The Client
Global management consulting firm.
The Business Need
The client did not have a formal software delivery process or team in place internally to manage their custom developed software. This made the product owner feel anxiety about whether or not the team can deliver on the product roadmap. Also, the client IT was sometimes paralyzed on how to manage the product owner effectively.
The product owner did not have an effective partner for sizing up larger feature additions. The IT team was very hesitant to give estimates for fear of being held to them and failing if wrong. This frustrated the product owner in not having a partner to give her information she could trust.
Why Did This Need Exist?
It was mainly a small handful of support people, a couple with development experience, that were managing the company’s big products through third party software development partners.
Lack of a partner for estimation lead to a lack of effective roadmap and budgeting for the product.
Geneca Helped its Client
We created a new process to integrate our delivery arm with their product owner and support teams from requirements to delivery to ensure visibility and alignment of product features. We further helped their support team improve their user acceptance testing process to improve overall delivery of the product.
We built a rapport between the BA, Architect and Product Owner to effectively give high level estimation and guidance for the product, with Geneca creating multi-year roadmaps and budget estimates.
The Results
Reliable requirements and delivery process reduced the amount of revisions the client had to go through before releasing the product, improving delivery time and quality.
High level estimation and roadmaps allowed the client to improve their investment committee process and afford the client to create larger projects and budget asks for future product improvements.
Why it’s Cool
Overall, the biggest change affected was one of trust. Lack of trust in the team prevented the team from predictably delivering the product vision. Improvements to the communication in visibility and predictability allowed for trust to be built up across the team, strengthening the overall improvements in the product and delivery. The IT team felt confident in supporting our estimates and the product owner felt she could trust the information given to her to plan out her goals.