The challenge
The Co-operative needed to recover an app used by store colleagues to check product dates and manage price reductions. Significant technical debt and a history of large, unsuccessful releases had held back progress. A previous six-month recovery attempt had failed.
Our work combined project recovery, improvements to engineering practices, training and coaching. Across this application and the wider retail systems, the engagement delivered financial improvements and strengthened the teams’ ability to deliver.
The Outcome
- £18.6m Combined annual financial improvements
- 3× Average release frequency
- 11.8% Reduction in cost per work item delivered
- ⅔ Reduction in cost per release
Annual financial improvements
| Workstream | Annual financial improvement |
|---|---|
| Stock loss reporting app | £13.4m |
| Date checking and price reductions app | £3.38m |
| Shelf stocking controls app | £1.3m |
| Publication stocking and returns app | £0.5m |
| Total | £18.58m |
The financial figures cover a mix of efficiency gains, cost savings and income improvements calculated by the client.
The stock loss workstream achieved its £13.4m improvement against an original £2m annual target.
Delivery and team capability
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Average release frequency | Increased from one to three releases per month |
| Cost per release | Reduced from £91,149 to £30,383, approximately two-thirds |
| Cost per work item delivered | Reduced by 11.8% |
| Team capability | A healthier, more autonomous team through training and coaching |
DORA’s (DevOps Research and Assessment) research shows that companies achieving higher software delivery performance (through higher deployment frequency, faster change lead times, lower change failure rates, and faster recovery times) experience significant operational, cultural, and business advantages. We tripled release frequency and reduced cost per release by two-thirds, while safe rollback procedures prevented two release issues from disrupting store colleagues.
What we did
Recovering delivery
We championed smaller, more frequent releases, supported by the ability to release and roll back safely.
The team completed a tricky React upgrade, addressed longstanding bugs and delivered valuable changes to the date-checking app. This helped improve the application’s reputation with the business and store colleagues.
Across the 18-release reporting period, only one release caused service impact early in the engagement. The issue prompted deployment pipeline improvements meaning that rollback mechanisms could avoid service impact from then on out.
Improving retail operations
The application work addressed several distinct operational needs:
- Date checking and price reductions app: checking product dates and managing price reductions.
- Stock loss reporting app: recording stock losses from breakages, spillages, theft and other incidents, supporting targeted improvements.
- Shelf stocking controls app: setting appropriate shelf-stocking levels to minimise theft while protecting product availability.
- Publication stocking and returns app: managing stocking and returns for newspapers, magazines and collectibles.
These workstreams connected changes to the applications with measurable improvements in retail performance.
Developing team autonomy
Training and coaching accompanied the engineering work, helping the team become healthier and more autonomous.
The engagement improved both the applications and the capability of the people responsible for developing and maintaining them.
What we learned
Recovering delivery capability enabled valuable operational changes to reach stores. Smaller releases and safe rollback provided a practical way to make progress while containing problems.
Different applications required different interventions. The date-checking app needed recovery, while the stock loss reporting app already had a strong release record. The approach needed to reflect each application’s starting position.
Financial performance, delivery efficiency and team capability each describe an important outcome of the engagement. Together, they show the value of working on the product, engineering practices and team development.
Gemba Group has been a real pleasure to work with – deeply knowledgeable on product delivery and able to be pragmatic – understanding corporate constraints and culture – so rather than just textbook – able to drive delivery outcomes forward by recognising the capability and maturity of an organisation.
— Neil Kenyon, Head of Portfolio @ The Co-operative
Your team’s next step
If repeated recovery attempts, difficult releases or delivery problems are holding your team back, send us a message to find out more about our 12-week team transformation.
