AFTAs 2016: Best Use of the Agile Methodology—StatPro
Wimbledon, UK-based StatPro embarked on its Agile journey the best part of a decade ago when it started the research and development work for what would become StatPro Revolution, the firm's flagship performance measurement and portfolio analytics platform. This journey began with a small development team that leveraged Agile to create a cloud-based, iterative process with the mantra, "release early and release often."
New tools were used to create application mock-ups with collaborative comments instead of large product specification documents. From there, early releases of Revolution were made across development, staging and production environments, and, without any external clients, code updates could be pushed on a daily basis.
As StatPro readied Revolution for a production environment in 2011, its client-facing release frequency (cadence) had to change. The development process remained agile with development sprints, scrum meetings and Kanban planning boards, but clients found it difficult to “swallow” new versions of production software released on a weekly basis, a common theme that pretty much all Agile teams need to consider when determining release cycles. This meant storing up internal releases that finally went to client-facing production systems every six to eight weeks.
StatPro describes its Agile initiative as something of an “education process” with many of its clients, who now see the benefit of the methodology over the Waterfall approach. Clients used to be required to test entire applications, a process not needed with Revolution due to smaller, incremental changes being made with new functionality added iteratively. It was also easier to communicate to clients exactly what had changed and what needed and didn’t need testing.
The vendor’s development speed and agility increased more than five-fold compared with its StatPro Seven platform, while its development team was also able to fully focus on the next new version of the platform, given that there were no legacy versions to support.
New tools were used to create application mock-ups with collaborative comments instead of large product specification documents. From there, early releases of Revolution were made across development, staging and production environments, and, without any external clients, code updates could be pushed on a daily basis.
Agile continues to serve StatPro well: It built Revolution Performance, its new cloud-based performance platform, and StatPro Benchmark Manager, its benchmark management platform, using the methodology, both of which are housed entirely in public clouds, allowing StatPro to leverage an automated and Agile development and build process.
Agile has also allowed StatPro to engage more with its clients early on during product development to ensure that products fit market demands and expectations.
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. Printing this content is for the sole use of the Authorised User (named subscriber), as outlined in our terms and conditions - https://www.infopro-insight.com/terms-conditions/insight-subscriptions/
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. Copying this content is for the sole use of the Authorised User (named subscriber), as outlined in our terms and conditions - https://www.infopro-insight.com/terms-conditions/insight-subscriptions/
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Awards & Rankings
Witad Awards 2024: EDM professional of the year—Neslihan Yegul, S&P Global Market Intelligence
Neslihan Yegul, vice president, head of EDM and thinkFolio at S&P Global Market Intelligence, wins EDM professional of the year in the 2024 Women in Technology and Data Awards.
Witad Awards 2024: Technology innovator of the year (end-user)—Laura Hamilton, Bank of America
Laura Hamilton, global head of corporate treasury, credit risk, climate risk, and financial forecasting technology at Bank of America, wins technology innovator of the year (end-user) in the 2024 Women in Technology and Data Awards.
Witad Awards 2024: Vendor professional of the year (data and operations)—Joanna Davies, OSTTRA
Joanna Davies, head of trade processing at OSTTRA, wins vendor professional of the year (data and operations) in the 2024 Women in Technology and Data Awards.
Sell-Side Technology Awards 2024: Best sell-side front-office platform—Bloomberg
Product: Bloomberg TOMS
Most read
- Chris Edmonds takes the reins at ICE Fixed Income and Data Services
- Deutsche Börse democratizes data with Marketplace offering
- Sell-Side Technology Awards 2024: All the winners