How Jeff Smith keeps Suncorp’s IT nimble

Renai LeMay
Friday, 05 March 2010 16:52

Business IT - Technology

When Suncorp’s new chief executive Patrick Snowball stepped on board in late 2009, the tier two banking and insurance firm’s chief information officer Jeff Smith (pictured below) wasted no time showing his new boss the ropes.

In Snowball’s first week, Smith says, he took the CEO to see one of his software developer teams building a new claims system. Smith asked one of his developers to change a parameter and run the full associated test scenario through the thousand micro-tests required to see if it passed.

The system didn’t pass the test — because of the changed parameter. But that was the point. Smith wanted to demonstrate to the CEO the Agile software development methodology that he says has spread “like a virus” throughout Suncorp since he first introduced it.

The reason? It’s this revolutionary programming technique that is allowing Suncorp to think on its feet in an industry which so often struggles when it comes to implementing technology quickly and easily. And Smith’s demonstration is already paying off.

“The biggest promoter of Agile now is Patrick,” Smith says. “He thinks that this is the culture of the company that we want.”

Sitting down for a coffee with Smith at Suncorp’s recent half-yearly results briefing, it’s easy to forget that he’s a veteran of Australia’s IT industry with 25 years of experience under his belt and the former CIO of one of Australia’s largest and most complex companies — Telstra.

This is because he talks about huge banking development efforts with the excitement of an entrepreneur who’s involved in their first startup company. The years fall away and he gets a gleam in his eyes as he talks about a subject that he is passionate about.

Not for Smith the staid, boring, half-decade-long IT projects that will see technological change delivered over a period of ten years. The CIO wants his IT operation to be flexible enough to move with the needs of the modern banking environment — not lag it.


Jeff Smith - Suncorp CIO

Becoming agile

Key to Smith’s approach to Suncorp since he started at the bank after its mega-merger with insurer Promina has been the introduction of the Agile software development methodology.

The core idea in Agile is iterative development, rather than the traditional ‘waterfall’ approach to building technology. Waterfall projects start off with a plan, which then becomes a series of milestones, and eventually becomes a final product — with testing done at the end of the cycle. It’s the way most software developers in the 1990’s were taught to code.

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