Pairing for Progress

The Problem

Logistics company Rail Delivery Services (RDS) has been known in their industry for superior technology and service since 1985. However, their dispatcher operation system was written in an obsolete technology (FoxPro) and was preventing them from making competitive changes to their business model and services. Over the years, they had tried contracting offshore firms to help them build a replacement, as well as hiring their own team. Unfortunately, both efforts failed to produce a quality product capable of replacing their aging system. As their key system expert approached retirement, they urgently needed to replace this system but were wary about becoming dependent on an outside firm. After all, they had been burned in the past.

The Solution

• RDS approached Menlo to design and build a replacement system. Like most projects, Menlo’s High-Tech Anthropologists® facilitated important user discovery and design validation that ensured our client was moving in the right direction.
• We employed Menlo’s key practices of paired programming, Test-Driven Design, Quality Advocacy, and our unique approach to project planning and visual management in order to ensure that we would build a quality product and deliver on time.
• The twist? Each Menlo developer paired with an RDS developer, remotely.
• As we worked in different time zones, Menlo developers would pair for a few hours in the morning before rotating to pair with the RDS team. When the Menlo developers went home, the RDS team would pair with each other to move the project forward.
• As we built and replaced their dispatcher operation software, we also built capacity in their team for project management, development best practices, and a more robust organizational culture.

The Results

• Together, Menlo and RDS built a quality replacement for their dispatcher operation system that gets used every day.
• Over the years, RDS has continued and expanded the approach that they learned during their time at Menlo.
• RDS continues to extend and maintain their logistics system and use the process and culture they learned during their time partnering with Menlo to tackle new projects.