Digital Banking Agile Simulation

Scrum simulation building a next-generation UK digital banking platform (Rev Bank). Acted as a Junior Scrum Master for a cross-functional team of eight across two sprint cycles, facilitating sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, managing the Jira board end-to-end, and contributing to 91% on-time milestone completion across the sprints I led.

Vision: Empowering individuals and businesses in the UK with seamless, intelligent, and borderless digital banking that delivers transparency, control, and financial freedom.

Statement: For UK retail customers and small-to-medium businesses who need secure, seamless, and personalised digital banking, Rev Bank is a next-generation digital banking platform that delivers intelligent financial management, real-time insights, and frictionless transactions. Unlike traditional high-street banks and modern neobanks such as Monzo, Revolut, and Starling, Rev Bank provides a uniquely secure, AI-driven, and hyper-personalised banking experience that empowers users with transparency, control, and true financial freedom.

The simulation was designed to provide hands-on Scrum Master experience in a structured, low-risk environment, applying real Agile delivery practices to a realistic product challenge — building a next-generation UK digital banking platform (Rev Bank) — across a cross-functional team of eight. As Scrum Master across two sprint cycles, the purpose was to develop practical facilitation capability, backlog management discipline, and Jira administration skills in a context that mirrored the demands of a real Agile delivery environment.

Objectives

• Facilitate full Scrum ceremony cycles across two sprint cycles including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives
• Build and manage a structured product backlog across seven Epics for a next-generation digital banking platform
• Write user stories, epics, and acceptance criteria to Definition of Ready and Definition of Done standards
• Prioritise backlog items by business value to maximise sprint delivery and minimise rollover
• Surface and resolve impediments early to maintain team momentum and sprint flow
• Track and report sprint velocity, burndown, and delivery progress throughout both sprints

• Retail Customers — tech-savvy individuals seeking fast, reliable digital banking with personalised financial insights, budgeting tools, and 24/7 access to banking services
• Small and Medium Enterprises — businesses needing efficient tools for payments, invoicing, cash flow management, and real-time financial insights
• Emerging Professionals and Young Adults — students, early-career workers, and young professionals adopting digital-first banking with features including card control, mobile alerts, and AI-powered financial advice
• High-Value and Premium Users — customers seeking VIP banking experiences, personalised advisory services, and advanced wealth management tools

The product backlog was structured across seven Epics:

• Digital Payments and Money Transfers: enabling fast, seamless, and low-cost payments including instant transfers, international transfers, and scheduled payments
• Card Management and Controls: giving users full real-time control over their cards including freeze/unfreeze, spending limits, and virtual cards
• Security, Compliance and Fraud Prevention: ensuring transactions and accounts remain secure through strong customer authentication, real-time fraud alerts, and KYC/KYB verification
• Personalised Insights and Budgeting: helping users understand and manage their finances through spending categorisation, savings vaults, and financial insights
• Investments and Wealth Management: offering access to stocks and ETFs, crypto trading, and AI-powered robo-advisory services
• Customer Support and Service Experience: delivering responsive AI-enhanced support through 24/7 chat and in-app dispute resolution
• Lifestyle, Rewards and Community: differentiating through cashback and rewards, charitable donations, and tiered loyalty experiences

17 user stories were written across the seven Epics, each following the standard format:

As a [user type] I want to [action] so that [benefit]

Each user story included full acceptance criteria written to INVEST standards and aligned to Definition of Ready before being brought into a sprint. Some examples include:

• As a UK retail customer I want to send money instantly to other Rev Bank users so that I can make quick payments without delays. — with acceptance criteria requiring transfers to complete in under three seconds with real-time success notifications
• As a budget-conscious user I want to set card transaction and ATM withdrawal limits so that I can control my spending — with acceptance criteria covering daily and monthly limits and alerts when approaching the limit
• As a first-time investor I want to buy fractional shares so that I can invest even with small amounts — with acceptance criteria requiring real-time pricing and a minimum £1 investment threshold

• Scrum framework applied across two sprint cycles
• Sprint planning conducted at the start of each sprint to align the team on goals, capacity, and backlog priorities
• Daily stand-ups facilitated to surface blockers and maintain team alignment
• Sprint reviews conducted at the end of each sprint to demonstrate completed work
• Retrospectives facilitated to capture lessons learned and improve team ways of working
• Story mapping conducted in Miro to visualise the product backlog and user journey
• Jira board managed end-to-end including epics, user stories, sprint boards, burndown charts, and velocity tracking
• Backlog refinement sessions run to ensure stories were Definition of Ready before sprint commitment

As the Junior Scrum Master and Agile Team Coordinator across two simulated sprint cycles. I facilitated all Scrum ceremonies within my sprints while giving updates to Senior Scrum Master, supported the team in applying Agile practices, owned Jira board hygiene end-to-end including epics, user stories, burndown charts, and velocity tracking, contributed to user story writing and acceptance criteria definition, and coordinated cross-functional collaboration across a team of eight.

• Product Vision Statement (Rev Bank)
• Target User and Persona Definitions across four user segments
• Product Backlog structured across seven Epics
• 17 User Stories with full acceptance criteria written to INVEST standards
• Sprint Backlog for each sprint led
• Jira Board (epics, user stories, sprint boards, burndown charts, velocity tracking)
• Burndown Charts
• Velocity Reports
• Retrospective Outputs

• Challenge 1 — Early sprint rollover due to unclear prioritisation
  In my first sprint as a Junior Scrum Master, lower-priority stories were picked up before higher-value ones were complete, causing a small amount of rollover into the next sprint. I addressed this by working more closely with the team during backlog refinement in my second sprint, re-prioritising stories by business value and aligning the team on acceptance criteria before committing stories to the sprint. This contributed to zero rollover in the sprint I subsequently led.
• Challenge 2 — Dependency conflicts between Epics
  Some stories could not begin until others were complete, for example, certain Card Management features depended on Strong Customer Authentication work under the Security and Compliance Epic being finished first. This created blockers during delivery which I addressed by facilitating quick cross-team conversations during stand-ups, re-sequencing affected stories in the Jira board, and making dependency relationships more visible earlier in sprint planning.
• Challenge 3 — Building facilitation confidence as a first-time Junior Scrum Master
  As this was my first time formally holding the Junior Scrum Master role across two live sprints, I found it challenging at first to facilitate retrospectives in a way that generated honest, open feedback rather than surface-level comments. By my second sprint I was asking more direct and specific questions, which noticeably improved discussion quality and the team's engagement with continuous improvement.

• Achieved 91% on-time milestone delivery across both sprints led as Junior Scrum Master
• Reduced sprint rollover to zero by the second sprint through structured backlog re-prioritisation by business value, and resolved three blockers in 48 hours
• Delivered a fully refined product backlog of 17 user stories with acceptance criteria across seven Epics, all meeting Definition of Ready before sprint commitment
• Improved retrospective quality and team engagement by the second sprint through more targeted facilitation, resulting in more actionable improvement points captured
• Maintained full Jira board visibility throughout both sprints, enabling data-driven sprint decisions via burndown charts and velocity tracking
• Demonstrated progression in Scrum Master capability across two sprint cycles, moving from initial rollover in sprint one to zero rollover and stronger team alignment in sprint two

Key artefacts produced on this project. Confidential client material is appropriately withheld.