Pearson's success maker putting the customer first in transforming product development processes Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Pearson's success maker putting the customer first in transforming product development processes Case Solution

The advantages of agile includes the customer’s satisfaction through continuous improvement method. Agile requires the team members to meet and greet rather than using tools for the project development. It allows the team members to communicate face to face and understand the main idea of the project.

Whereas, the disadvantages of using an-agile method is that in this method; it is a bit difficult to keep the track records of the efforts which individuals put at the beginning of the project. It does not focus on the documentation of the project and the customer representation is not clear in this method. There are chances that agile development sometimes fails because of some out-of-the-box expectations.

Now we will discuss both of these methods in the context of success maker for Pearson

The agile method would allow the company to use more customer feedback because this method mainly focuses on customer’s insight and product development. Agile also reduce the documentation in the product development process, which makes it more time-efficient and flexible. The main advantage that agile has for the company is the increase in sales, as this method will allow the project managers to directly interact with the customer, which will increase the customer’s interest and the product’s sales. This method will increase the cohesiveness within the departments of the company. The disadvantages can be the risk of receiving a bit negative response from the company’s employees. The quality assurance team may find it difficult to upgrade the changes identified in the project.

Question 2

Pearson has this objective of developing the product whereas Adam aims to increase the content and improve its technology, as he knew that the demand for high technology is increasing. In the education industry, e-learning is also increasing currently and Adam finds it important for the educational institutes to use different methods to meet the demand. Adam wanted to focus on the customer's insight and changing the demand, so that the agile shift would help him in making this project development process more according to the customers, because agile group will allow the usage of more customers’ demand. The scope of the project will also increase and it will require less documentation and more work on the project. This methodology shift will increase the relations of employees in the company. Agile will allow the employees to meet face to face and have healthy discussions, and there are chances that it will improve the project’s progress, as this methodology’s shift will amend the relation of the managers with their customers. There are chances that the features in this product will increase at a higher rate.

Now if we talk about the downsides of this shift; there are chances that the employees take time to adjust in this new culture and repeat the traditional method unintentionally. Employees may resist this change and may leave the organization, as agile is a continuous improvement method, which makes it a bit complex for the quality assurance department to track the small changes and to adjust those changes in the project. In the traditional method, there is a requirement of documentation but in agile method; documentation is not required, which leads the made quality assurance department to mix the things. The agile structure does not track the system and ask for accountability. The roles and responsibilities are not clear to the employees. In the traditional method,the managers were not self-managing things but in Agile they are supposed to manage on their own, which can increase the complexity for the managers.

Question 3

Currently Agile is a present level need of Pearson to develop the product development process which serves the project purpose.Agile is good fit as it tends to benefit the company. Implementation of Agile is important not only in product development group but also in other teams of the company. Adam initially needs to remember that the association's essential development system is changing Pearson’s schooling items and administrations to advanced channels. Adam has two principle choices to make while building up the guide: first is to make decision of whether or not to change from waterfall to Agile and second is either to zero in exclusively on the Success Maker item or to focus his work on a vast agile drive. If all teams in the organization use the same method then all of the employees will be on the same page and the chance of clashes would be much less. Adam was focusing on the company-wide agile method rather than one department. If we talk about this situation, if agile is only introduced in the product development group, then there are chances that other groups, such as: content creation teams and others then teams would find it difficult to coordinate with each other. The manager of Lean UX stated that many new agile development methods start and end only with product development team. There is a very rare examples of agile in HR or Agile in finance department teams. (HBR 2014). Whereas I would also support this idea that agile should only other departments and groups under consideration as well rather than just focusing on agile group (Greg Malinowski, 2014).If the agile adoption is only limited to one team or group of the organization then there are chances that it would not serve the purpose and would create an instability in the organization. For Adam, it is important to make sure that agile system is used and adopted by each team in the organization and they keep the customer’s feedback first.

Implementing the agile methodology in the organization can be treated as a cultural change in the organization. According to many well-known figures in the industry; it is stated that to change the organizational culture, it is important to convince the employees by telling them success stories (Steve Denning, 2015). To make this cultural change successful, Adam needs to follow the change management process through the best leadership style and through finding the change agents in the organization. These change agents will help the company in accelerating the change process,and the implementation of agile at the company level would be successful. Adam can assess his choice by taking a gander at the key presentation measurements of his groups. Since the presentation of lithe in Success Maker; improvement group’s size decreased, designers were delivering better code at a quicker rate, the number of highlights expanded by 75% and the clients were liking the items

Now if we discuss the advantages of implementing the agile to the entire organization;the first and most important aspect would be the successful achievement of the objectives that are required for the product development process. The company’s objective would be achieved by the agile method’s implementation. All the teams in the organization will focus on single thing and will achieve the objective of the change management. The communication within the organization among teams will be improved. The quality assurance team will get help from the teams and will easily manage the changes in the work process. The final product will be in the headlines before the launch, due to customer’s interaction. In the future, the chances of higher sales would also increase............................

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