agile case(mist2016)
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Case Study:
Software development strategy for launching a
Banking product1
Prologue
Anu Kapoor, VP, i-banking platform at Firm-G, a leading Indian bank has just
received a note from the !"#s o$ce%
&he note 'as brief and crisp(
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)ear Anu,
As *ou ma* be a'are, 'e are planning to launch our ne+t generation Portfolio isk
.anager/% &his product is targeted at our top 012 retail banking clients 'ho
cumulativel* have a share of 312 of our asset under management 4retail5%
6uccessful launch of this product is critical to the business strateg* of the bank%
A steering committee has been formed to oversee the design and launch of the
product% &he steering committee 'ill comprise of the hief !+ecutive "$cer, hief
Information "$cer, VP 7 ore 8anking, VP 7 orporate 8anking, 6VP 7 Private
8anking, and VP - Product esearch%
ould *ou please present the steering committee 'ith *our recommendation on theI& development strateg* for the product design and implementation9 &he ne+t
steering committee meeting is scheduled for the Frida* of the follo'ing 'eek% .*
secretar* 'ill revert on the meeting logistics%
6) : !"
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0 &he case 'as developed b* avi A% ao 'ith guidance from Professor ahul )e;, of
the Indian Institute of .anagement 8angalore% esearch assistance 'as provided b*
Abhipsa Pal% op*right is held b* II. 8angalore 4<10=5% >Please do not circulate?%
&hough based on a real @rm, the case data has been changed to protect
con@dentialit* of respondents% &he case is meant for in-class discussion and ma*
not be cited as a resource%
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Anu 'as not surprised 'ith the email 7 neither its tone nor the content% Indeed it
'as a strange reuest to receive a note for presenting the I& development strateg*
to the !"#s o$ce% 8ut 'ith Information &echnolog* pla*ing an increasing role in
shaping the market strateg*, Firm-G 'as compelled to launch a product that could
potentiall* disrupt and change the current competition landscape% Bith a ver*
aggressive time-to-market constraint and the challenge of unclear businessreuirements, the development of the soft'are had suddenl* become the most
critical factor in the successful launch of the product%
&he choice that Anu had to make 'as ver* simple 7 a5 'hether to develop in-house
or to outsource, and b5 'hat soft'are development methodolog* to use9 Bhile
these uestions seemed to have te+tbook ans'ers, she kne' that her task 'as
going to be a lot more di$cult%
The Company:Firm-G is a large nationaliCed bank in operation for over D= *ears% Bith over =111
branches, about =1,111 emplo*ees and revenue of over E01 8illion, Firm-G is one of
the leading retail banks in the countr*%
"ver the *ears, Firm-G has e+panded into several other banking related areas
including housing @nance, life insurance and general insurance% Bith a buo*ant
capital market, Firm-G has plans of launching a @nancial securities and derivatives/
oering integrated 'ith the banking business%
A brief overvie' of the banking sector and Firm-G#s market position is available in
!+hibit A%
The IT Department:
Firm-G has been an earl* adopter of a technolog*-led core-banking solution and
prided themselves on their use of technolog*% &he I& department is headed b* %V%
angarajan or V as ever*one in Firm-G kne' him as% V 'as an industr*
veteran of = *ears having spent his initial *ears at -)A% V has been 'ith
Firm-G for close to <= *ears no'% Bith a fe' 'orking *ears left, V has silentl*
desired to spend his remaining time in Firm-G 'ith minimal stress% Ho'ever, his
leadership and vision 'ere being uestioned of late, and he 'as seen to beincreasingl* under stress%
&he I& portfolio at Firm-G consisted of the three groups( ore-8anking, orporate
8anking and Internet 8anking% !ach of the groups is head b* a Vice President 'ho
reported to V%
CoreBanking
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Firm-G implemented the core-banking soft'are from I-8ank-Al'a*s 4I8A5% &he
product has evolved over the last t'ent* *ears, and Firm-G had a big role in shaping
the product to their needs% urrentl*, Firm-G has outsourced the maintenance and
operation of the ore-8anking solution to I8A% I8A has deplo*ed a team of 0<
engineers to support this application% "f these 0< engineers, J= are deplo*ed for
operations support across the regional o$ces% &he remaining engineers 'ork out of a dedicated development center that 'as set-up in the I8A o$ce% &hese D
engineers are tasked 'ith providing upgrades, production support, and reporting
services%
&he ore-8anking product is a ni+-based product 'ith a 'eb front end% &ill
recentl*, the product had a 'indo's front-end% A major upgrade activit* undertaken
03 months back migrated the user interface to a 'eb-based front-end%
&he contract 'ith I8A is a @+ed-price Annual .aintenance ontract 4A.5% According
to the rules of the contract, I8A 'as authoriCed to add = personnel for ever* 1 ne'
branches that are opened%
CorporateBanking
orporate banking is run b* )%K% 6engupta, 'ho is kno'n to run a ver* tight shop%
His team consists of onl* 03 emplo*ees and < consultants 'ho oer specialiCed
services such as Assets and 6ecurities, Fore+ 4foreign e+change5, &reasur*, and isk
hedging products% &hese applications are mostl* custom-built that 'ere developed
as an add-on to the ore-8anking product%
&he orporate 8anking group has an ongoing stream of service modules that get
regularl* added to the core-banking product% &he soft'are development process for
each of the modules is a 'ell controlled process% &he modules reuire about 0< to
03 months of design and build% &he t*pical activities for a ne' module involve the
follo'ing steps(
- A business case and product idea from the business group- An approval from the 8usiness leadership and the !"#s o$ce- A 8usiness consulting session of 0 to months 4usuall* led b* one of the
8ig-= consulting groups5 that ended in a 8usiness euirements )ocument
48)5- A reuest for proposal 4FP5 for a @+ed-price development Loated to =
empanelled vendors 4I8A being one of them 7 though the* rarel* 'on the
bid5%- suall* a M-0= month implementation timeline for 6*stem Appreciation,
)esign, 8uild, ser Acceptance &esting 4A&5 and Implementation% &he A& is
usuall* a month e+ercise that involves a production run in a controlled
environment% &'o times in the past, the A& had failed and the vendor had to
take additional time to @+ the defects%
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&he contract for the 8) phase is al'a*s a &ime N .aterial 4&N.5 ontract%
