Марія Бровінська Work 29 September 2025, 12:23

Agile at scale, or How to combine flexibility and measurability of results. Raif's experience

Agile in big business is often associated with a fashionable trend and lack of predictability: vague plans, unstable structures, lack of metrics. For a startup, this can be the norm. For a company with thousands of employees, it can be destructive.

Raiffeisen Bank proves the opposite: flexibility and transparency can be combined with a systematic approach and measurement of results. Yana Bort, Head of IT Strategy and Agile Transformation at the bank, tells how the company built a model that allows it to scale Agile to hundreds of teams while maintaining a focus on business goals.

Reference

Yana Bort joined the bank in 2019 as a retail transformation expert. Her task was to change the approach in the branches — from fulfilling sales plans to truly customer-centricity. When the results became apparent, she was offered to scale this experience to the IT direction.

Today, Yana heads the IT Strategy and Agile Transformation Department and is responsible for synchronizing the work of 900 specialists in 122 teams.

From the classic model to product tribes

A few years ago, the bank’s IT operated in a classic service model: teams performed their own pieces of tasks, but did not see what real value the client received at the end. Today, this system has transformed into product tribes — a union of teams that work end-to-end on the creation and development of specific business products for specific clients (individuals and legal entities, internal clients). This approach allowed us to remove unnecessary coordination, reduce dependencies between teams, shorten the time to market for new solutions, and most importantly, stay focused.

«It really doesn’t matter whether you’ve worked in IT your whole life, if your strength is the ability to transform. What’s important is to be able to see the big picture, understand where there is a discrepancy, and move forward, building highly effective teams that create tangible value for the client,» Yana emphasizes.

KPI and OKR as a foundation

One of the main challenges was the issue of metrics. In many companies, Agile and KPI are perceived as opposites. At Raif, these systems were combined. KPIs are determined once a year and set strategic benchmarks, for example, market share or the number of active customers. OKRs are formed quarterly as hypotheses: what products or changes will help achieve these strategic goals. It is the teams themselves who propose and test the hypotheses.

If the product doesn’t work, it’s not a failure, but a learning experience that allows you to adjust your next move.

«Agile is a tool. It only works when we clearly understand where we are going. Metrics do not limit teams, but on the contrary, they give them guidelines and help them understand how quickly and efficiently we are achieving our goals,» explains Yana.

Transparency and standards

The scale of over a hundred teams required solutions that guarantee consistency of processes. The bank is introducing unified development standards, transparent processes, and tools for complete transparency. This is what helps us understand how we move holistically, not based on feelings, and be confident in the quality of the products we release.

When Agile first began to be implemented, it caused great skepticism among many employees. Agile coaches were often perceived ambiguously, but during the transformation process their role has changed dramatically.

Today, they are partners who help teams and tribes adjust processes so that they are understandable, environmentally friendly, and work together. It is thanks to them that change has become not a fashionable trend, but a part of the bank’s culture.

Transformation results

Over the years, the bank has built a system where over 900 employees work in a single direction, 122 teams are focused on customer value, and the processes from strategy to implementation become more transparent with each quarter. The most important achievement is the stable delivery of value to customers and the reduction of time to market for new products.

Agile at Raif is not a set of practices from a book or a fad. It is a strategic approach that allows you to remain flexible at scale while remaining measurable. It is the ability to innovate quickly and without losing focus.

«We combined adaptability and measurability in one system. And this helps move 122 teams in a single direction,» Yana concludes.

In a world where speed to market and the ability to scale innovation determine competitiveness, Raif’s experience can serve as a guideline for other large companies: Agile and metrics are not mutually exclusive. Together, they create a system that works for results.

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