Since we have learned the fundamental components of agile in the first content, let’s dive in to two agile teams who adopted agile from their very first steps. These two courageous  trailblazers are EV (Electric Vehicle) and Digital Service.

EV, the new frontier of dtac business

Let’s start this chapter with EV, dtac’s mobile network operator. EV is a complete new chapter for dtac and a very challenging mission as it’s the first attempt of dtac , the mobile network operator to become connectivity provider.

 “We started at the beginning of 2019 when Khun Alex rode a motorcycle on a stage. It was quite a talk of the town. 2 weeks later, we began our mission right away. We put all our effort and finally, our hard work paid off as we could launch EV platform at Thailand Mobile Expo at the beginning of 2019.” Sinunpat Tangchaitrakul, AVP, Partnership

Things might seem to start perfectly as they were able to launch it at Thailand Mobile Expo but the motorcycle ‘s market is a complete another world from telecommunication, team members realized they need to acquire more knowledge and experience in order to accomplish their mission. Consequently, they agreed more time is needed for this project.

Shifting to Agile for the greatness

In order to establish new business, we must be able to learn from mistake and get back on in time. This is why we adopted Agile way of work and recruit experts from many areas to create EV, the new frontier of dtac.

“When people from different work background came together, they eager to learn the new and different skills in order to help the team reaching the goal as swiftly as possible. Working in agile way give you a freedom and flexibility. We always discuss with each other all the time and when the decision has to be made, all members are willing to jump in and analyze for the best solution.” Suwajee Thongsukdee, Supervisor, Data Services & BAS Business

Khun Jee (far left) and good vibe working atmosphere with EV team

Safe zone, everyone’s ready to speak up

EV team works almost like every agile-adopted team. Starting by Backlog refinement or the discussion and prioritization of work flow, continued by sprint planning which covers the course of two weeks. Sprint planning allows members to discuss which process can be accomplished in two weeks.

When the members know their responsibility, they will hold daily standup or 15-minute meeting at 9:30 AM everyday to update what’s everyone been up to, what they did yesterday, what they are doing now and has anyone faced obstacle. This mini meeting allows everyone to help and suggest others in the team. At the last Friday of each sprint, they will conduct a sprint review to analyze their past work to improve in the next sprint.

Lastly, they will come up with Sprint Retrospective, the session which allows members to look back form the first day of the sprint to the final day. This will help them to exchange perspective, vision and how to fix problems. Sprint Retrospective also reminds them of their highest goal : The EV launch in the beginning of 2020.

EV team was able to shift into agile effectively because agile encourages a learning mindset. Don’t be scared of agile because it’s more fun. Trust us. Suwajee Thongsukdee, Supervisor, Data Services & BAS Business

Digital Service, get stronger from agile

Another agile-adopted team is Digital Service team. Having been a digital team itself, they have deployed agile for 3-4 years now but only in the developer team. In contrast, Marketing team still work in Silos system.

“We used to adopt agile only in the developer part which made the collaboration with other teams seemed complicated. Luckily, Pre-paid and Post-Paid are now adopting agile and we all are having a seamless work experience.” Tiparpa Suksathit, AVP, Head of Product Owner – Digital Services

Joining Front Runner program strengthen the ability of Digital service team because naturally, Digital Service has to collaborate with many teams. Having all the collaborated teams working in agile ways make the work flow of digital team much more smooth and flexible.

In Digital Service team, everyone’s voices are meaningful

Transparency is the core of agile team

Previously, Digital Service team has no idea what Pre-Paid and Post-Paid needed from the launch of new package. As a result, the collaboration took quite some time and the online marketing was too complicated. Thanks to agile way of work, now Pre-Paid and Post-Paid teams just casually approach digital team for recommendation and suggestion.

Digital team will hold a daily meeting every morning at 9.45 AM to update everyone in the team of what they plan to do today and problems they have faced throughout the period. On Friday, there will be an evaluation and a big evaluation twice a week.

 “Our range of responsibilities are large. They are varied from online package purchase, top-up, online payment and change from pre-paid to post-paid. Additionally, digital has been a main portal today so it is our responsibility to figure out what creates inconvenience for customers in digital platform. We must find solution as fast as possible and agile do really help us a lot. Agile encourages us to think faster, to fix each problem individually.  Now, we are more successful in creating transaction.”

Tiparpa Suksathit, AVP, Head of Product Owner – Digital Services

Connecting each other more.

When teams who have to work with Digital Service gradually adopted agile, customers will increasingly be received better products.For example, a suitable package and a package that suits customers’ behavior. Eventually, dtac can understand customers from digital tools.

Digital Service has a total member of 25 people and all of them work full-time in agile so their work flow is automatically swift. Now, their goal is to fix the error in customers’ digital usage. This includes changing website’s appearance to be as similar as application to decrease the confusion.

Daily standup of Digital Service team

Their goal is not quite easy because they have to follow development cycle but digital team has the best support from their own members and other agile-adopted teams. The same work flow made the collaboration easier and more efficient.

Now our chapter of introducing two agile-adopted teams has come to an end. Does it convince you well enough to change from Silo to agile? Are we ready to make dtac grow sustainably.