3X FASTER DEVELOPMENT CYCLE FOR A LEADING FINANCIAL SERVICES PROVIDER

An agentic SDLC cut the delivery cycle from 14.17 to 5 working days and reduced development time by 92%, while strengthening upfront refinement.

INTRODUCTION

Software delivery often slows when stories enter development without enough business and technical context.

A leading Brazilian financial services provider was managing complex B2B credit logic with backlog information fragmented across product, technology, and development teams. Limited refinement and manual validation created friction before and during construction.

CI&T introduced an agentic SDLC approach to strengthen upfront refinement, improve knowledge availability, and connect development and validation activities within the delivery flow.

Powered by CI&T Flow, AI capabilities supported requirements preparation, technical refinement, code review, and unit testing while maintaining stronger context throughout the lifecycle.

The result was an approximately 3x faster delivery cycle and a 92% reduction in development time.

THE CHALLENGE: BUILDING CONTEXT BEFORE DEVELOPMENT

Fragmented backlog information and limited refinement left teams without enough context before construction, increasing friction across delivery.

Fragmented Backlog

Backlog information was distributed across product, technical leadership, and development, making it harder to maintain context before implementation.

Limited Refinement

Refinement took only 1.35 working days, leaving teams with insufficient business and technical context before construction began.

Manual Validation

Rigid approval steps and manual validation added friction to the workflow, contributing to a lead time of 17.7 working days per story.

THE SOLUTION

CI&T introduced an agentic SDLC that strengthened refinement, improved knowledge access, and integrated development and validation into a connected flow.

Stronger Refinement

Vision and Story agents supported requirements, backlog preparation, and acceptance criteria. Refinement increased from 1.35 to 4 working days to create stronger context before construction.

Knowledge Context

Curated knowledge and technical refinement brought relevant business and technical information into the workflow earlier, helping reduce uncertainty before implementation.

Automated Validation

AI-supported code review and unit testing were integrated into development, reducing manual validation and accelerating the path from refined stories to production-ready code.

THE IMPACT

The pilot showed how stronger upfront context could reduce downstream development time and improve the overall delivery cycle. Testing, homologation, and deployment were outside the measured scope, and the cycle was manually tracked during the pilot.

SHORTER DELIVERY CYCLE

65% reduction in
pre-development and development cycle

Cycle time reduced from 14.17 to 5 working days

Approximately 3x faster delivery during the pilot

FASTER DEVELOPMENT

92% reduction in development time

Development reduced from 12.82 days to 1 day

Production-ready code included unit tests

STRONGER REFINEMENT

Refinement increased from 1.35 to 4 working days

More context established before construction

Upfront investment helped unblock downstream work

TECHNOLOGIES USED

POWERED BY CI&T FLOW

The Enterprise AI Management System supported intelligent agents across refinement, development, and validation, helping teams improve context and accelerate delivery.

AGENTIC
SDLC

An AI-assisted delivery model connecting requirements, technical refinement, development, code review, and testing across the software development lifecycle.

KNOWLEDGE
BASE

Curated business and technical knowledge provided stronger context earlier in the workflow, helping teams prepare stories more effectively before construction.