Improve Your Finance Function At Speed With Agile Development

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Remember Ben, the PMO of the large-scale finance transformation at a global retail company? The guy who was running a full-blown Agile Finance Transformation. You can read up on his story here. Things were not always looking this great for Ben though. One and a half years earlier, when he was new in the role, he was asked to prepare the first take on the finance transformation. This is the story of what happened at the presentation to the CFO and how Ben managed to turn things around. 

It was a Thursday morning at 10 AM and Ben was getting ready to present his transformation plan to the CFO. He had prepared what you could consider a classic transformation plan. The first three months in the role he had interviewed all important stakeholders, taken their input, and drafted the plan to deliver on their needs. The result? A 5-year plan with 50 odd projects that needed to happen for the transformation to be a success. 

This was the approach Ben had used in his previous roles. He had also pitched this approach in the hiring process although he never spoke with the CFO. He knew they were unlikely to complete all the projects, yet he wanted to satisfy all his stakeholders. This was how he knew how to run finance transformations. Now let us hear what happened when he delivered his presentation. 

“Stop! This is not going to work” 

Ben started by presenting his process of how he had prepared the transformation plan. Already by then, he could see the CFO was not happy. She was getting impatient and wanted Ben to get to the point. Finally, Ben shared the plan of five transformation streams each with 8-12 projects. He heard a heavy sigh from the CFO and he was getting increasingly uncomfortable and nervous about what would happen next. He got to his Gantt chart where the projects were nearly laid out in a waterfall-like sequence… 

That is when the CFO said. 

“Ben, thank you for what you have presented, but we need to stop here. This plan is never going to work and we both know it. We need to try a different approach with fewer projects and more focus” 

Ben left the meeting feeling discouraged thinking that everything he knew about finance transformation had in sentence been made irrelevant. He knew he had to find a different approach, but how? That is when he reached out to a friend of his who was doing transformation work in IT. He told Ben about agile development. Granted it was mostly used for software development, but Ben did not see any reason why it would not work in finance transformation as well. 

Agile Development for Finance 

Ben was excited about how the concept could be applied in Finance and got to work on a brand-new transformation setup the next day. Here is the setup that he wanted to pitch to the CFO.

Further to this, each tribe would have a maximum capacity of two-three priorities that could be worked on at the same time. Ben was confident that this new setup would move the finance transformation at speed. He named the concept “Agile Finance Transformation” and was ready to present it to the CFO. 

This time everything was different. The CFO was immediately excited about the concept and could not wait to get started. She approved Ben’s plan on the spot and product owners were announced the next week. It was not without challenges to get to where Ben is today as everyone had to learn the new ways of working. Still, everyone agrees it has been a great success and finally significant improvements are seen across the finance function! 

The Agile Finance Transformation is certainly a different transformation approach compared to a classic finance transformation. Yet, we must admit that we have not been overly successful with transformations in the past. That is why CFOs like Ben’s are open to more radical approaches. They also know that if they do not transform at speed the CEO will find someone else who can. It is a matter of life or death for CFOs and the finance function! It is time to do something different and stop the transformation-insanity. Are you ready to change your finance transformation setup and enjoy the same success as Ben?

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This was the eight article in our new series about Finance in an Agile world and how to transform Finance using an Agile approach. You can read previous articles in the series and others about megatrends impacting Finance below.

Here Is How To Make Finance 37 Times Better In A Year

How To Create A Vivid Ambition For The Finance Function

This How We Transform Finance!

Why Do We Need An Agile Finance Transformation?

The Agile Finance Business Partner

The Finance Operating Model In An Enterprise Agile Organization

The Role Of Finance In An Agile World

How Humans Must Re-Invent Their Role In Finance

The Rise Of The Remote Finance Worker, Or Not?

Will Finance Become 100% Digitalized?

The Future Of Finance Is Agile In Every Possible Way

If you want to become a better business partner you should consider taking our online course "Business Partnering Explained - Value Creation Unlocked" to get a better handle on the role. It's accredited for 5.5 CPD hours.

You can read a lot more articles about FP&A, Business Partnering, and Finance Transformation below. It all start's with “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” where you set the ambition for your transformation. You should join the Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic and you can click here to follow me on Twitter.

All Successful Business Partners Are "Leaders" (part of a five-article series where we unfold our business partnering capability model)

Should We Keep Talking About Business Partnering? (part of a 17-article series where we deep-dive on our business partnering framework "BP on a Formula")

Your Journey To Successful Business Partnering Explained

How To Create Value Through Business Partnering

Everyone Can Adopt A Business Partnering Mindset (part of a six-article series about FP&A Business Partnering)

From Business Partner To Working Within The Business (part of an article series where I interview finance professionals about their careers in FP&A and Business Partnering)

Is Your Product Optimized For Value Creation? (part of a toolbox series where we look at what tools FP&A professionals should leverage to drive value creation)

How Business Partners Turn Analysis To Insight (part of case study series where I interview business partners about how they drive value creation using real cases)

The Future Of FP&A: Two Ways To Take The Reins

What Is The Accounting Profession Paradox?

What Defines A Finance Master?

The New Career Path For Finance Professionals

How Finance People Can Be More Successful

The CFOs Roadmap To Transforming Finance

How To Become A Finance Business Partner

Financial Analyst vs. Finance Business Partner

Finance Business Partner Is A Bullshit Job

How Business Partners Keep A Plan On Track

Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder, COO (Chief Operating Officer), and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with close to 9,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger on LinkedIn with 49.000+ followers.