When I walk to the standup (yeah), this is what I see (ok)
Everybody stops and they staring at me
I got passion in my veins and I ain’t afraid to show it, show it, show it, show it

I’m Agile and I know it
I’m Agile and I know it

[Adapted from LMFAO “Sexy And I Know It”]

Remember how I told you about our Agile Enterprise efforts back in May?  Well, since then Agile has been spreading like a plague all over the enterprise.  I’ve compiled for you a collection of testimonials, if you will, from across the enterprise.  Keep in mind that none of these testimonials come from within IT where we first started Agile in October 2011.  These are all business-side folks beginning to apply Agile values, principles, and practices within their work lives and in some cases beyond.

 Our Strategic Partnerships team …

“Our team started with a Kanban  board and has progressed to Target Process for our pilot and syndication projects. Sydney also uses a personal Kanban board. We have  utilized the principles for other projects. For example Killian used a Kanban board for multiple teams to use to plan the Keep It Weird workshops for Coupon U.  Also the Diversity & Inclusion council has adopted the electronic version to keep track of committee projects.”

Our Marketing Research team …

“From Marketing Research, which includes the combined teams of the Category Research Center (CRC), GIS, List Data Services and Research Services:

• Each team has a huddle daily or bi-weekly  to review roles/responsibilities for current and upcoming work efforts.
• Three out of four teams have a  board that outlines current/upcoming projects and who has been assigned that they review during their huddle and update as needed throughout the week.”

Our Security team …

“Not only have we used the Kanban Boards as a way to give the Record Coordinators a way to organize and track their department’s progress during the Records & Information Management project, but we also created a spreadsheet that contains the same 8 steps, which tracks the overall project by department.  It is our Kanban Project Board.  This has made understanding next steps, next departments to start and overall project progress very easy… The Kanban boards, while a simple tool, are very visual and really do help track the progress of tasks and projects.

… I will admit that I shared this outside the company also.  I am the President of the Board of Directors for the Suncoast Safety Council, and in a recent meeting with their Executive Director, I recommended they use Kanban boards for tracking the status of their strategic plans and all of its associated tasks.  Once I explained to her how this worked, she was very interested and we both felt this would improve engagement and awareness for her entire team.  It provides high visibility and can be used in conjunction with their regular update meetings provided by the various teams (similar to Scrum teams), which would be held at the Kanban Board.  Taking it to the community!”

Our National Sales team …

“The Sales Support Team gathers at the What’s Happening Right Now Kanban Board each day at 9:15 to discuss what is being worked on that day, and any impediments that may be slowing up progress.  Each Account Manager has been assigned a different color card. Each card represents a campaign that is being worked on.  Cards detail Client Name, Campaign Dates, Elements of the Campaign as well as Vertical.  Cards move horizontally across the board via the following lanes : Pre-campaign Activities, Contracting, Ready to Mail (or Deploy), Mailing/Deployed, and Post-Sale/Historical Reporting.

The team has been using the board since the beginning of June, and it has helped to open up the lines of communication not only between individuals on the team, but with others not on the team, but who may be wondering what the status of a current job may be.”

Our Manufacturing organization …

“The Operational Analyst team at the Valpak Manufacturing Center is using a Kanban board to prioritize, track and manage workload. We set the board up after collaborating with Cara on best practices and used some of her suggestions and made other enhancements specific to what we wanted. We used to use a list of tasks that needed to be done and would review it each month for progress. Progress was slow on some tasks and other items came up over the course of a month that were started and completed with very little planning. Once we completed the Kanban board and backlog cards, even using some volunteer kids from Take Your Son/Daughter To Work Day to help out, we had to analyze all the tasks on the backlog and prioritize them. The board made it easy to see the interaction between some of the tasks and dictated which ones rose to the top of the list. We’ve been using it for 4 months now and have found that is it helping the team stay focused on a few, important tasks at one time that get driven to completion faster than in the past. We still have items that come up unexpectedly, but now expedite those on the Kanban board for better tracking. Overall the Kanban board approach has worked well for our team giving visibility of the work coming up to the team and anyone else who wants to see it.”

“… the Collation team, as you mentioned, has switched to the Kanban for their CPI team which is on 2^nd shift.  The 1^st introduced it and then transferred it to them. In addition, the folding project that is underway is utilizing the Kanban (electronic) method also.  It is going well and they have adapted it to fit their needs.  Additional discussion are taking place on how other families may be able to incorporate it in their CPI teams.”