Case Studies - LeasePlan UK

Project background

LeasePlan’s quote and ordering platform was a typical legacy black box solution. Developed 20 years ago, there was little to no internal documentation or staff knowledge about it left within the company. Supplier support was reaching end-of-life, and the platform’s performance was poor. LeasePlan decided to outsource the project to India – its first offshore venture with a large consultancy – to reverse-engineer the platform and replace it with a complete new turnkey solution.

The problem

Requirements were captured, but difficult to follow, with no traceability. Testing capabilities were limited to individual testing, with very limited and inconsistent tracking. The project team had a good toolset, but no structure or processes in place for using it efficiently – which resulted in intermittent use of the tool chain. If nothing changed, the Client’s new platform would not be delivered in time. A year after the project began, they engaged us to restructure their offshore Agile development, and get their delivery team back on track.

The solution

We turned the entire project around within just five months by:

1. Splitting their 40-strong Agile team into four teams of 10 while maintaining a strong sense of unity across the group Introducing multiple Agile work streams
2. Enhancing the requirements process with additional checkpoints and cross-references
3. Completely changing the software development life cycle (SDLC) process
4. Introducing new communication channels to increase transparency across the team and improve each member’s sense of responsibility.

The result

Thanks to the improvements we delivered:

1. LeasePlan had better visibility of the requirements
2. The Agile team were able to confidently define what features would be released in sprints
3. Testing was able to provide metrics, which were then used to further improve the development process and streamline the team dynamics.

Most importantly, our work made it possible for LeasePlan to deliver their new turnkey solution within their original timeframe.