Q&A: North Highland And Royal Mail At The Real IT Awards

Q&A: North Highland And Royal Mail At The Real IT Awards

Royal Mail’s International Technology team successfully led one of its largest technology implementations for over a decade, using the opportunity to lead with an Agile mind-set and delivery approach. The programme became a poster-child for the wider Agile transformation being implemented across the business. Working with teams that were geographically spread, and utilizing a mixture of legacy and new platforms, the Royal Mail Technology team  and North Highland successfully implemented key functionality ensuring Royal Mail maintains its position in the International market. We sat down with Jagpal Jheeta, Programme Director at Royal Mail, to discuss working with North Highland for the team’s recent win at the Real IT Awards.

Congratulations on the win! Can you discuss the objectives and scope of the project?

The project was originally scoped with the intention of bringing Royal Mail Group in line with regulatory changes introduced by an international postal organisation, to help with providing better services for e-commerce products. However, the programme quickly began to absorb numerous requirements designed to provide increased commercial benefit for the Group, including the provision of increased tracking information for premium international tracked products for internal and external customers.

What were some of the biggest challenges the team faced?

The biggest challenge was shifting both the non-Technology teams and various suppliers to working using Agile practices. This represented a large-scale shift in the interactions and working practices that Royal Mail as an organisation were used to. However, the drive from the whole programme team was a key enabler in the overall success of this.

What does agile mean to you?

For Royal Mail, I see Agile meaning two key things. First, it is a way of working within its Technology function that will allow increased collaboration, more iterative releases of functionality and a de-risking of project work. For Royal Mail’s business units, it’s a means of becoming more responsive and proactive in the market – allowing different business units to identify key areas of value, and specifically ensure that value is delivered to their customers as quickly as possible.

What are the key takeaways from the project?

There are a number of key takeaways from the success of the Interconnect Programme. Chiefly, we saw that the use of Scrum methodologies as part of the Technology delivery was essential in both breaking down and delivering complex technical requirements, and de-risking the overall delivery of the programme. We also reaped the benefits of increased collaboration between suppliers, Technology and Business units, and this approach allowed us to tackle any challenge effectively. The benefits of this programme are now also being realised across the International portfolio, and will continue to do so going forward.

How did you create a successful partnership between Royal Mail and North Highland?

Royal Mail was able to effectively integrate a number of North Highland Business Analysts into the programme team, to help aid in the delivery of the Interconnect Programme. Royal Mail was able to leverage the Agile expertise of the North Highlanders in order to help smooth over the transition from a predominantly Waterfall programme, to one that delivered using Agile methodologies.

Any final thoughts?

We worked extensively using the Agile manifesto as guiding principles. In particular, the below were key in the success of this programme:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools, creating a one team approach, accommodating and encouraging change throughout the programme.
  • Working outputs over comprehensive documentation were key, these were shared with Product Owners and senior stakeholders and helped avoid a big bang approach.
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation was emphasised through the ongoing dialogue with stakeholders, focussing on development through individual sprints, and working as one team.
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