Background
The largest commercial real estate services company in the world, serving more than 90 of the top 100 companies on the Fortune 100, had undertaken a significant digital transformation initiative to realize substantial savings; however, it required a concerted migration strategy of moving from legacy to target platforms.
As a result the decision was made to decommission a legacy platform consisting of six critical systems that served 18 global client companies and replace it with a target state platform that encompassed three systems (financial software/JDE, facility management software/ServiceInsight, and analytics/EDP).
All existing systems had to be decommissioned and new ones implemented within an 18 month timeline to avoid significant financial penalties. And given the company’s recent focus on Agile methodology, it needed to be done using both Agile and Waterfall methodologies. Lastly, the sheer number of users – over 80,000 – in this complex program gave it high visibility across both internal and external executive levels.
Scope of Work
Strategic planning and communications were foundational to the program. The roadmap was linked not only to the 34 sprints that were managed in Jira but was integrated with the weekly program status that provided the global management and client teams with a real-time view of progress and issues. The significant sifting of client accounts across quarters and start times, and the unanticipated impact from other outside systems, were critical factors in managing the team size and accounting for the constriction / addition of team members at critical program points.
Adaptable program management was necessary in the merging of agile and waterfall technologies. The program helped prove out that Agile (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, Retrospectives, Jira boards) could be used in the traditionally sequential and segmented deployment of applications on accounts and Kanban for hypercare. By adapting to meet program needs and adjusting / regulating tasks within sprints and across accounts, the 18 individual system migrations were implemented within an 18 month timeline.
The last solution component dealt with the variations in each client account implementation which required adaptability in approach. These variations ranged from unexpected target platform changes in interface systems and the solution system itself, to global regional dynamics in Europe / Asia regarding systems, development and schedule impacts. Constant validation against client timelines and priorities that did not match those of the program were critical in keeping the program on track.
Critical Initiatives