How Agile Transformed an HR System: A Real‑World Case Study

Project Background

In April 2019 the HR project team was formed to build a system that supports HRBP, COE, and SSC work while establishing a standardized, process‑driven HR information framework. Limited resources and complex business scenarios initially caused delays, low quality, and abandoned features.

Guided by senior mentor Du Weizhong, the team switched to agile methods, increasing business participation and process transparency, which boosted development efficiency and delivery quality.

User Experience Map

To raise business involvement and clarify requirements, the team organized its first user‑experience‑map workshop, using visual boards to depict the overall scenario, help participants understand business logic, and identify core project features.

Sprint‑0 Preparation – Iteration Planning Meeting

After project kickoff, the team held a Sprint‑0 preparation meeting covering team composition, backlog creation, iteration planning, technology selection, architecture design, and UI/UE review. The planning session broke down the backlog into minimal development models and cycles, with the PO explaining the overall process.

Iteration Planning Details

Developers reiterated functional requirements to reinforce understanding. The team agreed on a four‑week iteration cycle (two‑week sprints) and used planning poker to assess complexity, ensuring high‑complexity items were split and enabling velocity tracking for better process control.

Development Process

The development phase comprised three key parts: a Kanban board, daily stand‑up meetings, and velocity/progress tracking.

The Kanban board contains task lists, metrics, and impediment sections; team members move cards to reflect personal progress, adding complexity and actual completion time to each card.

Stand‑up meetings are held daily at 18:00 for ten minutes, covering completed work, next day’s tasks, and any blockers.

At the end of each stand‑up, a burn‑down chart is reviewed to analyze progress and velocity, allowing the product manager to adjust scope as needed.

Demo Meetings

Every two‑week sprint ends with a demo for business stakeholders, where developers showcase functionality, gather feedback, and align on design. This rapid feedback loop feeds directly into backlog refinement for the next iteration.

Retrospective Meetings

Retrospectives aim to boost team morale and improve processes. The first session, led by the mentor, introduced retrospective theory and used a learning matrix where each member shared good practices, issues, new ideas, and gratitude.

The team identified improvement points, such as refining workload estimation for the mentor system by using complexity and actual development time.

Summary

The mentor system’s first iteration is live, with business users entering basic data and the next iteration already in progress. Compared with previous approaches, development velocity has significantly increased, business participation has improved product‑business fit, and the agile framework has strengthened team cohesion and professionalism.