Overview
Keyhole Software partnered with a mid-sized industrial automation company to lead a comprehensive Agile transformation and software development lifecycle (SDLC) modernization initiative. The goal: unify siloed engineering efforts, eliminate disjointed tooling and leadership gaps, and establish a sustainable, scalable development process to support the company’s flagship proprietary control system.
The Challenge
Prior to the engagement, the organization’s development processes were fragmented. Engineering teams relied on spreadsheets for task tracking, individual contributors worked in isolation, and there was minimal cross-functional collaboration. Leadership was inconsistent, Agile principles were unfamiliar, and the lack of formal structure led to delivery delays, unpredictable product quality, and low morale.
These dysfunctions were especially detrimental given the company’s shift toward standardizing hardware and software across product lines, a major business transformation that required operational alignment and technical rigor.
The Solution
Keyhole assigned a senior consultant to act as both Lead Architect and Agile Coach, serving as a technical strategist, team mentor, and cultural change agent. The consultant began with an intensive discovery phase, meeting with stakeholders, auditing workflows, and identifying systemic bottlenecks. From there, Keyhole proposed a tailored implementation roadmap focused on Agile enablement, SDLC structure, leadership development, and cross-team cohesion.
Building the Backbone: Toolchain & Process Architecture
To bring structure, traceability, and visibility to engineering workflows, Keyhole designed and implemented a fully customized SDLC using Atlassian tools:
Atlassian Toolchain Implementation
- Jira was transformed from a blank slate into a deeply customized Agile project management hub. Specialized ticket types, workflows, permission groups, and sprint boards were built to reflect real-world engineering needs, differentiating between HMI programming, CAD drafting, and mechanical-electrical design work.
- Bitbucket was configured with a four-tier branching strategy (feature → dev → staging → release) tightly integrated with Jira. Pull request approval workflows, linked Jira tickets, and enforced peer reviews ensured code quality and traceable deployments.
- Confluence was established as the source of truth for documentation, spanning software requirements, hardware specifications, sprint retrospectives, team charters, and release notes. Over time, this became a central knowledge-sharing platform across departments.
Outcome: 25% increase in Jira ticket throughput and 3x more documentation contributions within Confluence within the first 90 days.
Training and support were embedded into the rollout. Developers participated in live onboarding sessions, team-specific job aids were distributed, and office hours were held weekly to ensure adoption and confidence. The consultant worked alongside leads to model best practices for day-to-day Jira usage, including linking work artifacts and writing clear, testable user stories.
Agile Process Coaching & Leadership Development
Recognizing that tools alone wouldn’t drive meaningful change, Keyhole focused heavily on Agile coaching and leadership mentorship.
In the first few sprints, daily standups were unstructured, sprint planning was haphazard, and retrospectives were either skipped or unproductive. The consultant introduced structure without rigidity by using time-boxed ceremonies, facilitation guides, and sprint templates to bring rhythm to delivery.
Sprint planning was enhanced with story sizing workshops, velocity tracking, and grooming checklists, giving teams a stronger sense of scope and commitment. Leads were mentored on how to guide conversations rather than dictate them, creating a culture where contributions were welcomed, not controlled.
“By Sprint 6, teams previously marked by frustration and negativity were delivering collaboratively with confidence and pride.”
Beyond Agile ceremonies, business acumen training was delivered across the organization. Engineers were coached on stakeholder engagement, MVP thinking, and iterative delivery—core practices that had been previously absent but were crucial to aligning with product strategy.
Result: 40% reduction in context-switching between teams, as engineers began sharing work across disciplines through well-defined user stories and Confluence-linked tasks.
Release & Change Management
Before the engagement, software releases were inconsistent and opaque—often lacking regression testing and version tracking. Keyhole implemented a predictable, auditable release cadence that aligned with Agile sprints.
- All code changes flowed through the Jira-linked branching model, with mandatory peer review and issue traceability.
- Weekly releases were synced with sprint demos, giving stakeholders visibility into shippable increments.
- VAULT firmware builds underwent regression testing on simulation hardware before being packaged for deployment.
By the end of the engagement, each release was fully traceable from Jira ticket creation to final artifact installation—a level of end-to-end visibility the organization had never experienced before. This traceability became foundational to both internal QA practices and external compliance readiness.
Confluence served as a central source of truth, housing CI/CD flow diagrams, automated release checklists, and standardized templates that ensured consistency across teams. With these systems in place, engineers could confidently follow repeatable, documented processes—maintaining velocity and quality long after Keyhole’s hands-on involvement had concluded.
Empowering Culture, Communication, and Team Dynamics
The cultural transformation was as impactful as the technical improvements.
In early retrospectives, many team members were reluctant to speak up. To break the ice, Keyhole introduced anonymous feedback forms, which revealed pain points around leadership support, workload balance, and communication breakdowns.
Using this feedback, the Agile Coach facilitated targeted 1-on-1 mentoring sessions, introduced shared team charters, and implemented rotating demo responsibilities to increase engagement.
Daily comments in Jira became the norm, Confluence documents were peer-reviewed, and sprint goals were set collaboratively. Leads who had previously micromanaged learned to support their teams through servant leadership and active listening.
Results: Cohesion, Confidence, and Continuous Delivery
Through a combination of custom tooling, Agile coaching, process structure, and cultural development, Keyhole Software helped the client transform from a fragmented operation into a highly collaborative, process-driven engineering organization.
Key Outcomes:
- Replaced ad-hoc development with a formal, adaptable SDLC
- 25% increase in throughput, 40% reduction in context-switching
- 3x increase in documentation contributions
- Notable morale improvements and near-total disappearance of negative retrospective feedback
- Repeatable Agile ceremonies and release process still in use post-engagement
Today, the client’s engineering organization is equipped to evolve their control system platform with confidence. Team members operate with clarity, shared purpose, and the agility to innovate and be supported by durable tools, strong leadership, and a framework designed for long-term growth.
