Actuarial Agility
Using Agile to enhance efficiency, predictability
and transparency on actuarial teams.

Al MeleHead of Agile Centre of Excellence

Jennifer Nusbaum
Head of Agile Coaching Americas

Why Does SCOR Use Agile?

• Enable SCOR to deliver more value with the resources it has.
• Create resilience in a volatile, uncertain and complex marketplace.
• Cultivate a reputation of excellence in the industry for innovation,
service delivery, and organizational agility.
• Create strong relationships with our clients, involving us earlier intheir product design process and giving us more transparent insight
into their goals and the problems they face in pursuit of those goals.
• Unleash the full potential of a diverse workforce in which allemployees feel able and willing to use their voices to contribute toSCOR’s goals.
Through the above, earn reinsurance share,allowing us to extend protection and peace of mind.
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Actuarial Agility

A Brief History

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Actuarial Agility

A Brief History

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Actuarial Agility

History: Agile Values

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working product* over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

6Actuarial Agility* The manifesto specifically says “software”. For clarity of applicability, we choose to substitute product.

History: Agile Principles… and manifested through these Agile Principles

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Our highest priority is tosatisfy the customer
through early andcontinuous delivery ofvaluable work.

Welcome changing
requirements, even late in
the project. Agile processes
harness change for thecustomer's competitiveadvantage.

Build projects aroundmotivated individuals. Givethem the environment andsupport they need and trustthem to get the job done.

Continuous attention totechnical excellence andgood design enhances
agility.

Actuarial Agility

Deliver work frequently,
from a couple of weeks toa couple of months, witha preference to the shorter
timescale.

Stakeholders and the teammust work together daily
throughout the project.

The most efficient andeffective methodof conveying information
to and within adevelopment team is faceto-face conversation.

Working product is theprimary measure ofprogress.

Agile processes promotesustainable pace. The
team should be able tomaintain a constant paceindefinitely.

Simplicity--the art ofmaximizing the amount ofwork not done--isessential.

The best architectures,requirements, anddesigns emerge from selforganizing teams.

At regular intervals, theteam reflects on how tobecome more effective, thentunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly.

The Heart of Agile: A Mindset

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Actuarial Agility

Improve

Collaborate

Reflect

DeliverWhere is Agile Useful?

• The problem to be solved is complex;​• Solutions are initially unknown,

and requirements will most likely change;​• The work can be modularized;​• Close collaboration with end users(and rapid feedback from them) is feasible.​

It is not just for software!
9Actuarial Agility

https://hbr.org/2016/05/embracing-agile

“Doing Agile” Is
Not the Goal
Teams choose Agile
because it helps themachieve…

Faster Response TimeGreater Efficiency

Enhanced Predictability

More Transparency

A Sustainable Pace
10Actuarial Agility

Agile for NewBusiness
Development
Sidharth Sadani ASA
Senior Data Scientist, SCOR

Elements of a good client engagement

Reputation /TrustTransparency /Communication

Delivery (PerTimeline)

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Agile for New Business Development

Application: Major life insurer in the US wanting to use predictive models toarrive at underwriting decisions

Stakeholders:ClientInternal
UnderwritingPricing
Marketing

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Agile for New Business Development

Sprint Review(Demo)

So many emails andmeetings to update
everyone? Collate
feedback? Decidepriorities?

Prioritization

Setting Expectations

Problem Definition

Risk
Factors

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Agile for New Business Development

Rules +ModelEngineUW
DecisionSituation 1: Adding more risk factors to the engine
There is belief that adding a new feature would improve performanceContext- The client wanted to add a new feature to the model

Response- Subjective validation from Underwriters- Estimated impact relative to other outstanding client requests- Backlog- Communicated to client priority and timeline using above- Sprint Cycles- Incremental build (adding one thing at a time as opposed to performing all
modifications at the same time)
Result / Learning- Buy-in from stakeholders on value and priority- Incremental build, allowed marginal testing and validation- Gained client trust as client as expectations were set correctly- Therefore planned work was delivered on time.
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Agile for New Business Development

Situation 2 : Potential Bug identified!!
We’ve identified a bug! We must squash it right away?
Context- We noticed a potential bug in the model during test, roughly 2 months
before go-live.
Response- Impact of bug estimated- Prioritized against other enhancements and bugs
- Natural de-prioritization of ongoing development work
- Bug squashed
Result / Learning- Mid-sprint requests/priorities can come up- Important to weigh the cost of switching vs urgency/priority of new unit ofwork- Gained client trust, by being agile and responsive to new situations- Clear prioritization, communication & execution

