Life before Agile

I remember the early days, starting out on my first online projects such as ‘Internet on TV’ and WAP.  The technology was new and exciting; however, the delivery methodology was very much old in comparison to today’s scrum teams.  It was back in the day of functional design, work packages and task management.  The days of departmental silos and politics, when position and department defined the virtual hierarchy of the project team; and it paid to take the time to build internal relationships.  Internal relationships were paramount to ensure smooth running of the project.  Personalities of key stakeholders in the business had so much sway that the majority of my time would be spent planning on how to manage attendance, sign off and buy in.  Then came Digital…

While the world is getting increasingly polarized, technology continues to honour the individual, our diversities and differences. For Mastek, this means increasing opportunities to support our customers in handling their own customers with greater insight, sensitivity to their needs and aspirations, as well as high levels of responsiveness and service.

Some banks try to leverage the transactional data from their core banking platforms to provide their clients with categorised spending insights as a service. However, this is a service that very often delivers limited value.

What are Smart Contracts?

Almost all prominent blockchain platforms now extend their capabilities in the form of smart contracts. A general definition of a smart contract  is a computer programme that can automatically execute the terms of a contract. They extend the utility of blockchains from simply keeping a record of financial transaction entries to automatically implementing terms of multiparty agreements.

Mobile devices have become ever more of a necessity in people’s lives. This has given banks the opportunity to directly engage with their customers, the majority of which seldom visit their branches.

The Retail sector has often been an innovator. Take the digitisation of product data through the use of barcodes. Prosaic little graphics which we all simply take for granted today, Retail barcode usage began in the mid 1970’s and revolutionised many aspects of how goods were manufactured, dispatched, tracked and sold. 

The pressure to deliver digital transformation is gathering pace within government services. As a result, the ideal of using open-source products and frameworks to build user-centric services from scratch is going through intense scrutiny from agencies looking for frameworks that can accelerate their delivery.

In Q1 of 2016, NHS England created 44 Sustainability Transformation Plans (STP) areas. These are geographical footprints bringing together local health and social care organisations (Local Authority, Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS Trusts).

What is the difference between Training and Coaching?

I find this an invaluable question when interviewing not only coaches and trainers, but Scrum Masters, Project Managers (where the client calls them that) and Programme Managers or Programme Directors. Their response gives me insight into their understanding of how leaders can help to create a Learning Organisation.

 Traditional psychology and the pursuit of customer value

Agile teams aspiring to deliver value to their customer earlier and more regularly rely on successful product ownership. This comes largely from the team member whom the organisation has empowered to represent the customer whilst defining requirements, prioritising deliverables and managing evolving business needs. As Mastek's Digital Transformation lead I have worked through this first-hand with the NHS.

The bright smile of destiny has shone upon the United Kingdom in quite dramatic circumstances. And as a result, the vote to leave the European Union in June opens up a massive opportunity for the financial services business in the City of London to reinvigorate itself.

There is a lot of hype around blockchain technology. Yet, it has no live, large scale implementations within the financial services sector.  The fact remains that blockchain holds great potential in transforming the way we do business.

Customer centricity is a trending topic for many industries. Market analysts view this as being critical to ensuring business survival and not just an approach to achieve some competitive advantage. But what is true customer centricity and what makes one business more customer-centric than another? The answer to this hinges on the extent to which a retailer has aligned its business model and operations to the wants and needs of the consumer.