Running Head: WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT UNIT 7 1

Written Assignment Unit 7

BUS 5114

Management Information Systems and Technology

University of the people

March 24, 2022

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A Developed Case Report for British Telecom

British Telecom's success in adjusting is an uncommon one to take on the Agile Methodologies.

The fundamental discussion in this British Telecom case study is a success story that shows how

British Telecom was ready to transition from the company's long-standing waterfall-based delivery

processes with one that exemplified the critical principles of agile delivery (Read, 2006). This case

report dove into how British Telecom was ready to embrace the principles of agile methodologies,

the commitment of the Agile development to the company's competitive advantage, its effect on the

five competitive forces of the industry, its effect on the essential and additionally supporting

activities in Value Chain model of the company and the advantage of the Agile methodologies on

these activities.

Adoption of Agile Methodologies

Before the company made the transition into Agile methodologies, the waterfall model was the

company's way to deal with system development. In this waterfall approach, it could require three

to nine months for a third-party developer to gather specifications about the project to be grown,

then the development itself could require as long as a year and a half or longer to finish, after

which the conventional software-testing cycle, commonly done after the fruition of the project

would have prolonged the project by several additional months (Hoffman, 2008). The outcome of

this approach is a product fostered that does not fit the purpose of the business needs and the

business refuses to take on it or worse, the business hesitantly embraces it and soon observes that it

is slow, blunder inclined, and lacks key features, and at last return to the old system (Read, 2006).

By embracing the Agile technique with the focal point of coding and growing rapidly, testing the

product, and fixing any issue that arose, the company shifted to a 90-day project emphasis cycle

which is no less than four times faster than the previous strategy, and with this, the company could

deliver the finished result that is a lot faster (Hoffman, 2008).

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Agile Methodology Contribution to British Telecom Competitive Advantage

By adopting the agile technique in its system, the company was capable chopped down the time it

takes to get a project from origination to sending. This is extremely vital in establishing trust with

the company's customers. Finishing the project in a somewhat short timeframe, allows the

customer to test and survey the products, make any additional recommendations necessary and get

the best version of the created product. This thusly makes the customer blissful and because of the

everyday interactions with BT\'s software developers, the outer customers become a total believer

in the process, in that it gives them much better control in the project development efforts

(Hoffman, 2008). Through Agile procedure adoption, the quality of the product been created

improves because testing starts from the very beginning, the visibility of the entire process also

improves because of the by and large gradual development of the project, and the risk associated

with the project development is drastically diminished because of continuous criticism which

drastically reduces cost and wastage in the project development, customers are blissful because

they can make changes without paying extravagant costs, and this allows the company to foster a

cost-effective product that is reasonable to the customers and brings in profit for the company

(Rasmusson, 2015). By adopting the Agile philosophy, British Telecom's role to its client

transitioned from being a conventional supplier of IT services to one where the customers currently

see BT as an essential piece of their significant business initiatives, it established an environment

and a mentality, verging on the obsession of delivering genuine value to the business through IT

(Read, 2006).

Impact on the competitive forces of the industry

As per Porter’s five forces model, used in assessing an industry structure, five competitive forces

decide industry profitability: the bartering force of customers, the danger of substitutions, the

dealing force of suppliers, the danger of new entrants, and contention among existing firms and the

intensity of every one of the five forces decide the characteristics of the industry, how profitable it
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is, and how sustainable that profitability will be (Kroenke, 2007). The effect of adopting the agile

approach on the dealing force of customers is that, with the product designed to the satisfaction of

the customers, the customers will want to do more business transactions with the company. The

effect of the danger of substitution is that it will safeguard the company from being surpassed by a

substitute. By delivering quality products in a reasonable period at a reasonable and reasonable

cost, customers will continuously believe that should work with the company and would most

likely not have any desire to go to another competitor in the industry. The effect on the dealing

force of suppliers is that it will permit the company to seek choice in regards to its suppliers. By

striving to deliver quality products at a reasonable value, the company should seek out suppliers

that can give products to them at an exceptionally cost-effective cost. The effect danger of new

entrants is that it will currently be exceptionally easy for the company to contend with new

businesses attempting to acquire traction in the industry. Through this agile system, the company

can create and carry out the cost-effective product at an extremely quick rate thereby rivaling

industry newbies attempting to convey new products into the industry. The effect on industry rivals

is that once more, it will safeguard the company from being surpassed by an opponent. By

delivering quality products in a reasonable period at a reasonable and reasonable cost, customers

will continuously believe that should work with the company and would likely not have any desire

to go to another competitor in the industry.

Impact on the Value-Chain Model Activities

The value chain model is also another model formulated by Porter in assessing the industry

structure. This model takes a glance at all the organization of value-creating activities, for example,

the primary activities like inbound logistics, outbound logistics, operations, marketing, and backing

activities, example, human assets, firm infrastructure, and innovation improvement to assess how

the company is fairing compared to other organization in the industry (Kroenke, 2007). By

adopting the Agile methodology, the entire business operation of the company was impacted.
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Working to deliver a quality product in the least conceivable period, where there is great

collaborative exertion from all aspects of the team including the clients, prompted significant

productivity and business benefits across all the value-chain activities (Hoffman, 2008). It

prompted a drastic change in the whole culture of the business operation of the company. Presently,

the concentration and fixation of every business activity are to find a way of delivering real value

and quality products in the briefest time conceivable to the clients. By hiring talent that can adapt

to agile methodology, developing information systems that will facilitate a fast operation to ensure

that both the inbound and outbound logistics departments get the product to the client on schedule,

and forging a great collaboration and partnership with clients, the achievement recognized by

adopting the Agile methodology was noticeable within the company. While there is as yet quite far

to go for the company as far as interaction, operation, and business improvement, the advantage of

doing business via Agile methodology outweighs the company turning to its former ways of

approaching any project (Read, 2006).

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References

Hoffman, T. (2008, March 11). BT: A case study in agile programming. Retrieved May 10, 2016,

from http://www.infoworld.com/article/2650760/application-development/bt--a-case-

study- in-agile-programming.html

Kroenke, D. (2007). Organizational Strategy, Information Systems, and Competitive Advantage.

Experiencing MIS. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Rasmusson, J. (2015). What is Agile? Retrieved May 24, 2016, from

http://www.agilenutshell.com/

Read Evans, I. (2006). Agile Delivery at British Telecom. Methods and Tools, 14(2), 20-27.

Retrieved May 24, 2022, from http://www.methodsandtools.com/PDF/mt200602.pdf