Madison Gas and Electric utilizes program and project management to launch new geospatial information system

Client background

MGE Energy’s principal subsidiary, Madison Gas and Electric (MGE), generates and distributes electricity to 149,000 customers in Dane County, Wisconsin, and purchases and distributes natural gas to 154,000 customers in seven south central and western Wisconsin counties.

The business challenge

MG&E’s legacy and aging Geospatial Information System (GIS) no longer met the fundamental needs of the business. It was comprised of both off-the-shelf and home grown systems, all of which were either no longer supported by the original vendor or were no longer customizable by the MG&E team. It relied on outdated technology and processes that required manual intervention to clean-up, validate, analyze and manage geosocial data.

Strategy and solution

During the early stages of the multi-million dollar project, the Baker Tilly team worked with MG&E’s IT leadership team to vet and identify the appropriate project management methodology that would allow the GIS project team to effectively and efficiently design, develop and customize the GIS software. The new GIS needed to be integrated with 20+ internal systems across the MG&E technical ecosystem, with some interdependent systems requiring the development of custom in-house web applications.

After the vetting process, the agile project management methodology emerged as the approach best suited to create the controls and fluidity mandated by the MG&E IT leadership team, and provide a foundation and framework for the broader GIS project. Agile was utilized across all phases of the project, from requirements gathering, design and development, to implementation, post go-live stabilization and application life cycle management.

Scrum was implemented as a secondary methodology to create additional discipline and structure during the design, development, testing and integration of the in-house web applications. Scrum was used across the various stages of the software design and development phases, as well as for defect and bug remediation during testing and implementation.

Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) was selected as the primary project management software tool to manage all phases of the GIS project, including design, development, deployment, stabilization and post go-live application life cycle management.

With a two tiered project management methodology approach, the GIS project went live on time, came in under budget and experienced an expedited stabilization period.

The GIS organization and the other supporting and interdependent functions streamlined core processes and eliminated many of the cumbersome manual interventions. The new GIS reduced friction across multiple functions and eliminated redundancies, resulting in efficiency gains and operational savings.