Traditionally, Scrum is utilized by small self-managed teams in the context of software development. This Agile approach is popular because it allows for high flexibility of the work process and efficient personal growth which results in an increased product value for clients. What if the same outcome could be achieved by integrating Scrum teams into the customer service maintenance and development strategy?
Scrum is a binding element that brings the entire team closer together. When most team members are working 24x7 they may seldom meet and interact with each other. Adapting Scrum helps to unite engineers with a common process of continuous improvements and makes them feel part of something bigger than just day-to-day operations. Scrum provides engineers with equal opportunities to be involved in corporate activities, to team up with colleagues in exploring the needs of our clients, and improve the service we offer.
— Artem Suzdaltsev
Project Team Leader at Skyward
Improvement team
Once becoming a client of Skyward, every large telecom carrier is assigned a dedicated team. The 24/7 customer support service normally requires 4-6 engineers who provide uninterrupted execution of work tasks related to the monitoring of traffic flow and ensuring the health of telecom infrastructure. People from this group form a Scrum team or Improvement team (as we call it at Skyward) whose objective is to continuously study customer requirements and improve the value of the provided service. As part of everyday work activity, team members monitor the service process stability, analyze customer feedback, offer and implement service improvements. Participation in the Improvement team is voluntary and includes traditional Scrum roles:
- Product Owner. This role is undertaken by an engineer demonstrating a strong communication ability and the required soft skills. This person is responsible for regular communication with a client to inquire about the level of satisfaction with the service quality, collect customer requests for service improvements and uncover long-term customer expectations. Based on the collected data, the product owner prepares a list of ideas to be included in the product backlog.
- Development Team. Most of the engineers working with a client form part of the development team occupied with analyzing, planning, and implementation of the backlog ideas. They are also responsible for tracking operational efficiency of engineers that involves overseeing such aspects as adequate allocation of resources, implementation of process automation, utilization of the best available tools, and so on. According to a rule practiced at Skyward, an engineer working with several telecom carriers should be limited to participating in one development team at a time. This allows him or her to fully concentrate on the needs of a certain client.
- Scrum Master. Despite the uncomplicated process structure in Scrum, Skyward gives due consideration to increasing its efficiency and developing the teams. This task is carried out by Skyward’s CEO and certified Scrum master who uses team coaching and procedure facilitation techniques. All team members contribute to optimizing the operational process and building productive relationships with colleagues.
Product backlog management
The key to a high performance of the Improvement team is the quality of ideas selected for implementation. This defines to a great degree to what extent the team efforts will increase the quality of the customer service. Skyward uses three sources for generating new service ideas.
Customer feedback
There is a procedure in place of collecting and analyzing feedback from every client. Any suggestions, complaints, or recommendations are examined by the Product owner as well as the entire Scrum team. Upon completing the analysis, team members add to the backlog corrective actions for complaints and an implementation strategy for clients’ suggestions described as User Stories.
Identified discrepancies
Skyward thoroughly monitors the execution of key service processes utilizing random checks and regular revisions. Based on the discoveries, engineers generate a list of discrepancies (deviations from established processes) and identify their root causes. As a result, the product backlog is extended with tasks aimed at improving the staff competence, team interactions, work regulations and procedures.
Team members' suggestions
The engineers who interact with telecom carriers on an everyday basis are also considered a valuable source of ideas on how to tailor the existing processes to clients’ requirements, which additional services to offer, what tools to implement, etc. Having uncovered new opportunities, engineers break them down into separate tasks which are added to the backlog for further assessment.
Tasks characterized by a high customer value and high efficiency of execution are given a top-priority status (P1) while tasks of a questionable value that require a great amount of workload are marked with the least priority weight (P9).
Tasks in the backlog are prioritized in accordance with two criteria:
- Task value for clients. Depending on who initiated the task and how important it is for a client’s business, the Product owner can calculate its customer value. The top priority is given to the tasks that will have a direct impact on a client's business, increase the margin or minimize loss of profit risks. Moreover, the activities that allow a client to increase operational efficiency and save resources are also recognized as high-priority.
- Efficiency of task execution. The key role here is assigned to two factors: the availability of resources required for handling the task and its execution time. In case the team can handle the task in 1-2 hours, it receives a high score. If the task requires the team to involve external experts, search for additional resources, hold discussions, and so on, it will be given a lower score.
