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HEALTHCARE

Accelerating Digital Transformation with Agile Methodologies

Focus Areas

Agile Methodologies

Digital Transformation

IT Operations

Business Problem

The healthcare provider faced significant challenges in transitioning from a traditional Waterfall project management approach to Agile methodologies. This inefficiency led to project delays in the development of their critical digital health records platforms, directly affecting their ability to release new customer experience management features on time. The delays caused cascading impacts on patient care, team productivity, and business outcomes. Furthermore, the organization’s internal teams struggled with the collaborative practices essential for Agile, leading to disjointed development cycles.

Key challenges:

Extended Development Cycles: The Waterfall methodology resulted in long development cycles, with little room for iteration and feedback during the process, impacting their customer relationship management capabilities.
Lack of Agile Expertise: Development teams and product owners lacked the necessary experience in Agile frameworks, making the transition difficult.
Delayed Product Launches: The delays in adopting Agile practices slowed down the release of new features that would have otherwise improved patient care.

The Approach

Curate Consulting was brought on board to facilitate the organization’s digital transformation by driving the adoption of Agile methodologies, focusing on Scrum practices. Working closely with the client’s internal teams, existing vendors, and stakeholders, Curate designed a structured approach to transition the healthcare provider from Waterfall to Agile.

Key components of the solution:

Agile Training and Workshops: Curate’s Agile experts conducted training sessions for the development teams and product owners, focusing on the core principles of Scrum. These sessions were designed to equip them with the skills and tools needed to manage and collaborate within Agile sprints.
Scrum Implementation: Curate helped set up Scrum teams and facilitated the introduction of Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives. We provided the staffing necessary for coaching and mentoring roles to support both product owners and developers through this transition.
Process Integration with Existing Systems: We ensured seamless integration of Agile practices into the client’s existing tools and platforms, such as Jira for sprint management and collaboration. Curate worked with the client’s IT operations and vendors to ensure that Agile adoption did not disrupt ongoing projects.
Continuous Improvement Framework: Curate introduced a continuous improvement framework through retrospectives after every sprint. This allowed teams to assess their performance, identify challenges, and implement solutions for greater efficiency in future sprints.
Collaborative Approach: By embedding Curate staffing resources alongside the client’s internal teams, we ensured a collaborative effort to reduce friction and improve adoption rates of Agile practices across the board.

Business Outcomes

The transition from Waterfall to Agile, led by Curate Consulting, resulted in transformative improvements for the healthcare provider:

Increased Development Velocity

The adoption of Scrum practices reduced the time-to-market for new healthcare features, enabling faster software release cycles and more frequent updates.

Improved Team Productivity

Agile ceremonies, such as daily stand-ups and retrospectives, led to an improvement in team collaboration and productivity, as teams were able to quickly address bottlenecks and iterate based on real-time feedback.

Faster Feature Deployment

The switch to Agile allowed the organization to deploy critical patient management features faster, improving the quality of healthcare services delivered to patients.

Sample KPIs

Here’s a quick summary of the kinds of KPI’s and goals teams were working towards**:

Metric	Before	After	Improvement
Time-to-Market for New Features	6 months	3.5 Months	40% Faster
Team Productivity (Story Points)	20 story points per sprint	27 story points per sprint	35% improvement
Product Launch Delays	4 launches delayed per year	1 launch delayed per year	75% fewer delays
Team Collaboration Rating	60%	85%	+25% Improvement
Customer Satisfaction (Internal Stakeholders)	70%	90%	+20% increase

Customer Value

Curate Consulting’s expertise in Agile methodologies not only improved operational efficiency but also enhanced the healthcare provider’s ability to serve their patients more effectively:

Quicker Access to New Features

With reduced development cycles, patients and healthcare professionals gained quicker access to new, user-friendly features on critical health platforms.

Improved Patient Care

The faster deployment of health management features directly contributed to improving patient care and treatment outcomes.

Higher Stakeholder Satisfaction

Internal stakeholders, including product owners and executive leadership, reported improved satisfaction due to the increased transparency and efficiency of project management.

Conclusion

Curate Consulting’s deep expertise in Agile transformations, coupled with our ability to provide specialized staffing solutions, enabled a smooth transition for the healthcare provider. By adopting Agile methodologies, the organization saw faster development cycles, reduced delays, and a more collaborative, efficient team environment.

Curate’s consultative approach not only enhanced the company’s digital transformation efforts but also ensured long-term sustainability of Agile practices, providing lasting value to both the organization and its patients.

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