• Case Study

    Case Study – BCS Learning & Development Ltd (Steve McCorquodale)

“What I love about Surge Online is the calm considered way in which they go about their business – they never panic or flap” – Steve McCorquodale, Product Manager, BCS

Background

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, brings together professionals and practitioners working in the fields of IT and Computing, from industry, education and academia.

Surge Online were tasked with building a web-based platform for BCS, aimed at both primary and secondary school teachers.

Challenges

  • Create the right website structure to appeal to busy teachers
  • Manage the project and other suppliers to deliver a working end product within a specific timeframe
  • Leave certain areas open for development further down the line

Surge Online say

Working with Steve and other members of the BCS team has been a wonderful experience.

They bought in whole-heartedly to our Agile working practises, and had complete faith in our ability to deliver the project on time, using the our Discovery and Build phases.

BCS say

“The design was iterative, and the sprint methodology was fantastic – we were able to see how the product was developing and being built before our very eyes” – Steve McCorquodale, Product Manager, BCS

Having only joined BCS a few months previously (March 2016), this was my first significant project for the company, and given the tight timetable, it was imperative that it went smoothly.

I was recommended to Surge Online by a trusted colleague, and as soon as I was introduced to Surj, I was instantly reassured by his educational experience, the fact that his company already worked with Agile, and because it fitted in with BCS’s values.

“Surge Online was there from the very beginning, and so were able to get right under the skin of the organisation and the product – this made a huge difference”

We started the project in Summer 2016, and then spent a lot of time in planning on the Discovery Period; in fact, we didn’t start any of the website building until October, but the project finished right on schedule in February 2017.

The Agile process was crucial in this respect – Surge Online ensured that the Minimum Viable Product ‘MVP’ was identified and delivered according to the time and budget available, whilst still leaving scope for further development down the line.

“Surge Online would always ask in discussions, ‘Is this what the customer would want?”

BCS is continuing in becoming more user-focused, aligning its values with customer centricity. Surj, in particular, is very strong in understanding how both the product and the people need to work together within an organisation.