Case Study

Benefits

• Formalized a methodology that standardized business procedures and processes.
• Encouraged employees to adopt the new technology.
• Promoted skills acquisition and mastery.
• Built confidence that lasted beyond the training session.
• Reduced the dependence and workload on colleagues and the help desk.
• Created a lasting improvement in employee productivity.
• Defined techniques to improve the requirement gathering process.
• Created step-by-step procedures to write consistent, accurate and complete specifications.
• Identified diagramming techniques.
• Defined programming standards and the impact on testing requirements.
• Established comprehensive test objectives and incorporated the use of automated testing tools.
• Reduced the number of bugs found at the user testing level.
• Maximized the technology’s return on investment.

Problem Definition:

Our client, a major financial services organization was in the analysis phase of developing modular software applications. The project involved a redesign from a mainframe legacy system to a series of modular web applications taking advantage of .NET technologies and C#. The implementation of this project involved a complete restructure of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and the development of new business processes.

Rather than diving directly into the tactical execution of the deliverable, our client approached us with a need to help their employees overcome the steep learning curve and become familiar in object-oriented principles, solid requirements gathering techniques, C#, .NET and Testing & QA.

The target audience comprised 200 employees from 5 internal departments – business analysts, business architects, application developers, testers, and quality assurance specialists.

Approach:

New Instruction conferred with the client to determine specific training needs and audiences. Initially, we provided detailed outlines of our “off-the-shelf” training workshops and opened a much-appreciated forum to brainstorm customizable options.

We designed a training track of three individual workshops, namely;

• Essential Skills for the Business Analyst – Eliciting, Analyzing & Documenting Requirements
• Introduction to .NET using C#
• Structured Testing & Quality Assurance Techniques

Solution:

We constructed a highly detailed plan that was utilized to successfully guide the training initiative through the implementation of a set of standards and a solid training track.

Our team worked with management to redefine existing methodology and introduced areas to promote more effective, consistent and accurate ways to implement the ERP.

Our standard workshops were modified to incorporate and promote the client’s methodology and defined templates and further integrated to include robust, client-focused case studies, all presented through the use of industry best practices.

Our facilitators provided very successful hands-on instruction, skill practice and real-time one-on-one project feedback. The training materials have become a valuable resource to refresh the learned concepts and validate procedures.