Case Study: Argenta
Integration as a reliable delivery partner, in a regulated banking environment.
The situation
Argenta is modernizing its integration landscape toward the cloud, with API Management and a security model that meets DORA and NIS2. A portfolio of over €1.2 million, spread across four teams.
Technology wasn't the problem. Delivery was.
Predictability was gone — in places, it had collapsed. Service management ran chaotically instead of in a structured way. No one had full oversight or a real grip on delivery. And that's a problem when other business IT teams, with real value streams, need to rely on integration as a dependable partner.
I came in wearing two hats at once: Epic Owner across the portfolio, and Release Train Engineer across the teams that had to deliver it.
What I did
- Taking delivery back in hand. As RTE, I owned PI Planning, cross-team dependencies, and coordination across internal teams and external vendors. Not through more tooling, but through sharper scope: shrinking features, holding boundaries at the PI level, and stopping work from overflowing from one PI into the next.
- Structuring service processes. Turning the chaos in service management into something predictable — so integration could act as the reliable delivery partner the other value streams needed.
- Owning the investment case. As Epic Owner, I owned the business case for the modernization: five enterprise-wide integration epics, from business case through value realization. Shaping epics before money got committed, defending investment decisions in portfolio governance, and keeping architecture, security, business ownership, and delivery aligned on a single execution plan.
I didn't do the analysis or the architecture. That was by design. My job was to make sure the right people were accountable, aligned, and unblocked — and that approved epics actually delivered what the business case promised.
"You bring a long-term vision to the table, Thomas makes the teams deliver what you have in mind."
Joris Vanvolsem — Manager Integration, Argenta
What it delivered
- Time-to-market cut 54% across the ART. Not through new tooling, but by shrinking features, sharpening scope at PI boundaries, and stopping work from overflowing PI after PI.
- Delivery predictability lifted 17% — through honest capacity conversations and realistic estimates instead of aspirational ones.
- Integration as a reliable partner. Value streams could once again count on predictable delivery from the integration domain.
"As Epic Owner and RTE, he consistently brought clarity and overview in a complex SAFe environment. A dependable colleague who takes ownership, brings stability, and continuously strives to make things better."
Veronique Boudin — Manager Integration, Argenta
Frameworks
SAFe 6 at ART level, Kanban at team level where it fit better. Chosen for context, not dogma.
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