Case Study: Process Improvement Made Easy

Delivering Success

Synopsis

Hyrax program management brings technical guidance, process automation and risk prevention to our client, delivering product on-time and on-budget for world wide launch.

Hyrax Delivers Seamless, Automated Process Improvement

How to Make Process Improvement Transparent

Hyrax was engaged to help our client (UF) deliver its first Enterprise-scale product, a joint development involving five separate companies, a social, media-rich web site, a take-home hardware device and desktop computer software. The software, hardware, companies and their respective teams and vendors had to work together seamlessly to deliver a challenging product on-time for world wide launch with Best Buy and Harrods.

Hyrax provided onsite program management, quality assurance, and vendor management throughout the engagement. Our solutions focused on implementing a team environment that would work across companies, vendors and geographies.

The Challenges

Integrating a Large, Distributed Team

Individual teams were scattered between Los Angeles and New York. One of the key challenges in this project was creating an environment and a system that supported so many disparate, geographically separated people.

At the very root of this issue is efficient, effective communication. Our solution had to combine personal interaction with reliable, ubiquitous process automation. Hyrax focused efforts in two critical areas to achieve positive results:

• A Scrum-based process model that involved all stakeholders
• Web based process automation that ensured reliable results

Making It Work

Bringing the Teams Together

The solution had to bring the teams together, both metaphorically and literally. Our chosen methodology, a streamlined adaptation of Rational Scrum™, ensured frequent involvement by all stakeholders. This meant onsite representation from every team, if not in-person, at least by teleconference.

We also implemented stringent requirements management, change control and quality assurance processes. With a distributed team, the challenge was to deliver a system that everyone could easily use and access. Yet, it also had to provide Enterprise-grade robustness while subtly ensuring the development process was being followed.

Working with UF, Hyrax created a team-aware process that would work throughout the organization. Using Atlassian’s JIRA and Confluence products, the process was automated and delivered. It was easy to use, reliable, Enterprise-robust, and ensured that requirements and quality goals were met during all phases of the project.

Outcome

UF’s product launched on-time and on-budget. After 18 months of development across five different companies and respective teams, the end product met all requirements flawlessly. The user community discovered only one feature defect in the social web site. It was corrected in less than one week.

Q&A With the Founder

Hyrax Internal LLC’s founder, Zacharias Beckman, talks about the UF engagement and how a blend of process and software automation made it possible.

What’s the hardest thing about delivering process improvement?

That definitely varies from one organization to another. Probably the most common issue is resistance to change. Sometimes it’s a “not built here” reaction, and sometimes it’s just that people are set in their ways and skeptical of something new being introduced to the mix. Newness brings with it risk, a need to adapt and quite often a fear of obsolescence.

What’s the most effective strategy you’ve found for dealing with resistance to change?

Foremost is a core principle that any program change or process needs to deliver real, tangible benefits that people can see, feel and experience. Process for process sake is quite often the root of the problem — almost everyone has been forced to deal with red tape or some procedure with no clear purpose. We make sure that whatever is put in place, there’s a benefit that everyone sees and understands. The benefit has to outweigh the cost of doing it.

Also, effective process has to be simple. Real, tangible, doable things that people can put into practice every day. The last thing you want is for your employees having to consult a manual that tells them how to do their job. It’s got to be simple and automatic.

An enjoyable training program is important too. Not just on new procedures, but as a program. Training provides great motivation to keep growing, and prepares people for dealing with change.

What if everyone gets the training, then leaves to get a job at a competitor?

And what happens if they don’t get trained, and they stay?

How did Atlassian’s products help solve your client’s process needs?

The really great thing about JIRA is that it has excellent, Enterprise grade features — easily on a par with Borland’s Together suite or IBM’s Rational tools — but it’s easy to use and entirely web based. As a web based tool, it delivered the solution to everyone, everywhere. We could even use it from our iPhone at the airport, for example. That, combined with effective alerts, meant answers would come back fast and the project could be managed from anywhere.

So JIRA enforced the team’s work process?

Yes, but I don’t like the term “enforced.” JIRA is easy to use. It enabled the process by making it intuitive. For example, once a change order was created it would automatically route to the product owner for review and approval. After that step, creating a new requirement ticket was a couple of mouse clicks. The system made sure the development team had clear technical details, quality assurance was in the loop, acceptance criteria had been defined and signed off. It made the red tape go away in favor of clear, easy, daily activities.

The workflow JIRA supported was pretty complex, but you wouldn’t know it. It managed to keep multiple organizations — the business, customer user groups, professional services, quality assurance, customer support — all moving smoothly without knowing what went on behind the scenes.

And, of course, it provides great audit controls. When change orders are approved or requirements changed, there’s of record of who did it and exactly what was changed.

And Confluence?

Confluence provided the document repository. JIRA has a rich environment for writing work tickets, but it’s not really appropriate to build long, evolving documents in a ticketing environment. Confluence integrates seamlessly, so tickets and technical documentation can easily cross-reference each other.

JIRA and Confluence are definitely a few of my favorite tools, but there are many to choose from. Such as whiteboards and frequent communication with the team.

Any last words of advice?

You’ve got to get everyone on board. You can’t just throw a new process document down and say “there you go, that’ll fix your problems.” Nobody will read it. Instead, the people that will be living it have to create it. It’s their job, their lives after all — they’re in the best position to improve it.

About Zacharias J. Beckman

Mr. Zacharias J. Beckman has 25 years experience working with technology-focused clients from the Fortune 500, Government, and private and public sectors, including Xerox®, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles County Sheriff, NASA, and the Department of Defense. Mr. Beckman specializes in Global Project Management and Program Management, successfully addressing the challenges of outsourcing and distributed development. He is also a published author and has developed coursework for Cross Cultural Teams, Program Management, Project Management, Risk Analysis, Software Quality Assurance, Project Methodology and more, and runs the widely read Rational Scrum blog.

About Hyrax International LLC

Hyrax International LLC is your Global Project advisor. We address the challenges of outsourced projects and distributed teams, provide oversight, and make sure your project is done on time and on budget. On average our clients reduce their budget 40% with our best in class guidance, and we’ve never missed a deadline. Hyrax International LLC • http://www.HyraxLLC.com • 805-669-8493 • information@hyraxllc.com • 2629 Townsgate Road, # 235, Westlake Village, California 91361