September 29, 2017

WorldFirst

International payments provider WorldFirst enlisted the help of Inviqa in 2016 to develop and grow its internal digital capabilities. The partnership continues to drive business value in the near and long term.

The Challenge

Growing digital capabilities at WorldFirst

WorldFirst was undergoing a period of change. The business was grappling with rapid growth, staff changes across its developer teams, and the roll-out of an internal structure based on the famed ‘Spotify Model’ in a bid to drive cross-functional collaboration.

 

“With such a large volume of people coming on-board so quickly, one of my concerns was that team maturity would be heavily diluted and potentially take a long period to recover.”

– Marc Garner, Head of IT Development at WorldFirst

Adopting a model based largely on Spotify’s was a way to accommodate growth and drive digital maturity by promoting transparency, collaboration, and the sharing of knowledge. The aim of the new organisational model was to ensure WorldFirst’s digital teams could build what matters most to the business and its users, while giving developers the autonomy to decide the best way to build those products or services.

The model’s success hinged on the digital maturity of its newly-created teams, but there were clear knowledge gaps, with long-standing members of the company removed from day-to-day development, and a communication gap between developers and product owners which was slowing development time.

To make the model a success, boost productivity, and drive innovation, WorldFirst needed to grow its digital capabilities and establish a legacy of the right processes, practices, and methodologies.

The Solution

WorldFirst enlisted Inviqa’s help to accelerate the development of its digital teams through an exchange of knowledge, skills, and ideas based on embedding Inviqa’s experienced developers within its own teams.

“We had worked with Inviqa on various training programmes in the past and were suitably impressed. So our idea was to embed a mixture of their trainers and specialists into our squads to build our capabilities and help us work better together as an organisation.”

Marc Garner, Head of IT Development at WorldFirst

Our support included the likes of:

  • In-house developer support, mentoring, and pair programming to develop throughput, improve software quality, and reduce time to market
  • Agile coaching and workshops to help teams work and deliver more effectively  
  • BDD (behaviour-driven development) training to create software with business value
  • Code clubs to test ideas and promote a culture of learning

WorldFirst’s digital teams were exposed to alternative perspectives and skillsets, enabling them to grow their own capabilities. With an appetite for experimentation and continuous improvement, the business was able to trial different approaches and Agile frameworks to identify those that enabled teams to be more productive.

“With Inviqa, we realised we could offer our people continuous, on-the-job training, with mentorship and guidance to help teams mature. Of course, there was the added benefit that they’d also be writing large amounts of code for us too!”

Marc Garner, Head of IT Development at WorldFirst

Results

With our help, WorldFirst’s developer teams now work more effectively, are well-versed with key technology frameworks, and are accelerating software delivery. The Inviqa team has imparted valuable knowledge and best practices, contributed to technical builds, and has equipped teams to drive more value from Agile practices.

Changes made with Inviqa to internal processes are already saving time and boosting productivity. Code reviews, for example, have been made more efficient, and the visibly improved collaboration amongst teams and stakeholders is reducing waste, increasing throughput, and ensuring that WorldFirst delivers value, and not just features.

“Inviqa’s presence has made a clear and very positive impact on our business. I can wholeheartedly recommend Inviqa as a partner, and look forward to working with them going forwards.”

Marc Garner, Head of IT Development at WorldFirst

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