DSDM continues to demonstreate its effectiveness as a delivery mechanism to ensure that users get the systems they need when they need them. This latest example comes at International City law firm Simmons & Simmons which employs nearly 2000 people around the world and has its headquarters in London.   Support for its IT systems is also based here and new business opportunities and technology advances meant that a traditional IT portfolio had to be upgraded. DSDM provided the solution.

 

“In a law firm the lawyers are always busy so there needs to be a very good reason for them to become involved with an IT project,” says IT development team leader Charles Ng.  “However, as users they also know that projects can’t proceed without properly defined requirements. We need them to work with developers who can draw out the right level of detail.  My starting point for any project is finding sponsors and putting together the right project team.”

 

The introduction of DSDM as the delivery mechanism came about as the result of experience gained from a large and complex implementation project, which dragged on and caused problems both for the business and the IT department. One of the project managers already had some experience of agile development and DSDM, but Simmons & Simmons was not using a delivery framework.  The decision was taken to introduce DSDM on some small projects to see what benefits there would be. Keith Richards, from Keith Richards Consulting, was called in as an advisor and to train the development team. He believes “DSDM was appropriate for these projects because Simmons & Simmons were not only looking to deliver robust solutions that correctly addressed the users needs – but they also had to do it from within tight deadlines.”

 

“We used DSDM recently to set up an expert Weblog,” says Charles Ng. “Simmons & Simmons has specialist expertise and there was a business opportunity for which we had to move fast. DSDM helped us get right to the detail and by using prototyping and MoSCoW prioritisation the project team was able to deliver a proof of concept very quickly. The benefit of prioritising is appreciated by users, who recognise its fairness. If a new feature is asked for, we talk it through to see whether it is a “must have”, and if it is, then it may take the place of some existing deliverables from this iteration of the project. But the system we deliver must work.”

 

Users started by discussing timescales before they had defined their requirements, but DSDM was used to demonstrate the various steps that need to be gone through before any dates could be finalised. User requirements were worked through and prioritised so they knew what to expect, the minimum that had to be achieved, and by when. By delivering what users require, DSDM has quickly become the standard used by Simmons & Simmons for IT projects of all sizes, from short projects which deliver specific benefits to larger ones which implement strategic change.