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A successful Agile transformation in the public sector

On June 2nd, Revenu Québec won the 2016 OCTAS award for its information resource transformation project. Below is an overview of this successful project we took part in.

The context

Revenu Québec wants to offer innovative business solutions that efficiently support work organization as well as its service offering. What is targeted: gaining efficiency, increasing the quality of its products, accelerating its response to customer requests at the lowest possible cost, and improving its customer service.

To do so, Revenu Québec decided to adopt Agile approaches for the execution of its information technology (IT) projects, to integrate these approaches in its processes, and to implement the best software engineering practices.

Here are the main goals of the transformation:

  •  Improve the efficiency of the software development processes of Revenu Québec
  •  Increase the quality of its products and services
  •  Increase customer satisfaction
  •  Maximize the efficiency of teamwork and collaboration
  •  Reduce the solutions’ total cost of ownership.

Agility serving Revenu Québec

Why is this transformation unique and innovative? It’s because Revenu Québec decided not to limit the adaptation to its methodological framework. In fact, they decided to become an end-to-end Agile organization. Thus, this project was one of the largest in Quebec, and probably in Canada as well.

Although, certain frameworks such as Scrum, DAD, and Agile-Lean have been used, our experts had to embrace innovation in areas where no frameworks coud address the reality.

Let’s list a few innovations:

  • A pathway to handle business records using Agile approaches
  • An Agile project management framework adapted to the Agile work teams and to the governmental accountability and planning constraints
  • A project monitoring dashboard that was actually given as an example by one of the representatives of the Treasury Board Secretariat during an important conference held in the fall of 2015
  • A measuring tool—called QIX—to help teams and branches measure their Agility level and set continuous improvement targets
  • The presence of boards in the teams’ workspaces to display their workload as well as impediments.

The Agile transformation at Revenu Québec gives the opportunity to completely rethink work environments, performance markers, as well as collaboration and management values. At first, our brains are startled and are resisting to this new world of possibilities, but gradually the new colour of things is allowed in, teams are integrating continuous improvement, and, surprisingly, the whole system gets moving. Agility is for now one of the best ways to truly and consistently commit an entire organization to excellence.

Richard Martin, Organizational coach at Pyxis.

A win-win partnership

To ensure the success of this transformation, Revenu Québec associated with Facilité Informatique and Pyxis Technologies, which provided experienced Agile coaches. In fact, twenty coaches joined their forces with that of the internal specialists in order to provide the following services:

  • Organizational coaching to managers
  • Coaching to work teams
  • Technical coaching on engineering practices
  • Help in writing new frameworks and training material.

About Revenu Québec

Revenu Québec administers the tax system of the province and ensures the collection of taxes. It also administers various programs and services entrusted by the government. Revenu Québec provides services to over 8 million customers.

To fulfil its mission, Revenu Québec has 12,500 employees distributed in 50 offices. To carry out its IT projects, it invests $260.7 million annually and employs almost 1700 individuals excluding external resources. Its IT assets comprise over 15,000 computers, 742 servers, and 525 software applications as well as over 270 mission systems of all sizes.

About the OCTAS

Organized by the Réseau ACTION TI on an annual basis since 1987, the OCTAS competition is a unique opportunity to recognize excellence in the IT industry in the province of Quebec.

This competition pays tribute to individuals, businesses, and organizations for their creativity, vitality, and exceptional contribution to the growth of the IT industry. Since 1987, this event has become the flagship of excellence in our industry.

Throughout the years, the OCTAS gave to numerous winners the opportunity to reach remarkable fame and growth.