Scope

Cloud-Based Computing and Service-Oriented Processes

The Situation

Microsoft Azure employs complex cross-functional efforts to provide cloud accessibility to millions of users on different cloud services. After conducting several exhaustive reviews, Azure recognized that their release velocity was outdated, and saw a need to orchestrate and launch a large set of feature-rich releases to enable continuous, high-quality service across different cloud products, each with their own set of diverse users.

Virtuosity Engages

Azure brought Virtuosity on board, due to their strong reputation and experience across other groups in Microsoft delivering automation and release management processes.

Virtuosity immediately assembled an Automation Team to run diagnostics across end-to-end release process and shadowed the on-site teams to capture the execution culture and process. They then analyzed the data collected, formalized a strategy and execution plan to expand and diversify team capabilities and skills, and developed training for best practice and automated process re-engineering conducted.

Virtuosity identified that the methodology, governance framework and change management processes used by Azure were inefficient and vulnerable to both error and severe bottlenecks which hampered rapid development and deployment.

Achieving Full Potential

Virtuosity created and implemented a refined development methodology, a new governance framework, and an improved change management process.  Moreover, they helped ensure the adoption of these activities by internal product experts. Virtuosity then completed a full-scale deployment to over 3,000 employees and over 500 vendors to address identified bottlenecks within the Azure release process. The adoption of automated real-time reporting and self-service playbooks improved Azure release velocity by 70%; reduced errors and re-work by 60%.