Category: Uncategorized

The toughest dilemma I’ve been dealing with over my past five years with a software consultancy house is “how do you make an agile project, or any project for that matter, successful with an inhibiting agreement with fixed key terms?”. Having tried various approaches, combinations of approaches and bending the continuum, I’ve arrived at the conclusion – “you don’t, and there is no way around it.”

Here are some lessons I’ve gathered over that period of time – about the projects that have been a success and had the same common denominator – a time-material agreement.

Trusting and earning trust

• let’s start small, or even very small
• let’s see after a week or two what both parties bring to the table
• let’s look back at that initial period and decide if we can work efficiently together

Playing for the same team and sharing the same goal

• both parties are vested in growing the client’s business
• mutual understanding that long-term success benefits both parties more than any short term wins on either side – this leads to mutual respect
• thinking in ROI categories by all people involved on both sides
• we love suggesting killer features – hey, at the end of the day everyone benefits

Minimum overhead

• no debates on what’s in scope and what’s out
• no debates on what’s a bug and what’s not

• no debates on what’s a bug and what’s a CR
• hey, no CRs!
• no development of features we don’t believe in
• no more waste!

Endorsing agile

• there can be no real agile with an inhibiting agreement underneath. Give your success a chance!
• agile is still the best approach to software development
• agile and time-material fit. No more artificial agile, calling it agile, iterations being just another name for weeks etc.,

Iterations and priorities

• you’ve changed your mind about your business direction – very well, we’ll play right along
• ”no offence, but the feature you’ve started working on is pointless now that the competition already has it” – “none taken, let’s build something they don’t have yet, and let’s start today”

Business driven development

• you show needs, we advise, you decide, we do it
• you need to grow your business in an optimal way, we’re there to help you achieve this goal even if it means taking a suboptimal route from the IT perspective at times

Longevity and sustainability

• long-term motivation based on a common goal achieved together in small steps, not on bonuses, management pressure, fear and contractual penalties
• long-term perspective motivates against taking intentional shortcuts that would remain unnoticed for a long time but are very costly when eventually TSHTF
• this model has a significant impact on team morale which leads to attracting new team members and inhibits departures thereof

100% transparency

• you get billed for the time we’ve spent working on your project. Every minute of it and not a minute more. No rounding up!
• pay for what you get. Time spent on our self-development, training, company meetings is NOT billed!
• if we think there’s a problem ahead – we tell you immediately
• if we don’t think the feature is worth spending time on – we tell you, you might reconsider

Actions instead of words

• PoC instead of multi-page specification and implementation documents
• PoC instead of estimations, negotiations and assumptions
• get an MVP ready and show it to the clients ASAP
• estimate you budget and milestones based on facts (real team velocity) not promises (initial estimates based on documentation)

author: Tomasz Liberski

It’s not easy to define when a digital service becomes great. Based on our observations of different digital services, that have achieved the greatest market success, or had the greatest impact on creation a competitive advantage of companies on the market, we selected nine factors.

Find out whether your digital service has these Key Sucessful Points?

• Easy implemented to business without developers attendance
• Super good looking
• Positive user experience and user centered
• Expeditiously growing
• Omnipresent
• True added value
• Extensibility
• Availability
• Mobile first

Now look at first letter of each factor. You can find the answer to what do you need to make your service great 😉

Most executives say that process-orientation is only valid in big companies, because of scale effects which result in real cost and time savings. But what about small and medium enterprises? Do they really differ a lot from big ones? Expense reporting, employee on-boarding, invoicing – these are all processes that every business does and the size doesn’t matter here.

However, most SMEs execute their processes using specialized apps (CRM, invoicing) or spreadsheets, document or e-mails. There is actually no difference when comparing to large enterprises, as they do things in a similar way.

The matter of tracking

For bigger companies the workflow automation system is a matter of tracking, establishing process control or managing in-process document exchange and collaboration. This is usually considered as something that needs to be customized, supported in-house – simply is costly, hard to learn and adopt.

Usually, SMEs don’t have an IT professional to take care of their infrastructure. When you’re small, Google Apps may be sufficient for you, because you aren’t required to own infrastructure and manage it. The same applies to hardware – your provider may also support it for you. The SaaS model, together with outsourcing of IT infrastructure creates a great possibility for SMEs to take advantage of process-orientation. If you already use e-mails (which you certainly do!), use spreadsheets (which you certainly do!), have some processes in your company (which you certainly have, even if you’re not aware of it) you can have a workflow automation system that gives a real added value while not ruining your organizational culture and budget.

You don’t need to be a process expert

There are several SaaS worklfow automation tools that integrate well with Google Apps, Gmail, provide linkage to external applications (like CRM or bookkeeping tools). Moreover, you don’t need to be a process expert, because you are supported by knowledgeable support agents who can personally help you to set up new workflows.

Imagine that you can always track your billing process, which means that once an order is confirmed by your salesperson, the financial department is instantly notified, an invoice is then issued and sent to the client. Another example is about a checklist that must be ticked off when new employee comes to your company – this means that a work agreement must be drafted and signed, equipment must be in place, e-mail account must be created and a tutor must be assigned to introduce that new employee to his new assignments. It’s easier to coordinate such chain of tasks and check if all were completed or whether something is missing.

Make the best choice

Process automation is about taking humans out of manual tasks and freeing them up to have the time to make the right decisions based on empirical data so they can grow their business and delight their customers. Automation of processes is also for SMEs. If you are ready for this, then you can start looking for appropriate tool. We recommend Flownie.com, as a good choice, especially for Google Apps-run businesses. Flownie.com integrates perfectly with your Google Apps domain, allows for easy creation of processes, assignment of people responsible for tasks, real-time process tracking and has an affordable pricing model

New opportunities

My internship is soon coming to an end, so now’s a good time to look back on all those memories gathered during my time here, and also why not give you some advice on what to do! First of all, the whole experience has been awesome, for real! If you are given a change to do an internship, you should definitely seize the opportunity and not waste it for something dull. It’s an opportunity to learn and see something new. For me, it was my first experience working for an international company and abroad, but how did I find myself in Poland?

How about Poznan?

Poznan is located in between Berlin and Warsaw, and the atmosphere is exactly like it: relaxed, active and very western European. To me, it is the city of ice cream and beautiful lakes. For example, lake Malta, where we participated in a running competition with Espeo team, is a perfect spot for sports fanatics such as myself. All in all, the city is definitely a place worth exploring!

To do

My tasks at Espeo Software were to analyse the Finnish market, search information and create marketing content for Espeo, as well as assisting our marketing manager during the whole internship. I got to see and be involved in creating social media content and a marketing plan for an international company, which is building its image and increasing its visibility on the market. Part of my job was also to do sales to Finland. I was working closely together with the sales manager of Finland, calling and creating sales content with him. I got a close look at how b2b-marketing and sales are combined.

Excuse for a good beer

The Espeo team has been my support and security here. There’s always someone asking you for lunch and taking you for beer. You know the developers are always trying to find an excuse for a good beer! What I found a nice surprise was also a fact that Poznań is an exceptionally vibrant city with numerous international networks of young professionals, freelancers and startups. The example of it is MINGLE meet up which takes place every Friday and gathers people from different countries always ready to support each other or start a new cooperation.  I’ve travelled a lot but didn’t see so many active, innovative and open communities in one city.

Good thing to try

In my opinion, articles with quotes tend to be quite cheesy. However, when looking back at my time at Espeo, I can’t resist making one, so here’s a quote from Seth Godin, an American entrepreneur and author, maybe it will help you, when choosing your internship: “If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” – Seth Godin

Mira Weckman – Sales and Marketing Intern