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The Strain of New
Product Development
An established healthcare industry software
provider was in the midst of constructing a
beta version of a new core product offering.
The product development effort was straining
limited resources from all departments
across the organization. Informal
communication among project participants and
the lack of a clearly articulated process
flow were impeding progress and jeopardizing
the release schedule.
Management's concerns were two-fold: First,
they sought to meet their existing, fast
approaching beta-release deadline with an
adequately tested, stable product. Second,
they wanted to establish a detailed
development framework to serve as a
dependable roadmap for all future
development initiatives.
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Challenge
- A company's new product release
was in jeopardy due to process and
resource problems.
Solution
- A comprehensive framework for
product release and support, with
clear accountability and Quality
Assurance.
Result
- On-time product release and a
framework for future success. |
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Sophelle's
Assessment
Sophelle performed an end-to-end assessment
of their current development lifecycle,
staffing levels and organizational
structure. Employees were interviewed and
observed across all functional areas
including product management, engineering,
documentation, and support. Sophelle also
evaluated a cross-section of product
documentation and development tools.
The evaluation revealed the following
issues:
- Lack of a product roadmap and insufficient
documentation of requirements were causing
confusion and under-utilization of
resources.
- There was no comprehensive project plan
spanning functional areas.
- Departments within the organization were
relatively isolated from one another.
- A talented and motivated staff existed,
but staffing levels were disproportionate
across functional areas. In particular,
staffing levels in Quality Assurance were
insufficient.
- Shifting accountability throughout the
product lifecycle left no individual point
of accountability with full responsibility
for products.
Solution
Sophelle worked with the client to create
and document a product lifecycle framework
for the existing beta release and for future
product development. The framework included
a detailed roadmap to achieve an
understanding of each project and its impact
on available resources, simultaneous legacy
projects, and industry regulations. The
framework also assigned a single point of
accountability for each project, responsible
for integrating development efforts, issues,
and concerns into the overall product
lifecycle.Sophelle provided an experienced interim QA
manager to guide the client through the beta
release of their new product. Sophelle
fortified the QA function by adding a
skilled contract-to-perm QA engineer,
ensuring adequate resources to achieve a
stable beta product. Sophelle also addressed
the client's long-term staffing needs by
sourcing and hiring a QA Director,
responsible for completing the transition of
the organization to the newly created
lifecycle going forward.
Result
The beta release was on time and stable,
providing the hard-working development staff
with a much-needed sense of accomplishment.
Thorough knowledge transfer enabled the
client's staff to achieve proficiency with
the new lifecycle framework, resulting in
significant gains in productivity and
product quality, and providing the process
necessary to confidently forecast and
execute future projects.
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