Client's problem
SAZKA, the oldest and largest lottery company in the Czech Republic, faced issues with the fragmentation of tools used within the development department and lacked an overview of the plans and status of current development projects.
The solution could only be addressed by implementing a suitable end-to-end tool for software development management (SW), which would establish a unified environment and process for all agendas, enable transparent communication across internal and external teams, and provide an overview of the status of all developed systems. The solution also needed to be easily configurable, so the SAZKA Technology division could work well with the tool. As a result, the decision was made to use Atlassian tools, which are flexible, easy to configure, and user-friendly.
SAZKA Technology division employees had partial experience with Jira. Additionally, they struggled with a lack of internal capacity to manage the implementation. Therefore, SAZKA turned to our Atlassian team.
Solution
We based the main solution on Atlassian Jira Software and Jira Service Management (server). Using Jira Software and third-party add-ons, we implemented a unified process and environment for all development projects. By introducing Jira Service Management, we expanded the solution to include an internal service desk and incident and defect management. Therefore, besides handling changes and new requests, the client can now also manage bug fixes and incidents within Jira.
We further integrated the entire solution with several different supplier service desks so that suppliers could handle requests within their systems (e.g., Jira, ZenDesk). Partial automation of the development process was achieved using custom Groovy scripts with the help of the ScriptRunner app. A custom mini-addon was also developed for the integration of Jira with SAZKA’s ESB for sending notification SMS.
We’ve done a lot of work with the client, but we’re not done yet – we continue to provide 24/7 support for the solution and fine-tune the IT service desk before its deployment into full production.
Attractions and challenges
The client was so satisfied with the new solution that they decided to implement Jira Software in non-IT departments as well. Currently, Jira Software is used not only by developers but also by employees in departments such as Risk Management and Compliance.
