How can agile methods support business development in a service organisation? L&T and Taskmill created a new collaboration model that improved transparency, prioritisation and cooperation between business units. The initiative also gave L&T practical experience in applying agile ways of working to business development.
Taskmill and L&T began working together in spring 2022, when L&T’s Property Services needed a new model for collaboration between different business units.
The goal was to make development planning more agile and collaborative across the organisation. L&T also wanted to explore how agile methods could support business development in practice.
Overlapping projects were slowing down business development
“The main challenges were overlapping projects and the amount of work happening simultaneously. Several projects were progressing at the same time and depended on a small number of key people. This increased lead times and created dependencies on individual employees. We realised that a clearer common direction, better collaboration between business units and stronger prioritisation could significantly improve both employee satisfaction and the value we deliver to customers,” says Reima Harju, Director of L&T’s property services.
Agile business development started with a current-state analysis
The transformation began in May 2022 with support from Taskmill. As L&T wanted to develop agility at both portfolio and team level, Taskmill Agile Coaches Elina Jolma and Timo Ruottinen joined the initiative.
“We started by analysing the current situation and interviewing key people. We wanted to understand their challenges and expectations so that we could identify the best ways to support change from L&T’s perspective,” says Timo Ruottinen, Agile Coach at Taskmill.
Building the organisation’s capabilities in agile and Lean ways of working was also an important part of the initiative. “At the beginning, we organised training for key people on applying agile ways of working in a service business. The training was held in person, and it was great to see collaboration between the business units begin to develop already during the sessions. The training was carried out in person and it was wonderful to notice how the cooperation between the businesses started to build already during those days. The coaching gave a good push for the change and also nicely raised the expectations regarding the building of the cooperation model”, continues Agile Leadership Consultant Elina Jolma from Taskmill.
Agile joint planning brought business units together
After the training, the focus shifted to developing the new collaboration model. Together with L&T experts, Taskmill created a model for quarterly joint planning. It brought together representatives from different business units, ICT and other centralised functions. The aim was to create greater transparency across development activities within Property Services.
“The model was first piloted with ICT-related development work because the challenges caused by several simultaneous projects were particularly visible in the ICT development team’s daily work. Through joint planning, we wanted to encourage discussion around shared business goals, increase transparency around ongoing and planned work, and support prioritisation,” explains L&T’s Product Owner Elina Korhonen.
Preparation played an important role. “We mapped the ongoing projects and development initiatives across the business units. Based on this, we created a shared view of development activities across Property Services,” says Timo Ruottinen.
The joint planning session was held in person in Pitäjänmäki, Helsinki. “We worked together around a shared visual overview, bringing people across business boundaries into the same discussion. We broke larger initiatives into smaller pieces that could deliver value faster. We also combined activities that made sense to implement together. At the same time, we identified dependencies and made some tough prioritisation decisions,” says Elina Jolma.
Agile methods helped solve business challenges
“In addition to joint planning, we also tested agile methods on an operational level in business development. We used agile methods to solve business challenges with good results,” adds Timo Ruottinen.
Through the cooperation, L&T increased both the organization’s know-how about agility and gained practical experience in utilizing agile methods in business development. “Together with Taskmill, we were able to build a cooperation model and operating methods that we have been able to apply independently after the pilot phase. We also gained increased transparency and improved cooperation between units”, Reima Harju praises.
“It has been a pleasure to work with Taskmill’s competent consultants. I myself got to facilitate the joint planning after the pilot phase and the team was at least as actively and enthusiastically involved as the first time when Taskmill was with us. It has been easy for us to continue making our organization more agile, when we got a good boost for it with the support of Taskmill”, sums up Elina Korhonen.