At Skyward, Scrum is evolving together with the employees. Due to continuous professional growth practiced in the company, our engineers may utilize Scrum more fully and efficiently with each passing year. While just a few years ago, customer improvement consisted mainly in upgrading a procedure or creating a document, now it involves more complex tasks such as processes automation and application development. The chatbot for VoIP traffic monitoring we developed for RSCom is one good example to illustrate this point.
— Artem Suzdaltsev
Project Team Leader at Skyward
Sprint execution
Sprint Goal and Length. As a rule, we at Skyward stick to a two-week sprint length. During this time we manage to implement the majority of the proposed improvements or complete a meaningful part of a large innovation. The end result of each sprint is the execution of at least one significant service process improvement that was originally identified as a sprint goal.
Sprint Planning. The planning process is based on the approach to task prioritization described above. The most urgent tasks (user stories) are included in the sprint backlog. Most of the Development team members plan their workload around current sprint goals: one or two key tasks that provide high customer value, for example, service extension, implementation of a new procedure, development of a new process automation tool, etc. Team members who are not entirely involved in this activity can voluntarily perform additional tasks from the product backlog. This allows for an optimized workload of all team members and fosters the execution of a large number of tasks.
Daily Scrum. To save time, we limit the number of interim meetings to two times a week. Such frequency is enough to evaluate the progress, locate existing challenges and, if necessary, incorporate a new input from the client. The meeting may result in the reallocation of resources required to achieve the sprint goals. In case of encountered difficulties, engineers will receive the required assistance.
Sprint Review. At the end of each sprint, the team evaluates the execution of tasks against acceptance criteria and decides on their completion. An important part of this process is meeting the Definition of Done (DoD) – the agreed-upon set of items that must be executed for the project to be considered complete. In the context of service improvements, DoD is met when new changes are documented, communicated to all team members, and adopted by engineers upon completion of training. When the sprint review involves significant improvements, the Improvement team invites a client’s representatives to fill them in on the idea or demonstrates the achieved results. Customer feedback we receive at this stage is carefully analyzed and might be taken into consideration during the next sprint.
Retrospective
Retrospectives are held for the purpose of analyzing and refining two key aspects of the team performance:
- Team efficiency. Retrospective aims to analyze the performance demonstrated by the team, the resources spent, and the value of the achieved results for a client. The team evaluates implemented service improvements to better understand their operational efficiency and comes up with ideas on how to increase it in the future. Customer value vs team workload ratio is examined at this stage. Quantitative evaluation of the implemented improvements and detection of operational losses encourages the team to evaluate efficiency in an unbiased manner.
- Team cohesion. Retrospective aims to evaluate the existing relations among team members and measure everyone’s satisfaction with collaborative activities. In our experience, such discussions frequently uncover conflicts and mistaken beliefs about each other. This type of retrospective uses coaching techniques when the team analyzes the reasons for certain group behavior by means of answering questions. Meeting together to review team goals, modify rules of conduct, and work out a long-term strategy helps to define the value of each team member, dismiss the existing conflicts and set up new objectives of cooperation.
Improvement team efficiency
The concept of Improvement teams combined with the Scrum practice allows Skyward to bring to life the principal idea of the Kaizen methodology that is continuous improvement of the customer service quality. That way, engineers are voluntarily involved in the work process and clients receive guaranteed results. We single out the following key advantages of the team approach:
- Increased service value for clients achieved through directing attention to their needs, customizing their existing processes, and extending the scope of the provided services.
- Development of the staff competence attributed to the necessity to perform diversified activities and introduction of new tasks requiring utilization of hard as well as soft skills.
- Implementation of self-managed teams through setting up team goals and rules of cooperation, analyzing the group behaviour, and achieving collective results.
- Replication of innovation at the corporate level via exchange of ideas among the teams and their implementation in projects for various clients. The decision about the replication is taken by project leaders – a team at Skyward practicing the Scrum of Scrums concept.
Team approach has become an integral part of our company where most projects and initiatives are carried out by self-managed teams. This allows us to maximize the potential of each employee and continuously implement numerous service improvements. Following this approach, we not only minimize management expenses but also give every engineer an opportunity to participate in business development – of the Skyward company as well as of our valued clients.
— Sergey Losev
CEO of Skyward
