Achmea, the largest insurer in the Netherlands, has seen a large rise in productivity among developers, who are better equipped to pinpoint trouble spots and create accurate project timelines since implementation of a Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System.
As Achmea is the result of a merger, developers at Group ICT Services within the firm have a lengthy and ongoing project list, including consolidating and updating systems from pre-merger entities and keeping up with continually changing compliance rules. It is also in the process of migrating to a service-based IT architecture.
Working with Avanade as a systems integrator, the firm decided to implement Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System because of both its functionality and its easy integration with the .NET service-based IT architecture the firm was building. The system is essentially a monitoring system that allows different entities involved in a project to monitor progress, spot inefficiencies and coordinate different components of the development process. For Achmea, the system has also helped bring together data from different sources, identify key areas of need and set realistic timeframes for projects.
“For us, Visual Studio 2005 Team System is primarily a development tool rather than an assessment tool. For example, we immediately noticed a much higher error score among our most experienced developers, but that is to be expected because they are working on the projects with the greatest complexity. This shows how crucial it is to interpret the figures correctly,” says Remco Jorna, head of competency management development at Achmea. “We view the solution as an aid to improving our effectiveness and transparency. It gives developers the opportunity to perform even better than before by reviewing the processes used for each project. This has already turned out to be very successful.”
The system has helped the developers not only improve the speed and organization around projects, but also improve quality.
“Now, we can predict with greater certainty the quality and timeframe within which certain projects will be completed.” Jorna says.