Microsoft India - Cognizant Technology Case Study for Visual Studio - Document T

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1. Microsoft Visual Studio Customer Solution Case Study Cognizant Accelerates
Enterprise Application Development Cycle-time by 10 Percent Overview “With all th
e information at our fingertips, we’ve Country or Region: India Industry: IT Consu
lting and Technology witnessed cycle-time improvements of around 10 Services/Out
sourcing Services percent. This enables us to keep up with the needs of Customer
Profile our business. Additionally, we are able to solve our Cognizant Technolo
gy Solutions is a customer’s business problems faster and with less leading provid
er of information technology, consulting, and business outsourcing effort.” servic
es. Based in Teaneck, New Jersey, Rajashree Natarajan, Asst Vice President, Proc
ess and Tools Group, Cognizant Technology Solutions the company has more than 50
global delivery centers and more than 63000 employees servicing over 500 client
s. Cognizant, a leading provider of IT, consulting, and business process outsour
cing services, was outgrowing its existing IT Business Situation To support the
company’s rapid growth and infrastructure. Cognizant’s consistent track record of be
ing the business needs, Cognizant required a more sophisticated IT architecture.
It needed to fastest growing company amongst the tier 1 IT services players is
a streamline its development process and result of its consistency in adopting b
est-in-class technology and boost its developers’ productivity. tools to deliver g
reater value to its customers. In its constant Solution endeavour to make the de
velopment processes much quicker and Cognizant deployed Microsoft® Visual Studio® Te
am System 2008 and Microsoft more efficient, Cognizant built a customized Applic
ation Lifecycle Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Management solution, called
SPECTA, on Microsoft® Visual Studio® Foundation Server, helping developers to work t
ogether effectively. Team System 2008 and Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System Bene
fits 2008 Team Foundation Server. Armed with this comprehensive Enhances communi
cation and solution that addressed every facet of the development lifecycle, col
laboration Accelerates cycle-time by 10 percent Cognizant’s army of Microsoft tech
nology professionals have been Reduces cost of software quality able to increase
productivity, better manage the application Improves process integration and ma
nagement lifecycle, and improve software quality.
2. “Cognizant’s SPECTA Situation rated high by analysts and customers for its Cog
nizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading customer intimacy and industry domain built o
n Microsoft Visual provider of application technology, business knowledge. Studi
o Team System consulting, IT infrastructure and business process outsourcing ser
vices to its Cognizant has been a pioneer in using agile provides an integrated,
customers. It was founded in 1994 as an IT development methodologies effectivel
y optimal delivery development and maintenance services arm across distributed t
eams. In the past, of The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation. The Cognizant used a mix
of tools to support the environment that company was spun-off as an independent
development process, including Visual Studio increases productivity, organizati
on two years later. Since 1996, Professional 2005 for development, Cognizant has
worked closely with large Microsoft Visual Source Safe for source code for all
roles, by organizations to help them build stronger, control, and other open-sou
rce and home- eliminating or reducing more efficient, and more agile businesses.
