A Major Global Bank and highly valued client recently engaged the services of Agenor Technology to deliver a significant End to End Upgrade Programme to address critical issues on a key technology platform. Keep reading to find out how how the Agenor Technology Team delivered value for our client and got the programme completed both on time and within budget.
Customer Context:
WebSphere is an IBM Middleware tool that allows applications to interface with the user through the internet. Many of the Global Bank’s key applications have their web components running under WebSphere and as such are a critical infrastructure component for key Customer Services.
Due to the age of these WebSphere versions and the associated support arrangements, many of the applications were at high risk of exposure to issues which could result in customer impact. The old versions of WebSphere hosted key business applications and carried multiple security vulnerabilities which could have caused significant Customer and Financial impact in the event of a cyber-attack.
The key benefit of this programme was therefore strategic risk mitigation. In addition, the programme remediated legacy applications allowing them to run on strategic infrastructure, supporting simplification.
Following a period of initial analysis, it was identified that almost 200 applications were utilising old versions of the WebSphere Application Server.
Agenor Technology formed an effective delivery team, collaborating with client staff and various external vendors whose input was critical to the success of the programme.
The Problem:
The scope of the project was to migrate around 30% of the 200 applications which were using WebSphere versions 4, 5.1 and 6.1 to the latest WebSphere build. The rest of the applications were scheduled for decommission or were subject to other development considerations and therefore not included in the programme. The intended timescale for this work was 3 years from 2016 to Q2 2019.
The impact on the Global Bank organisation:
The Goal:
Primary Outcomes as logged by Agenor at the start of the Programme in the governance documentation:
The Challenge:
Risks/Issues and Dependencies:
Key Risks and Issues as logged by Agenor at the start of the Programme in the governance documentation:
Key Risks / Issues / dependences |
Description |
Mitigation |
Risk (Project) |
It is likely that there will be residual risk left in the form of business risks where a specific business franchise has not agreed to the technical actions. |
A risk would be raised and agreed with the application-owning business area. |
Dependency |
Availability of Resources (Business & Technical) to plan and deliver the project at the different stages |
Programme to set up Resource Planning. Allowance was made in the business case for external resourcing to supplement internal resources. |
Dependency |
There is a dependency on other large initiatives and individual in-flight projects to ensure that legacy WebSphere versions v4, v5 and v6 are de-commissioned from the estate. |
Close collaboration, monitor & track the delivery of these Programmes to ensure the dependencies are factored into the WebSphere Programme Migration Planning, Technology Solutions Design and Implementation Plan. |
Risk (Project) |
There is a risk that the Programme Delivery Planning will be impacted by other large Programmes. |
Programme to Identify the W&G (and other programmes) impacted business services and factor these into the Programme Delivery Planning for approval. |
Risk (Project) |
There is a risk that the Programme Delivery Planning will be impacted due to the number of change slots as each service is expected to take an outage. |
Programme to set up Change Implementation Board and allocate enough Change Implementation resources. |
Risk (Operational) |
|
Risk is managed through the standard Change Governance process. |
The Result
The programme was a success – all applications in scope were migrated, completing all objectives and allowing the business to sign-off and close the project.
Summary
The decision by the Global Bank to mobilise a Programme and engage Agenor Technology to deliver the required outcomes has proved to be an effective decision. The Agenor Programme team worked collaboratively with the Global Bank staff as well as various external Infrastructure and Application suppliers.
This engagement was completed on an Outcome Basis, with payment provided for delivery of specific outcomes. Due to the complexity of the programme, Agenor worked closely with the client at all stages to ensure both parties shared the Risk/Reward associated with this approach. The fact that the programme delivered on time and within budget is testament to that collaborative approach.
If you are facing a similar programme and would like to engage the skilled services of Agenor Technology, please get in touch today: