Wienerberger is the largest brickmaker worldwide, the market leader in clay roof tiles and pipe systems in Europe and in concrete paving stones in Central-Eastern Europe, and can look back on 200 years of success. Today, Wienerberger AG has 201 production sites in 30 countries, employs over 17,000 people and generated 3.466 billion euros in sales in fiscal year 2019.

Headquartered in Vienna, the company is known as an innovation and technology leader in the industry and offers smart building materials and infrastructure solutions with sustainable and innovative products. In the course of its digital transformation, Wienerberger decided to set further standards by introducing agile methods (Scrum) in its IT department. In collaboration with catworkx, the project was implemented using a 4-phase plan based on Jira software.

Logo Wienerberger AG

Overview of details

The customer

The requirements

  • Support for a team in the SAP development area
  • Testing/introduction of agile methods
  • Prioritization of upcoming tasks (change requests)

The solution

  • Scrum as a process model
  • Jira software
  • Coaching of the Scrum teams
  • Prioritization of findings with a focus on the PO/BO area
  • Process analysis and development of a customized version
  • Introduction to the core team
  • Test, feedback, training
  • International rollout

The benfit

  • Visibility (change requests)
  • Increased efficiency
  • Stronger customer focus

At the Wienerberger Group, various production sites around the world are connected to an SAP system. In customer relationship management (CRM), there was a desire for further functionalities and customizations, which were to be forwarded to the central SAP CRM IT team. In addition to this large number of feature requests, Wienerberger wanted to standardize the CRM module for all countries in order to be able to carry out updates and maintenance work more effectively. This strategy resulted in a large number of rollout projects for the individual national companies.
In 2019, the Austrian IT development team started working with agile methods for the first time, in part by introducing Jira software. The aim was to create a clear definition of the requirements, to define the business values of these requirements, to generate prioritization and transparency of the requirements for all stakeholders, and to improve the quality of the developments.

The search for the right tools and the right operating environment

The team had selected Scrum as their process model with the aim of initially mapping the internal development processes on this new method. Since the team did not have an experienced Scrum Master of their own, after a few sprints the desire grew for support from a coach to help the team with the stumbling blocks and challenges that needed to be overcome.
One of the challenges to be addressed by the agile process model was the efficient prioritization of all upcoming tasks. More transparent decision-making processes for all involved, as well as the stabilization of development work and the reduction of disruptions, were further requirements.

What our customers say:

Thomas Landl

The agile process has made the team resilient. Even the coronavirus lockdown did not cause any delays in the projects thanks to the switch to the agile approach.

Thomas Landl Wienerberger

Step-by-step: coaching, process analysis, implementation and rollout

Step 1: Coaching

In an initial phase, an agile coach from catworkx supported the development team by participating in Scrum events and addressing specific observations. During this time, the focus of the consulting quickly shifted to backlog management and prioritizing tasks even before they were added to the development backlog. In particular, the business owner's collaboration with the development team was to be analyzed in more detail.

Step 2: Process analysis and division into phases

In order to identify potential improvements, the first step was to visually develop the framework conditions in a process workshop. The business and product owner, a scrum master and management were represented in the workshop. Based on this, the process was divided into different phases and adjustments to the tool-side support in Jira and Confluence were discussed.
The overall process was divided into the following phases: business and technical refinement, development, testing and deployment. In particular, the creation of separate backlogs for refinement represented a step towards greater efficiency. The result: business refinement now serves to enable business owners to assess new topics at an early stage. The main focus here is on the pre-qualification of benefits and costs. Stories can be rejected here if it becomes apparent that they could be judged as “too expensive” or “too unimportant”. All other stories that are not rejected go on to the development team for “technical refinement” and later on to development.

Schritt 3: Realization

As part of the process adjustments, clear phases were defined for business and product owners as well as for the development team. Jira Kanban and Scrum boards are now used by the responsible teams to manage tasks.


Transparency of prioritization was achieved by introducing the WSJF method (“Weighted Shortest Job First”). This allows business owners to assess change requests in terms of “business value”, “time criticality”, “risk reduction” and to put them in relation to the “job size”. The value determined in this way provides valuable assistance in prioritization and gives the product owner and the development team a better understanding of the reason for the chosen priority.


The process in Jira is supported by documentation in Confluence. Details of the content, meeting notes on the tasks and change requests are visible at a glance in the Jira process and can be easily viewed.

Schritt 4: Rollout

The process was initially implemented only for the local IT team. The international rollout then took place in two steps: a core team of a few key users was trained in the new process and how to work with Jira and Confluence. Feedback was iteratively incorporated and implemented in Jira and in the process definition. Only then was the process rolled out to all Wienerberger locations worldwide. With complete success: the new, optimized and agile way of working was adopted by all employees because transparency was created. Key users now have a better understanding of when their change requests will be processed and the development team now has a clearer prioritization of its tasks. The process for the SAP CRM team is currently being rolled out to additional SAP development teams. Wienerberger is supported by catworkx GmbH in Austria.

Conclusion

Change enables progress: Wienerberger AG has once again proven this. By introducing the Scrum method and more transparent and efficient processes, general employee satisfaction has increased significantly. It is clearly traceable who is working on which tasks and projects at which time. The application of Scrum also means more autonomy for the individual employee and there are simple and clear rules that everyone understands. It also means a relief for employees, team members can participate in decision-making, organize themselves, while the management can look forward to time savings and greater effectiveness. The new way of organizing ultimately also means a higher customer orientation, because customer wishes and needs can now be optimally adapted and implemented in the process and in the results through feedback at relatively short intervals.

Contact us!

Do you need information on how to introduce agile methods into your company? Please feel free to contact us! We will be happy to advise you.

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