Cooperation with House of Angular from PM’s perspective
Software development is an industry that comes with great opportunities and a possibility to cooperate with people all over the world. Especially now, in the era of the world wide web.
Here, in House of Angular, we appreciate the opportunity software development gives us and that is why we mainly work with international clients, whom we actually prefer to think of as our partners. We don’t create software projects FOR them, we do it together WITH them. This is one of our main and most important values. We pay high attention to make sure that the product we create is a software, which satisfies not only the client, but also the end-users and brings as many valuable benefits for them as possible. That is why close contact with our partners is crucial for us. Hence, Agile methods are having an important place in our hearts.
Who do we cooperate with and how does the process looks like
We collaborate mainly with partners from: Germany, Norway, Benelux and the United States.
But…one question comes up – how do we cooperate efficiently if we shuffle with that many different business cultures at the same time? To be honest, the process looks a bit different each time, especially because adaptation and flexibility are also one of our ground values. Nevertheless, let me show you what it looks like for most of the cases.
First, we always start with getting to know each other. Before we start working on the project, we always have a couple of conversations together with our potential partner, where we are finding out how we can fulfill each other’s expectations. The first round refers to business. We talk about the project, its purpose, the life cycle (is it something that will be built from scratch or is there a legacy), plans for the future, where exactly is our help needed, etc. If both sides feel that we surf on the same wave, we proceed and plan a more technical meeting, where our architects meet our partner’s technical expert. During this catch-up, they talk about technical expectations, the code, architecture, potential expansions, etc. If everything matches, this is the moment when we decide to work together. In the meantime, we fulfill all paperwork. Even though we always have prepared contracts, we are flexible and always willing to adapt to our partner’s needs. After all formalities are finalized and both parties are satisfied, we continue with setting up a proper team. Our company takes into account everything that was said before and assigns people who fit the most to this specific project.
When the Project Manager knows who will work on the project and what is the goal of the project, he or she can start setting up everything. We always work with Jira, unless our partner wants a different project management tool. However, in Jira we all are specialists and only a small percentage of projects are being led in different tools. According to Atlassian, Jira is used for issue tracking and project management by over 180,000 customers in 190 countries. It is also a perfect fit for our Agile way of working. Besides that, we use the Scrum framework which is by far the most widely used among software development teams. According to “The State of Scrum”, which report is based on a survey of nearly 2000 software development teams, 94% of the respondents are using Scrum in their agile practice. For us, the biggest value in Scrum is the possibility (even necessity) to be constantly in touch with our partner. It allows us to adapt and apply an efficient way of cooperation, according to the needs of all stakeholders. Our team sees and understands the great value of Scrum, that is why meetings like Daily Stand-Ups, Sprint Plannings, Sprint Reviews, Sprint Retrospectives, and Refinements are our must-have in each project. Our Project Managers take care of them and ensure that all meetings fulfill their purpose.
What tools do we use in House of Angular
In addition to the previously mentioned values, we attach great importance to well-organized, clear communication. We all know that communication is the most important part of each project. Almost 80% of project failures are caused by miscommunication. Because of that, a proper communication tool is crucial for the projects’ success, especially when our partners live abroad. This is why a proper communication tool is crucial for a successful cooperation.
Our most commonly used communication tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams and JIRA ticket. Other tools we love to work with are: Google Meet, Google Drive and Miro. For calls, we mostly use Google Meet and as our Knowledge Base – Google Drive. For Team Building events or Retrospectives we use Miro, which is also a genius tool with many advanced features (there are just too many to list here, so if you haven’t tried it out yet, you definitely should, you will be overwhelmed by the possibilities it gives you).
Besides the tools described above, we adapt to the current needs and if we feel that something could be improved or just be done more efficiently, we analyze and adapt accordingly. We always try to offer the best solutions and tools at our disposal, but at the same time, we are aware that every project is unique in its own way. That is why it is vital for us to treat each client individually, to be flexible, and to adapt to our partner’s needs to the maximum extent.
If you think that House of Angular needs to know about other tools not mentioned above, let us know in the comments below :)! We love to learn and are always open for new ideas/improvements. And if you are interested in working with us, you can contact us here: https://houseofangular.io/hire-us/ and check how we can develop your product together.
