Company
Ambarics software & consulting GmbH & Co. KG (ambarics) has established itself as a specialized ERP service provider, bridging the gap between software manufacturer marketers and end users. The company partners with a Cloud ERP-Software company, providing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with comprehensive support and business process consulting services.
Challenge
The organization faced mounting operational challenges as ambarics expanded from three to ten employees. Communication between team members became increasingly fragmented, with critical information often trapped between individuals rather than reaching the entire team. The complexity of customized ERP implementations and a limited number of domain experts created bottlenecks in service delivery. Tasks would frequently be forgotten or left incomplete, and the team struggled to maintain visibility of work status across different projects and support requests. There was no systematic way to handle unplanned support requests.
Solution
During a company’s monthly learning day, André Bohn, consultant and project manager, discovered Scrum and recognized its potential for addressing their challenges. In addition, he has already implemented Personal Kanban and has seen a dramatic improvement. After securing management buy-in and completing a Professional Scrum with Kanban (PSK) Training with Alexander Hardt, ambarics began implementing their system and feedback loops.
An important aspect was that the chosen approach accommodated their project work and ongoing support responsibilities, which were handled within the same team.
With André’s guidance, after a short training phase, the team took a step-by-step approach to implementation, starting with fundamental core elements. Focusing on transparency, they created their initial Definition of Workflow and a digital Kanban Board with transparent status tracking showing all items team members work on. Daily Scrums were established within a weekly Sprint cadence to focus on timely problem-solving and collaboration, while the other Sprint events were initially combined to ease the transition. This transition took around three months.
Based on historical data, the team limited their Work in Progress (WiP) to five items per person per week, helping to manage the workload and maintain focus. Pulling these items happens in the Monday morning planning session. The team also introduced a policy regarding handling items handed over to a different team member.
Their positivity and genuine desire to work together helped them navigate the transition smoothly. They are not strangers to apportioning blame. Still, getting used to the new way of working took time.
A key innovation was the inclusion of a Work Item Age tracking chart on the Kanban Board, with color coding and filtered views for different stakeholders. This chart also includes transition counting to signal items that don’t progress straight forward.
Benefits
The impact of this transition became quickly apparent. The team eliminated the problem of forgotten tasks through improved visualization and tracking. Customer interactions became more systematic, with more structured follow-up processes and prioritization based on clear criteria. Better task completion improved customer satisfaction.
The new system proved particularly effective in handling the unpredictable nature of support requests alongside planned work. Team members gained better visibility into their colleagues' work, enabling more effective collaboration and efficient capacity allocation.
Kanban’s “Stop starting, start finishing” principle became part of the team’s DNA. This led to improved cross-team communication and collaboration, better workload management among team members, and the establishment of a more sustainable work pace overall.
André specifically recognized, "We have brought our workload to a healthy level, which means we don't just start everything we can. We have a limit, so there is potentially no more burnout. We can say that is a healthy load, and we can work with that."
Quantitatively, most significantly, Planning sessions that previously took over two hours were reduced to just 30 minutes—a 75% time reduction. Extrapolated to one year, this time-saving means a productivity gain of around 780 hours for the team—a productivity gain of 2 working weeks per year for each team member.
“The Professional Scrum with Kanban (PSK) Training has opened the door for my organization to pull together finally,” said André.
Key Insights
The ambarics transformation demonstrates the importance of starting with essential transparency before adding complexity. Keep it simple before starting scaling.
While transparency proved invaluable for identifying bottlenecks, the team also recognized their advantage of having already a supportive and collaborative environment to ensure this visibility led to constructive problem-solving rather than blame.
Their success came from thoughtfully adapting Professional Scrum with Kanban to fit their concrete business needs and environment. They used physical aids to help the team adopt new workflows and steadily focus on completing existing work before starting new items.
Still, implementing the core practices is key. Visualize the Workflow with a Kanban Board, Limit Work in Progress (WiP), and actively manage work items in progress. Inspect and adapt the team’s Definition of Workflow. So did the ambarics team.
Scrum and Kanban are tools for continuous improvement, not the goal itself. When combined in the right setting, they are even more powerful. Every team is different, but all have strengths and backgrounds. Choose the path that is right for you.
Most importantly, they recognized that such a transformation requires patience. They allowed the team time to adapt to new processes while maintaining their commitment to customer success.
Ultimately, implementing Professional Scrum with Kanban provided ambarics with a shared language and framework that significantly enhanced the quality of their discussions about work, leading to more informed decisions and continuous improvement.
Future Directions
ambarics continues to inspect and adapt its approach, with plans to use more Flow Metrics and establish data-driven standards for work item aging. They're considering separating their Scrum events to allow for more focused discussions and planning to develop more explicit pull policies.
A key area of ongoing focus will be refining their workflow to effectively handle daily support tickets' dynamic and often unpredictable nature and ensure consistent responsiveness.
Perhaps most notably, as they integrated the solution within their ERP system, they're exploring the possibility of commercializing their system as a service to benefit their customers.
André emphasizes their commitment to continuous improvement. He recognizes that their system is still evolving, and they are open to adapting and refining their approach as they gain more experience and insights. He sees it as a key driver of their team's success.
Closing
Please be aware that this case study describes a specific situation at ambarics, their unique approach to implementing Professional Scrum with Kanban, and the results they achieved, which may not be directly transferable or replicable in other organizations due to varying contexts and circumstances.
Implementing professional Scrum with Kanban enabled ambarics to unlock significant productivity gains and a healthier work environment.
Are you curious how PSK can drive similar positive change in your organization?
Contact us for a conversation.