Whirlpool

About Whirlpool

Whirlpool Corporation is a leading global manufacturer of home appliances. Founded in 1911 and headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the company produces a wide range of products, including refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, and ovens. Whirlpool owns several well-known brands, such as Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, and Amana. The company operates in over 170 countries and focuses on innovation and sustainability to meet evolving consumer needs. Whirlpool is recognized for its commitment to quality and its efforts in environmental stewardship.

The challenge

Whirlpool’s digital e-commerce team, responsible for both B2B and B2C segments, faced challenges with code quality and release efficiency. Without proactive tools in place, developers encountered issues late in the development cycle, leading to production delays. Their existing regression testing was reactive, often resulting in delayed identification of critical issues. In addition, handling large codebases and managing complex development environments across both B2B and B2C required a more robust solution to maintain high standards of code quality and security.

The solution

To address these challenges, Whirlpool adopted SonarQube Server Enterprise Edition. SonarQube Server’s ability to integrate with Bitbucket for automated pull request analysis as well as its built-in quality gates ensured that developers could proactively identify and resolve issues early in the development cycle. The addition of SonarQube for IDE further enabled seamless issue resolution directly within the IDE, improving developer efficiency.

Key aspects of the implementation included:

• Proactive Issue Detection: Developers were able to catch issues much earlier in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), thanks to SonarQube Server’s integration with Bitbucket and Jenkins. Every pull request was scanned, with automated build failures triggered if SonarQube Server Enterprise Edition's quality gates were not passed.
• Shift-Left Strategy: SonarQube Server played a vital role in Whirlpool’s shift-left strategy, helping teams test, scan, and identify security issues earlier, drastically reducing release times.
• Pull Request Analysis and Code Coverage: SonarQube Server Enterprise Edition’s pull request analysis and code coverage features were essential in ensuring that all new code met high standards before being built, tested, and released to production.
• Customization & Scalability: Whirlpool used SonarQube Server's default settings for quality gates, with a few custom rules, allowing governance and consistency across multiple projects. The Enterprise edition supported the handling of large codebases and multiple programming languages, vital for Whirlpool’s e-commerce platforms.

Results

• ROI in < 6 Months: Within six months, Whirlpool was fully leveraging SonarQube Server Enterprise Edition’s capabilities and seeing improved results across teams since moving from SonarQube Community Build. New developers were quickly onboarded, and the tool became a critical component in their development lifecycle.
• Release Cycles in Weeks, Not Months: Before SonarQube Server, product release cycles took months. After implementing SonarQube Server as part of their DevSecOps transformation, Whirlpool reduced its release time to weekly sprints, a significant improvement that helped them cut time to market by 4x. 
• Improved Code Quality: With the “clean as you code” methodology, Whirlpool noticed a drastic decrease in code issues for new projects. Developers became more adept at writing cleaner code, resulting in fewer issues needing remediation.
• Greater Developer Efficiency: The integration of SonarQube for IDE and Bitbucket allowed developers to address issues directly in their IDEs, improving overall productivity.
• Enhanced Security for e-commerce: SonarQube Server contributed to Whirlpool’s security strategy by helping to safeguard sensitive customer information, such as financial transaction data, through early detection of vulnerabilities and code weaknesses.
• Ease of Reporting: The ability to create consolidated reports with a holistic view of all issues across B2B and B2C has simplified processes and enabled Whirlpool to scale quickly.
• Customer response times 10x faster: Not only has Whirlpool’s time to market accelerated on the backend, but the implementation of SonarQube Server has led to faster response times for customers (in some cases 10x faster) and a better more secure experience on the front end. 

By adopting SonarQube Server, Whirlpool significantly improved its code quality, accelerated release cycles, enhanced its security posture, and created a better overall experience for developers and customers - making it an indispensable tool for the company’s ongoing DevSecOps journey.