Strategic choices for the future
Copenhagen Citizen ServiceDeveloping an agile project culture
Copenhagen Citizen Service handles a portfolio of approximately 40-50 projects each year. As projects did not necessarily follow the same design principles and were being managed autonomously, Copenhagen Citizen Service required a more agile project management setup that would help strengthen project execution.
Copenhagen Citizen Service wanted a framework for a more focused approach to projects to ensure that deliverables were being met on time and within budget. This would ensure improved execution of ongoing projects and generate more focus on project execution in general. This meant that Copenhagen Citizen Service wanted to add more content to each project, making the phases shorter with more frequent follow-up – what we refer to as ‘short and fat projects’. In addition, they wanted to apply the same principles to three pilot projects.
Implement trained 20 people (project managers and members of the management team) in agile design principles. This included how to design “short and fat projects” and how to “speed box” projects. As a result of the training, project managers can now incorporate the known project principles (purpose, success criteria and deliverables) into their agile projects based on four simple principles:
As a result of this process, Copenhagen Citizen Service finishes more projects on time, which means that it can spend more time following up and measuring project impact.
Today, we have more focus on better resource utilisation, enabling us to complete more projects on time – and the projects create an impact
Thomas Vinther, Head of Digitisation, Copenhagen Citizen Service
Copenhagen Citizen Service’s need for a more agile project culture was driven by a deep desire to ensure project impact from start to finish. Today, its project managers continue to apply the “short and fat” and “speed boxing” principles to every project, creating impact in five key areas:
Now that the project managers have the freedom to work in short phases with frequent feedback loops from management and stakeholders, focus on impact is guaranteed from start to finish.