grown tools for managing business Cognizant was listed on the NASDAQ in 1998, r
equirements, tasks, changes and defects. switches between and is a member of the
NASDAQ-100 Index The mixed tool set, however, did little to multiple applicatio
ns, and S&P 500 Index. It is also a Forbes Global support and streamline adheren
ce to agile 2000 company and a member of the Fortune development principles. Ins
tead, it hampered tools and activities.” 1000 and is ranked among the top team out
put, consumed additional time and Rajashree Natarajan, Asst Vice President, info
rmation technology companies in impeded communication. Specific problem Process
and Tools Group, Cognizant Business Week’s Hot Growth and Top 50 areas included: o
ffline traceability of artifacts, Technology Solutions Performers listings. freq
uent transitions between multiple tools used for design, testing, reviews and ta
sk Cognizant is widely recognized by leading tracking, and excessive time spent
on analyst firms including Gartner and Forrester creating reports. as a Global T
ier 1 supplier. The company is “Our company was experiencing continued Key Parts o
f Visual Studio Team System used by Cognizant and significant growth. To keep pa
ce, it was Microsoft Visual Studio Team Provides the ultimate set of tools for e
very team discipline important for us to increase the productivity System 2008 T
eam Suite engaged in the project: architecture, design, development, of our empl
oyees with optimized business database and testing solutions,” explains Rajashree
Natarajan, Microsoft Visual Studio Team Provides developers with an advanced set
of tools to Asst Vice President, Process and Tools Group, System 2008 Developme
nt identify inefficient, insecure or poor-quality code, specify Cognizant. “We nee
ded a comprehensive, Edition coding best practices and automate software unit te
sting enterprise-class solution for managing all Microsoft Visual Studio Team Pr
ovides advanced tools for database change management aspects of the development
process and we System 2008 Database and testing and offers functionality to enab
le database were eager to find a solution.” Edition developers and administrators
to be more productive Microsoft Visual Studio Team Focuses on improving the desi
gn and validation of Cognizant anticipated the need to streamline System 2008 Ar
chitecture distributed systems the company’s development process and Edition build
a more integrated and extensible Microsoft Visual Studio Team Provides a compre
hensive suite of testing tools for Web system architecture to keep pace with the
System 2008 Test Edition applications and services that are integrated into the
Visual company’s growth rate. The company aimed Studio environment to strengthen
its entire IT infrastructure with Microsoft Visual Studio Team Combines team por
tal, version control, work-item tracking, the ultimate goal of boosting producti
vity and System 2008 Team build management, process guidance and business accele
rating cycle-time. Foundation Server intelligence into a unified server
3. development, database development and testing of applications. Team member
s can continuously collaborate and utilize a Solution complete set of tools and
guidance at every To optimize its Microsoft solution step of the application lif
e cycle. development environment, Cognizant implemented a comprehensive ALM solu
tion “The integration between the integrated based on Microsoft Visual Studio® Team
development environment (IDE), source System, which extends the Visual Studio co
ntrol, build tools, team portal and work- integrated development experience from
the items like features, tasks, bugs and changes individual developer to the en
tire and the easy extensibility points provided by development team by deliverin
g powerful Team Foundation Server were the key new role-based tools for all deve
lopment- deciding factors for the solution,” comments related users, along with a
centralized Sai Krupa Sagar, Chief Architect, Cognizant. repository for project
data. “The new technology contained many significant features that helped us optim
ize Cognizant’s ALM solution called “SPECTA” is our development process using the buil
t on Visual Studio Team System and Team extensible ALM platform.” Foundation Serve
r. It provides multi- disciplined teams with an integrated toolset Architecture
Overview for requirements management, task SPECTA comprises of a customized TFS
Architecture: Team Foundation management, defect management, change process temp
late and a set of extensions as Server Integration with Cognizant management, bu
ild management, version illustrated in the figure. The TFS process Enterprise Pr
oject Management management, architecture, design, template supports the best pr
actices of Feature-driven Development (FDD) and Scrum agile methodologies. The e
xtensions included new work-items, reports, check-in policies and plug-ins that
support standard engineering practices like Build Verification Tests, Continuous
Integration and Contextual Guidance. It also includes a synchronization engine
that integrates with Cognizant’s Intelligent Delivery Ecosystem – Cognizant 2.0. The
ecosystem is an enterprise-wide collaborative platform for workflow automation,
process orchestration, and seamless knowledge management. One of the widely use
d SPECTA plug-ins provides integration between Microsoft Outlook and Team Founda
tion Server. Project planning and initial setup is enabled through the advanced
framework provided by Cognizant 2.0. When this information is
4. synched with SPECTA, an equivalent team Custom workflows are implemented t
o project is created on Team Foundation Server automate the usually offline proc
esses of and work-items are automatically populated. reviews, change, test and d
efect Thereafter, developers use Visual Studio management. Building all this on
enterprise- Team System to perform all their tasks class server products like Mi
crosoft Team including using the Team Portal, Build, and Foundation Server and M
icrosoft SQL Server Version Control. helped Cognizant to deploy the solution fas
ter. The Project Manager uses the multi- dimensional reports provided by Team “Tea
m Foundation Server gave us the Foundation Server to track status and flexibilit
y to customize work item types and manage risks. The synch-engine periodically o
ther project artifacts to support our own way synchs up work-item data between T
eam of working,” explains Sai Krupa Sagar. “It Foundation Server and Cognizant 2.0.
