2024-08-11

Business-Critical application recovery by Cloud Drift

Project Summary

Cloud Drift rescued a failing business-critical application, boosting performance by 10x. We addressed technical debt, improved communication, and delivered a high-performing solution, exceeding client expectations.

Service
Client

Big Four

1. The Context

Business impact of development failures

The client faced significant challenges with their internal business-critical application, experiencing a three-month gap in delivering business value. The project suffered from low development velocity and frequently missed milestones, stemming from both poor performance and inadequate communication between the business and development teams. The existing team was underperforming, failing to meet sprint commitments and struggling with low-quality output and technical problem-solving.

Multiple layers of issues, including lack of transparency and inaccurate task reporting, led to the application failing to support business operations effectively. This resulted in overtime work, constant firefighting, and a high cloud resource utilization that could only handle approximately 150 concurrent users.

2. Cloud Drift Involvement

Overcoming development roadblocks

  • Technical Insight: Provided a Technical Architect (TA) to assess the project.
    Backlog Creation: Utilized internal processes and seamlessly integrated with the existing team, forming a hybrid model.
  • Stabilization: Prioritized the stabilization of the application by addressing critical technical debts and introducing essential fixes, mitigating business risks.
  • Team Augmentation: Gradually replaced the underperforming team with Cloud Drift resources, increasing business value delivery by a factor of 10.
  • Domain Expertise: Developed a deep understanding of the client’s domain and business processes, becoming a trusted business partner and effective team lead for developers.
  • Design Inventory: Conducted a comprehensive design inventory to understand the landscape and develop an optimal development roadmap.
  • Issue Inventory: Assessed both technical and business feature debts, addressing areas of business disappointment.
  • Coaching: Provided coaching and guidance to the existing development team to improve performance and collaboration.
Helping client

3. Outcome

From crisis to high performance

  • Predictable Backlog Consumption: Efficiently managed and consumed the backlog, ensuring predictable and reliable delivery.
  • Balanced Development: Simultaneously delivered business value and addressed technical debts, improving application performance and scalability.
  • MVP Delivery: Delivered a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) intelligently, incorporating performance improvements during development.
  • Enhanced UX: Added user stories to enhance the user experience, meeting and exceeding business expectations.
  • Peak Performance: Successfully managed peak period growth with a 10x increase in capacity while maintaining 30% initial resource utilization.

Cloud Drift’s intervention transformed a struggling project into a high-performing, business-aligned application, ensuring sustained business value and satisfaction.