Ho'ever, the contract t*pe for the )evelopment phase is usuall* a Fi+ed Price 4FP5
contract having stringent 6OAs and Penalt* clauses% "nce the module 'as
implemented, the support for that 'as taken over b* the internal I& sta%
InternetBanking
Firm-G launched their i-banking services 03 months back% &he i-banking platform
'as integrated 'ith the core-banking platform% &he initial product 'as procured
from I8A over 1 months back% &he product 'as supposed to have a standard
solution and 'as e+pected to be deplo*ed over one uarter% Ho'ever, it took Firm-G
more than 0< months to integrate the i-banking platform to the core-banking
product% As a result, Firm-G 'as at least a *ear behind in their launch of their
i-banking product%
Anu Kapoor is the VP responsible for the i-banking platform% Anu has a premier
engineering degree from an II&% Immediatel* after her graduation, Anu had taken up
emplo*ment 'ith a leading banking @rm in the 6A% After having spent a couple of
decades in the 6A, Anu decided to return back to her roots% )espite advise from
friends, Anu decided to join an old-sector bank and took up the oer from Firm-G to
head their internet banking division%
&he last 1 months in her ne' job had been ever*thing short of being pleasant% Anu
found Firm-G#s 'orking culture constraining her from taking independent decisions
relating to the functioning of the i-banking platform% 6he had a vision of internet
banking that her peers and superiors failed to comprehend% 6he 'as of the opinion
that 'hile the I8A core-banking platform 'as good, the* 4I8A5 did not have a good
internet oering% Ho'ever, the I& core committee decided to go 'ith I8A, despiteher advice%
Further, 'hen it 'as clear that I8A 'as struggling to implement the platform,
Firm-G;s leadership team decided to provide them an e+tended run% o', 'ith over
a *ear of dela* in implementation, and having lost the market share in the internet
banking business, Anu felt that the leadership team suddenl* seemed to realiCe that
the* had lost critical time-to-market advantages% Further, Anu, as the head of the
department, 'as no' being held responsible for Firm-G#s loss in market shareQ
efer to !+hibit 8 for a brief overvie' of Firm-G#s i-banking platform and its
comparison 'ith other bank#s solutions%
!ew Product "#ering
An operations revie' meeting for each of the banking platforms 'as held in the @rst
'eek of ever* uarter% &his meeting 'as attended b* all the business unit heads,
the I" and the VP responsible for the platform% &he !" made a presentation in
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the last operations revie' meeting% He had invited a gentleman named K%
amanathan to this meeting%
Bithout mincing his 'ords, the !" communicated his displeasure 'ith the
i-banking platform% Firm-G 'as not onl* a *ear late in launching their internet
businessR the* 'ere also trailing behind on the launch of ne' services and oerings%.ost of the competitors 'ere no' launching ne+t generation products such as
mobile-banking, sms-banking, safe-banking, one-touch banking and a series of
other products% Anu felt that some of these services 'ere indeed revolutionar* -
leveraging 6.A 4an acron*m that stands for 6ocial .edia, Anal*tics and loud5<
technologies to the full e+tent, 'hile others 'ere just there to confuse the
consumers% evertheless, Firm-G had not been a market leader in launching an* of
these services and instead, al'a*s seemed to be out of breath catching up 'ith the
competition%
&he !" introduced amanathan as a *oung recruit 'ho has been roped in to head
the product research team% amanathan 4aka K5 had a masters degree from theIndian 6tatistical Institute and a )octorate in Applied 6tatistics from Harvard% K
proposed to launch a ne' Portfolio isk .anager 4P.5 that 'ould be a
@rst-of-its-kind oering from a banking @rm in India% P. had the potential of being
a ke* business driver for the retail banking business 7 particularl* for the pro@le of
customers 'ho 'ere likel* to bank over the internet%
&he !" told V and Anu in no unclear terms that this 'as their chance for
redemption% Oaunching the P. product should be top priorit*, and that Firm-G
should aim to launch the product 'ithin si+ months%
The Pro$ect
Post the ops revie' meeting, V had a discussion 'ith Anu% For the @rst time, V
con@ded that the* had made a mistake 'ith the i-banking solution and should have
heeded to Anu#s advise and not pursued the I8A solution% He oered Anu a free
hand to decide on the ne+t steps for developing the P. product%
Her @rst action 'as to seek an appointment 'ith K to understand the project#s
comple+it*% K appeared to be a pleasing, though eccentric, personalit*% A brief
interaction 'ith K 'as su$cient for Anu to realiCe that K 'as brilliant in his
subject% Bhile he had an incredible belief on ho' the product could revolutioniCe
retail banking and portfolio management, he seemed to have no idea on ho' toconvert this idea into a soft'are application% He spoke in vague terms such as
.onte-arlo/, )ata !nvelopment/, .arko'itC .odel/ and a 'hole lot of other
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terms that did not mean an*thing to her% And K did not seem to connect to an* of
Anu#s vocabular* such as screens, databases and functionsQQ
A brief outline of the objective of the P. product is provided in !+hibit % K
further mentioned that there is no one 'a* of developing a portfolio risk
management solution% It 'ill need a series of simulations to be performed based onthe dierent class of consumers that the bank has and the response the* get from
these dierent sets of consumers%
After revie'ing the challenges of developing the P. product, Anu 'as becoming
increasingl* a'are of the risk of taking up the assignment in its current form%
Question 1: Highlight the ke* risks and challenges in the project%
%gile Software Development approach
Bhile she 'as pondering over these challenges in her o$ce, she chanced upon an
article on Agile soft'are development that caught her attention% Intrigued b* thearticle, she decided to e+plore further the use of Agile methods as an option for
developing the product% 6he immediatel* commissioned one of the bright ne'
management trainees that she had recentl* hired to provide a summar* overvie'
on the advantages and challenges in adopting agile methods for soft'are
development% A summar* of the report provided b* the management trainee is
provided in !+hibit )%
Question 2: !valuate the suitabilit* of using Agile methods for developing the
Portfolio isk .anager product% Bhat internal skills and resources should the client
@rm have to ensure Agile 'orks9 Bhat are the risks in using Agile9
% skeptic&s opinion on %gile
