Change management smoothed the pathway for Costco’s implementation of agile methodology

At a glance:

We worked with Costco in supporting their DevOps Agile Center of Excellence, finding gaps in how Agile was being implemented, limiting rework needed and developing a plan and framework for future success in Agile adoption across the company.

Customer Challenge

Costco’s Center of Excellence’s adoption of Agile had slowed, and they were not realizing the expected efficiencies that came with an Agile environment. They needed a plan and a delivery framework to increase adoption and education, and learn how to integrate Agile into existing projects and future opportunities.

Approach and Solution:

Logic20/20 provided expertise in change management in retail and helped Costco create and implement a plan for successful Agile implementation. We developed a plan to educate each IT organization by:

• Assessing individual organization to identify type and level of support
• Identifying target stakeholders that could act as cheerleaders for program success
• Engaging Agile coaches to ensure that teams were properly trained on Agile methodologies and their benefits
• Reorganize the Center of Excellence to increase support and awareness, and therefore implementation of the desired change.

Value and Benefits – “the wins”

Logic20/20 provided Costco with a change management strategy that allowed them to see the importance of change management in retail, and increase the full adoption of Agile methodologies. Our plan:

• Delivered a roadmap specific to each group to a key stakeholder who would own implementation moving forward. This plan focused on delivery excellence and best practices around Agile implementation
• Focused on quick wins – we identified candidate projects and engaged coaches to train teams together
• Implemented a program for continue learning and education.

About Costco

Headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest American membership-only warehouse club with over 85 million members and 700 warehouses worldwide in over 10 countries.