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Late-stage security startup transforms operating model

A cybersecurity company was onto something. Instead of resting on their laurels, the team decided to pour fuel on the fire.

case study setup
Situation

Rapid growth accumulates tech debt

A newly established Infrastructure and Network Security company leveraged an initial prototype to gain funding and grow the company quickly. With their rapid growth and focus on time to market, they stacked up a lot of tech debt. On the recommendation of one of their developers, they engaged Sketch to help introduce more agile development practices so they could develop at a sustainable pace and improve predictability.

Challenge

Shifting priorities, poor testing, lack of scalability

case study challenge

Growing pains are the best problems a company can have, but only until growing pains become systemic pitfalls. Our client had many challenges in their way:

  • The team did not understand the application to a degree that they needed to.
  • The Product Owner’s priorities were continuously shifting.
  • Only 55% of planned stories were being completed.
  • They had 6 developers working on different parts of the application at various times, which led to a lack of testability and feedback.
  • The team was getting work done, but the software was rarely in a shippable state.
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They needed to upgrade their automated testing strategy in a way that would be scalable, and to make sure that everyone would be able to work within their system in the future.

Enter Sketch

Solution

Agile consulting services and product planning

case study solution
Sketch started by delivering a 2-day Agile Bootcamp, followed by a high-touch coaching engagement that would help them improve their ceremonies, finalize team roles and responsibilities, and measure goals to establish a predictable level of scope churn. During this time, Sketch focused on the following:

Agile consulting goals

  • Pairing and internal team coaching to set goals
  • Facilitating productive communication to keep executives caught up with team updates
  • Outcome-focused story mapping
  • Capacity planning and prioritization to understand the applications
  • Keeping product owner priorities consistent and protecting the sprint to manage change effectively
Implementing these new plans would benefit the team in both the short and long term.
The initial agile bootcamp jump-started momentum, and the long-term coaching ensured the change would stick.
case study results
Results

Consistent software delivery

Build software that matters

Once the team was able to spend more time in their codebase, rather than scrambling around and attending meetings, light bulbs went off. The team began to focus on the value of their stories.

CLIENT FEEDBACK

“Our coach from Sketch did a great job bringing our team up to speed on the tactics, techniques, and processes necessary to make an agile transformation. He was a personal confidant during this time and helped coach us through a typically difficult transition. I would highly recommend not only him, but Sketch in an agile transformation.”

Chief of staff

Cybersecurity company

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