August 20208 HOW RECENT TRENDS IN AGILE HAVE BEEN IMPACTING THE BUSINESSBY SHARLIZA MOHD HARIS, HEAD OF AGILE, TELEKOM MALAYSIAWe are operating in a highly dynamic environment, where technological developments have increased customer's sophistication, needs and demands. These changes have also led to emergence of new business models and hence, past solutions may no longer be valid. Realising these changes, more companies have embarked on the agile way of working, with the aim to increase tempo, deliver faster outcomes, improve business as well as customer experience. Realising the benefits that agile can bring to the organisation, Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has also pursued the agile way of working to further upskill its workforce, as we believe with the right expertise and experience, we are well positioned to power Digital Malaysia.Many organisations started their agile journey in the IT department, especially in accelerating software delivery. However, within TM, we started our journey by focusing on improvements in sales, customer experience and digital enablers. The pilot is aimed at inculcating:· A new way of organising: Establishment of cross-functionalteams aligned to business priorities, with each teamaccountable for their outcomes· A new way of working: Using scrum approach and focusingon iterative continuous improvements to drive better outcomes· A new way of decision making: Decisions are made withcustomers' interest in mind. Empowerment is given toaccelerate decision making and leadership roles are shiftedfrom purely making decisions to helping in overcomingobstacles and providing clarity in vision and aspirationThe outcomes of the pilot were encouraging. We saw cross-functional teams yielding 20% improvement in service subscription within 2 sprints, 200% improvement in app release time and 500% improvement in voice of customers with an increase in Net Easy Score (NES). All these positive outcomes perfectly support TM's role of delivering innovative and comprehensive products and solutions, to serve a more digital society and lifestyle, digital businesses and industry verticals, as well as digital Government. In addition, there were some positive verbatim from the agile teams, especially in the following areas:· Ownership: Cross-functional team members felt that therewas a better sense of ownership and recognition of contribution· Faster delivery and productivity: Issues were resolved faster, hence, better delivery of outcomes. There was an increase inflexibility, yet tasks were executed in a timely manner· Teamwork: The team felt a sense of togetherness and supportbeyond job scope, improvement in team chemistry, whichhelps to produce better team effort.· Openness: Agile team members expressed that they couldtalk, throw ideas and brainstorm, leading to feeling moreappreciated.IN MY V EW
< Page 7 | Page 9 >