Agile methods help Finland’s Social Insurance Institution achieve common goals

Teams working with Kela’s benefit systems wanted to enhance their agile model. Although three-month planning periods and sprint cycles were already implemented, the practical methods and benefits of the agile framework remained a mystery for many employees. Teams had difficulties understanding what they were supposed to do and why.

– Our goal was to enable a smoother workflow and refine period planning for our teams. We wanted to gain a better understanding of incoming jobs and minimize the amount of ad hoc work requests, says Helena Lääperi, Kela’s Head of IT Benefits Unit.

Kela also wanted to unify ways of working, identify inter-team dependencies, increase transparency, and produce comparable data to enhance decision-making by advancing their agile model.

Unified methods have yielded desired results by generating transparency and more accurate information on what teams are working on – and what they should be working on. Collaboration towards shared goals is now more prevalent.

Kela’s teams have enjoyed a more fluid workflow, clearer goals, and a more manageable work queue. Management now has access to higher-quality data that helps make better decisions on work prioritization and planning.

Helena Lääperi feels that the new and improved work methods have truly been adopted into everyday work at Kela. She gives kudos to Gofore’s Agile Coaches for their hands-on approach.

– The Gofore crew is truly a joy to work with. They really considered the needs of our teams and offered tailor-made solutions that generated tangible results, says Lääperi.