ABW also supports the current trend of work becoming more
project based, and the nature of project methodology itself
becoming more fluid and flexible. The traditional system of
development and project planning (known as the waterfall
method) still dominates the financial sector, but ‘agile
scrum’ methodology is becoming increasing attractive to
organisations who want to decrease delivery time to market,
increase efficiency and speed while enabling coordination
and greater flexibility. In a landscape of heavy regulation it
is important to remain efficient and flexible. For example,
the introduction of ‘agile scrum’ methods into product
development can solve risk and compliance issues by co-
locating teams together.
As ever, banks that have introduced ABW say that the biggest
push-back has come from the front office functions, which
still see property as a necessary cost of doing business
rather than an asset to improve the business process.
Other banks have told us that defining the business case
and agreeing the metrics and data collection methods was
an initial stumbling block. But successful examples from
Macquarie, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank
to Rabobank and SNS Real in the Netherlands show that
banks are just as suited to adopting activity based working as
organisations in other industries.
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The future of the financial workplace
|
September 2014
