Bt's Case Study In Agile Programming

BT’s Case Study in Agile Programming

Hubert Were

University of the People

Abstract

The case study shows the importance of Agile processes which are incremental as opposed to the traditional waterfall method. The paper enumerates various features that are of competitive advantage to BT. Change is always met with resistance as people value the status quo due to fear of the unknown. Though the Agile methodology is adopted, there are areas that BT needs to look at and correct. All these are presented in the paper.

BT’s Case Study in Agile Programming

Case description and underlying issues

The case is about a giant UK telecom, BT, which is replacing its aging phone-traffic monitoring system that is Unix-Based

The web-centric architecture was better at balancing the network load, unlike the Unix-based architecture that was difficult to upgrade. This stabilizes the network and makes BT more reliable and preferred by the consumers. The threat of rivalry reduces.

Time-saving. The project was completed in 90 days as planned. For the previous version of Waterfall method, it could take between three to nine months for developers to gather the required specifications and then the development would take up to eighteen months. Agile development is faster due to quick coding, testing and fixing problems which take about 30 days as opposed to the Waterfall methodology that would take several months. This reduces the delivery lead time. The power of supplier increases for developing a unique product.

Customer involvement. The Agile development also enabled interaction between the 3000 employees and the end-users of the products and services. During the requirement-gathering phase, the Agile methodology was very useful in understanding the consumer needs and devising ways of meeting them. This increases the quality of the end products and reduces

The agile methodology customizes its products by having features that are a result of feedback from the customers and so the end-product meets the customers’ expectations, unlike the waterfall methodology which involves the end users after the product is created.

Cost. The cost of the Agile project was low at $5 million for project initiation and training, in workshop and classroom, for the developers. This minimizes the threat of entry of competitors.

Primary and support activities impacted by the BT’s Agile methodology

The activities of the value chain are impacted by BT’s agile methodology (Bourgeois, 2014);

Operations. The operations of BT are made faster as the time of making the products is reduced from months to 90 days. This increases the production levels within a short time.

Sales/marketing. Involvement of the customers in the development of the agile model is promotional in nature. It makes the customers confident and wins their loyalty.

Service. The product of agile methodology has the features that the customers want. More so, the products can easily be improved adjusting to the consumer