SBB: Dialog app for cultural change
Bottom-up instead of top-down
11,400 trains on the tracks, 1.35 million passengers, 175,000 tons of freight – and that's every day. SBB is known for its reliability and punctuality. The key to this outstanding performance? Its nearly 35,000 employees, who make things happen.
With the help of a new app, SBB now wants to systematically render visible what the employees themselves experience in their daily work: How do they see their work? How do they feel about their team? What could be improved? These and other questions will be used to start a direct dialog. And, unlike traditional performance management tools, not just from the top down, but also from the bottom up. In addition, the app had to be easy to use, meet high security standards and be accessible via mobile phone or tablet for team members without computer access.
Dialog instead of evaluation: the “Employee Dialog App”
The new dialog process is fully geared to the rapidly changing nature of the working day – in contrast to the previous, rather rigid process with pre-defined times for target agreements, interim discussions and performance reviews. The new dialog application developed by tts provides the necessary flexibility. Each employee can now customize the dialog process in four languages, hold discussions with superiors or any other employee, and introduce topics for discussion – with the exception of salary discussions, which are still subject to the regular process.
Development by tts labs
In the first step, the project partners defined the dialog process together with the fundamental technical requirements and functionalities of the app.
SAP's Business Technology Platform (BTP) was chosen as the development platform. This ensured that the new app could be seamlessly integrated into SBB's existing application landscape, easily expanded and that the high security requirements could be implemented. The development itself was then carried out by tts labs, a department of tts that focuses entirely on the realization of customer-specific add-ons for SAP SuccessFactors. It developed a mobile user interface that triggers functions and processes in SAP SuccessFactors P&G in the background.
tts implemented the project professionally: From the planning phase to completion, we were able to count on the high level of expertise of tts throughout the collaboration.
From Proof of Concept to Minimal Viable Product
During the development process tts used a proof of concept to demonstrate the feasibility of the ideas, requirements and functionalities that had been worked out previously. This allowed tts to show early on how any dialog could be generated in a stable way while meeting the high security standards.
tts then developed the first of a total of three Minimal Viable Products (MVP), in which only basic functionalities were deliberately mapped. The advantage for both project partners was that questions about design or subordinate functionalities, which are irrelevant in the early phase, did not arise. This allowed tts and SBB to concentrate fully on the existing functionalities, which were then supplemented and optimized with each additional MVP.
Scrum methodology enables rapid project progress
The Scrum methodology chosen by tts proved to be a key success factor. Thanks to the step-by-step approach and the work with MVPs, the teams were able to react quickly and flexibly to changed or new requirements. As a result, the project progressed quickly and in a structured manner - and the go-live could be celebrated after only nine months. The foundation for SBB's new communication culture had been laid.
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