How 7FRESH APP Boosted Delivery Speed and Quality with Agile Team Restructuring

7FRESH APP is the mobile application of JD's fresh‑food supermarket. Facing rapidly growing business demand and traffic, the development team adopted agile methods but initially struggled to achieve noticeable results.

01. Form Product‑Oriented Cross‑Functional Teams

The original structure was divided by technical function (iOS, Android, H5/mini‑program, gateway, testing), each working in isolation. Although the team used iterative development and held regular meetings, the lack of end‑to‑end product focus limited responsiveness and continuous delivery.

After analyzing the problem, the team reorganized into three product‑centric sub‑teams—Marketing, Core Process, and Innovation—each containing members from all technical disciplines. This new structure emphasized business value flow and delivery, breaking down silos and enabling tighter collaboration, shorter wait times, and faster feature completion.

02. Execute More Rigorous Splitting and Estimation

Team members began breaking down requirements into items deliverable within three days and tasks sized between 4–8 hours. This finer granularity turned estimation into a design‑thinking exercise, allowing developers to contemplate solutions more deeply, which improved development efficiency and product quality. The resulting estimates were also more realistic, reducing over‑commitment and associated stress.

03. Increase Automated Test Coverage

The testing effort was shifted toward automation, raising API automated test coverage to 70%. This dramatically cut manual testing effort, boosted efficiency, and created a solid foundation for rapid, high‑quality releases.

04. Raise Test‑In Quality

Previously, developers often submitted code for testing without sufficient self‑testing, straining limited test resources. The team introduced a "Smoke Test Pass Standard" incorporated into the Definition of Done (DoD). If a build fails this standard, testers can reject it. As a result, the smoke‑test pass rate reached 100%.

05. Actively Reduce Technical Debt

To cope with mounting release pressure, the team allocated 15%–20% of each iteration to address technical debt. This dedicated effort improved system performance and development efficiency over time.

Conclusion

Through these targeted agile practices—product‑oriented team restructuring, precise work breakdown, expanded automation, strict test criteria, and systematic debt reduction—the 7FRESH APP team achieved significant gains in delivery quantity, frequency, and quality, while also increasing business stakeholder satisfaction.