QIC Accelerates Investment Operations with Azure DevOps Implementation

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Industry: Finance

Location: Queensland, Australia

Founded: 1991

Portfolio & Clients: $83bn with over 110 institutional investors

Technology: Microsoft Azure DevOps

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Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) is a Queensland government-created investment manager overseeing an $83 billion portfolio across 110+ institutional clients. QIC partnered with SixPivot to migrate from a legacy application lifecycle management platform to Microsoft Azure DevOps. The implementation delivered immediate improvements in project visibility, quality assurance, and agile delivery capability, while SixPivot's customisation of the platform to match QIC's domain terminology significantly accelerated adoption across the organisation.

The challenge QIC faced before SixPivot

QIC's mission is straightforward: delivering exceptional investment outcomes for its clients. But as the organisation pursued cost and productivity efficiencies to better serve a growing global client base, its technology team identified a significant bottleneck in project management and delivery.

The existing platform, Micro Focus Quality Centre, had been reliable for years but could no longer support the dynamic, cost-effective delivery model QIC needed. It lacked end-to-end coverage from requirements gathering through to application release, and it couldn't scale with QIC's growth plans. For an investment manager operating at $83 billion in assets under management, the gap between what the tooling could provide and what the organisation needed had become a strategic constraint.

Why QIC chose SixPivot for Azure DevOps

After a thorough market evaluation, QIC selected Microsoft Azure DevOps as its new application lifecycle management platform, chosen for its end-to-end coverage, scalability, and alignment with QIC's broader Microsoft ecosystem.

Recognising that the complexity of this transformation extended beyond technology, into people and process, QIC partnered with SixPivot to manage the implementation and cultural shift that came with it. SixPivot's approach addressed three distinct layers of the change:

Implementation and configuration

• Custom Azure DevOps setup tailored to QIC's specific requirements

• Seamless migration from the Micro Focus Quality Centre

• Pilot project selection to prove value before full rollout

Training and knowledge transfer

• Comprehensive staff training on the new toolset

• Hands-on workshops introducing agile and DevOps concepts

• Ongoing mentoring to build internal expertise that would persist beyond the engagement

Cultural transformation

• Establishing organisation-wide agile practices

• Automating manual processes to improve efficiency

• Introducing regular health checks for continuous improvement

Results QIC achieved from the Azure DevOps implementation

The implementation delivered improvements across visibility, quality assurance, and day-to-day project management from the outset.

Enhanced visibility and transparency

Azure DevOps boards gave QIC's leadership real-time insight into project portfolios, including high-level portfolio tracking and detailed work-item oversight capabilities that the legacy platform could not provide.

Streamlined quality assurance

Azure DevOps Test Plans replaced the cumbersome QA processes of the legacy system with integrated, efficient workflows, reducing bottlenecks and improving software quality across delivery teams.

Agile project management

The transition to backlogs, sprints, and work-item estimation gave QIC the dynamic project-management capability it needed, making day-to-day tracking intuitive and actionable for teams across the organisation.

Faster adoption through domain alignment

SixPivot's customisation of Azure DevOps to preserve QIC's existing domain terminology significantly reduced the learning curve, one of the most common barriers to successful platform migrations in complex organisations.

'The SixPivot Consultants have brought a wealth of knowledge regarding agile processes and DevOps to the team at QIC. This has helped us develop a more dynamic and cost-effective delivery model for our projects.'

Lucy Austin

Manager, Minor Initiatives, QIC

How the QIC and SixPivot partnership evolved beyond the initial implementation

The relationship between QIC and SixPivot extended well beyond the initial rollout into an ongoing strategic partnership focused on continuous improvement.

Monthly health checks keep pilot projects on track and provide a regular forum for coaching, process refinement, and the identification of emerging challenges before they escalate. This structure has enabled QIC to rapidly resolve implementation issues, continuously optimise agile practices, build lasting internal DevOps expertise, and scale successful approaches across the broader organisation.

How Azure DevOps will support QIC's continued growth

With Azure DevOps in place, QIC has a modern delivery foundation that can scale with the organisation. Improved project delivery capabilities, stronger team collaboration, and streamlined processes allow QIC's technology teams to focus on supporting the investment operations that matter to its 110+ institutional clients.

For a highly regulated, globally operating investment manager, the ability to maintain consistent delivery standards while expanding is a meaningful operational advantage, and one that the organisation's legacy tooling was no longer able to provide.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Azure DevOps, and what does it do?

Microsoft Azure DevOps is an application lifecycle management platform that provides end-to-end tooling for software delivery, from requirements gathering and backlog management through to sprint planning, test management, build pipelines, and release tracking. It is designed to support agile and DevOps practices at scale, giving teams and leadership real-time visibility into project progress and software quality.

What is QIC?

QIC (Queensland Investment Corporation) is a Queensland government-created investment manager founded in 1991. It specialises in alternative investments, managing an $83 billion portfolio on behalf of more than 110 institutional investors across Australia and internationally.

Why is customising Azure DevOps to match domain terminology important?

One of the most common barriers to successful platform adoption is the gap between a tool's default language and the terminology teams already use. SixPivot customised QIC's Azure DevOps environment to reflect the organisation's existing domain language, which reduced the learning curve for teams across the business and accelerated adoption, particularly important in a complex, regulated environment where change resistance can slow rollouts significantly.

Can SixPivot implement Azure DevOps for other regulated or complex organisations?

Yes. SixPivot's approach of combining custom configuration, structured knowledge transfer, and ongoing health checks is applicable to other large or regulated organisations undergoing application lifecycle management transformations.

Contact SixPivot to discuss your specific environment and requirements.