Solution Delivery

All too often we hear in the press about Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that fails to deliver its promise – implementation programmes that take too long to be completed or that come in massively over budget, systems that simply don’t work. What is surprising is that such reports occur with alarming regularity – it is as if lessons don’t get learned, and time and time again ICT projects are executed in the same old way, inevitably leading to failure in the same old way.
At PSM we think differently and approach ICT projects with a clear vision of what success entails. Our consultants have helped clients adopt new approaches to ICT solution delivery - be it planning and management of projects using the right tools and techniques such as Agile development methods, tailored to the client needs, or through the provision of senior development leaders who can bring genuine innovative thinking to development projects.
Furthermore, since joining the Oakleigh group we have been able to take advantage of Oakleigh’s rich Project and Programme Management (PPM) heritage to the delivery of numerous ICT infrastructure projects and programmes.  Click here for further information on our PPM services.

Scope

Our approach explicitly balances delivery speed with robustness of the solution, based on the principles of Agile development.

Application development according to Agile development methods takes place in an iterative manner, with each short iteration (typically 1 month) delivering a subset of requirements selected in conjunction with the client based on business value in an application that can be used immediately (if required). The application and the available functionality are then tested by the client, a process that often leads to changes in other requirements, which are then taken on board and delivered in later iterations. This gradual approach, which ensures the robustness of the solution offers an additional benefit: often an application is found to be sufficiently developed to meet the requirements well before the end of the planned period of development, at which point the development effort can be halted early, saving the remaining budget.
This process is superior to the traditional “waterfall” approach in which development only starts after a full set of requirements is decided, something which often takes a long time (several years is not unusual). Clients who eventually undertake testing of the finished product more often than not find that the delivered application is not quite what they wanted, but of course by then it is too late to change requirements, even if the budget had not already been spent.

Competences

Our consultants bring a wealth of experience in bringing the Agile development philosophy to a wide range of development programmes across numerous application areas, both on new projects and on already running development programmes that are not delivering.
Depending on specific circumstances and needs, our consultants can either work closely with client teams on projects, introducing them to Agile methods in a hands-on manner and effecting knowledge transfer to leave the skills in place, or take on the development activities wholesale, delivering the solution to the client using Agile approaches.
In such assignments, we pride ourselves in our innovative problem solving capability, thanks to staff who bring on average 20 years’ experience in addressing development problems and creating elegant solutions based on tried and tested approaches.

"PSM’s unique combination of innovation and experience led us to select them for a high-profile delivery project... It is a tribute to their organisation that they were able to provide such a high-quality solution within the aggressive time scales that we demanded."
Customer Service Director, E.On UK Retail.