1. Getting Rapid Results with Agile
How to get more satisfied customers, quicker
From a talk by Gian Mahil

2. All Rights Reserved CEC (2016)
Contents
1. Why we need a new approach
2. How Agile can help
3. The Agile Value Proposition
4. Our Approach
5. Case Study -1
6. Case Study - 2
7. Case Study – 3
8. Our Clients
9. About Us

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Why we need a new approach
Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results".
Financial services is characterised by the speed of change, regulatory and commercial as well as the size of projects.
The ‘Water fall’ approach has a strong following in financial services despite its failures, as it is seen to be the traditional
(and the right) way to do things. However, in most cases it leads to long deliveries time lines and failure to meet
business needs.
Millions are wasted in Financial Services on projects that fail to deliver their promises
While project requirements are being gathered the business is changing. Hence the users reluctance to
commit.
While the project undergoing testing the world has already changed and the systems/ process is no
longer relevant! Hence the users disappointment.

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How Agile can help
Principles behind the Agile Manifesto
1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery
of valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes
harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of
months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and
support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a
development team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and
users should be able
to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing
teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes
and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.

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The Agile Value Proposition
By delivering working, tested and deployable deliverables on an incremental basis, Agile
delivers increased value and visibility much earlier in the life cycle as shown below.
Agile also delivers adaptability throughout the lifecycle
Finally because of the high levels of customer interaction it reduces risk much more quickly.

6. Daily Review
Sprint
What you want to do.
(Product Backlog)
What has to be
done now.
(Sprint Backlog)
Getting it done.
(Iteration)
Implementable solutions
(Potentially shippable
Product)
OUR APPROACH:
Our approach to implementing AGILE is simple and pragmatic
and uses AGILE tools and principles to get results rapidly.

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Case Study 1 – Post Trade Support Transformation at a global bank
Our Solution:
Working with the key stakeholders we used an Agile approach and took the existing process and updated
them to reflect the future state
.
We next used the same approach to implement new processes for US, Canada, UK, Middle East, Brazil,
India, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.
It was risky approach for the bank not to take a traditional waterfall approach. However after successful
implementation they realised that a waterfall would have been more riskier and lead to failure.
Our approach was nimble and worked with the bank and allowed them to start realising the benefits and
thus improve their bottom line.
Scenario:
An international global bank wanted to reduce their Investment Bank post trade support costs for all
products by moving support from offshore to a mixed model. The savings for the bank were
estimated to be several million $ per year.

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Case Study 2 – Post Trade Transformation at a investment bank
Scenario:
A global German Investment bank wanted to consolidate post trade support for a over a hundred twenty
applications to a single support team. The savings for the bank were estimated to be several million
Euros per year.
Our Solution
Working with the key stakeholders users we used an Agile approach and took the existing support
processes and ensured they we all catalogued.
We an Agile approach to take support off the incumbent team and transfer knowledge and skills to the
new team. We held daily stand ups for each knowledge transfer and monitored progress from a central
office in London.
Using this approach we had transferred support for over a hundred and twenty applications within a
year and had work lined up for the next three years.
Our approach was nimble and worked with the users to meet their demands and keep a focus on
delivery at the same time.
Our approach meant the bank was able realise headcount savings in high cost trading centers and
transfer support to low cost locations.

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Case Study 3 – Finance Transformation at global bank
Scenario:
A global bank embarked on multi million pound finance transformation – that would take up to three
years to complete. However, the bank wanted to see results quickly and not have to wait to the end to
start realising benefits.
Our Solution
Working with key stakeholders we used Agile principles to devise a release strategy that would deliver
benefits early by splitting up the delivery in to discrete releases.
Further the development approach within each Release also used an Agile to increase user involvement
and engagement from the very beginning.
This approach meant that the bank and business users could start to see benefits much earlier than
they would with a traditional waterfall approach.

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Our Clients
Lloyds Group Barclays Bank RBS - Direct Line
Fortis Bank Virgin Money Abbey National
Marsh & Mc Lennan Money Extra RCMS
Deutsche Bank Misys BSKYB
Union Bank of Norway AT&T BMW Rover Group
Industrial Bank of Japan SBC Warburg ATG
Wachovia Bank QEDIS Barclaycard
PIPC HCL Reveleus
HSBC Investment Bank

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About Us
Cutting Edge Consulting (CEC)is based in Harlington in England since 1996. Our CEO Gian Mahil wanted to
set up a client orientated services consulting company. Since then CEC has worked with many financial
services clients internationally to deliver results fast using Agile techniques.
CEC operate in financial services and have domain expertise in retail, investment banking, Treasury and
Risk as well as insurance. A list of the clients we have worked with in the past can be found on our clients
page.
CEC have used Agile in various types of projects – not just systems development projects. We can
demonstrate its usage in Global Transformation and pure Change Management programmes in some of
the largest companies in the world.
For further information please contact Gian Mahil at gian@cuttingedgeconsulting.co.uk or
tel +44 (0)793 721097
Alternatively visit www.cuttingedgeconsulting.co.uk

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Gian’s Bio
Gian is a well-rounded Change & Transformation specialist with a
successful history of working at executive level in global
organisations. He has a proven track record of turning around and
delivering projects on time and to budget using AGILE or Waterfall
or a combination of the two. He has excellent stakeholder
management skills and relishes taking on the challenges of
complex Projects & Change Programmes.
Particular areas of expertise: Recovery Projects & Programmes,
Investment & Retail Banking, AGILE Methods & Process
For further information please contact Gian Mahil at gian@cuttingedgeconsulting.co.uk or
tel +44 (0)793 721097
Alternatively visit www.cuttingedgeconsulting.co.uk