Samsung SDS improves team satisfaction levels by 25 percent

Founded in 1985, Samsung SDS has become one of the largest global IT solutions providers in Korea. The company offers a wide range of products and services, such as consulting, systems integration, packaged software, outsourcing and technical training. Expanding into overseas markets, Samsung SDS has operations in the United States, China, Europe and Southeast Asia. It is a subsidiary of top Korean conglomerate Samsung.

Meeting new challenges
As it expanded into the global marketplace, Samsung SDS was facing a number of challenges. Its products were increasing in complexity, causing longer delivery times as well as missed deadlines. Rapidly changing business requirements only caused more delays. The company recognized that to keep up, it needed to improve its agility, visibility and communication. The company wanted to improve its ability to quickly meet customer requirements and then measure the quality of the work performed. Additionally, Samsung SDS sought to improve productivity and predictability while reducing costs and rework. Samsung SDS realized that to accomplish these goals, it needed to embrace a more innovative approach to software delivery.

Samsung SDS wanted to create a comprehensive plan that would enable it to:
● Adopt new processes and tools incrementally in projects
● Support project teams with just-in-time mentoring to accelerate learning and adoption
● Demonstrate quick wins from projects
● Develop internal subject matter experts (SMEs) and mentors to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to the project team

Launching a strategic enterprise Agile transformation initiative
Samsung SDS worked with IBM Software Services for Rational to develop and implement an approach for strategic enterprise Agile transformation using IBM Rational Team Concert™ Enterprise and IBM Rational® Method Composer software. The IBM group first performed a multilevel analysis to gather more information about the company’s current operations. Then, the IBM team helped Samsung SDS by providing recommendations for implementing Agile practices and establishing a training program that featured a combination of lectures, case studies, exercises and labs using the Agile tool within Rational Team Concert Enterprise software. It also developed 25 Agile coach apprentices for the enterprise rollout. The IBM team worked with Samsung SDS with a pilot project that provides the lines of business with mobile communications solutions that help business people and development share information.

Expanding the use of Agile methods
Samsung SDS then rolled out the Agile approach across five additional projects, adopting eight Agile practices, including: Iterative development, a shared vision, user story driven development,requirements management, continuous integration, whole team, two-level planning, and concurrent testing. The Agile teams, which included 20 colocated employees, worked in sprints of approximately three to four weeks, sharing the results of each iteration with the appropriate lines of business (LOBs) at the end of each sprint. With help from the Software Services for Rational group, the company also created an Agile Center of Excellence (COE) to help guide its efforts and proliferate Agile success across the organization. The COE includes two primary parts: A corporate COE to provide strategic direction for the initiative at the senior management level and an LOB COE to implement the corporate strategy established by the corporate COE. The COE helped define success factors, collect lessons learned from the pilot projects, and develop approaches to reuse success patterns across the organization.

Rapidly realizing benefits
Samsung SDS surveyed its software developers before it began the Agile projects and then again afterwards. The surveys showed that the satisfaction levels of the teams using the Agile methods increased by 25 percent after the projects. This information helped the company expand the Agile initiative. The surveys also showed a 12 percent increase in user story test coverage, which in turn led to improved product quality. Further, in the pilot projects, Samsung SDS achieved zero delays in on-time delivery. In the past, development teams were late in delivery an average of one to two months. The company credits rapid development iterations and improved project visibility for the improvement in delivery. The company’s LOBs can access information about projects and schedules using Rational Team Concert and Rational Method Composer software, which helped improve visibility and led to better management decisions.

For more information
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