Fast Track to Efficiency

Payroll systems, location systems, electronic signage — imagine the number of connected internal and external systems needed to keep the WMATA Metrorail and Metrobus services online and on time. In 2021, WMATA had ballooning costs and organizational risks within its operations and maintenance support teams. Over the years, the organization had contracted out much of its O&M work to individuals and small companies. This approach to O&M personnel introduced several risks, including increasingly high costs for contract renewals and an environment in which information did not easily flow from team to team. WMATA awarded DMI the operations and maintenance support contract with the expectation that DMI would help to reorganize O&M operations.

DMI began cross-training team leads and managers in different tools and systems to help reduce the risk of relying on just one person to perform a job. For example, sysadmins are being cross-trained on each other’s tools and teams, strengthening the knowledge foundation of the O&M operation and making it more nimble. This cross-training also allows team members to grow deeper and wider breadth in their technical skills and enhances efforts to respond rapidly to surges in workload demands.

DMI then introduced Agile methodology throughout the O&M operation in order to equip and empower leadership to prioritize O&M tasks and enhancements. This returned to client product owners the power to drive decision-making.

Building on the information gleaned from our Agile approach, DMI created dashboards that give WMATA leadership the ability to see work and trends across multiple systems and teams that directly correlates to the pace and burden of work. This helped the leadership determine resource needs, areas of risk, and follow progress of ongoing projects.

In earning the client’s trust, DMI has been able to suggest solutions and counsel the client on decisions that may impact O&M but are beyond the scope of the O&M contract.

The client consolidated App Dev O&M support for most of their systems under DMI, drastically reducing IT labor costs and duplication efforts by its streamlined, agile approach to our work. Cross-training efforts have mitigated single points of failure and equipped technical staff with multiple job skills and additional sets of eyes to review technical documentation.

The client can now make informed decisions using real-time data dashboards and shared information from the O&M operations. Due to implementing Agile methodology, the client has become more agile in decision-making. Operations and Maintenance decisions can now be swiftly adjusted and prioritized as fresh information becomes available.