Revolutionizing Healthcare Delivery: Agile Transformation at Blue Shield of California

BACKGROUND:

In May 2020, Blue Shield of California, a leading healthcare insurance provider with over 7,000 employees, initiated a major Agile transformation. The goal was to move from an ineffective traditional/waterfall and scattered Agile delivery mode to an effective Agile value delivery model. The largest department, IT Operations, was tasked with leading this transformation to set an example for the rest of the organization. The transformation aimed to increase work transparency, improve delivery quality, and boost developer morale.

THE CHALLENGE: Blue Shield of California faced several critical issues:

Low work transparency and poor delivery quality.
Siloed operations with minimal collaboration.
Low morale among developers.
Lack of alignment between business/product teams and development teams.
Ineffective traditional/waterfall delivery models.
Waterfall SOW guided most Agile work making Agile Release Planning meaningless.

OUR SOLUTION:

A comprehensive, multi-faceted approach was implemented to address these challenges:

1. Initial Phase (May 2020 – July 2020):

Kickoff Meetings: Engaged with senior executives to align on Agile transformation goals and expectations.
Team Launch: Launched 13+ technical Scrum teams within two months.
Coaching and Training: Provided hands-on coaching to product owners, Scrum Masters, developers, and testers. Developed and delivered training materials and conducted numerous classes.

2. Middle Phase (July 2020 – Dec 2020):

Training and Workshops: Led Agile Foundations training for about 95 people.
Journey Mapping: Conducted journey mapping for each product to align backlogs and prioritize work.
Establishing Portfolio Team Practices: Built effective portfolio team processes to streamline product discovery and delivery strategy.
Health Check Board: Created a comprehensive health check board to monitor and share progress with Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Team Managers, Department Directors, Department Heads, and other Influencers.
Continuous Coaching: Coached Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Managers, Leaders, and Executives during the transition, maintaining calm and centeredness during intense periods, and helped difficult individuals adapt to new ways of working with awareness/sensitivity, connection and a sense of belongingness.

3. Final Phase (Jan 2021 – April 2021):

Optimizing Scrum Practices: Worked closely with teams to establish a rhythm in all Scrum ceremonies (Pre-grooming, Team Grooming, Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives).
Weekly review of the Teams’ health: Reviewed the health dashboard with senior department leaders. The health check dashboard was used in the bi-weekly (CTO) executive meetings.
New Departments Onboarded: With the first teams stabilizing in practices and data proven success/growth in agility, more departments stepped up to introduce Agile to their teams. Presented initial guidance to about 10 teams and their leaders in other departments.

Business Outcomes Achieved:

High Predictability and Stable Velocity: All 13+ teams achieved high predictability and maintained stable velocity over a four-month period.
Increased Memberships and Revenue: Journey mapping and backlog alignment led to increase in memberships.
Reduced Time to Market: Effective portfolio team processes resulted in measured reduction in time to market for key features.
Improved Collaboration and Morale: Enhanced team cohesion and cross-functional collaboration, as reported by timely completion of stories and healthy Scrum meetings.
Quality and Engagement: Churn rate dropped in six months, production defect rates dropped, and backlog health improved significantly.
Strategic Alignment: Leadership established alignment on strategic moves to capture larger market segments in the healthcare space.

The Agile transformation at Blue Shield of California not only streamlined processes and improved delivery but also built a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.

This initiative successfully bridged gaps between business and development teams, leading to significant business growth and operational efficiency.

The transformation journey set a new benchmark for Agile implementation within the organization, highlighting the tangible benefits of adopting Agile methodologies in a large-scale enterprise environment.

TESTIMONIALS

Jim Martin

Senior Director, Operations at Blue Shield of California

I had the privilege of working with Amit as an agile coach at Blue Shield of California. Amit is one of those rare individuals who applies agile concepts & theory within practical real-life work environments. Amit was a tremendous partner helping me launch 13+ technical scrum teams within two months. Amit provided hands-on coaching to product owners, scrum masters, developers, and testers in a calming yet firm demeanor. Amit adapts his coaching style to the appropriate audience seamlessly switching context between daily ceremonies & implementation cadence to executive strategy and agile mindset. I highly recommend Amit as a strategic partner to enable real enterprise-level agile transformation.

Karen Holly

Enterprise Agile Coach, Transformation Team, Blue Shields of CA

I had the pleasure of working with Amit very closely when we hired him to join a very lean team of Agile coaches to assist with Blue Shields own agile transformation. What I love most about partnering directly with Amit, is his deep attention towards “being human”. He keeps all of his work fun and lighthearted. He is a great listener and can quickly hone in on where teams and individuals need assistance. He knows agile concepts inside and out, which makes it much easier to coach as he can focus on the individuals and teams at hand. We created training materials together and conducted numerous classes together. He is a fantastic partner, a great leader and brings compassion and high EQ to the workplace daily. A charm to have on any team and an asset to any organization