CLIENT SITUATION
Our client, a Fortune 100 financial services firm, was experiencing rapid growth in their banking division. With this growth, scrutiny from federal regulators increased for the bank resulting in a substantial list of audit points to address. For years, they had been working on improvements to their technology stack and now with the audit results, they found themselves in a situation that required them to expedite their technology improvements.

They needed to resolve the compliance issues in a timely manner, and they wanted to evolve from their legacy architecture. Additionally, they wanted to adopt new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. The client was already utilizing SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) and needed to bring on multiple SAFe teams to deploy to different Release Trains.

 

CHALLENGES
• Lacked development team capacity to meet spikes in demand
• Needed a trusted SAFe partner
• Regulatory compliance across the application portfolio
• Accelerate transition to the new enterprise architecture platform
• Digital transformations and improved channel capabilities
• Introduction of new technologies for managing unstructured data, managing meta data and measuring/improving data quality

 

OUR SOLUTION
Working with the client, we partnered to match capacity to demand. It was determined that 15 teams needed to be created with roughly 8 – 10 members in each. Each team member received SAFe training so that the delivery mechanism matched the client’s way of working. The teams were deployed to their release trains and began sprints immediately.

We also needed to address the challenge of where to locate the staff as this work needed to be performed in large part onsite.

The Softworld Onshore Development Center (ODC) was placed within two blocks of the client’s location. Proximity to the client’s development teams was desired, which provided the space relief needed while also enabling face-to-face project collaboration in their Agile (SAFe) environment. This Softworld ODC solution provided our client with 129 consultants working on Agile teams comprised of Technical Leads, Software (primarily Java) Developers, Scrum Masters, and an Enterprise Architect.

A Service Level Objective (SLO) based agreement was created which defined key metrics used to manage performance of the ODC. Our teams worked on both the legacy platform and the new enterprise platform with a conscious effort to expose all teams to the new modern architecture.

 

CLENT QUOTE
“Frameworx exhibited a solid ability to execute and meet super aggressive timelines. In just six weeks after signing a contract, they built out a space that met our stringent information/site security requirements, and recruited, hired, and organized 129 consultants into our Agile team framework. That is why we will continue to partner with them.”

 

OUR SOLUTION (cont.)
This approach provided versatility amongst the teams and also fostered a high level of engagement on the new platform.

The teams joined various release trains from Omni-Channel to Credit Card to Loans to Anti-Money Laundering/ Know Your Customer (AML / KYC) and more. The teams participated in SAFe ceremonies including Program Increment (PI) Planning, with output captured by the Scrum Masters in Jira. As software was delivered and work was reprioritized, the capacity was load balanced. Because of the fungible nature of the SAFe Teams, we were able to plug the SAFe teams into different release trains. In this way, they were up to speed on the client’s methodologies and started delivering value on the new trains immediately.

Over the three-year engagement, our teams were able to complete 183 program increments (PIs) and address all of the audit concerns without penalties. They were able to bring the new architecture online and begin utilizing the new technology to enhance the experience with their members.

 

KEY BENEFITS

• All audit points were successfully addressed, resulting in the prevention of tens of millions of dollars in fines.
• Implemented new business functionality. As an example, an Omni-channel platform was added allowing them modern approaches to interacting with their members both from a Member Support perspective as well as Marketing.
• Over 183 Program Increments (PIs) and more than 500 Epics were completed.
• Over 400 features were added to the client’s production environment.
• The proximity of the ODC proved to be highly effective, with greater productivity and results than the client experienced, in the past, with their offshore teams.
• Our client hired more than 40 of our consultants to become their employees
• Through collaboration with the client, a level of maturity was reached where the client was able to refine two sprint’s worth of user stories which the Frameworx team was able to pull from.

 

ABOUT SOFTWORLD & FRAMEWORX
Softworld is a staffing and consulting firm with the experience and infrastructure to support clients and talent on a national level. Softworld has developed expertise across five distinct staffing and consulting practices over the past 20 years that include Technology Services, Engineering, Government, Banking, and Cyber Security.

Frameworx Consulting, a division of Softworld, is devoted to offering customized business technology solutions to organizations experiencing rapid change. We have worked with clients during all lifecycle phases and across multiple industries including: Financial Services, Government Services/ Defense, and Engineering. We offer a variety of services including Software Development, Project/Program Management, Business Maintenance, and SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework).