Agile Practice Implementation in the Agricultural Bank's Software Development Center: A Multi‑Phase Case Study

In recent years agile thinking has spread widely, giving rise to practices such as Scrum, XP, and TDD; the Agricultural Bank's Software Development Center launched agile pilots across its departments, forming a dedicated support team to try Kanban meetings, daily builds, automated testing, and deployment, diagnosing issues and optimizing practices.

First Phase: Introducing Daily Builds and Automated Testing to Improve Development Efficiency and Quality

The platform R&D department aimed to raise team and individual capabilities and improve platform and product quality. Starting in April 2017, they introduced daily builds and automated unit testing for their applications, establishing guidelines such as the "Java and C# Daily Build Implementation Plan" and the "TFS Configuration and Build Management Guide" to ensure orderly execution and knowledge transfer.

Developers submit code and unit tests each day; the TFS tool triggers tests, generates coverage reports, and developers promptly address uncovered issues. By March 2018, 11 systems had daily builds and 6 projects had automated unit tests.

Implementing daily builds and automated testing drove developers to fix defects quickly, providing fast feedback and ultimately enhancing software quality despite the initial effort required.

Second Phase: Introducing Kanban, Stand‑ups, and Other Practices to Improve Development Management

In November 2017 the department began a pilot with one team, adopting Kanban boards and Scrum stand‑ups. Over three months the team completed four sprints, holding daily stand‑ups, review meetings, retrospectives, and sprint planning. The Product Owner guided product direction, the Scrum Master focused on team interaction, and members worked collaboratively like a sports team.

The team reported higher execution efficiency, greater transparency, more effective external task tracking, and faster communication, indicating a marked improvement in the development management process.

During the pilot the team faced challenges such as insufficient sprint planning, inconsistent task granularity, unclear deliverables, ambiguous defect tracking on the board, redundant board states, and varying acceptance criteria across product lines.

Through collective effort the team resolved these issues one by one, feeling proud of their breakthroughs and personal growth.

Third Phase: From Team‑Level Adoption to Department‑Wide Implementation – Transforming from Form to Essence

After the initial exploration, agile practices spread within the department via internal knowledge sharing. On March 7, 2018 a kickoff meeting launched agile pilots for seven projects, with existing pilot leads collecting problems and feeding them back for targeted agile workshops.

Approximately two weeks of agile training, problem collection, and team discussions were followed by a professional external agile coach delivering intensive training and guidance, officially launching agile practice for the seven pilot teams.

To date, all seven pilot teams have adopted physical Kanban boards, daily stand‑ups, review meetings, and sprint retrospectives, continuously iterating their processes, learning from mistakes, and moving from merely learning agile forms to embodying its spirit.

Implementing agile development serves as a guide to improve project management, efficiency, product quality, customer satisfaction, and alignment with the software development center’s goals, representing a long‑term commitment to continuous improvement and high‑performance collaboration.