Having made an initial assessment of the feasibilit* of developing the product in an
Agile 'a*, Anu decided to seek the opinion of her peer from the orporate 8anking
division% )K 'as kno'n to have ver* successfull* implemented several soft'are
modules on top of the core-banking platform% )K#s advice 'as ver* clear% Sou
cannot implement an*thing in si+ months% &hese products are comple+ and critical%
&here is onl* one 'a* of getting it right% !ngage 'ith a top consulting @rm, ensure
that *our reuirements are air tight, have a rigid contract, and recruit the best
outsourcing compan* to deliver it% )K#s @rm advise( I have implemented eighteen
highl* comple+ and critical applications on the corporate-banking platform% &here isonl* one 'a* of doing it right 7 ensure that *our reuirements are air tight and give
it su$cient time% !ver*thing else 'ill fall in place%/
Anu felt that )K#s advice 'as ver* sound% Bith K speaking onl* statistics, she
could visualiCe ho' di$cult it 'ould be to convert his thoughts into business
reuirements% Ho'ever, 'ith mounting pressure from 'ithin and outside to launch
ne' products in the market, Anu kne' that an* project plan that 'ent be*ond si+
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months 'ould not be acceptable% 6o, she sought )K#s advise on using Agile
methods for developing the project%
)K came across as uite 'ell-informed on the challenges of using Agile% First, he
pointed out that Agile 'as being used b* the ne'-technolog* industr* and not *et
'idel* adopted b* the @nancial services industr*% 6o, @nding teams that are a'areof Agile methods could be a challenge% He further recounted the e+perience of his
classmate 'ho 'as the I" of a large telecommunications provider% His friend had
apparentl* engaged an Agile/ service provider to develop a mobile based
bill-presentation soft'are for the telecommunication consumers% Bhat 'as
apparentl* a simple mobile application that 'as supposed to be developed in three
months 'as shelved after si+ months of development%
In )K#s o'n 'ords( .* friend engaged Agile-6oft to develop the mobile
bill-presentation soft'are% Agile-6oft suggested developing the soft'are using
6crum and deplo*ed a team of si+ people including a scrum master, four developers
and a tester% .* friend 'as asked to nominate one person from his team 'ho 'asnominated as the product o'ner% &he product o'ner, 'hom m* friend nominated,
'as from the I& team and did not kno' the detailed product reuirements%
Agile-6oft assured that it 'as oka* and that the* don#t need all the reuirements to
be speci@ed upfront% &he* 'ere perfectl* happ* 'ith kno'ing just su$cient
reuirements that the* can develop in t'o 'eeks and then come back and ask for
more reuirements% Sou can imagine 'hat#s going to happen right9 After t'o
months of development, the business users realiCed that the current set of
reuirements 'as not compliant 'ith those developed earlier, so the* 'ent back
and changed the earlier ones% &hen the soft'are developers realiCed that the
database design had become too un'ield* because of the freuent changes in
reuirements% I 'as told that the core bill-presentation engine 'as modi@ed some
03 times in three months% Apparentl*, the business o'ner 'as constantl* given a
demo of the application and the* seemed to be happ* 'ith 'hat the* 'ere seeing%
8ut 'hen it came to user acceptance testing 4kno'n as A&5, the* found that the
application could not be rolled out into production% It took them t'o hours for a
simple transaction to completeQ I suspect that the design and code had become too
un'ield*% Sou can#t develop an application onl* b* sho'ing the screens to the users%
6o, m* friend had an advice for me 7 use agile 'hen *ou don#t kno' the
reuirements and T 'hen *ou don#t intend to complete the projectQ/
% practitioner&s opinion on %gile
At the end of this depressing chat 'ith )K, Anu 'as uite confused% Bhile the
te+tbook agile practices promised a great amount of agilit* and Le+ibilit*, the actual
realit* seemed to be other'ise% "n her 'a* back from )K#s o$ce, she bumped into
Kartik, a ne' manager she had hired% 6he recollected Kartik coming from an Agile
project management background, and thought it 'orth'hile to speak to him%
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Karthik shared his e+periences on running an agile project - t*pical approach,
challenges and bene@ts% A transcript of the discussion bet'een Anu and Kartik is
provided in !+hibit !%
&hat evening Anu decided to do her o'n research on cases 'here Agile 'orked% 6he
found that organiCations like G!, and even government organiCations like the F8I inthe 6A 'ere leveraging agile methodolog* successfull* % 8ut these 'ere success
stories from abroad% Anu 'as 'ondering if it 'ould 'ork in a public sector bank like
Firm-G in India%
Decision time
&he ne+t morning, Anu received the note from the !"#s o$ce% &he note 'as copied
to V% A steering committee 'as being formed to decide on the ne+t course of
action for developing the product% 6he had a sense of a dUj vu% &hirt* months back,
'hen she @rst stepped into Firm-G, her @rst task 'as to present a plan for the
i-banking platform development% 6he dreaded the turn of events since then and
'ished she could change things around this time%
Questions:
% Bhat should Anu do9 Heed to )K#s advice and follo' a 'aterfall approach to the
product development, or risk taking an agile approach9% Bhat are the ke* controls she should e+ercise to increase the chances of
success9=% 6hould Anu do the development in-house or out-source the product
development9J% Bhat internal skills and resources should she align 'ithin her team to ensure the
project runs smoothl*9D% Bhat criteria should she use to evaluate the outsourcing @rms for a'arding the
contract 4in the case of outsourced development59 Highlight ke* parameters that
*ou 'ould 'ant to be included in the contract%
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'(hi)it % : Banking Sector and *irm+
The history of public sector banks in India dates back in 1955 when Imperial Bank of India became the
State Bank of India. This was followed by Government of India nationaliin! 1" banks in 19#9. $urrently
there are 19 public sector banks %refer to &i!ure' 1(. Bankin! industry is a ma)or developmental tool for
India*s economy. +ost of the banks were founded prior to 195,- and till 19#- they or!anied themselves
independently. /fter nationaliation of banks in 19#9- the public sector bankin! sector !rew heavily under
support from the !overnment. 0rivate banks nearly perished. The epansion of nationalied banks
continued as the total number of branches !rew from ,,, branches in 19#9 to nearly ",-,,, by 195.
