Agile Finance Boot Camp Classroom Live Cary, NC July 26, 2021

Course Overview

Part 1: Challenges of conventional financial management

We’ll begin by examining common challenges in finance that often cause friction in the agile transformation. These concepts will appear again and again as we look at how to actually execute improvements. We will emphasize finance teams more effectively enabling faster cycle times and greater visibility.

• Goals and goal-driven behavior
• Value vs. cost
• Challenges of annual budgeting and long cycle times
• Challenges of project-oriented budgeting
• Reconciliation with bank accounts and the general ledger
• Discovery of data entry issues across all systems and reports
• Your finance department’s reputation

Part 2: The business case for agile finance

We will examine fundamental changes that have to get made to transform a finance team into a critical component of the agile enterprise.

• Enterprise agility overview
• How does reporting happen in agile organizations?
• Key competencies for agile finance teams
• How roles are impacted

Part 3: Key concepts for agility in finance

For an organization to be agile at scale –  responsive, accommodating of emergent requirements, and resilient in the face of change –  there are different implications for different functional teams. However, there are common principles which unite them, and finance teams need literacy on them. Finance teams must also be aware of the expectations and needs created in other areas of the organization which have adopted agile practices or a framework for practicing agility at scale.

• Creating customer value
• Value vs. cost
• Value streams
• Measurement and feedback
• Epics, portfolios and programs
• Prioritization and cost of delay
• Products vs. projects
• From exploration to exploitation
• Common constructs used by frameworks for agile-at-scale? (i.e. SAFe)

Part 4: Agile budgeting

• Establishing visibility and feedback into workflows
• Cost Management for Agility
• Forecasting and targeting
• Frequency: Allocating funding vs. fixed budgets
• Increment-driven budgeting
• Resource Allocation

Part 5: Insights – Measurement and analytics for financial agility

Agility does not mean a lack of measurement, but it impacts how and when we measure, and how we communicate insights across the organization. We want to make metrics actionable, more frequent, and less delayed. We’ll teach teams practices for better data discovery and acquisition, faster feedback loops, and more collaborative planning.  We’ll also leverage analytics tools to create what-if and predictive scenarios for staying ahead of financial challenges.

• OKRs and metrics for financial agility
• Approaching real-time insight  (examples: sales forecasting, cash flow forecasting)
• Materiality in the business: isolating problematic areas and creating proactive solutions
• Assessing the accuracy of OKRs
• Comparing what’s planned vs. what’s achieved
• Designing actionable metrics and feedback mechanisms
• Data frameworks for informing adaptive finance

Part 6: Automation

We’ll introduce transformative automation concepts, including attended robotic process automation (RPA), to automate tasks across the entire finance lifecycle. Examples include:

• Financial planning and analysis (i.e. decision support, management reporting, performance measurement and controls)
• Financial consolidation of reports
• Reconciliation
• Discovery of data entry issues across all systems and reports
• Automation of coordination with vendors/suppliers to address payment delays

Part 7: Contracts and procurement

• Conventional vs. alternative contracts
• Mutual benefit and partner ecosystems
• Incentives vs. penalties
• Feedback on contracts
• Legality concerns

Part 8: Governance

Agile practices and automation streamline governance. Access to analytics, tools and service-level agreements are powerful tools for more effective governance with less friction. We’ll discuss possible use cases, including:

• Approvals and authorization processes
• Business cases and requirements
• Funding decisions
• Forecasting

Part 9: Compliance

We’ll discuss how agile practices and frameworks can increase effective compliance, prevent unplanned workloads, and help reduce risk.

• Compliance and agile practices
• Regulatory concerns
• Ethics concerns
• Principles, not rules

Part 10: Continuous Execution

Ultimately we want to establish an ability to execute all finance functions, from monthly closing to annual audits, as close to on-demand as possible. Examples include:

• Testing and compliance checks for audits on demand –  not just annually
• Move beyond human-driven exercises and allow for on-demand access to critical finance functions

Part 11: Workshop conclusion – charting your course

We’ll close the workshop by discussing and capturing next steps your team can take as soon as the class is over.

• Next steps

Part 12: Expert Q and A