The team at ICBC had to provide Autoplan brokers across the province with a new and greatly improved user interface. The broker community was eagerly waiting for the completion of this project. However, the team was challenged with the size of a project that appeared to be an order of magnitude larger than estimations of both schedule and budget.

In addition, the team contained members from different departments of the corporation and not all of them jelled well together.

Evident Point's Eugene Nizker saw the need to build closer ties within the team and improve development practices. He helped the team implement a few techniques that greatly improved team performance and project manageability:

• Short 15 minute daily stand-up meetings involved every team member and replaced weekly meetings of group leads;
• Accepting User Stories as a work unit helped clarify the requirements and improve project visibility, estimation and planning;
• Introducing a Story Board greatly improved project manageability as well as visibility to the team, management and sponsors;
• Introducing Burn-Up chart provided vital information regarding schedule viability and project status;
• Implementing several other approaches helped cure some internal personnel issues within the team.

• Faster resolution of issues;
• Improved communication and team morale;
• Faster ramp-up and cross-training of team members;
• More accurate estimations and improved planning;
• Better project manageability;
• Communication in business value terms.

Here is typical feedback from team members: "I connect with other team members in a timely way.", "The stand-ups keep each team member accountable for their tasks", "Issues are addressed in a timelier manner".

Here is typical feedback from the user community: "...team has done a fantastic job!", "...very impressed", "...will help improve my ability to give customers even better service".