Agile methods are increasingly popular of late due to flexibility of iterative development with changes, but there is a strong cost rationale for traditional work specialization and planned based approaches to project management. One need not necessarily make a choice among these seemingly different options. Hybrid methods work with both, leveraging the best of both and unleash is a step in that direction. The salient features of the product include 1) CMMI level 3, 4 and 5 compliance. 2) Early warning capability in-built. Systems are designed to provide early capability warning even before things get in wrong direction. 3) Follows complete project life cycle approach (SDLC) with executive controls. 4) Ability to create and re-use project templates for efficient projects execution. 5) Ability to customize and integrate with any existing ERP systems. 6) Features of TOC and critical chain approach are integrated.

1. IT and IS Case study

2. Unleash Team strongly believes in customer data and information
confidentiality.
All the information used in this case study has been studied and
approved by the end client and does not divulge any information
which did not receive approval of the client’s executive department.

3. Context and the setting
A medium sized IT and ITES organization based out of HiTech City,
Hyderabad mostly servicing clients based out of US follows CMM
standards, employing about 4000 members in their Hyderabad
office in addition to another 3000 members in the Gurgaon office.
The work involves several ERP projects based on huge databases
and web based e-commerce technologies. Requirements by the
customers are usually agreed in advance and executed as per the
needs.

4. Context and the setting
Many of the projects are multi-year fixed price contracts and are
executed using the work flow tools developed in house, which
consists of change control systems and tracking mechanisms.
While changes are common and have always been accommodated
to ensure customer satisfaction, they have started becoming more
frequent along with price erosion due to competition to retain
existing contracts.
While efficiency improvements are happening continuously the
changes, specially towards the later part of project are increasing
the costs tremendously.

5. Context and the setting
The organization has decided to follow Agile practices to better deal
with changes and few projects have adopted Scrum methodology
for projects execution. This seemed to have improved the ability to
work more efficiently with respect to changes, but the CMM
standards proved difficult to follow and Audits have pointed out
many discrepancies in the systems which need to be addressed
urgently. Specially the documentation of meeting notes and work
flow changes with tracking needed better methods.
Various tracking techniques like mobile camera pictures etc were
done to meet CMMI standards in the interim. The scrum practices
like planning and retrospective were manually planned on physical
calendars which had to be done manually for different projects.

6. Problem Statement
A solution was urgently required which would allow the organization
to continue following the internally developed work flow systems for
projects execution and allow a few teams to adopt Agile practices.
Due to the nature of Industry and competition involved, the tools
have to be CMMI compliant and be able to integrate with the
existing work flow systems. Preference is for systems which allow
greater automation of various projects and work with SAP systems
already in place in the organization.

7. Solution with “Unleash”
Unleash is a complete project management system which has tools
for change controls, waterfall and Agile project management. The
tools is CMMI level 3 complaint with Audit trails and automated
mechanisms for creation of road maps, release schedules, iteration
planning, review and retrospective schedules defined and assigned
to the individual team member calendars. A work dashboard to
manage portfolios, programs and “episodic events” is available.
Since the tools are based on cloud, it is easy to integrate and has
the ability to synchronize with SAP systems by automated reading
of excel files generated by SAP through scripts which run in
automated mode every midnight.

8. Solution Methodology
The following solution methodology was followed for integration of
“Unleash” into the client’s PMIS already in place, managed by PMO.
Implemen
Analyze Suggest Adjust
t
A team of 2
Proposal
senior
provided
managers and The software
Requirements including
4 dedicated was adjusted as
are gathered. consulting and
software needed after the
Systems training
engineers implementation
analysis. schedules
allocated to along with
PMIS are Feedback
customize completion of
studied. received and
“Unleash” core team training.
proposal
modules using
finalized
Agile practices

9. Lessons Learned
• It was realized that the implementation of solution was a challenge
but the biggest challenge was a lack of focus on “change
management” required for the team to adopt to new environment.
• The project management trainings provided have gone a long way in
helping team members adopt the new systems. Many members had a
lack of awareness of Agile methodologies and had persisted with
usage of command and control systems. These were addressed as a
part of change management and were realized to be a key aspect of
ultimate client success.

10. Data Concerns, Contracts and solution
The customer has agreed to have our system be implemented on
their servers with a two year contract to have any changes be made
by our team.
The contract can be renewed after two years with an option to
completely buy the source code, for in-house customization by the
customers IT teams.