Case Studies
Interim Development Team Leadership and Staff Augmentation
Interim Leadership for Client's Software Development Team: Implementing Agile Processes and Aligning Priorities and Communication
Client’s Challenge
Misalignment and Poor Communication
Our client had a new software offering to get to market that was beyond initial delivery deadlines. The development team exhibited some communication dysfunction with the rest of the organization. They needed help aligning the vision for the product, implementing a project plan, and onboarding new talent.
Our Solution
Agile Development Team Leadership & Staff Augmentation
InfoWorks supplied a Development Manager who was able to align their team around the vision for the software and timeline for delivery. We also augmented their staff with a variety of high-quality developer and QA talent.
Value Realized
Successful Product Launch
The leadership and support our team provided brought alignment to our client’s project stakeholders, increased output, and resulted in a significant reduction in software defects.
Project Details
Our client, a financial technology firm, had a strong technical team working on a new software product. Due to missed deadlines and poor communication, business stakeholders had limited confidence in the development team’s output and forecasted delivery, and lacked visibility into the product roadmap. They were also struggling to identify and bring on more developer talent to increase velocity for the application launch.
They hired InfoWorks to bring clarity to the team on current software development projects and timelines, align teams on priorities, and augment the team with interim leadership and staff.
We provided an interim Development Manager with expertise in team dynamics who was able to infuse more structure, transparency, and coordination with business stakeholders. The Development Manager introduced additional standard agile methodologies and iterative development processes to the team. The Dev Manager introduced additional standard and agile processes to the team. They also developed a roadmap and implemented other communication and project management tools to streamline collaboration with leadership. Our approach gave cross-functional team members a firm understanding about what was being built, why it was being built, and the expected launch date.
We identified top priorities for software development, aligned the development team on the project plan, and introduced formal QA resources to add rigor to the process. Our QA lead evaluated and implemented testing software, established a continual improvement process for the development organization, created test suites and test cases for sprints, and conducted post-release demonstrations for stakeholders highlighting new features.
InfoWorks also brought a mix of developers to supplement their team and increase velocity of production, including a software architect/lead who could help with code reviews and design, as well as taking on some of the tougher development challenges.
The strong leadership we provided led to stakeholder alignment, a clear project plan, effective communication within and across teams and leadership, and prioritization of the most critical components. With confidence in the delivery date, our client retained current software users and onboarded new ones.
