Anique Wilmer is Delivery Manager at BPM Company on a project at a financial institution specializing in water and sustainability. In this capacity, she not only manages two of our teams, but also ensures the quality of the services we provide. Our goal in this project is to increase the financial institution’s compliance level through two different Pega applications. Thanks to our decisiveness and optimized cooperation between our Pega teams and the stakeholders of the financial institution, we achieved a significant milestone: successfully going live with the second Pega application in a relatively short period of time.
Streamline customer management processes
The financial institution is a bank of and for the public sector with a particular focus on water and sustainability. The bank strives to improve their customer management processes to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of DNB and ECB. In 2022, we partnered with the bank on a Pega lending solution. This “loan application,” developed with the Pega package “Customer Service,” has since been continually expanded to include more loan products. This application enables the bank to make their processes transparent and accountable to the authorities.
In addition to lending, the bank’s need came in early 2023 to be able to onboard, service and perform the necessary due diligence processes for their customers in Pega. To realize this ambition, we set up a second team from BPM Company to work closely with the bank. This team faced the challenge of adapting the extensive and complex CLM package designed for large global organizations to the specific needs of the bank, which is a more specialized financial institution.
Mutual trust and close cooperation
The cooperation between the bank and BPM Company is characterized by a strong mutual trust between the two Pega teams of BPM Company, the POs of the bank and also the management of the bank and BPM Company. In this collaboration, the bank determines what they need and we as BPM Company – based on our Pega expertise and experience – determine how best to realize the requirements.
Self-managing teams
The teams operate self-managing and work with their PO to set priorities for the backlog. The backlog is fed by the bank’s strategic roadmap, with input from the POs translated into user Stories in collaboration with the business analysts (BAs) within the Pega teams. Both applications are now operational and being used with satisfaction. Following the scrum methodology, new functionalities and improvements are released biweekly.
Interdependencies
One challenge in this project is that the two Pega applications have interdependencies, requiring regular collaboration between the teams. This proved more complex than initially thought, which just goes to show how important effective communication is. To meet the deadline for the first CLM release, it was essential to quickly identify those dependencies and take appropriate actions. From this came new working arrangements to provide all stakeholders involved with an understanding of the nature, scope and impact of these dependencies, as well as their progress. This meant weekly meetings with senior Pega specialists from both teams in which dependencies were defined, impact assessed and solutions devised, including task allocation. Some dependencies required action from the bank itself, which required timely communication and stakeholder involvement. As Delivery Manager, I also created status reporting to track progress, including dependencies, sprint progress, risks and decisions, as well as celebration of successes. This reporting, meetings and work agreements contributed significantly to quickly resolving bottlenecks on the critical path to the deadline.
Team dynamics and the power of focus
As the deadline approached, the expectations for each team member became very clear. This insight and the experience of pleasant pressure had a clear positive effect on team dynamics. Everyone, regardless of job level, from junior to senior developer, including the bank employees, felt a shared responsibility to achieve the set goals. It was extraordinary to see how a hard deadline and a strong focus increase motivation.
Celebrate your successes
As a Delivery Manager, I value celebrating successes. It is too easy to think that successes are just part of the job. Taking a moment to reflect on your successes has a clear impact on motivation in teams. Moreover, it brings the results achieved into clearer focus for the stakeholders within the bank. And of course, our work becomes even more fun when we celebrate together every now and then. So after the successful release, I – in collaboration with the bank’s project manager – took a moment where we put all colleagues from both teams in the limelight with nice words and delicious cake.
Join BPM Company
Like Anique, do you want to push your boundaries, discover your talents and make an impact at leading organizations? If you are proactive, critical and driven, we invite you to join our team. Exciting opportunities await you at BPM Company. Check out our job openings and apply quickly.
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