Agile Education Case Study

Business Context

The Lido Flight 4D platform, calculating nearly 45% of all European flights, demanded high accuracy, speed, and coordination across globally distributed teams. However, previous agile attempts using the Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) framework fell short of scaling agility effectively, and delivery timelines suffered. Lufthansa Systems needed a transformation framework that could cut delivery delays, support enterprise-wide coordination, and sustain long-term agility.

Challenges

Before embracing Scrum@Scale, Lufthansa Systems faced significant operational roadblocks, and the inability to cut delivery delays consistently was a clear competitive disadvantage.

• Siloed Development: Teams worked in domain-based silos, limiting alignment and shared ownership.
• Legacy Architecture: A monolithic system created deep interdependencies that led to delays.
• Unpredictable Timelines: Planning accuracy hovered around 60%, making it difficult to deliver reliably.
• Overcrowded Meetings: Time-consuming and unfocused meetings slowed progress.
• Customer Dissatisfaction: Delivery delays of 20–40 days affected over 100 global airline clients.

The Approach

To solve these challenges, Lufthansa Systems implemented Scrum@Scale with hands-on guidance from TAL Consulting. The approach focused on cutting delivery delays by improving communication, aligning roles, and reducing complexity. A “deep and narrow” rollout began with a reference project and expanded organization-wide. Key initiatives included:

1. Change Management Model: Treated the transformation like a product—iterative and stakeholder-driven.
2. Agile Practice Team: A dedicated cross-functional group delivered 200+ improvements annually.
3. Organizational Blueprint: Designed agile team structures aligned to business and architecture goals.
4. Reference Model Testing: Piloted with 7 teams to serve as reference models to validate results before scaling.
5. Scaled Scrum Roles: Introduced Chief Product Owners and Scrum of Scrum Masters to reduce delivery friction.
6. MetaScrum Events: Streamlined and focused planning, refinement, and feedback loops.
7. Unified Backlog: Established transparency across teams, priorities, and dependencies.

Remaining Challenges

While the transformation gained momentum, legacy technical constraints still required close cross-team coordination. In some cases, team autonomy began to outweigh alignment, creating occasional friction. However, Scrum@Scale provided the structure needed to refocus on enterprise outcomes and cut delivery delays across all domains.

Results

Through this transformation, Lufthansa Systems effectively cut delivery delays, streamlined team collaboration, and improved forecasting and customer satisfaction.

Key Takeaways

• Engage Stakeholders Early – Secure alignment and buy-in to drive faster delivery decisions.
• Embrace Continuous Adaptation – Use data and team feedback to evolve practices that cut delivery delays.
• Trust and Transparency Drive Speed – Open communication shortened lead times from 4 months to just 2 weeks.

By embedding these principles, Lufthansa Systems built a resilient agile delivery model capable of continuous improvement. Most importantly, the company successfully cut delivery delays by 90%—reclaiming its edge in the competitive aviation IT space.

About the Authors

Árpád Földesi is an Enterprise Agile Coach, organizational architect and consultant for agile transformations. He has broad experience in software product development in various industries and offers pragmatic solutions that help others achieve their business goals.

Zoltán Csaba is an Business Consultant and Enterprise Agile Coach with 15+ years’ experience in enterprise agile environment as a Scrum Master, Product Coach and Agile Leader driving transformation in the IT industry.

Both are Registered Scrum@Scale Practitioners™, Agile Leaders@Scale™, Product Owners@Scale™, and translators of the Scrum@Scale Guide into Hungarian.