2owever- from 195 onwards- the profits and productivity started declinin! due to various reasons like
poor work culture of the employees- no market competition from private banks- corruption and outdated
technolo!y. &ollowin! this- the 3eserve Bank of India %3BI( made private commercial banks* entry into
the industry easy by a liberaliation policy. This resulted in stiff competition- and from 199" onwards- the
public sector banks- already low on profit- started reformatory activities in terms of customer services and
use of modern technolo!y.
Pu)lic Sector Banks in IndiaAllahabad 8ankAndhra 8ank8ank of 8arodanited 8ank of India8ank of India8ank of .aharashtraanara 8ankVija*a 8ankentral 8ank of Indiaorporation 8ank)ena 8ankIndian 8ankIndian "verseas 8ank"riental 8ank of ommercenion 8ank of IndiaPunjab N 6ind 8ankPunjab ational 8ank6*ndicate 8ank" 8ankFigure 0( Public 6ector 8anks in India%
Bankin! is a service industry and customer service plays a ma)or role. 4et- in the first few decades of public sector bankin!- employee work culture was far from bein! customer friendly. In the absence of
convenient money transaction systems like /T+s and internet bankin!- customers were even more
dependent on the banks* branch offices. 0ublic sector banks did not face any competition from private
banks- and therefore the employees followed a relaed work culture. on! 6ueues at the counter- refusal
to process any transaction beyond strict 1,am75pm workin! hours accompanied with etended lunch
breaks- difficulty in openin! new accounts- and unavoidable need of bribin! bank officials for loans and
other transactions- were common eperiences at any of the nationalied banks. In spite of these poor
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customer services- public sector banks dominated the bankin! business in India for two reasons. 8ne-
3eserve Bank of India decided the interest rates hence there was little scope of market competition. Two-
3BI had restricted new entry of banks.
In 199"- 3BI issued the policy of liberaliation that reduced the entry barrier for new banks. Soon there
was a sudden sur!e in competition as new private banks started enterin! the market. Some eamples of
private banks currently in India are I$I$I Bank- /is Bank- IG :ysya Bank- ;arnataka Bank- ;otak
+ahindra Bank- etc. The private banks brou!ht modern technolo!y alon! with them. It is these new
private sector banks that have revolutionied customer service. They forced the public sector banks to
adopt similar information technolo!y and customer satisfaction schemes. This directly impacted the
casual workin! culture that had prevailed in the public sector banks- forcin! them to offer services
comparable- if not e6ual- to the private banks. <ith 3BI fiin! the interest rates- thereby restrictin! the
freedom of competin! throu!h better rates- the only way to create a difference was by services.
The technically advanced private banks contributed to the overall development of the bankin! sector in
India. &aced with competition- over =,,, branches of public sector banks were completely computeried.
This resulted in both faster customer services and more centralied control of the branches. There wasstrate!ic plannin! for better operations and services with the new information systems- other than the
basic data7storin! and accountin! activities.
> > >
/lon! with other banks- &irm7G was nationalied in 19#9. $urrently it has a network of more than 5-5,,
branches across India- at places includin! metropolitans- towns and rural villa!es- with "-,, employees
workin! in India and a few offices abroad %ondon- 2on! ;on!- +oscow- ?ubai- ?oha- Shan!hai and
ew 4ork(. It has =-,,, /T+s- with approimately @-,,, branches offerin! Internet and mobile bankin!
%I+B( services and another @-,,, branches providin! anywhere bankin! services.
&irm7G !rew massively durin! the post7nationaliation period- after 19#9. 2owever- 19,s witnessed a
decline in profitability due to various factors includin! poor technolo!y- political intervention in loan
policies- low capital- ecessive branch epansions- etc. &ollowin! this was the liberaliation by 3BI
invitin! new private banks into the industry. The first private bank after liberaliation was Global Trust
Bank- followed by 2ousin! ?evelopment &inance $orporation imited %2?&$(. /lon! with the poor
profitability and productivity- this posed a si!nificant threat to &irm7G. It realied- radical reformation
was etremely important.