This integrates all aspects of software enables different stakeholders to access
the development—item tracking, version control, advanced planning, reporting and
knowledge builds, and reporting—into a single management capabilities of Cognizant
2.0 collaboration environment.” while the development and testing teams access th
e integrated toolset and engineering Implementation Overview capabilities provid
ed by SPECTA extensions The initial version of the solution was a result on Team
Foundation Server. Several Visual of Cognizant’s early involvement in the Studio
plug-ins make data entry easier and adoption program of Team Foundation Server i
ntuitive. 2005 even before its commercial availability. Since then, there have b
een five major Business Analysts can create and manage releases of SPECTA, each
with new, requirements through the familiar interface of additional features and
customizations to Microsoft Outlook 2007. Project Managers address several cust
omer requirements. can manage work-items through multiple Actually, the agile pr
ocess promoted by channels using Microsoft Outlook 2007 or SPECTA, was followed
to build the SPECTA through Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel solution using
distributed teams. The actual or through a browser interface. Additionally, impl
ementation involved modifying XML files, stakeholders can view multi-dimensional
writing custom code in .NET, building reports reports instantaneously through a
Silverlight in SQL Server Reporting Services and powered dashboard. customizing
the SharePoint portal. “The adaptable architecture of Team Fast Facts Foundation
Server and the generous extensibility mechanisms provided by the Size of the Sof
tware Development 1 architect architecture helped us extend and customize Team f
or VSTS Implementation 3 developers TFS behavior with minimum effort and 2 teste
rs shorter cycle time,” adds Sai Krupa Sagar. Duration 1 release every 6 months De
veloper Tools Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Microsoft Visual Studio 2
008 Team Foundation Server Benefits Microsoft Office 2007 Tools
5. With the new solution, Cognizant has communication between developers, tes
ters improved its ability to successfully follow agile and other stakeholders en
abling all project methodologies even in a distributed delivery members to work
in concert toward a model. Development groups are now more common goal. producti
ve; and communication and collaboration are stronger, and the agile Accelerates
Cycle-time by 10 Percent methods accommodate change more The new solution provid
es multiple areas and efficiently. All this has increased customer opportunities
for collaboration among the satisfaction and is becoming a strong development t
eam. Features such as, a competitive advantage for Cognizant. Several shared tea
m portal, integrated change of Cognizant’s customers are using variants management
, and a common data repository of the SPECTA solution within their boost collabo
ration among developers, enterprises. Cognizant has helped build consequently cu
tting the time and cost of custom extensions and reports as needed. application
lifecycle management and putting applications into production more quickly and “Co
gnizant’s SPECTA built on Microsoft Visual cost-effectively. The availability of i
nformation Studio Team System provides an integrated, across the application lif
ecycle has created a optimal delivery environment that increases more unified wo
rk environment. productivity, for all roles, by eliminating or reducing switches
between multiple “With all the information at our fingertip and applications, too
ls and activities,” says the integrated environment we are seeing Rajashree Natara
jan. cycle-time improvements of around 10 percent,” says Rajashree Natarajan. “This
Enhances Communication and enables us to keep up with the needs of our Collabora
tion business. Additionally, we are able to solve By implementing SPECTA with Vi
sual Studio our customer’s business problems faster and Team System on Visual Stud
io Team System with less effort.” Team Foundation Server, Cognizant has a tightly
integrated environment along with the The company’s software projects involve tool
s required to facilitate a more many individuals with different roles and collab
orative development process. responsibilities at various stages of the A central
repository for all project data helps development cycle. To aid in the distribu
tion improve team collaboration by keeping of work, the SPECTA process includes
a everyone informed of the project status. series of out-of-the-box roles, such
as Adopting Microsoft Visual Studio Team business analyst, architect, developer,
tester, System has allowed the development team to scrum master, feature owner
