- 2.1. Introduction
- 2.2. MyCo and the MyProj Enterprise Software Delivery Project
- 2.3. Business and Organizational Context
- 2.4. Project Context
- 2.5. Project Execution Results
- 2.6. Post Hoc Analysis
- 2.7. Commentary
- 2.8. Conclusions
2.2. MyCo and the MyProj Enterprise Software Delivery Project
Drawn from a real-world project, this case study is illustrative of a wide variety of situations. A multinational utility company is supported by an enterprise software delivery organization under significant cost and efficiency pressures to deliver IT services to the business. For ease of reference, I’ll call this company MyCo, and I’ll name the project we’ll examine MyProj. 1 Faced with many challenges over the years, MyCo has invested in several different facets of its enterprise software delivery, making the following changes:
- From very siloed, geographically dispersed solutions and technologies to centrally driven technology platforms
- From wholly onshore to a mix of onshore, offshore, and outsourced application development and support
- From globally dispersed in-house-managed to outsourced IT infrastructure services
- From ad hoc vendor engagements to use of preselected vendors for defined domains
- From undefined core software delivery processes to the implementation of common, centralized IT processes
- From company-specific governance of enterprise software delivery to governance and improvement supported by standardized activities, particularly in enterprise architecture with the open group architecture framework (TOGAF) [26] and the control objectives for information and related technology (COBIT) framework for IT governance and control [27]
- From a collection of uncoordinated enterprise software delivery improvement schemes to significant investment in measured improvement against the capability maturity model (CMM), currently assessed at level 2 and on a path to level 3 compliance
Within this broad context, I’ll analyze the structure, staffing profile, and delivery approach of MyProj. I’ll then examine where improvements to enterprise software delivery are possible, and I’ll assess their potential impact on this project.