8ne such reformatory step was startin! a ma)or IT initiative to network all its branches and move them to
a sin!le software platform. This helped it launch its Internet Bankin! facilities in @,,A- followed by total
computeriation of all branches in @,,". $urrently- about @@ million customers are benefitin! from theseIT services. This initiative tri!!ered the recruitment of software en!ineers with work eperience- and
senior mana!ement employees with +ana!ement in Information Systems education and eperience.
Some key stren!ths of &irm7G are'
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It has superior financial performance.
Its capital ade6uacy ratio is !ood. $apital ade6uacy ratio measures the bank*s capital as a
percenta!e of bank*s risk. It is important for the safety of the depositor and determines the bank*s
stability.
It has started new IT initiatives to secure a competitive ed!e with latest technolo!y.
It has innovative schemes and policies- includin! the Solar oan 0ro!ram. It is recruitin! continuously- and currently has employee stren!th of above "5-,,,.
The ma)or weaknesses include'
It has poor marketin! and publicity schemes- compared to the competin! private banks.
There are fewer branches and hence it has a weaker presence in <estern India.
It is facin! continuous threat from the private banks e6uipped with modern technolo!y and
superior customer service policies.
Table 1' $omparison of &irm G with its competitor banks %as on +arch @,1"(
Firm-G Competitor 1 of Firm-G
Competitor 2 of Firm-G
Competitor 3 of Firm-G
ATMs #-5,9 #-#5" 11-"@# 11-""=
Number of
Employees
"-,, "#-,,, #-@,, =@-@,,
Number of
Branches
5-5,= 5-,5# A-" A-5A
eposits !in "s#
millions$
"-@,#-,A= 5-=99-9=1 A-#=,-,A A-595-1@=
A%&ances !in "s#millions$
A-,1A-@#, "-,A=-15" A-15"-19 A-=A-"1
Net fi'e% assets
!in "s# millions$
##-#@, @-"9A A,-@#A 55-,#
(hare capital !in
"s# millions$
"-#1A "-A,= "-=9 11-55,
)n&estments !in
"s# millions$
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Total assets !in
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1@@.5 @,5.= 99. A=5.9
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i&i%en%s per
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11.,, @1.5, #.5 @A.,,
Net interest
income !in "s#
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9-#"# 1@-55 191-,9# 19=-##
.peratin,e'pense !in "s#
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3&3$S
0% Samar Srivastava- Cconomic +ilestone' ationalisation of Banks %19#9(*- %@,1"(- &orbes India
<% /bhiman ?as- Subhash $. 3ay- /shok a!- Cabor7use efficiency in Indian
bankin!'/branch7level analysis*- %@,,9(- International Dournal of +ana!ement Science
% Surabhi Sin!h- 3enu /rora- C/ $omparative Study of Bankin! Services and $ustomer
Satisfaction in 0ublic- 0rivate and &orei!n Banks*- %@,11(- Dournal of conomics
% http'EEmarketpublishers.com
=% https'EEwww.e6uitymaster.comEresearch7it
J% $anara Bank <ebsite 7 https'EEwww.canarabank.in
D% Bank of Baroda <ebsite 7 www.bankofbaroda.co.in
3% 2?&$ Bank <ebsite 7 www.hdfcbank.com
M% I$I$I Bank <ebsite 7 www.icicibank.com
http'EEprofit.ndtv.comEstockEcanara7bankFcanbkEreports
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'(hi)it B : Internet Banking
I$I$I bank was the first bank in India to launch internet bankin! services as early as 199. Soon after-
other banks followed suit. / typical internet bankin! facility- also known as i7bankin!- net bankin!- or
online bankin!- consists of the multiple services that can be availed from anywhere via the online bank
account- without any physical presence of the customer at the bank*s branch.The services typically include'
0% :iewin! recent transactions and current balances
<% ?ownloadin! bank statement in 0?& or tet format
% 8rderin! che6ue books
% inkin! other accounts of the same customer and fund transfers to these accounts
=% &und transfers to other account holders %same bank or different bank(
J% +obileE?T2 online rechar!e
D% 8penin! new accounts of the same customer for 3ecurrin! ?eposits- &ied ?eposits- etc.
3% Third7party bill payments in case of 8nline 0ayment durin! online shoppin!- online ticket
bookin!- etc.
M% /pplyin! for a loan
01%/pplyin! for new credit card
Internet bankin! has !ained immense popularity over the years. The common reasons of popularity of
i7bankin! are'
0% Con&enience' It saves tremendous amount of time to accesses the account and doin! transactions
without physically visitin! the bank branch or office. ?aily transactions like fund transfer to
another person- mobile rechar!e and bill payments can be comfortably done from anywhere-
startin! from home- or workplace- or even while travelin!- if the user has a computer or a mobile
phone with internet connection.
<% (ecurity' 8nline bank accounts are linked to the customers mobile and the account holder
receives an S+S for all transactions. This is a protection a!ainst any theft as the customer caninform the bank as soon as it happens. /lso- the ease with which a customer can view hisEher
account helps himEher track all previous transactions- in a chronolo!ically sorted manner.
% No /ueues' arlier- banks used to be identified by lon! 6ueues of customers waitin! for a bank
personnel servin! them individually for activities like cash transactions- new account openin! and
passbook updatin!. I7bankin! has made all these possible via the user*s online account. Banks are
usually much less crowded these days.
% A%%itional (er&ices' Some banks provide etra features in their i7bankin! facility. &or eample-
the iWish scheme launched by I$I$I bank is a fleible recurrin! deposit. / customer can open an
iWish account- and deposit fleible amounts to hisEher account every month- throu!h net bankin!.
(toc0 Tra%in, latforms
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&i!ure @' I$I$I Bank*s Internet Bankin! %ser /ccount Screen(
Indian banks have started providin! online stock tradin! platforms for account holders to trade
stocks and monitor the stock prices re!ularly- throu!h a sin!le window. The customer is re6uired
to open a demat account in order to access the facilities. The common features of a stock tradin!
platform provided by banks include'
0% asy transactions between the customer*s various accounts Hbankin!- demat and tradin!
accounts.
