During Timebox B, the 'Hoy for Hoy Hall'Action Group disagreed about the planned outcome of the Timebox. The Project Manager organised a Facilitated…

Topic 2, XAN Insurance Company Web Project

XAN Insurance Company Web Project

(Note:

Xan is a medium-sized insurance company with a worldwide

customer base and a strong presence on the internet. Its website

has been in operation for fifteen years. It operates from one location

- a large, open-plan office in the centre of a city. It is a friendly

company with no separate private offices for individual managers.

Staff members prefer to wander around the office space and have

one-to-one chats rather than use email or have lots of meetings.

The Marketing Director is considering a project to develop a new

area on the current web site to sell a new type of insurance directly

to the proprietors of coffee bars, insuring them against minor

accidents to staff and customers. The targeted coffee bars are

privately-owned franchises and are mostly situated in railway

stations, airports and shopping centres.

The Marketing Director has not yet decided whether the system will

just provide information about insurance policies online and give

quotations, the policies then being set up later by normal mailing

and telephone contact. Alternatively, it may be possible for the

system to provide the complete set-up and sale of an insurance

policy online. In this case the system would need to enable the

online capture and processing of credit card details and the issue of

an insurance policy.

The Finance Director has budgetary control over all projects in the

company and is reluctant to release finance for projects where the

outcome, timeframe and benefits are not clear.

Because of the uncertainty about the amount of development and

the length of time it may take, it is difficult to set a timeframe on this

project. The Sales Manager, who reports to the Marketing Director,

has insisted that the website extensions needed for this project

must be operational within 12 weeks. The Sales Manager has a

You have been brought in to give advice on how an Agile

Project Management approach

can be used to keep control of this project and to ensure that

it delivers something useful to the business within 12 weeks.

After a brief feasibility assessment, conducted by the Sales

Manager, the Finance Director has decided to authorise a 12-week

project with the objective of producing a prototype system for

insurance for coffee bars, with a release at the end of that time. Six

selected coffee bars have agreed to complete an insurance

application form online, to trial the released website.