Whilst most of the consulting world is still stuck using the traditional waterfall approach, which is now well accepted to be a failing model, Tegnosis uses Agile software development methodology to deliver projects. The Agile methodology goes hand-in-hand with our core values of being lean and delivering value quickly.

Following the agile methodology has often been associated with lack of project documentation. However, TeGnosis’ proprietary adaptation of Agile, TAgile™ ensures that our clients not only get all the benefits of Agile, but also thorough documentation and knowledge transfer at the end of the project.

At the core of every Tegnosis consulting engagement follows a framework, that ensures our consultants are able to deliver successful projects repeatedly. This is important for any complex technical or business problem. The outline of the TAgile approach is explained below:

The TAgile methodology has five phases. Depending on the type of engagement, only certain phases may be required. Additionally, the complexity of the project will determine how long each phase would last. However, the same repeatable approach is followed in all projects.

1. 1. Discovery phase – This is where we interview all key stakeholders and understand the business problem being solved. The key success criteria are ascertained at this stage. In addition to uncovering the burning business problem, and an outline of it’s solution, this phase also helps to define the scope of the project itself; what is and what is not part of the project. The key deliverable at the end of this phase is a Vision document which clearly states the business problem, solution and project approach and is accepted by the key stakeholders.

1. 2. Rapid Prototyping phase – A majority of projects fail, because business requirements are not properly understood or interpreted by the IT team. The purpose of this phase is to “show” business users a sampling of the solution in order to ascertain that their needs have been correctly understood. The prototype is built on a subset of the users requirements and is done using real-user-data or business process. The key deliverable at the end of this phase is a prototype that is accepted by all stakeholders.

1. 3. Agile Development phase – This is where we iterate through multiple sprints or cycles of gathering requirements, developing, testing, user acceptance testing, and releasing working software. Sprints can last anywhere from 2-6 weeks. Typically, in a business intelligence engagement, sprint cycles of 4-6 weeks are common. At the end of each sprint, you will see production deployments which are usable by end users.

1. 4. Training and Adoption phase – This is a key task, especially in Business Intelligence engagements. This task is introduced at the end of Sprint 2 or 3 when sufficient functionality has been delivered for end users to be trained.

1. 5. Completion – This includes wrapping up the documentation, performing complete knowledge transfer and getting final user acceptance based on the Vision document.

In order to ensure success of the project, the TAgile methodology requires that  we work hand in hand with the client’s business users and IT personnel to ensure alignment from the beginning to the end of the project.