<% :iew current stock prices- market fluctuations- top !ainersElosers- etc.
% The customer can view current mar!in status- holdin! report- order and trade- on a real time
basis.
% The bank also provides recommendations and su!!estions to its customers on the tradin!
moves.
=% It also provides the facility for buyin! +utual &unds.
J% The platform has innovative tools to help the user mana!e his stocks and make better
investment decisions.
D% It also allows the user to create and mana!e multiple portfolios of all asset classes.
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$urrently several banks in India have online stock tradin! platforms- which include State Bank of
India %SBI(- $anara Bank- 2?&$ Bank- I$I$I Bank- and many more.
&i!ure @' 8nline Stock Tradin! 0latform of $anara Bank
3&3$S
0% S.:i!nesh- CInternet Bankin! In India*- %@,1"(- IS3 /TI8/ Dournal of /dvanced 3esearch
in $omputer Science n!ineerin! and Information Technolo!y
<% I$I$I Bank*s 2omepa!e H www.icici.com- accessed on @A7Dan715
% $anara Bank*s <ebpa!e H www.canarabank.com- accessed on @A7Dan715
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'(hi)it C : Portfolio ,isk -anager
"ver the last decade, Firm-G had diversi@ed the solution it oered to its clients% &he
@rm#s product oerings through its various divisions and subsidiaries included(
- ore banking services
- Housing @nance and other loan services- Oife and General insurance- 8rokerage services
o !uities and )erivativeso )ebt, 8onds and .one* market instrumentso Alternative investments such as hedge funds, commodities and real
estates
Bhile Firm-G had diversi@ed its product oerings, more than M12 of their revenue
came from the core-banking services% Firm-G 'as unable to eectivel* sell the
various products to their clients% "ver the *ears, Firm-G had developed a strong
relation 'ith most of the leading corporate @rms in the nation and managed thesalar* accounts of several million customers% Ho'ever, most of these customers
limited their business 'ith the bank to savings bank and related products% As a
result, Firm-G 'as not able to tap into the large disposable income of these clients%
"ver the last couple of *ears, Firm-G had established a strong research desk% &he
@rm had spent considerable amount of time, eort and mone* in branding their
research desk% &he management felt that it 'as time to leverage the brand euit*
of their research desk for ne' customer acuisition and increase their business of
e+isting customers%
A ke* to their plan 'as the patented isk Pro@ling/ algorithm developed b* theirresearch desk% Firm-G aimed at oering portfolio management advice that 'as
po'ered b* the isk Pro@ling/ algorithm as a free service to its clients% Firm-G sa'
this as an opportunit* to gain access to its client#s portfolio, provide
recommendation on portfolio alteration that are essential, and then use this
opportunit* to push Firm-G product%
&he Portfolio isk .anager product 'as conceived as a native mobile app that 'as
to be made available as a free do'nload% &he ke* product reuirements included(
- "er the risk pro@ling/ application as a stand-alone app that can be used
directl* b* the client%- !nable the risk-pro@ling/ of the client through a heuristic based model that
eliminated standard surve* based uestionnaires- ombine past market performances, research desk outlook, asset distribution
pattern and the personal risk pro@le to recommend optimal asset allocations- Provide in-depth anal*tics and 'hat-if models that are simple enough for the
consumers to use but oer po'erful insights to their portfolio
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- An advanced version 'ould be to integrate the application 'ith the i-banking
and trading platform%- A fe' ke* technical considerations include
o )ata privac* and protectiono &he high computational reuirementso .obile form factor and the abilit* to provide rich and intuitive anal*sis
reports
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'(hi)it D: % )rief introduction to %gile Development -ethodologies
&he Baterfall .odel/ has been the traditional approach to soft'aredevelopment% &he 'aterfall model follo's an approach of developingsoft'are in several 'ell de@ned stages such as reuirements de@nition,
anal*sis, design, coding, testing and implementation% &he focus of each of the stages is to complete the activities of the stage, obtain an approval fromthe sponsor and then proceed on to the ne+t stage% &he focus of the 'aterfallmodel is to bring in predictabilit* to the comple+ activit* of soft'aredevelopment b* prescribing 'ell-de@ned process for each of the stages andensuring adeuate revie's and approvals before proceeding on to the ne+tstage%
6oft'are development is ho'ever seen to be a comple+, chaotic and largel*unpredictable process% 6oft'are reuirements have often been kno'n to beunpredictable and constantl* changing% 6oft'are development is a skillbased activit* that reuires the co-ordination bet'een diverse sets of people%ontrolling the soft'are development process through 'ell-de@ned projectplans and air-tight revie' processes is often seen to be a challenging activit*%
"ver the last decade and half, a ne' set of methodologies in soft'aredevelopment have evolved 'ith a focus on adaptive rather than predictiveRand people-oriented rather than process-oriented methods% &hese methods'ere commonl* kno'n as agile/ development methods% Oeaders andproponents of various agile development methods formed the AgileAlliance/ and developed the Agile .anifesto/= as an alternate soft'aredevelopment paradigm%
&he agile manifesto is based on a set of t'elve principlesJ
% "ne set of theseprinciples is around self-organiCed teams, stressing on the need formotivated and skilled human resources, the need for co-location andco-'orking of users and developers, and freuent interaction bet'een theteam and the users% A second set of principles is around the importance of customer satisfaction, the need to accommodate changing businessreuirements, and collaborating 'ith the customer as against follo'ing acontract% &he principle of accommodating changing reuirements reuiresthat the project teams be adaptive rather than predictive, 'ith a focus onresponding to change rather than follo'ing a strict plan% Another set of principles focuses on creating value b* freuentl* delivering 'orking
