Unit 7: Written Assignment

BUS 5114
Management Information Systems and Technology
Term 2, 2019-2020

British Telecom: A Case Report

MBA, University of the People.

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British Telecom (BT) is an international telecommunication company which serves in more

than 170 countries around the world. The company claims in bringing “technology to life” by

providing specialized services in the phone, broadband internet, mobile devices, TV packages,

and IT networks. It supports major government, defense, police and health agencies in the UK

and in the international market (British Telecom, n.d.). Being a telecommunication company,

BT employs around 8000 IT professionals for software design, integration, testing,

maintenance and service management. Before 2004, BT used water-fall or traditional SDLC

methodologies in their software development projects. The traditional methodologies had

several drawbacks, and despite providing competitive solutions in the business environment,

many programs in BT were struggling in delivering significant outcomes in an acceptable

period of time. Program designers and programmers had issues in detail software requirements

vs the actual design. With the completion of the design phase, BT’s developers had pressures

to integrate the components within the deadline (Evans, 2006). It took almost 12-18 months for

the software development life cycle to complete, which increased the risk for software

deployment as there could be changes in the business environment. However, the shift from

traditional to agile development methodologies in the year 2005 boosted the competitive

advantage for British Telecom (Hoffman, 2008).

In 2005, BT adopted the agile development methodology to develop web-centric architecture

in order to speed-up the devices to handle network loads. Compared to its traditional methods

which consumed about 12-18 months to develop a system, it took only a 90-day agile

development cycle for deploying the new system. The company’s employees stated that the

90-day iteration cycle was at least four times faster than the traditional waterfall which enabled

programmers to code, test and fix problems in the same period (Hoffman, 2008). The major

concept of agile methodology is to work with stakeholders and end-users at every phase

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(Rasmusson, 2015). This helped BT to understand the customer needs while defining

requirements for the system. In addition, BT hired a number of IT professionals having

experience in agile development. Moreover, the company also trained its developers through a

series of training and workshops. This initiative supported in increasing the knowledge and

skills of developers in agile methodologies. The shift from traditional to agile approaches has

increased productivity in BT significantly. As agile development focuses on major and

essential issues on system development, it has helped BT overcome the piling of requirement

documents. Likewise, the short iterative cycle helped developers to manage activities in small

chunks addressing the feedback frequently. Most importantly the involvement of customers in

the projects enabled BT to ensure that the solutions are in line with expectations. Moreover,

testing the system with end-users helped BT to ensure the right system in minimum time

(Evans, 2006). These benefits from agile development have contributed British Telecom to

gain a competitive advantage in the business market (Hoffman, 2008).

Further, we are analyzing the porter’s five forces model with regards to BT and assessing the

impact of agile development methods on these forces. In terms of rivalry, BT competes with

multinational companies like Vodafone, Sky and Deutsche Telekom (SWOT & PESTLE,

2019). The adoption of agile methods has reduced time significantly for BT to develop a

system. This means BT is able to deliver products to the end-user more efficiently than its

competitors. In addition, the ability of BT to deliver quality systems in a short time period has

increased its brand strength and cost advantages playing a barrier for new entrants (Evans,

2006). As mentioned earlier, an agile development methodology involves customers and end-

users to address their requirements in the system development process. This influences

customers and reduces their bargaining power. Thus, I believe that the agile development

methodology has helped BT to make an impact on these major forces like rivalry, threats of

BUS 5114 Management Information System and Technology

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new entrants and bargaining power of buyers to increase and maintain a competitive advantage

in its business environment.

Similarly, the implementation of the agile development approach has made an impact on the

operational and management activities of British Telecom. As explained in Porter’s Value

Chain model, there are primary activities and supporting activities in a business that adds value

in profit margins. Primary activities are operational activities while secondary are managerial

activities (Bourgeois, 2014). I believe that the agile development process at BT has made work

effective and efficient in operations, marketing and sales, and its service. The short and iterative

cycle of agile development boost productivity in operations. As the software development

period is short with quality management the operations processes are efficient. With the

customer and end-user centric agile approach, BT enhances the promotion of the software in

its development phase creating an impact in marketing and sales. Further, the final product has

minimal or no error as the feedback and continuous testing in several phases are effectively

increasing the service value of the software. BT strategy in agile development is also to provide

skills and understanding to their employees with numbers of classroom sessions and learning

workshops (Hoffman, 2008). This increases the human resource capacity in BT, enhancing the

managerial activities of the process.

Despite these advantages, British Telecom has to carefully address some issues which could

arise from the agile development process. Adopting the following mentioned strategies British

Telecom can maintain competitive advantages in the long run.

One of the disadvantages of agile methodology is the documentation of requirements. In a short

period of time, it may not be feasible to gather all the requirements for software development

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(Evans, 2006). As a result, important agendas could be missed out. BT should pay due attention

while assessing the requirements for their system architecture.

Another challenge of the agile method is its budget implication. The cost of development can

rise as the process makes continuous changes in the plan (Rasmusson, 2015). In this context,

BT should strategically plan their budget and explore ideas to reduce their cost.

In summary, the adoption of agile methodology in BT has created competitive advantages in

the business environment through the production of quality systems in a short cycle. This has

produced an impact on several competitive forces and business processes. However, in the long

run BT has to consider several strategies to maintain as a successful agile company.

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References

Bourgeois, D. T. (2014). Information System for Business and Beyond. Saylor.org: Licensed

under Creative Commons.

British Telecom. (n.d.). About BT. Retrieved from

https://home.bt.com/pages/static/i/pansegment/contact_us/contactus.html

Evans, I. (2006). Agile Delivery at British Telecom. Retrieved from

http://www.methodsandtools.com/PDF/mt200602.pdf

Hoffman, T. (2008). BT: A case study in agile programming. Retrieved from

https://www.infoworld.com/article/2650760/bt--a-case-study-in-agile-

programming.html

Rasmusson, J. (2015). Agile in a Nutshell. Retrieved from http://www.agilenutshell.com/

SWOT & PESTLE. (2019). British Telecom SWOT & PESTLE Analysis. Retrieved from

https://www.swotandpestle.com/british-telecom/

BUS 5114 Management Information System and Technology