Situation: An IT services firm needed to repair its relationship with its client, a UK-based software company using offshore resources for software development, support and testing. The service was meeting its benchmarks, yet the client’s leadership had raised concerns about quality and wanted more thorough testing, sharper root cause analysis and clearer communication. The agreement between them left the service levels, the criteria for each job level and the governance meetings for the two sides to define, which left room to reshape the terms of the relationship.
Intervention: He worked with the firm’s leadership on three fronts.
Delivery methods: fixes went through more rigorous regression testing, root causes were presented at the close of every sprint, enhancements were built from simple design and test scenarios, test automation began, and daily stand-ups moved to video so the two sides worked as one team, with the offshore team known as the client’s BAU team.
Contractual adjustments: the two sides reviewed the service levels and raised several of them, so that every fix was to be right first time and productivity was measured in story points per developer per day; they agreed how the client could draw on a contingent team beyond the core team; criteria were set for each job level; and the firm proposed a timetable of short placements for team members at the client’s UK offices.
Governance: a strategic review every quarter between the two leaderships, a customer satisfaction survey every six months, meetings at mid-sprint and at the close of each three-week sprint, a quarterly forum for service improvements with an award, and recognition certificates for the team.
Outcome: Within a quarter the service was running ahead of the levels the two sides had agreed. Every ticket was acknowledged within hours rather than the full day allowed, more than nine tickets in ten were investigated within two days where the agreed level asked for eight, and fixes right first time rose into the high nineties per hundred. The client’s lead for the service visited the offshore team and confirmed there were no more quality challenges. The conversation between the two sides then turned to growth: extending the service to more of the client’s applications and into development work.
Stephen’s part: He represented the firm at its strategic reviews with the client’s leadership, prepared the review packs and kept the action log both sides worked to, and shaped the firm’s approach to the account, from governance and quality to team culture and commercial terms.