Franziska Grohmann
ERNI Switzerland
The ERNI Fitness Check is part of a broader concept called the Coverage Analysis. We adapted both concepts to a variety of topics: Innovation, DevOps, Software Architecture, Digital Maturity etc.
The goal of the ERNI Fitness Check is to help businesses in getting clarity in a certain field and give them input for improvement. We analyse the current situation and compare it to an ideal state of the topic. The results are presented graphically and enhanced with recommend short and long-term action items. The whole process usually takes 2-4 weeks, depending on the availability of stakeholders. If the customer wishes we expand the Fitness Check to a whole Coverage Analysis where we support the customer in the definition and execution of changes in the company’s collaboration.
The challenge
The company’s software development department had already partially introduced an agile development method but was still missing the expected benefits. Instead of better alignment between the development teams of different products, the software developers were involved in many meetings and were left alone amongst conflicting priorities.
That’s why the department head approached us with a request to conduct a Fitness Check on their Agile Development. We investigated the departments involved in defining, implementing and testing of their software products.
Process
Over three weeks we conducted 11 interviews, with each person having one and a half hours of talk. We examined aspects like collaboration, used methods, pains and wishes, but also about Agile Values. We gathered a lot of information. At the end of the Fitness Check we presented the findings to the employees according to the verbal input that we got. A spider graph visualisation is part of all Fitness Checks representing which areas already work well and in which areas adjustments are necessary.
Solution
In the end, we delivered a very detailed report about the Agile Values lived at the company. The areas for improvement included improving the collaboration and alignment on the level of project management. We compiled an action list with action items even broken down into details.
