Project Background
Howells Associates and McKenna Consultants have formed a great working relationship over the years working on a variety of software and Agile training, coaching and consultancy projects together.
As well as software development services, we have been providing on going Agile Consultancy, Training and Mentoring to the development team, professional services team and product team at Howells Associates.
The Challenge
Howells Associates operate in the Executive Remuneration industry where an eye for detail and accurate information is a must for any piece of software.
Howells were already making and selling great software that met it’s customer needs, however, they were in a position where they were ready to take their product to the next level. In order to ensure the successful build of the next generation of the product, Howells wanted to ensure two things:
- They built the right product efficiently and to the highest standard
- They invested in their development team to up skill them to have the required knowledge
In order to achieve these goals, Howells engaged with McKenna Consultants.
The Solution
McKenna Consultants provide Howells with the Agile software development training, consultancy and coaching required in order to achieve their objectives. We have transformed their small development team using tried and tested Agile methods from our toolbox.
Some of the things that we have done and are doing at Howells with the teams are:
- Introduction To Agile Software Development Course
- Ad Hoc Agile Consultancy
- 1 to 1 Agile Mentoring
- Pair Programming (with an emphasis on teaching .NET)
- Product Ownership
- Requirements discovery sessions
- Facilitating client face to face meetings
- Support and pair programming over video conferencing
- Product Development Training
Delivery
As Howells are based in Harrogate, just like McKenna Consultants, we were able to provide Agile consultancy to them at a drop of a hat.
We were able to be flexible with their training needs, delivering ad hoc sessions as and when we needed to. We have also delivered our standard Introduction To Agile Software Development Course on site for the development team and interested stakeholders. We still continue to provide Agile consultancy to Howells on a daily basis on the projects that we collaborate on. We even hold a daily stand up over Skype every morning!
Such is our dedication to our clients and thier continued success, the recent product development training session that we held happened to be over a weekend!
“When it comes to Agile training and coaching for our development team, McKenna Consultants are the first port of call. They take an active interest and involvement within the team and have helped to bring out the best in our developers. Their coaches are knowledgeable, insightful and have real world experience of working the ways which they recommend. We are certainly a more efficient, well oiled small development team thanks to McKenna Consultants.”
Simon Hurley, Client Services Director