Modernize your software department

We can help you turn your software development department into a modern organisation which is both a great environment for your team members to work in, and produces high quality software at a rapid pace.

Does your product rely on legacy code that it’s difficult to maintain and add new features to?
Do your business colleagues ask for faster time to market for development, but your system architecture and code quality stand in the way of achieving this?
Do you worry that you have missed the opportunity to make use of the newest technologies as part of your strategic plan?

We have seen these issues at many companies, but we were able to help them turn their IT departments into exceptional organisations that have embraced new technologies.

So if you think you have a similar situation going on at your company, please talk to us. We’ll be happy to help.

Our Approach

We perform a detailed analysis of your department's requirements in the context of technology, processes and your team's skills

We put forward proposals for discussion with you, to agree a shared approach

We send our specialists to work with you and introduce changes in the areas of technology, processes and your team’s skills, to move your IT department to the next level

All companies are different, and not all points beneath will be relevant to your situation. We would be delighted to work with you and identify your unique requirements

So this is a sample outline of how we may be able to help

Technology

Create a target high level architecture for your product(s) that meets your company’s goals and utilises modern technologies (microservices, hexagonal architecture, reactive systems etc.)
Gradually refactor your current architecture towards an agreed target state, while not compromising delivering features from your roadmap
Refactor code to meet best practices (such as SOLID, Domain Driven Design, OO patterns, functional streams etc.), while ensuring the code accurately reflects your business logic.
Introduce the right technologies, frameworks and tools for your situation
Implement modern automated deployment schemas based on Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible etc.
Introduce cross-platform integrated performance monitoring and log analysis systems

Processes

Introduce an efficient process to take a user story and create a set of tasks that will deliver the story. This enables multiple resources to work on tasks simultaneously, and deliver a story as one team
Instill efficient code review that ensures high code quality but doesn’t hamper the delivery pace
Add the creation of automated tests as a part of your development process, in either a TDD or tests-after-coding manner
Build up feature teams that are capable of delivering end-to-end customer facing features across different technical components
Introduce pair programming practice

People

Give your people pride in their job as they become craftsmen in their domain
Provide your companies' engineers with practical on-the-job coaching while working together with them on new features
Coach your engineers on estimating, planning and dealing with deadlines
Instill enthusiasm for continuous improvement and learning among your team members

It’s all about change

Change is not an easy task and needs a careful approach in order to be done right.

We have a deep understanding of delivering changes, and use this experience to carry out changes in a way that works in line with your goals and supports your company, your people and delivers long-term benefits.

Involvement

The world’s best tools, frameworks, processes or technologies won’t help if the people in your organization have to be forced to use them. We believe in a consensus-based collaborative approach, so we always ensure that all of the aspects of a change (from general goals and planning, all the way up to technical implementation details), are agreed with the right people who will be impacted by the change.
Our specialist will present different options for solving a particular problem and walk your team members through each solution’s pros and cons. Following this, we organise targeted discussions to produce a final decision in collaboration with your team. In longer term placements, our people implement change by working on it day-to-day as integrated team members of your organization.

Right pace of changes

The essence of any change process is to start doing things in a different way. On the face of it, this is an obvious statement – but we need to realise that doing things differently has a significant impact on the people who are impacted by the change. New technologies, architectures, programming concepts or alterations to software development practices will mean your people have to change their conventions, habits and way of thinking. We always keep in mind that the change process should work to complement the teams and individuals we’re working with, so we adjust the pace and form of change to reflect their needs.

Transparency and Communication

We facilitate communicating the strategic goals of the change at all-hands and per-team levels. We also regularly report back to your company’s leadership team and other senior personnel about the status of the change progress, extra opportunities, risks and impediments to be resolved.