Accelerating Digital Transformation for RPMI with Agile and DevOps
- Shift Left QA
- Accelerated delivery
- Business transformation
The client: RPMI
With over 50 years of experience, RPMI provides administration and strategic support for the UK railways’ pension schemes. Originally established to manage pensions for British Railways, RPMI has embraced modern technology to continuously improve the experience for its members and third-party clients.
The challenge
RPMI recognised the need to accelerate its digital strategy to keep pace with technological advances and deliver greater value to its customers.
The company wanted to adopt new technologies and innovations quickly, but as a financial services organisation, it could not afford to compromise on reliability or service quality.
To achieve this balance, RPMI sought a collaborative partner to help drive innovation and improve operational efficiency through a modern, Agile approach.
What we did
We partnered with RPMI to implement a digital strategy focused on the rapid and safe adoption of new technologies. Our approach was built on a foundation of deep collaboration and proven Agile and DevOps principles.
A collaborative Agile partnership
Together, we assembled a single, cross-functional Agile "squad" that included members from both RPMI and Answer Digital. This team worked under DevOps principles, integrating software development and IT operations to streamline the design, development, and implementation of new tools.
A key feature of this collaboration was RPMI’s own Mike Gilligan serving as the Product Owner, participating directly in the team's daily operations. This embedded structure enabled faster, more informed decision-making and ensured the development process was always aligned with business goals.
Embedding quality with a 'Shift Left' approach
In financial services, customer trust is paramount. We implemented a “Shift Left” testing methodology, ensuring our QA team was involved from the very beginning of each process. This meant quality was built into every stage of development, allowing issues to be identified and addressed immediately, rather than as a costly afterthought. This focus on early testing led to quicker fixes, greater efficiency, and a higher-quality final product.
Putting theory into practice: the chatbot
One of the first projects for the new team was the development of a customer-facing Chatbot. Using continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) practices, the team quickly built and refined the tool over several Agile sprints. After an initial usability study, the team gathered user feedback, made incremental changes each week, and released updates promptly, delivering measurable value at each stage and highlighting the flexibility of the Agile methodology.
Our impact
The partnership delivered transformative digital solutions and instilled a new way of working within the organisation.
Accelerated delivery: The integrated team and Agile/DevOps practices allowed for a continuous development and release cycle, enabling RPMI to launch and improve new tools and services much faster.
Improved product quality: The 'Shift Left' approach and sprint-based testing ensured issues were resolved before they could impact the customer, resulting in more reliable and seamless technology.
Enhanced customer value: The team was able to deliver measurable business and customer value at each stage of a project, such as with the iterative improvements made to the Chatbot based on direct user feedback.
Cultural transformation: The collaborative squad model facilitated a unified Agile mindset. RPMI and Answer Digital learned from each other, shared expertise, and established a more effective, modern framework for delivering digital change.