Case Study: Chartered Management Institute (CMI) - Empowering IT Delivery
- Tom Maughan
- Aug 19, 2023
- 2 min read
Summary
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI), a prominent SME and not-for-profit organisation, had successfully scaled its in-house engineering capability but began struggling to meet the increasing demand from the business while adhering to strategic goals. Add Agility was engaged to address this bottleneck. Within three months, the partnership led to a "revolutionary" transformation, implementing a clear Business Case driven planning cycle and reorganising the delivery pipeline. This resulted in CMI getting more work done, in less time, with a significantly happier and more productive team.
Background
As an organisation committed to developing professional managers and leaders, CMI had made a deliberate and significant investment in building its internal IT and engineering teams. Despite this investment, the Head of IT observed a critical constraint: the team's capacity to deliver was overwhelmed by business demand, which threatened the achievement of strategic objectives. The lack of a streamlined, prioritised planning mechanism meant that while progress was being made, the overall effectiveness and pace of delivery were insufficient to keep up with the organisation's rapid needs. The challenge was not one of talent, but of strategic, Agile operating rhythm and delivery flow.
What We Did
CMI enlisted Add Agility's Consultancy and Transformation services to provide expert guidance and hands-on support. The approach focused on two core areas: identifying systemic issues and empowering CMI's existing teams to own the solution.
Problem Identification and Empowerment: Add Agility consultants worked closely with the CMI teams, embedding themselves to uncover the root causes of the delivery bottlenecks. The engagement was focused on skills transfer and capacity building, not simply delivering a solution for the client, but with the client.
Implementing Strategic Planning: A Business Case driven planning cycle was immediately established. This ensured that work was prioritised based on clear business value and alignment with CMI’s strategic goals, preventing capacity from being absorbed by lower-value initiatives.
Optimizing the Delivery Pipeline: The teams were reorganised around a focused delivery pipeline to improve workflow efficiency and visibility. This shift allowed CMI to clearly track work items from ideation through to completion, facilitating continuous improvement and providing essential management information.
Results
The impact of the three-month transformation was described as "nothing less than revolutionary" by the Head of IT at CMI.
Increased Productivity: The introduction of the delivery pipeline and Business Case driven planning immediately improved focus, leading to a demonstrable increase in the amount of work completed.
Reduced Cycle Time: By optimising the flow of work and reducing the "Work In Progress" (WIP) overhead, CMI achieved the key outcome of getting "more work done, in less time." This shift in delivery flow is typically evidenced by a decrease in work-in-progress metrics and a corresponding increase in the work completion rate over time.
Enhanced Team Engagement: The qualitative result of the transformation was the creation of a "much better-engaged team." By removing delivery obstacles and providing clarity of purpose, the teams became happier and more productive.Hiking is not just about physical exercise; it’s a journey into nature that offers stunning landscapes and countless photo opportunities. Whether you're an experienced hiker or just starting out, this guide will equip you with useful strategies for planning your hiking adventures, as well as tips for capturing the beauty of the outdoors through photography.
