Unit 12 - Valpak Case Study Summary - Individual

Read Chapter 19 Case Study- Valpak in The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile and answer the
below questions in a submitted essay.

Write a 1500 word Case Study Analysis by answering the following questions:

1. What was the transformation that took place at Valpak?

2. What types of Agile methodologies were used at Valpak?

3. What is an "Architectural epic"?

4. What is portfolio Kanban and how was it implemented at Valpak?

5. How did projects get implemented at Valpak since SAFe doesn't recognize projects?

6. What were the big challenges that were addressed at Valpak?

7. What were the key success factors at Valpak?

8. What were the results and conclusions from the Valpak implementation of SAFe?

9. What were the lessons learned from Valpak regarding the implementation?

Introduccion

Introduction

Valpak is a leading company in the North American direct market, was founded in 1968 and is
headquartered in Largo, Florida. Valpak has one of the largest collections of digital coupons, thousands of
both local and international products, working in partnership with more than 170 million franchisees.

Valpak has competition among which the most outstanding are television, newspapers, yellow pages and
any form of advertising, Valpak also sells through online platforms at www.Valpak.com® where it has
almost 70 million monthly visits.

Transformation in Valpak

Valpak needed to transform to lean, to respond efficiently to the needs of today's market, since one of its
success factors had been the use of technological tools in its platforms to make online sales.
Valpak was a company that had a large number of clients, who reported problems such as lack of
efficiency, failure to meet delivery dates, among others. For this reason, Valpak chose to apply in a
coordinated way its daily work, an effort led mostly during the IT meetings. The I TAggregate becomes a
vital unit within the company, also with the help of a boss and an agile CIO have understood and drawn a
map to turn your company into an agile company.

Methodologies used in Valpak

Due to the problems mentioned above, Valpak decided to implement Scrum as its agile procedure in
administrative management. Scrum was used to advance the items and Valpak managed it in the form of
10 groups that focus on the central axis of business.

In the daily work, preference was given to the Kanban methodology, also supported by a progressive
structural Kanban to improve the relationship within the group. It is defined that there is NO strategy that
can be appropriate for the whole administration but it is vital that the owner of the article and the Head of
the company define the right way to improve their work plan and encourage their Agile group.

Architectural epic

An architectural epic is a technological initiative, which is necessary for the company to make a
breakthrough in portfolio solutions. As an effort to support the needs they have today and in the future.
Architectural epics are captured and analyzed in an Architectural Epic Kanban System to give visibility.

Kanban portfolio and its use in Valpak

The Kamban portfolio is a practice widely used in companies today, this is a recommended practice in
SAFe. It is usually used for planning, prioritization and management of business epics.
The most outstanding purposes are the following:
 It assures a complete visibility in the delays and in the next epics.
 Provides structure to business analysis and decision making, which can help translate
initiatives into implementation.
 Provide WIP limits for teams to act responsibly and not set expectations they are unable
to meet.
 Helps foster collaboration among key stakeholders

And in Valpak they implemented it using the following tools:

 Create a highly visible kanban board without applied WIP limits

 Hold weekly standing Kanban meetings with sponsors to discuss epic board movements
and decision making.
 Value Stream
How the projects were implemented in Valpak since SAFe does not recognize the projects.

The implementation strategy in Valpak was to implement Safe from the bottom up with six Scrum teams
and three Kanban teams in 2011. The management and release map was in the middle layer and the
Kanban portfolio in the top layer. Including an Architectural Kanban practice of SAFe.

Challenges in Valpak

In Valpak there were always a lot of challenges since they had several obstacles in their transformation to
an Agil enterprise. One of their first challenges was to manage the dependencies between teams and
stakeholders in order to define a new work structure, a great challenge that was faced in agreement with
the employees.

In the second stay was to disconnect the executives and owners, which made a conflict from the bottom to
the top, where they had to face and find solutions in real time to avoid having to depend on the executive
branch.

They had to face development with high-performance teams, and at this stage was perhaps one of the
biggest problems because they had to be able to agree with the workers a monitoring system that would
allow them to show that part of the process was not valuable time, then classify it, attack the problem,
solve it in its entirety and continue in a process of continuous improvement.

The lack of continuous improvement was one of the problems to attack and it was rooted because there
was no structure or organization in the processes. Furthermore, once the order was implemented, the need
for quality tests with quality process leaders to guarantee the development of agile processes was seen.

Key factors for Valpak's success

Valpak had many factors that contributed to the success of its transformation into an agile company. In
the first instance the main success factor was the support from management to employees to transform
and make the company more efficient.

Secondly, it was the leadership of the team who, from beginning to end, applied all the concepts of Agile
in Valpak and also avoided any pressure or disagreement, thus achieving a successful coupling and an agile
migration to the company.