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Agile for New Business Development

Situation 3 : Research Spikes?
What do I do, when I don’t know what to do?
Context- Client wanted model explanations, but what was the best way to explain the decisions of a complex nonlinear predictive model?
Response- Research and list possible methods- Prioritize a method based on SME guidance- Evaluate efficacy of method on small subset- Repeat for alternative methods- Collect learnings and results and provide final guidance on methodology- Next Unit of Work : Implement recommended methodology to get model explanations
Result / Learning- Discovery can be open ended- But goals / questions for discovery have to be defined and answered- Time-box research to limit losing focus on business value- Start somewhere simple and improvise.
- Client felt engaged because at the end of the research spike they got to make an informed decision onmethodology.
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Agile for New Business Development

Did we Agile?
Agile is not a set of rules but a set of principles

Being responsive, transparent, and delivering value

Developing trust and long-term relationships

Delivering on time, and communicating reasons for delays
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Agile for New Business Development

Application onPricing
Dan Delany – AVP Actuary - Pricing

Where Were we Prior to Using Agile/Scrum?
1-hour Weekly “Deliverables” meeting with Sales and Treaty Teams- Determine new RFPs, Amendment/Client Requests, Won/Lost Deals- Review Status of all pending work
- Identify priorities (usually RFPs)

Drawbacks:-No clear indication of resource capacity
No touchpoints/updates between meetings
Distractions (what’s most important today)
Allowing certain tasks to “pile up”

Over-promising &Under-deliveringmuch?

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Application on Pricing

Overview of Our Scrum Process••••Finalize Task Statuses
Confirm delivered items
Discuss incomplete items
Return incomplete tasks toBacklog

SprintReview

Backlog
Review••••

Defined Intake Process
Identify New Items
Identify Items No
Longer NeededPrioritization

Sales-Pricing
ScrumProcess
••
•

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Daily Scrum Meeting (15minutes)
Identify Completed & Inprogress Tasks
Identify and mitigate
impediments
Application on Pricing

SprintExecutionSprintPlanning•••••Identify Sprint Period
Manager Pre-planning
Determine Resources
Define Sprint Items
Assign Resources &Target Dates

Advantages / Disadvantages
Scrum (Perceived) Drawbacks- Heavy lift for planning (2 – 4 hours?)- Micro-managing?
- Daily meetings

Scrum Gains- Better understanding of capacity over time
- Manage Expectations- Clear objectives, limits ad hoc requests, ensures consistent backlog
reduction- Frequent touchpoints to identify “at-risk” deliverables earlier- Transparency with Key Stakeholders and within the Team- Progress on all key deliverables- RFPs- Client requests / amendments- Pricing projects (assumption analysis / pricing tool updates)
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Application on Pricing

How was it Going?

We knew we didn’t have a perfect process when we started… And we were ok with that!
The Not-So-Good:• Intake process presented a challengeo Wasn’t clearly defined, which led to confusion in Backlog Items• Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, and Backlog Review Meetings were challenging
o First few meetings with stakeholders lacked definition/purpose/flowo Inefficient use of time during planning meeting• Initial Challenge in completing more than 60% of Sprint
The Good:• We were continuously assessing our process and trying new things:
o Group mailbox and Intake form created for new Backlog items
o Manager Pre-Planning meeting develops draft Sprint for team review
o Stakeholder ceremonies have better flow and understanding of objectiveso It became easy to say “let’s try this for 2 sprints”• Daily Scrum/Standup wasn’t burdensome for the team• Positive feedback from Pricing team regarding hand-offs• Stakeholders were understanding and patient with change
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Application on Pricing

What Happened?
In August 2021, the Pricing team was restructured, and the Scrum process was ultimately set aside
The Not-So-Good:• We’ve reverted to being a reactive team (fire drills)• Lack of transparency for management & stakeholders
o We no longer have a centralized Backlog or intake process• Less communication of hand-off’s

The Good:• We miss our Scrum process and have better appreciation for what it provided!
• Even Stakeholders have said they miss our Scrum process!
• We are currently exploring how to adapt our prior process to the current team structure

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Application on Pricing

Contact us:
Al MeleHead of Agile Centre of Excellence, amele@scor.com

Jennifer Nusbaum
Head of Agile Coaching Americas, jenusbaum@scor.com

Sidharth Sadani
Senior Data Scientist, ssadani@scor.com

Dan Delany

AVP Actuary – Pricing, ddelany@scor.com

Thank You For Your Time!