Case Study
Volvo Cars
Anders Christensson was a SCRUM Master at Volvo Cars for teams working with the PULS spare parts application.
Volvo Cars
Volvo Cars is a Swedish car manufacturer that focuses on producing safe, sustainable and innovative vehicles. The company offers a wide range of cars, including electric cars and plug-in hybrids, and aims to electrify its entire model range.
Quick facts about the Volvo Cars case
Period: October 2018 - April 2021
Client: Automotive
Role: Agile Coach, SCRUM Master
Framework: SCRUM
Internal Mainframe Maintenance Group
PULS is an application for managing the supply of spare parts to workshops. The application is managed by a group of 35 employees and consultants: application specialists, project managers, programmers and an architect. Some of them come from an outsourcing partner and are based in Bangalore, India.
The application has been around for 45 years and is built in mainframe technology, COBOL, etc.
Maintenance group's agile transformation
In 2018, it was decided that the PULS management team would adopt an agile approach. The management opted for a cautious approach, starting at team level and then adding what was needed to coordinate these teams. The group was divided into six agile teams, three product teams and a supporting technical team.
To implement the change, management brought in two agile coaches. Anders Christensson was one of them.
Anders and the other agile coach carried out the following activities:
- Developed information material about the change.
- Reviewed current working methods using a gap analysis.
- Based on the gap analysis, develop a training plan.
- Preparation and delivery of training in accordance with the training plan.
- Facilitating working meetings to establish common guidelines, such as the "definition of done" and backlog management.
The transformation started in December 2018 and the teams started working according to SCRUM at the beginning of January 2019.
The Scrum Master role
During the assignment, Anders Christensson was the Scrum Master for three teams.
The role included:
- Coaching team members, leaders and product owners.
- Preparing, executing and following up on sprint planning.
- Managing obstacles that the teams could not resolve themselves.
- Managing the Sprint Board and Sprint Backlog.
- Preparing, conducting and following up Sprint Reviews.
Coaching the Maintenance Group and its Managers
During the assignment Anders interacted with Product Owners, other Scrum Masters and management to gradually improve the agile way of working:
- Developed a team coordination concept inspired by SAFE and Nexus.
- Responsible for coordination meetings for the five teams.
- Organisation of innovation days.
- Introducing new staff to the agile way of working.
- Consulting and management of MS Azure DevOps.
Results
Anders' work has helped the management team to improve their delivery. The business leaders estimate that the group has increased its delivery by a factor of five, compared to the period before 2018. Headcount has not changed significantly during the period, but the improvement is due to better resource utilisation.
