City of Burbank accelerates IT project delivery with adoption of Scaled Agile Framework

Experienced CIO steps into exciting public sector role

Nestled in California’s San Fernando Valley lies the City of Burbank. With the City of Los Angeles right next door, Burbank is home to many of Hollywood’s major film studios and entertainment companies, leading to its billing as the "Media Capital of the World." Though its primary industry is focused on the business of make-believe, Burbank is a busy urban center requiring real city services, from water and power to police and public works.

Meeting the technology needs of the city’s many departments is the Burbank IT department, headed up by CIO Kevin Gray, who joined the city several years ago after executive roles at leading media organizations. Gray noted the difference between his experience in the private sector and his role at the city: “Anyone who works in local government knows that a city is like many completely different businesses all in one.”

Setting the scene to improve project delivery

When he joined the city, Gray learned that his IT department was struggling with project execution, delivering projects late, or sometimes not at all. He quickly put a project management framework in place – a traditional "waterfall" approach that mapped out projects in a linear, sequential fashion. Over the following year, the team saw some improvement in their project delivery rates.

It was at that point Gray engaged in a popular Info-Tech diagnostic program, "CIO Business Vision," which surveys internal business stakeholders on their satisfaction with IT’s core services. The program delivers detailed report cards with key insights that help inform IT strategy. Gray recalled the survey results: “We learned a lot from the CIO Business Vision diagnostic. We learned that the city still had the impression that we were not delivering on projects very well. Even though we had put a new project management framework into place, there was still a poor perception of our ability to deliver on projects.”

Breaking down traditional thinking with a modern approach

The disappointing reviews from the city sent Gray back to the drawing board to find a project delivery method that would address the shortcomings of the waterfall approach and cut through the inefficiencies so often found with traditional government processes. After extensive research, he landed on the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) – a variation of Agile practices that, in addition to delivering value quickly and continuously improving, is designed to scale to enterprise levels.

Gray knew that achieving stakeholder buy-in would be the first hurdle. “In order to properly implement SAFe, it can’t be an IT priority alone. You have to include your business people to a much greater degree, so I began a campaign to sell the idea city-wide.” Gray used the results of the CIO Business Vision diagnostic survey to support his push for change and justify the need for this novel approach.

“The Info-Tech workshop was a watershed moment for us. It brought clarity to my entire staff on how we would move forward and what we were trying to accomplish. The hands-on nature of the sessions and the ability of the instructor to explain concepts to my team that they had struggled to understand were invaluable.”

– Kevin Gray, CIO, City of Burbank

Taking a hands-on approach to communicating the Agile vision

With the promise of results, City executives quickly signed on. Training sessions in Agile and SAFe were held for department leaders and the IT team. However, Gray found that there was still a lack of understanding about what they were trying to do. “Even after all the training, we were still struggling. My team wasn’t really understanding what they needed to do and how we were going to go about doing it.”

To improve understanding of the Agile vision and plan, Gray asked Info-Tech to conduct a workshop on product ownership. He explained, “The Info-Tech workshop was a watershed moment for us. We were struggling with staff on how to move forward, which was also causing problems with our labor union. That workshop brought clarity to my entire staff on how we would move forward and what we were trying to accomplish.” He added, “That was my first workshop with Info-Tech. The hands-on nature of the sessions and the ability of the instructor to explain concepts to my team that they had struggled to understand were invaluable.”

A box-office hit for rapid project delivery

Gray and his team launched the new SAFe approach with the first PI (Program Increment) involving two projects: a website redesign for Burbank Water & Power, and a 311 mobile app for Public Works. The first rollout proved successful, and the team continued to build on that success to refine and improve the process. While the first PI met 50% of its objectives, the second PI, now involving four projects, met 77% of its objectives.

With the results to prove it, the city now has an established process to successfully deliver projects quickly and effectively. “We were able to deliver the first release of our Burbank 311 app in just five months. Leveraging Agile has enabled us to deliver solutions 70% faster than before. We have also seen a 400% growth in engagement between our businesses and IT to deliver these solutions. In addition, we’ve achieved a six-fold increase in the number of projects that we execute on, without increasing IT staff,” reported Gray.

To get a true measure of their progress, Gray redeployed the Info-Tech CIO Business Vision diagnostic to determine if the SAFe approach had moved the needle when it came to the opinion of IT's toughest critics – its internal stakeholders. Gray delivered the good news, “The city’s satisfaction with our ability to deliver projects climbed to 80%.”

"Leveraging Agile has enabled us to deliver solutions 70% faster than before. We have also seen a 400% growth in engagement between our businesses and IT to deliver these solutions. In addition, we’ve achieved a six-fold increase in the number of projects that we execute on, without increasing IT staff.”

– Kevin Gray, CIO, City of Burbank

Practical, actionable tools and support from Info-Tech

Along with providing assistance for the transition to a new project delivery model for the city, Gray also leverages Info-Tech research and templates for other IT initiatives. He also noted the vital support of his executive counselor, a dedicated and experienced advisor from Info-Tech. “My Info-Tech executive counselor provides ongoing invaluable advice, including helping me establish the vision and strategy for IT in the City of Burbank.”

Looking ahead, Gray plans to continue his work to revolutionize IT project delivery across the city. “We are engaging more and more departments with each SAFe program increment. Pretty soon, we’ll have all 15 departments engaged in our Agile Release Train. Working with so many different departments is exciting, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else we can do going forward.”