Re-engineering Business Workflows for Quality Assurance: An Agile approach to system refactoring

This paper presents a case study that explores the impact of a re-engineering project on a Small to Medium Enterprise in the United Kingdom. The business operates within the wetstock management sector and represents a number of large multi-national corporations. The services provided by the business enable their clients to make informed strategic and operational decisions. It is therefore critical that the business is efficient in producing timely and accurate feedback to its customers. Through a regular review process, issues were identified in a key area of the business that impacted upon the time taken to complete essential tasks. The underlying reasons for this inefficiency were analysed and, through the Agile software engineering methodology, a solution was designed to resolve these issues. The paper identifies the benefits that were achieved through the implementation of the re-engineered processes; some expected and others unexpected positive side-effects. The paper concludes by reflecting upon the longer term outcomes that the business has experienced since the project commenced.