• Cases

Implementing Kanban at Team Digital Workplace Amphia

The Digital Workspace team at the Amphia Hospital in Breda ensures that healthcare professionals in the hospital can access patient data quickly, flexibly, securely and with ease. Because this way professionals and of course patients are provided with the best care.

Security, continuity and innovation are central to the service. The Digital Workplace team faces the challenge of supporting healthcare professionals in response to questions from the field and the possibilities of digital innovation. Much of the work has an ad hoc character. The developments in this digital domain and the needs of healthcare professionals never stand still. Scrum Academy was asked to find a way of working with the team that does justice to the speed of the day, but also has an eye for longer-term development projects.

Come up with a smart working method that reduces the workload and satisfies customers

All these different requirements and innovative possibilities quickly lead to a very large workload. Work reaches the team through many channels: phone, own mail, group mail, apps, central tools and through change management. In addition, each team member has their own way of capturing the work. As a result, the workload of the entire team is not visible to everyone, which makes pulling together as a team more difficult. After all, it is less easy to know where a team member can jump in when needed.

Another thing that stands out is the servitude of the team. A quality in itself, but in an oversold version this also creates a very large workload and high pressure. Saying “no” is not in the DNA of team members, which makes prioritizing difficult. That brings up the next question: how do we ensure that service levels and accessibility remain high, but also boost the team’s job satisfaction?

Agile, Scrum and Kanban applied very practically

Scrum Academy likes to connect with the client’s practice. So we start with an overall retrospective: what is going well within the team and should we definitely keep? Where are the opportunities for improvement? After prioritizing these, we start with a short training on Agile and an explanation of Scrum and Kanban. Kanban is a method for defining, managing and improving processes. Then, using the points they want to tackle and the theory, the team creates its own working method which is immediately put into practice. New team agreements help with this:

• Working in a regular rhythm to discuss incoming work and workload;
• Capturing and making transparent all work in one central tool;
• Returning feedback moments to share knowledge and continuously improve practices.

Over several months, under the guidance of Scrum Academy ‘s Agile Coach, the team further sharpens this way of working. The team does this in interactive (online) sessions where meaningful discussions lead to improvements. But also in physical peer review sessions to address more personal points (such as saying “no” and still being of service).

Outcome of Agile Coaching

Because the work inventory becomes very insightful, the team manages to plan much more realistically and stick to it. Clear team agreements provide the right frameworks. Like where all the work is visible, how emergencies are handled, how change management changes are handled and how the team deals with saying “no” and still being of service.

Job satisfaction goes up and the perceived workload goes down. Because the team works together more, the team spirit also goes up. There is more eye for each other and that gives support. The new norm is to keep standard time for projects and set aside time for Ad-Hoc work. This way, all the work gets the attention it needs.

Want to know if an Agile Kickstart is for you?

Feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’m happy to take the time to answer your questions and to develop a customized approach for your organization if you wish. For example in an Agile Kickstart for teams especially designed for you . Together we look if all preconditions are in place for a new Agile approach. For example with Scrum or Kanban.