SilesiaWorks

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Bottega IT Minds. We’re a software consulting company that provides training for IT departments and software houses. We provide technical and architectural consulting for development tools.

What challenge were you trying to address with SilesiaWorks?

We had a new client who needed additional consulting that fell out of our range. They needed assistance in the agile environment, so we looked for an outside vendor to help.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with SilesiaWorks on a few projects with various clients. So far, they’ve assisted us with maneuvering consulting conversations, and they’ve acted as a coach, analyzing our client’s workflow and training their staff in the agile environment.

In addition to their core work, they’ve also performed audits and provided development services. We’re currently working on a project for a client in the banking and insurance industry. SilesiaWorks is guiding their team as they transition their internal workflow to an agile methodology.

What is the team composition?

They provide about two agile coaches and between 1–6 developers depending on the project.

How did you come to work with SilesiaWorks?

I discovered them through a mutual business partner. In our first meeting, we found that we share the same values and agree on best practices in the software space.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2016, and it’s an ongoing relationship.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We specialize in technical aspects of consulting, so SilesiaWorks offers what we’re missing internally. With their help, we’re able to provide more to our clients.

How did SilesiaWorks perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve never had a problem or a delay. Compared to other companies we’ve worked with, SilesiaWorks is the best.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have excellent communication skills, and they have a well-rounded understanding of the client’s perspective for each project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could market themselves better.

Any advice for potential customers?

Give SilesiaWorks as much context as possible. They like to form a big-picture view of the project before starting any work. With that deep understanding, they can provide better guidance.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Head of Strategic Transformation at Santander Bank Polska. We’re the third-largest bank in Poland providing all segments from retail to corporate clients with a full spectrum of services.

What challenge were you trying to address with SilesiaWorks?

We initiated a program earlier this year to transition the way we operate from an old-fashioned waterfall approach to an agile way of managing business and managing change. As part of that transformation, we made a decision to introduce squads and tribes into the bank and to move our business and IT staff together to work on specific initiatives. We planned to launch four tribes of over 300 hundred staff and needed agile coaches to support the squads. These staff didn’t know anything about agile approaches. We had also run into some technical software problems within the context of the transformation that we needed support on.

What was the scope of their involvement?

SilesiaWorks helped us both as agile coaches supporting some teams and with the transformation itself by helping us resolve some of the technical problems we encountered.

They supported teams of 10 people working on specific tasks, facilitating them to work in agile. They taught them the concepts, processes, and tools like daily stand-ups and sprint planning. They also managed trainings and workshops.

They also helped us to solve problems we couldn’t solve or to add more detail to solutions that we had resolved in more general ways. For example, we had an issue linking some initiatives into our software. They came up with a solution to use certain fields in Jira to mark those initiatives so that they could be categorized together and their performance tracked. We’re launching some of their proposed solutions right now and will launch others at the beginning of next year.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two coaches, one of whom was our primary contact.

How did you come to work with SilesiaWorks?

They started working with our bank on other agile projects before I was involved in this transformation. When we were searching for coaches for the transformation, their names came up as experienced people who were already working with us and could potentially take on a different role. There’s a shortage of agile coaches in Poland with a proven track record and SilesiaWorks had the necessary experience. We talked to them and checked their references within the bank. We confirmed that they were the right people to work with us and changed their contract to move into the new role.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April to September 2018. We are planning to work with them again starting soon.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They were able to get the teams they were supporting up and running quickly. That wasn’t an easy task given they were working with people without any prior experience in an agile organization. They also helped us solve technical problems within Jira to ensure that different teams and types of activities could be managed in a unified way—which was important given the scale of our transformation.

How did SilesiaWorks perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re quite knowledgeable and skilled. Their communication skills are strong. They’re available and flexible, as exemplified by how they managed to work across our offices in three cities here in Poland and traveling to workshops and meetings. They did a good job and I’m happy with their performance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For me, it’s their practical knowledge of agile. It’s also their communication skills. They’re able to clearly develop points and articulate what they want to say.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From our point of view, they’re quite expensive. The market in Poland for experienced agile coaches is small which might be why. However, if they could adjust their prices a little, we would likely be able to use them more. They haven’t been very flexible but, if they were, it could be mutually beneficially.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clear, open communication in both directions is important to be successful. It helps to ensure that, as a client, you can specify what you need from them. You should also expect that if they notice something that needs attention, they’ll raise it to you so that you can make decisions about reassigning them to different tasks or staying focused on what they were doing.