Surviving the Economic Downturn
This session covers a successful transition to a new business model in a limited time span. Typically, Iowa Student Loan (ISL) sells bonds to fund the creation of private student loans. As financial markets deteriorated in 2008, the potential of successful bond sales diminished to the point of nonexistence. Heretofore, our systems assumed ISL as the only lender. Collaborative bank relationships changed this assumption to one of multiple lenders. A redesign of the loan program/loan type structure of our software followed to make the funding model very configurable.
10 minutes: Introduction and description of typical funding year
10 minutes: Identify the challenges encountered in 2008 as a result of deteriorating economic conditions
15 minutes: Discuss reaction, including business and development time lines and the configurable solutions which allowed development concurrent to the creation of requirements
5 minutes: Walk through a business scenario using FitNesse tests as documentation
5 minutes: Q&A
- extrapolating concepts and business value from generalized expectations or proposals
- projects need to be able to quickly adapt to the changing market
- solid model of configuration can present automatic future value
- capturing requirements using FitNesse clarifies the business scenarios

Download session PDF
Add to calendar