soft'are at regular short intervals%
= http(::agilemanifesto%org:
J http(::agilemanifesto%org:principles%html
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Scrum and .P
&he various agile methods are oriented around these principles% &'o of themost popular agile methods are 6crum and eWtreme Programming 4WP5%6crumD is a project management based frame'ork for developing soft'are inan agile manner 'hile WP3 focuses on the engineering aspect reuired todevelop soft'are in an agile manner% A combination of agile and WP is oftenused b* soft'are developing vendors adopting agile methods% &he @gureprovided belo' provides an overvie' of 6crum and WP%
D http(::'''%scrumguides%org:scrum-guide%html
3
http(::+programming%com:'hat-is-e+treme-programming:
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Figure( Agile 6oft'are )evelopment using 6crum and WP
6crum emplo*s an incremental approach to soft'are development and aims to
optimiCe predictabilit* and control risk through transparenc*, inspection and
adaptation% 6crum team consists of three roles( the 6crum .aster responsible for
ensuring that the process is understood and follo'edR the Product "'nerresponsible for ma+imiCing the value of the 'ork done b* the teamR and the &eam
comprising of developers% 6crum processes are time-bo+ed to create regularit*( the
development c*cle is a 6print that is an iteration of one month or lessR dail* 6crum
meetings are limited to @fteen minutes, the 6print planning meeting is limited to
eight hours and the 6print retrospective meeting is time-bo+ed to three hours% &he
primar* objectives of the 6print meetings are to enable inspections and continuous
adaptations% &he 6crum artifacts comprise of the Product-8acklogs that includes the
prioritiCed list of product featuresR the 6print-8acklog that consists of 6print tasksR
and the 8urn-do'n charts that measures the remaining backlog over time% &here
are a set of rules/ that govern the 6crum roles, time-bo+es and artifacts%
&he 6crum .aster#s role is to ensure that the team follo's the 6crum principles and
rules% &his involves coaching the team members and enabling them to form a
self-organiCed team% &he other important role of the 6crum .aster is to remove
impediments/% &he Product "'ner is responsible for managing the product backlog
and ensuring that the output of the team is of value/ to the stake holders% &he
&eam members are skilled, cross-functional developers 'ho form a self-organiCed
team and convert the product backlog into 'orkable soft'are% 8eing a
self-organiCed team means no-one 4not even the 6crum .aster5 commands the
team 'ith respect to converting the product backlog to 'orkable soft'are%
Assignment of tasks is done through a volunteering for tasks b* the team members%
&here are t'o ancillar* roles, the management 4project management e+ternal to the
scrum team5 and the stakeholders 4vendors or customers5 'ho are recipient of the
output of the 6crum team%
&he @nal output of the 6crum team at the end of each 6print is an increment of
product functionalit* that is considered as done/% &he entire 6crum team has to
have a shared understanding of the de@nition of 'hat done/ is( t*picall* a running
increment of the product that is potentiall* shippable to the end customer and
consists of onl* those functionalities that is of considerable value to the stake
holder%
6ome of the concepts introduced b* WP that are freuentl* adopted b* agile projects
include(
- &he concept of the Bhole team/ and ollective ode "'nership/ that
ensures that the entire team is responsible for the code and no single
individual is indispensable
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- Practices such as Pair Programming/ that believes that 'orking together in
pairs provides better ualit* and productivit*- ontinuous Integration/ and efactoring/ to ensure that developed soft'are
code is never out of s*nc 'ith the overall product goal and is constantl*
being improved upon%
- &est )riven )evelopment/ that believes that the soft'are code needs to bedeveloped 'ith a test-@rst approach ( 'ith a focus of eliminating redundant
code and having a 'orking soft'are 'ith almost a 011 percent test coverage%
Comparing %gile and /aterfall
&he approach follo'ed b* Agile development is paradigmaticall* dierent from
those of 'aterfall methodologies% A summar* of the dierence bet'een Baterfall
and Agile development is summariCed in the &able belo'%
&raditional 4Baterfall5 AgileFocus "ptimiCation and Predictabilit* Adaptation and learning
Process 6euential, controlled and reliesheavil* on eective
documentation
Parallel, iterative and relies oneective communication
Project
managemen
t
entral, Hierarchical )istributed, 6hared
Personnel Individual accountabilit* ollective o'nership &able 0( )ierence bet'een &raditional and Agile methodologies
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'(hi)it ': Transcripts of the discussion )etween %nu and 0artik
A( He* Kartik, *ou have a minute9 I am starting on a ne' product development and
I 'anted to pick *our brain on using Agile methods for doing the product
development% Bould *ou have some time to have a small chat on this9
K( 6ure Anu, in fact, I 'anted to speak 'ith *ou on this topic as 'ell% Sou kno' I am
a erti@ed Product "'ner and an Agile coach% I have been thinking that 'e could
bene@t a lot b* introducing Agile in our organiCation%
A( !+cellent, then this is the time to discuss% Oet#s go, grab a coee, and then *ou
can get started%
K( I suppose *ou are a'are of t*pical Agile practices 7 6crum and WP right9
A( Ses, *es, I have some basic understanding of that% I have an understanding of
'hat the various roles are( product o'ner, scrum master, and the developers% I also
understood that development is undertaken in short iterations that are called6prints, and each sprint has various ceremonies such as 7 6print planning, revie',
retrospective and the dail* scrum% And then I 'as told that there are certain
artifacts that are produced 7 the Product 8acklog that has the reuirements 'ritten
as user stories, 6print backlog comprising of tasks, and the 8urndo'n charts for
measuring progress% 6ee, I have gathered a lot of 'hat Agile soft'are development
