Continuous Improvement Program

The CIP enables organisations to:

  • Identify, scope and govern the most impactful strategic technical improvements and their respective ROI
  • Provide highly specialised capability to deliver tangible changes with minimum (or no) impact on BAU
  • Create systemic knowledge-sharing mechanisms to sustain those changes over time

CIP: Strategic alignment, governance and execution

CIP_mobile_icon

For a better experience please rotate your device

Continuous Improvement programme infographic explaining the process from the improvement initiative to the outcome stream process.
  1. 1
    Steering Group provides business directions (KPIs/OKRs) (quarterly)
  2. 2
    Operations Group identifies technical improvement initiatives across the organisation that could contribute to business goals
  3. 3
    The Operations Group perform business impact and ROI analysis for each improvement initiative and presents it to the Steering Group for approval. (monthly)
  4. 4
    The Operations Group governs and manages the execution of all approved initiatives, making sure they are having the desired impact on business metrics. The Operations Group provides executive reports to the Steering Group (monthly)
  5. 5
    Dedicated and highly-skilled CIP teams execute initiatives, applying state-of-the-art technologies, practices and Software Craftsmanship mindset.
  6. 6
    CIP teams implement the strategic improvements and alongside the Operations Group extract golden standards to be shared with the wider organisation.
  7. 7
    Operations Group and CIP teams are responsible for the wider adoption of golden standards via the CIP Systemic Knowledge Sharing Framework*.

1_Legend_Graphic_Steering_Group

CIP Steering Group

CIP’s main stakeholders and sponsors. They are responsible for business and technical vision. They provide strategy directions and organisational support.

4_Legend_Graphic_Funnel

Initiatives Incubation Funnel

Initiative incubation process where initiatives are aligned to business goals by the Operations Group and approved (or rejected) by the Steering Group

7_Legend_Graphic_Golden Standards

Golden Standards

Good practices, architecture, technologies, automation, and processes that emerges from the work done by CIP teams and can be widely adopted.

9_Legend_Graphic_Delivery Teams

Delivery Teams

Software delivery teams aligned to specific areas of the organisation. They learn, adopt and benefit from CIP innovations and golden standards.

2_Legend_Graphic_Operations_Group

CIP Operations Group

Responsible for identifying and governing strategic initiatives, success of execution and cultural change. Fully dedicated to the CIP. Report directly to the Steering Group.

5_Legend_Graphic_Backlog

CIP Backlog

A prioritised list of approved CIP strategic initiatives to be distributed to and executed by CIP teams. The CIP backlog is governed by the Operations Group.

7_Legend_Graphic_Strategic Improvement

Strategic Improvements

Strategic improvements incrementally delivered by the CIP teams. They are delivered using Test-Driven Development (TDD), CI/CD, and Clean Code.

10_Legend_Graphic_Steering_Codurance

Codurance

Codurance provides technical and organisational consultants for the Operations Group and also cross-functional and high-skilled CIP teams.

3_Legend_Graphic_Initiatives

Business Areas

Vertical and horizontal areas of the organisation or product. The Operations Group work with the leadership of each area to identify strategic improvements.

6_Legend_Graphic_CIP Team

CIP Teams

High-skilled, disciplined and cross-functional teams. They master Extreme Programming practices and the Software Craftsmanship mindset.

8_Legend_Graphic_Knowledge_Sharing

Knowledge Sharing

The Operations Group and CIP teams are responsible for systemic knowledge sharing, ensuring the wider organisation adopts innovations and golden standards.

Benefits provided by the CIP

Using our CIP framework, refined across a decade of successful customer engagements, you will gain measurable improvements

Business Impact

  • Continuous process to identify, prioritize and implement impactful technical improvements.
  • Align strategic technical improvements with business goals.
  • Secure budget approval for strategic technical improvements.

Effective Engineering 

  • Accelerate the adoption of new technologies, practices, and new ways of working.
  • Assemble dedicated teams with the appropriate skill set for each strategic technical improvement.
  • Strategically tackle technical debt to reduce and prevent inefficiencies.

Strategic Governance

  • Single governance framework for managing all strategic technical initiatives.
  • Effectively elevate technical excellence with minimum or no impact on BAU.
  • Measure and prove impact of each technical initiative through business metrics.
  • Develop regular executive summaries that highlight the business impact of technical initiatives.

Systemic Learning

  •  Creation of golden standards, promoting consistency and best practices across the organization.
  • Systemic knowledge sharing through CoPs, seminars and direct support.
  • Create a culture of continuous improvement and learning throughout the organization.
  • High ROI in upskilling initiatives and people satisfaction.
Book your CIP meeting

Types of strategic initiatives

There are many different types of software modernisation techniques. They are solutions aimed at different problems and goals and are often combined under one or more CIP strategic initiatives. Here are just a few examples of the most common technical initiatives:

Software Modernisation

  • Reference architecture
  • Modular monolith
  • Microservices
  • Serverless architecture
  • UI Modernisation
  • Micro-frontends
  • Code refactoring
  • Performance optimization

Platform engineering

  • Cloud migration
  • Cloud modernisation
  • Elastic scaling
  • Monitoring & Alerting
  • Security & performance
  • Infrastructure as Code
  • Risk Management

Product development

  • Minimum Viable Product
  • Proof of concept
  • Product modularisation
  • Functional alignment
  • Architecture definition
  • Key areas isolation
  • Technology upgrade
  • User concurrency

Interoperability

  • SaaS and APIs design
  • Product portfolio integration
  • 3rd party integrations
  • Data engineering
  • Industry protocols
  • Regulatory reporting

Automation

  • Test pyramid automation
  • SDLC automation
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Delivery pipelines
  • Standards and procedures
  • Golden-master

How we’ve helped our clients

Don’t just take our word for it. We have delivered CIP to many leading enterprises where the only constant is change including

eClinicalworks case study card img

eClinicalWorks

The largest Cloud EHR in the United States entrusted us to guide their modernisation strategy - a formidable project to deliver while 1 million doctors, nurse practitioners and medical professionals continue to rely upon it daily to help them provide quality care worldwide.

Download Case Study
asos-case study card img

ASOS

The UK’s largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer worked with Codurance to work alongside their technology teams to train and coach them on how to continuously improve technology and practices.

Download Case Study
Codurance was a natural choice, being closely aligned with the culture we are trying to establish as well as being able to meet the significant demand for engineers in order to deliver. I have no hesitation with recommending Codurance for any organization looking to improve their culture of engineering excellence.

Ian Kershaw

Software Engineering Director at Cazoo

Article

Migrating AngularJS to Angular with a hybrid application

Learn more
Article

The importance of structure in software

Learn more

Tell us about your challenges

Find out how Codurance’s solutions can help your business.