Agile Development

Aprelion helps international staffing and MSP company, develop flagship VMS software product using Agile Scrum.

Company

One of the largest US-based, staffing and managed service providers, delivering services to Fortune 500 customers worldwide.

Challenge

In addition to staffing and MSP services, the company provides Vendor Management System (VMS) software to its clients. The software was originally developed in-house, nearly twenty years ago. To continue as a market leader, they decided to completely rewrite and modernize their flagship VMS product. Although they had appropriate sponsorship, budget, and resources, the project started and stopped multiple times, and eventually was placed on hold.

Solution

Aprelion assigned a Senior Consultant, to assist the company in rebooting their stalled software development project. We began by assessing the current state –documentation, requirements, code, and resources – and then developed an aggressive eleven-month plan to complete development. One of our goals was to have a working prototype ready before an upcoming, major industry trade show.

To speed time-to-market and ensure the new product met expectations, an Agile Scrum development methodology was selected. Agile was new for our client, so we assisted them in selecting a Scrum management software and training the team.

With a plan, methodology, and tools in place, the team started gathering requirements and setting priorities. As stakeholders approved requirements, stories were loaded into the product backlog for sprint planning. Initial effort estimates quickly indicated a shortage of development resources. Aprelion interviewed and helped select two partners who would provide additional developers. With developers in Hong Kong and Australia, the team was global and working 24/7.

Before each sprint, we reviewed the backlog of requirements with stakeholders and prioritized stories for the upcoming sprint. We conducted working sessions, in which the developers assigned individual tasks to complete stories. Scrum meetings were held each morning throughout the sprints to assess team progress and discuss any issues. As stories were completed, the QA team tested them and reported issues back to the developers. At the end of every sprint, we reviewed completed work with product owners to ensure they met requirements and expectations.

Towards the end of the project, to ensure high quality, we facilitated the customer’s creation of a testing plan. The plan included developer testing, integration testing, and extensive user acceptance testing. We scheduled time for key users to test in a lab, where they could work through test scripts and record any defects. Defects were reported to the development team, and addressed based on priority.

Results

By adding the necessary project leadership and a proven development methodology to the client’s existing team, we were able to complete the first release of their new VMS product within eleven months of our engagement and on-time for their large industry trade show. The software immediately helped to land a new major account.