Pods
Innovation at Scale
One of Cognizant Softvision’s keys to success is our ability to bring innovation at scale to our customers.
With the support of our Guilds and Communities, Softvisioners are constantly plugged into a stream of innovation through training, lab access, and community outreach activities. Our Communities feed into our Pods, which are organized under an extensively proven agile methodology, resulting in systematic growth with measurable outputs.
Pods: Agile Client Teams, Delivering in a Distributed World
For decades, our proven Pod model has defined successful software product delivery for our clients, continuously delivering for today’s businesses – from anywhere in the world.
Whether it’s one of our traditional Pods located in one of our global studios, or one of our Virtual Pods, the most capable delivery team built on a distributed workforce, our Pods are the backbone to ensuring continuous delivery. They are client-dedicated, cross-functional, agile teams that deliver sustainable innovation and results. Our experts combine technical expertise with in-depth knowledge of the client’s domain – forming the Core Members of our Pods, and giving the Pod its unique DNA.
Our pod model focuses on three aspects:
- Pod structure and scalability (Mitosis)
- Pod Delivery methodology (Pod Framework)
- Team retention and client satisfaction (Game of Pods)
01.
Our Pod Model
Scaling and Structure with Our Pods
Our Pods are live organisms who grow, evolve and mature until they are ready to split. And just like in biology, we call this process Mitosis.
We define the Core DNA of our Pods as the intersection between our digital expertise and the intimate knowledge of our clients. The Pod members who carry this combination of expertise are considered the Core Members. When our Pod has at least two Core Members and a certain level of maturity, the Pod is ready to go through mitosis. One of the Core Members will split from the existing Pod and take with them all the learnings, enabling the new Pod to hit the ground running. At the same time, because the existing Pod is mature enough and with the help of the remaining Core Member, the performance of the existing Pod is not affected by this process.
Effective Delivery and Sustainability
The Pods Methodology is tailored to each customer and promotes effective delivery and sustainability by:
- Keeping a lean and solid process
- Measuring KPI-driven performance
- Providing the ability to easily scale without impacting team performance
The Pod framework is defined jointly with the client. We track and communicate measurable value delivered in four dimensions:
- Speed: Pod’s productivity or the amount of work the team can produce in a defined period of time
- Quality: The degree of excellence of the Pod’s output
- Product Impact:
The business impact the Pod’s output has - Autonomy: Ensures the Pod is not creating unnecessary overhead to our clients
Reach a Higher Level of Efficiency and Professionalism
Game of Pods is a global gamification program designed to provide timely and superior client service. In the competition, the Pods and its members are rewarded for both their collective and individual contributions through badges & trophies and is a fun way to motivate and shape behavior.
We focus on the output of each Pod, rewarding collective behaviors and achievements that help the Pod reach higher efficiency and quality targets.In addition, we recognize the Pod’s performance, focusing on areas like Project Health, Team Performance, Quality of Delivery & Alignment with the customer’s goals. These recognitions drive the teams to set standards that are 100% inline with the customer’s expectations.
Personal growth plays a key part in our retention strategy and helps grow domain expertise, while contribution to our Communities helps sustain our high quality standards.