but Lasse was the one who made that happen,” Slemming explained. “He was great at putting theory into practice and making sure that people knew how they specifically had to go about their work in accordance with the methodology.”

LASSE ‘WALKS THE TALK’

A few months into the project, Slemming decided to let Lasse also take over the Scrum Master role on one of the seven teams.”It was sort of my way of testing him, to see whether he was all talk,” Sune said, smiling. “It’s easy being a clever consultant and saying a whole lot, but it’s always another matter making it work in practice. I respect people who can walk the talk. Lasse’s one of them.”

A HEALTHY METHODOLOGICAL FOCUS AND ENCOURAGING ATMOSPHERE

“To some, it may have felt as though they were sort of being put under administration, but they quickly realised that that wasn’t why he had been brought in. It was a strong team with lots of expert knowledge, but it was healthy to bring in an outsider who was more focused on the methodology than the details. He also managed to create a really encouraging atmosphere.”

GOOD COOPERATION

As the top project lead, Slemming has been happy to have Lasse on the team, explaining: “Lasse is great to work with because he’s not only good at explaining what he is doing, but also at asking for help if he needs it. You’re never wondering where he is, and he is incredibly persistent. That’s important in a process like the one we have been through.”

AN ANTENNA IN THE ORGANISATION

“It’s been good for us project managers to have Lasse on board as our extended arm in the organisation. He has had the opportunity to pick up on things we couldn’t and report back to us if, for example, any of the project staff were struggling and maybe needed some extra help. In that sense, he’s functioned as a sort of antenna within the organisation, which been to everyone’s benefit.”

ENTHUSIASTIC AND HIGH-SPIRITED

“Lasse has also helped keep spirits high throughout the project,” Slemming added. “You can say that we hired him to perform one service, but as an added bonus he showed up with a large dose of enthusiasm and high spirits to boot. In such a large project you need someone who can keep morale high, because you know it’s going to be a long and arduous process. Methodological presentations can often be quite boring, but Lasse has managed to make it fun!”

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