does 4!+hibit )5% 8ut the uestion is ho' is it dierent9 &his still does not ans'er
m* uestion on 'h* Agile9
K( Bo', that#s a lot% &hat#s all the* taught me in m* certi@ed scrum training% 8ut
seriousl*, *ou have a good uestion 7 'h* agile% Bell let me attempt that%%%
First is this 'hole notion of reuirements% If *ou read the Agile .anifestoM, one of the
principles is about esponding to change over follo'ing a plan/% 6o, the belief is
that soft'are reuirements are bound to change, there is nothing like a froCen
reuirement% As *ou keep developing soft'are, *ou understand the application and
the reuirements betterT *ou uncover dierent possibilities, and then *ou take
opportunit* of the improved understanding b* changing the reuirements as
necessar*% 6o, agile soft'are development does not believe in having reuirements
completel* done and bo+ed up before *ou start the design and build% Sou start 'ith
a base set of reuirements, there needs to be a great amount of collaboration
bet'een the business and the tech folks, and then *ou design and build those
reuirements% Sou then take the ne+t set and do this iterativel*%
&he product backlog usuall* captures the reuirements in the form of user stories%
&hese are prioritiCed based on their value to the business% Sou need to ensure that
M http(::agilemanifesto%org:
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the high priorit* user stories have reasonabl* clear reuirements, the ne+t set not
so much, and ma*be the last set *ou don#t have an* idea at all at this stage%
A( 6o, I suppose, it is appropriate to sa* that Agile soft'are development does need
good reuirements, if not perfect reuirements%
K( &rue, *ou need good reuirements% 8ut it is just in time though% Sou of course
need to have an idea of 'hat *ou are going to build, 'hat the end goal is, and ho'
to get there% &o get there, *ou do a series of incremental builds, and *ou do this
iterativel*% &hese are 'hat 'e call 6prints% For the immediate 6print, and ma*be the
ne+t 6print, the reuirements have to be reasonabl* clear%
As *ou move from one 6print to another, the solution evolves - the reuirements,
design and code all of them evolve% And to make agile projects successful, *ou need
to embrace this evolution%
A( "K, I understand this evolutionar* process, and that reuirements are bound to
change% 8ut doesn#t this developing in short c*cles cause too man* changes9 Isn#t itan ine$cient 'a* of soft'are development 7 design, build, test and then ma*be go
back and change *our design again to accommodate ne' reuirements9 Bon#t
there be e+cessive re'ork9
K( Ses, indeed, *ou got it right% &here is a chance of re'ork% 8ut then it is a trade-o%
an *ou manage the project such that *our cost of re'ork is minimiCed9 In agile, 'e
think 'e can% As I mentioned earlier, *ou need to have a sight of the end goal, *ou
base *our architecture on that% nder this frame'ork, *ou let *our design evolve% As
long as *ou maintain a good technical stack and coding standards, the change in
design should not impact *ou too much% Are *our soft'are components lo' on
coupling and high on cohesion9 )o *ou have a good unit test coverage9 Are *ou
maintaining the discipline of doing a dail* build9 &here are several good engineering
practices from WP 7 continuous integration, refactoring, pair programming,
test-driven-development %% to name a fe', that ensure that *ou are continuousl*
able to provide value to the client%
A( &hese are a completel* dierent ne' set of engineering practicesQ Bhat kind of
demand does this pose on the development teams9
K( Good uestion% Agile soft'are development has an implicit assumption that *ou
have e+perienced cross-functional personnel% Be don#t believe in 'asting eort in
unnecessar* documentation(
- &he reuirements are sparsel* documented in the product-backlog 7 instead,
the soft'are developers activel* discuss this 'ith the business users to
understand reuirements%
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- Be do not 'aste eort in elaborate project planning and scheduling 7 instead,
the developers self-assign tasks, provide an estimate and 'e track our
progress using a burn-do'n chart on the agile 'allQ- Be do not 'aste time documenting detailed design and program specs 7 the
best documentation is the code itself% 6o, *ou need developers 'ho can read
code and understand the design from the codeQ "'ing to the incrementalnature of the development, there is a possibilit* that a soft'are component
ma* change repeatedl*, and these changes ma* be undertaken b* dierent
developers% 6o, 'e don#t see one person o'ning the code, it#s the team that
o'ns the code% &he entire team has a right to change and improve the code%
efactoring is the essence of AgileQ
6o, *ou can see, developing in an agile 'a* needs e+perience% Sou need
e+perienced developers 'ho can 'ork independentl* but collaborate 'ith each
other% I don#t think Agile development is meant for rookies%
A( 6o, Kartik, *ou are sa*ing that the business folks and the soft'are developersneed to 'ork together to ensure agile development is successful% 6o, 'hat are the
challenges in outsourcing the development9
K( Bell, I kno' there are a lot of vendors out there 'ho make tall claims about
outsourced agile development% 8ut I don#t see it happening this 'a*% Agile needs
co-location, agile needs e+perienced developers, agile needs an implicit trust
among all the team members% I don#t see ho' an outsourced vendor can @t into this
scheme of things9 Agile talks about collaboration over contract/ 7 isn#t that an
o+*moron9
"utsourced vendors are used to driving ualit* through strong stringent process,stringent scope management, e+cessive documentation and stage-gate revie's% All
of these are against the principles of agile development% I have al'a*s seen
outsourcing 'orking 'ith a tall hierarchical structure, not a Lat structure that agile
mandates% I think outsourcing is good for 'aterfall development, not for agileQ
A( Bell Kartik, thank *ou so much for *our timeQ It 'as indeed ver* useful T%% 'ill
help me in m* decision process% And I do remember *our oer to be the Product
"'ner for the project% &he onl* issue is that I don#t have the rest of the teamQ
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