and project significantly improve its ability to collaborate manager, and a set
of tools and practices between geographies and time zones. Real specific to each
role. The SPECTA extensions time integration with Cognizant 2.0 vastly on Team
Foundation Server, monitors and increased the collaboration quotient by fusing i
ntegrates these roles. Visual Studio based developer environment into the enterp
rise wide collaboration “The less number of switches we have, platform of Cognizan
t 2.0. Together, this between different tools and applications, the integrated e
nvironment enables seamless less room there is for errors and shorter the
6. time required to complete most activities,” necessary to improve control of
code, project states Sai Krupa Sagar. artifacts, and processes. Reduces Cost of
Software Quality Managers have greater visibility into the true Software quality
has improved because the state of the project, helping them to make new develop
ment environment helps team better decisions, align with best practices, members
to detect potential errors earlier in and help developers generate higher-quali
ty the project life cycle. The customized code. methodology imbedded into Team F
oundation Server guarantees quality “The multi-dimensional reports provided by thr
oughout the software development Team Foundation Server and the ability to lifec
ycle and ensures that all steps in the export the reports and analyze them using
workflow are followed and completed Microsoft Excel has helped immensely in cor
rectly. tracking the status and managing project risks,” says Gaurav Varshney, Sen
ior Project The team-oriented features of Visual Studio Manager, Cognizant who l
ead the Team System help the team to ensure that management of the project for a
Life defects are not introduced while developing. Sciences customer. “Along with
a consistent Centralized source code repository helps the development process, w
e now have real-time team to maintain a daily build and ensure visibility into k
ey performance and quality code quality and tested software. metrics,” adds Gaurav
. “With SPECTA on Visual Studio Team System, we’ve been able to increase the quality
of our development process and enable more control and transparency,” says Kishor
e Kumar, Delivery Director, Cognizant who has overseen the use of SPECTA, VSTS a
nd TFS solution on a large globally distributed project for a Life Sciences cust
omer. Improves Process Integration and Management The SPECTA solution built on V
isual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server has helped Cognizant to bet
ter manage every aspect of development and production processes, including requi
rements, source code, build schedules, task tracking, bug tracking and change ma
nagement. Integrated process workflows, version control, work-item tracking, and
other features in Team Foundation Server provide the transparency
7. For More Information Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 For more information abo
ut Microsoft Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is the world s products and services,
call the Microsoft most popular development environment for Sales Information Ce
nter at (800) designing, developing, and testing next 426-9400. In Canada, call
the Microsoft generation Windows®-based solutions and Canada Information Centre at
(877) Web applications and services. By improving 568-2495. Customers who are d
eaf or the development experience for Windows, the hard-of-hearing can reach Mic
rosoft text Web, mobile devices, and Microsoft Office, telephone (TTY/TDD) servi
ces at (800) Visual Studio 2008 helps organizations 892-5234 in the United State
s or (905) deliver a variety of solutions more 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 5
0 productively than ever before. Visual Studio United States and Canada, please
contact Team System expands the product line with your local Microsoft subsidiar
y. To access new software tools that enable greater information using the World
Wide Web, go communication and collaboration throughout to: www.microsoft.com th
e development life cycle. Interaction between developers and designers is For mo
re information about Cognizant enhanced with Visual Studio 2008 and the Technolo
gy Solutions services, visit the Microsoft Expression® Suite. With Visual Web site
 at: www.cognizant.com Studio 2008, businesses can deliver modern service-orient
ed solutions more efficiently. For more information about Visual Studio 2008, go
to: www.msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio Software and Services Developer Tools Micros
oft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Serve
r 2008 This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WA
RRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published June 2009