“Agile methodologies work and really get people excited”
In May 2016, we went to Lima to see for ourselves the new ways of working that BBVA is introducing throughout the organization to accelerate its transformation. For two days, BBVA Continental teams met to participate in a quarterly planning session. The goal is to decide on the projects for the next three months and determine the tasks that must be carried out to make them a reality. "Agile methodologies have proven to be a model that works and really get people excited,” affirms Karina Bruce, Talent and Culture Manager at BBVA Continental.
The quarterly planning sessions are based on agile work methodologies. BBVA began introducing this much more collaborative way of working in 2014 through the first scrums.
Scrums are multi-disciplinary, autonomous teams of eight to 12 people who work together to accomplish a common goal with short iterations. The teams work simultaneously and with tight deadlines, every two or three weeks, which makes it possible to verify with customers that they are working in the right direction.
The BBVA Group currently has more than 150 scrums, and more than 1,000 people around the world working with agile methodologies. The main goal is to increase the speed and quality of execution for projects.
Quarterly planning sessions serve to incorporate agile methodologies in an institution like BBVA, with many teams and people who work together and interrelate to carry out projects. It consists of four stages:
- Identify the portfolio of projects for the quarter;
- Prioritize those projects according to their strategic importance;
- Identify the projects’ dependencies, either on other projects or other support or monitoring areas; and
- Identify the resources available for all these initiatives.
“This creates commitment and collaborative work - team work like I have never seen before in the years I have worked for the organization
“These quarterly planning sessions are the summum of this great cultural transformation. You can see multidisciplinary teams sitting in a relatively large space, where people from all areas participate,” says Samuel Sánchez, BBVA Continental’s Digital Banking Manager. “This creates commitment and collaborative work - team work like I have never seen before in the years I have worked for the organization.”