AUTOMATION


IBS Journal July 2018


19


Keeping up with the fintechs: how collaboration is what you need


When people think of innovation in financial services, they tend to think of successful fintech start-ups, such as TransferWise, Monzo or Revolut. Few would consider a 250-year old bank like Lloyds Banking Group. It is therefore refreshing to see banks’ ongoing shift towards a creative DevOps culture


Regional VP, Rocket Software Guy Tweedale


L


loyds recently said that collaboration across teams is key to success in the modern banking world. ING stated back in 2016 that DevOps and agile development methodologies were critical elements of its digital transformation strategy. Barclays too has spoken about the importance of agile working practices and using DevOps to tackle competition from fintech firms.


As the name suggests, DevOps involves collaboration between development and operations staff, resulting in shorter development cycles and more dependable software releases. However, while this is a step in the right direction, in the face of new technologies and competition banks also need to make sure they are giving their developers the right tools to compete in the current market. They can do this through Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) automation.


Staying agile


According to James McLeod, software lead at Lloyds, the bank aims to dispel the idea that established banks are too traditional to innovate. Speaking at the London Github Constellation this year, he pointed to a new DevOps strategy being implemented across Lloyds, which means breaking the age-old habit of ‘keeping everything boxed and immovable’ and becoming more agile. And the best way to stay agile is to automate the DevOps process.


ALM systems streamline the complete process of software delivery and change management from the initial planning stages through to testing, delivery and subsequent monitoring of future versions. These ALM systems have always been essential in keeping track of the development process, but not all of them have kept up with the complexity of new working practices. Many ALM systems still require levels of manual intervention that are unrealistic in an environment where so many people need to be informed of every stage of the process. ALM automation means that approval processes and version


control are completely removed from the danger of human error, as every change is automatically recorded. This gives banks the ability to adapt and be agile in an increasingly competitive market, as the development process becomes much more efficient.


Freeing up your developers


Giving your developers the tools – and time – to develop is really important in today’s banking world. With so many regulations and auditing processes, your IT team can sometimes get bogged down in these administrative tasks. With ALM automation, enormous savings can be made on these tasks, which would otherwise be carried out by developers whose time is enormously valuable. Auditing reports can be generated without any manual input, simplifying compliance and saving further time. In our experience, developers working in banks can find that up to 40% of their time can be taken up by administrative tasks. ALM automation can reduce this by 80%.


Equally important is the dialogue that can be created between the business and IT teams through automation, as it ensures a constant conversation about how to improve systems, fix bugs within them, or add new features – enabling a communicative and agile approach.


Stay ahead of the competition


Banks have a lot on their plate. With decades of data, a host of regulations and a new breed of competitor, life is not easy. Fostering a collaborative work culture is a good starting point for an established bank seeking to compete with creative, agile fintech rivals. DevOps is central to this, but changing decades of working practices through an internal communications strategy is not enough in the Open Banking world. To remain truly competitive, banks must equip developers with the latest in-house development software, boosting the efficiency of DevOps through automation.


www.ibsintelligence.com


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