“Well, it all started with Dave. It was a turning point. The Developer Experience at Gamesys has been greatly improved through clarifying acceptance criteria, streamlining development, making it more efficient and less error-prone.”

- Gunnar Buason, Gamesys

Gamesys are leaders in the online gaming industry, looking to embark on a transformative journey to enhance their development and deployment processes. Disconnected teams and departments were working within structures that were full of complex and inefficient environments for software production. The reason why we asked Continuous Delivery to help us was because we didn't feel that we were on the right track. The leaders at Gamesys looked to Dave to align their practices, particularly focusing on the implementation of automated deployments and tests in production. Gamesys has traditionally maintained a stable track record with their production releases. However, they had started to face some key challenges:

• False Negatives in Post-Release Tests: Acceptable test numbers and low error rates still produced false negatives, causing production issues.
• Siloed Organisational Structure: Product, tech, and IT departments operated in silos, leading to misaligned objectives and inefficiencies.
• Lack of Acceptance Criteria: Initial implementations lacked clear acceptance criteria, causing inconsistent testing and validation.
• Complexity in Testing Microservices: Independent testing of microservices was challenging due to hidden dependencies, leading to unforeseen issues during integration.

The process of change began when Dave completed a Readiness Assessment of Gamesys, which explicitly highlighted where improvements could be made and outlined a clear path to correcting the issues. The primary goals of the organisation were streamlining the development process, enhancing collaboration across departments, and establishing more robust testing protocols. The assessment was then used as a basis for explorations, of where, and how, improvements could be made. Dave then delivered a series of online workshops where the current development approach was explored in close detail. The solutions that were offered during the training focussed in on supporting Gamesys to develop their ethos of Cross-Departmental Collaboration; unifying teams from various departments to align on goals and processes, fostering a culture of unity and shared understanding. Technical issues were also addressed to focus acceptance testing criteria, enhance testing protocols and centralising pipeline maintenance. Breakthrough... Upon receiving the consultancy from Dave, implementing the training they had received, Gamesys began to see a marked impact on their outcomes.

“The Developer Experience at Gamesys has been greatly improved through clarifying acceptance criteria, streamlining development, making it more efficient and less error- prone.”

Enhanced testing protocols and centralised pipeline management reduced the change failure rate to around 5%, primarily due to legacy code refactoring. Teams within the company were united by better aligning behaviours, setting new standards for development and deployment. This was achieved through enhanced testing protocols, significantly reducing the change failure rate all driven by setting these things as collective goals and objectives. "Working together across departments and establishing clear acceptance criteria have been game-changers for us." Gamesys's transformation underscores the importance of collaboration, clear acceptance criteria, and robust testing to achieving stable and reliable production releases. By addressing challenges and implementing strategic solutions, Gamesys has set a new standard for development and deployment, paving the way for continuous improvement and future success.