Quality Vision

Quality is built in not bolted on!

Successful transformations start with the right vision

Written by Steve Dennis, Executive Director, Spike[vlt_post_quote_block text="“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”
Jack Welch - CEO of General Electric" css=".vc_custom_1679657256896{background-color: #e04e99 !important;}"]At Spike, we fully understand the unique challenges faced in the retail sector and we support many key retailers who need a transformation programme to leap forward.

We know you will most likely feel daunted by so many moving parts that need to be delivered to tight timescales to maximise cost-benefit. And doing that alongside balancing BAU trading pressures and resource constraints, versus finding the right time to switch over with confidence.

And we know you want to balance future long-term success while building capability and processes that ensure you can keep your new shiny offering working to full benefit. It’s not easy, but we’re used to it and can take some of that pain away!

Quality Vision from Day One

Having a clear Quality Vision is a critical first step to transformation success. It’s the first thing we bring.

We identify critical problems, work out the key blockers, and provide a clear and pragmatic roadmap.

We work seamlessly in your teams to reduce inertia and to get things moving proactively across all the areas needing technology quality and to set your transformation up to succeed.

The value comes in knowing the right steps, which comes from a lifetime of working with businesses on transformation programmes.

Here are the key steps on our quality vision check list, feel free to use them yourself!

How We Do It – The Secret is in the People

Our deep technology experience shows us that what works well is to create a “One Team” approach to quality. We deliver a rigorous exercise designed to lay out the foundations for a successful transformation.

This exercise builds on your own ‘define and discover’ phase and delivers a clear view of testing, timing, resourcing, cost, and dependencies on you, us, and your third parties. The output is a fully defined scope and delivery roadmap for landing and beyond.

This critical foundation of ‘People’ allows us to follow this approach:

• The platform for a one-team approach and philosophy
• A sense of shared responsibility with key parties bought in early, so there’s no need to retrofit or waste effort.
• Capable Build & dev teams in place who can crack on, everyone gets an early warning of any deviations through oversight provided by Spike’s keen eyes.
• We can prepare an efficient plan run in parallel, ready for full end-to-end quality, once a critical mass build level is reached.
• Easy fixes can be addressed early for a reduction in niggly quality issues that can waste time and bring delays later.
• A focus on ‘proving the stripe’ to bring confidence early, showing end-to-end testing of full business processes, and reducing possible delays and missed requirements.
• The involvement of key business users is key early to ensure acceptance and keep the whole team involved in the journey to excellent quality.

Get It Right At The Start

Major retailers are trusting Spike to drive quality in their retail transformation programmes and then after, as they evolve and move into innovative development for further growth. We use the proven steps we have described here, but every client is different.

We work with businesses to use additional checklists and processes we know work to get the right data needed to identify the gaps and configure the roadmap. Businesses choose us for that peace of mind and although we need clients to be engaged, we do the heavy lifting and lead teams to technology greatness!

Use our checklist and the foundation of ‘people first’, as you move forward into your transformation programme. Or just call us!