May 02 2008
RADTAC enables NPBS to recognise the combined potential for Agile methods and Microsoft
Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (N&P) is the UK’s thirteenth largest building society, with assets of over £4.3bn. Formed by the merger of the Norwich and Peterborough Building Societies in 1986, it has over 50 branches mainly located in East Anglia, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. N&P selected RADTAC to provide Consulting and Training Services to introduce Agile methods within their IT project lifecycle and processes.
RADTAC Delivery Services
RADTAC initially delivered a short “Agile Readiness Assessment” to N&P that identified, discussed and agreed the implications and the route to Agile at N&P. This enabled N&P to take a measured view when making their decision and to agree the way forward. RADTAC then provided experienced Agile Practitioners to work alongside N&P Business and IT personnel to provide Agile Training and Consulting and introduce Agile methods and new Microsoft technologies into the N&P delivery teams – enabling N&P to deliver additional benefit to the business.
Moving from VB6 can be a challenge for any organisation and N&P addressed this by investing in Object-Oriented training for their developers, coupled with a further investment in the Microsoft .Net Framework. N&P also decided to employ RADTAC to introduce an Agile Project Delivery framework based on the Agile Unified Process (AUP), and RADTAC’s unique PragmaticAgileTM Services.
Working together with RADTAC, N&P was able introduce Agile together with the new Microsoft tools and technologies and took the decision to standardise on the .Net3 framework for all new Agile developments. Microsoft .Net3 provides further improvements and many new frameworks, all designed to simplify the development process and further improve the speed of development.
Agile methods enable consistent high quality delivery, on-time, to-spec and to-budget - and N&P recognised that applying these new frameworks would be a key factor in achieving their objective to migrate away from Visual Basic. Through a focussed engagement of tailored on-project training and workshops RADTAC introduced Agile methods appropriate to the N&P culture and business ethos.
One of the key concepts introduced by RADTAC to N&P was the practice of Test Driven Development (TDD). In this practice, requirements are defined as a series of tests that are agreed by the customer, the tester and the developer before coding is started. Microsoft’s .NET UI Automation framework provided the toolset that supported the introduction of TDD. This powerful yet simple framework enabled the development of a Test Harness for N&P that was able to populate on-screen controls, press buttons and automate virtually any action that might be performed by a user.
Summary
Working closely together, RADTAC and N&P enabled N&P personnel to recognise the combined potential for Agile methods and Microsoft technologies, and enabled N&P personnel to swiftly become proficient and self-sufficient in their application.
The pragmatic combination of RADTAC Agile Services and Training, alongside the Microsoft .NET3 framework has enabled N&P to build a firm foundation and introduce methods and technologies to further improve the quality of their applications delivery.
N&P anticipates being able to further leverage the joint benefits of Agile with Microsoft technologies; and produce applications with rich, high quality, interactive user interfaces on-time, to-spec, within budget and of guaranteed quality.
RADTAC Consulting Services: PragmaticAgile ~ Training and Workshops ~ AUP ~ TDD
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