Also the determining factor was the power of Agil's vision, where we studied which was the best
architecture, the best strategies, which were thought, modeled and implemented and without a doubt the
support given by having a group of independent trainers ready to prepare new personnel and solve
problems when they arise.
Results and conclusions of this experience

The first visible result was the successful implementation of SAFe in the Valpak organization, and this is
evidenced in the ability to be empowered and self-organized, which changed the management approach as
the organizational process.

A second result was the change of focus that was quite significant, where now the management is in
charge of strategic planning rather than execution. Now the development of the business has a larger
vision and therefore from the top management there is now participation to assemble the schedule,
procedure and expectations.

The ability to solve problems improved significantly after the agile training due to the agile process and
the open and transparent environment for the project teams. From now on they have a sprint cycle of 2
weeks and the time for launching new features was reduced.

From now on the company has a greater ability to adapt to the changing market since each Sprint lasts
significantly less and can be planned and modified quickly adjusting to the needs of a changing market.

Lessons learned from this case study

After this case study I understood that the Agil implementation contributes to the success of the Valpak
project. Having a schedule aligned with all the company's teams contributes to the organization operating
in a highly effective manner.

Top management provides a lot of support for effective planning and a planned management environment.
IT is a vital role for organizations and is one of the keys to success supported by consistent, reliable and
predictable processes.

In addition to this we notice how this allows to draw the potential of each person's position in an
organization since at the time that an employee does a task that should not be making use of time that is
not valuable and that for the company is represented as a monetary loss.

Write a 500 word summary on the following questions that you would anticipate if the same kind of
implementation was addressed at your company

10. How would this approach be implemented at your company?

11. What methodologies would be changing at your company to go to the SAFe type of methodology?

12. Give an example of an "Architectural epic" that would be used at your company.

13. How would portfolio Kanban be implemented at your company?

14. What do you think the biggest challenges you would face at your company if you were the consultant
hired to implement the same types of processes that were addressed at Valpak?
15. If it were to be successful at your company, what would the key success factors be?

How would this agile approach be implemented in my development company?

In the first instance I consider that a study should be done to determine the most appropriate
architecture to transform my current company into an Agil company. Then identify where value
is lost in each of the stages of the process and correct these microproblems.
Once this is done, I believe that this approach would give us more rest time, because it would
make us more efficient, increase income and position our company as a leader in the field we
develop.
Besides being a model to follow as a company able to adapt to the changing market is a
recognition of a high value that shows that it is possible to identify and adapt constantly.

Methodologies that are in the process of change to SAFe type methodology.

Our company has a flaw regarding this aspect since it does not have a well defined structure.
Using a cascade methodology means that the exact deadlines are almost never met, but the client
also spends weeks not knowing the progress of the project.
In the current process of change we have identified loss of value in the process for lack of
structure, we implement a system of time control to have metrics and identify in a quantifiable
way which is the garbage that most harms the company.

Example of "Architectural Epic" in my company

In our company several teams work on the implementation of agile methodologies for a collective
result. The owner of the Epic will be responsible for the important task of the product in
collaboration with the team members.
The expected results would be divided between tasks that would include architectural features
and work elements that would constitute a backlog. Motivating team members and ensuring that
all members are on board would be key to the success of the results.

How would a kamban portfolio be implemented in my company?

The Kamba portfolio could be implemented in our company by carrying out the following
activities:
 Structuring our company into groups, small, self-administered teams that review
pending tasks on a daily basis.
 Develop a solid infrastructure divided into several products and portfolios.
 Ensuring that WIP limits are divided into small jobs.
 Calculating the exact time it takes to perform a task and managing the movement of
the cards on the Kanban board.
 Create small notes by employees to get a clear overview of the problems presented
during the execution of daily tasks.
 Monitor tasks using various metrics to ensure that there are no non-valuable times in
the process.
What challenges would the company face if it were a consultant hired to follow Valpak's
example?
For me the biggest challenge to overcome is resistance to change since employees and executives
are normally comfortable in their current position and tend to want to remain static in time
immersed in a changing market.
In addition there is always some additional resistance when the suggestion comes from an
external consultant. Once this challenge has been overcome, a second challenge becomes to get
the employees to cooperate in a coordinated way in order to reach a stable, organized and as
valuable workflow as possible.
Finally having the right staff to address all these issues is the third and final challenge since
nothing is possible without the case study and selection of the most appropriate architecture.
If successful, what would be the key factors
If the transformation was completely successful the key factors would have been:
 Commitment and leadership of each one of the parts of the company.
 Collaboration, integration and knowledge sharing.
 The structure, order and organization of tasks.
 A complete immersion in the process of continuous improvement.