How to deliver structured software solutions

OceanoBe is launching a new video series in which we are going to talk about the software industry and the importance of having a structured approach when delivering IT services and products.

Here is the introduction video and if you are in mood of a quick read, you can find the transcript below. If you have questions don't hesitate to get in touch. Enjoy and let's talk!

 

Video Transcript

Hello there, my name is Diana Tamas and I am the CoFounder of OceanoBe Technology.  

Today we are going to talk about the software development industry and have a look at the importance of having a structured approach when delivering IT products and services. This is the beginning of a new series of videos that our team has put together. We are going to share with you our best practice model or, as we call it, our Playbook. So please subscribe to our social media channels and stay tuned. And of course, we hope that this video will inspire you in your activity and also, hopefully, we will start a conversation about how we should do things better and more efficiently. 

Company overview

I would like to start with a little background on OceanoBe and what we do, this will help you get to understand better our background and how we came to create this specific work ethic and playbook.

Over the last couple of years, we as a team have worked on this dream called OceanoBe, a software development company build to make more than code and products. We believed that allowing people to get creative and supporting them in building new and exciting products was the key to building our company. The road of any startup is always full of challenges, but one thing is guaranteed, if you start on your journey with a strong moral code, concrete values, and the utmost respect for the power of the team, then your way to success will be more than often very easy. 

Over the years OceanoBe has worked with companies in a variety of industries. We have delivered custom software such as web and mobile apps for our partners. Although each collaboration unravels in a specific way, they all must follow a specific pattern. Why is this important? Well, because having a Playbook guarantees a high-quality service level while providing excellence and personalization to each client. This brings us to the topic of the day…

The playbook

Our focus for today is to present some general ideas on the subject, but, as I said, we will have more videos coming up in which we dive into each subject and provide our inside knowledge and experience. As you all know, working with clients that have custom needs requires a customized approach, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a strategy. Here at OceanoBe we have created this strategy called The Playbook, which is actually focused on 5 main areas and these are: 

• The Discovery Phase;
• Product Delivery;
• Designing;
• Tools and practices;
• And Development.

Let’s talk a little bit about each…

So, the discovery phase is the part where you understand the client’s business. Most IT companies find this task time-consuming, and some think it’s quite useless, but we beg to differ. When you have a clear understanding of what the client needs and why he needs it, you can better adapt and suggest the best course of action for the software/product he needs. Gathering the necessary information about the business and using Design Sprint will give you and your team a clear way of creating the best product while minimizing errors and costs. In our upcoming video, we will explore the specifics of the Design Sprint and how we structured our process. 

The next phase is Product Delivery. As a rule, we use agile methodologies like Scrum or Extreme Programing, which, in our opinion, bring the best value to our customers and to the process. When customers approach us we are flexible and can accommodate our way of working following as much as possible the principles we are using for internal products: Ideation, Prioritisation, and Develop & Test. In this phase, we put a lot of emphasis on the process, tools, environment, communication, and standards that we apply, but more on these subjects in the oncoming videos.

For the Design phase, I will say only this: we are using Design Thinking and our approach is always human-centered. Since Design  is probably the most volatile of all the phases and most challenging, we will talk more about how our process unfolds. 

For the tech-savvy people from our community, I think the most disputed part of any process is the Tools and practices. Although, software development requires very technical knowledge it doesn’t necessarily mean that this craft doesn't require some art and sometimes strong intuition. Tools on the market are plentiful but having the vision of how to choose the best set for a specific project, is another story. Our team will try to give you an idea of how to make… magic happen.

Last but not least we have the Development phase. There are a lot of important subjects we should address and we plan to give a more in-depth look at architecture, system qualities, performance, and operational quality.  

Conclusions

So there you have it, an overview of our Playbook. I also have to mention that dividing our activity into these five areas allowed us to create a clear space of understanding for the customer, of what he can expect, but at the same time, it made it possible for our team to have a really clear perspective and helped integrate more easily new team members. So, you see, it is the very best practice you can incorporate. 

As mentioned before, we will start our video series and I hope that you will join us in debating the solutions presented. For us this Playbook is more like a living document, we are ready to change and adapt it every single day. So, do join us if you want to discover more about the art of doing software, and let’s start talking more about how we can better the software community and the world we live in.  

Thank you all for watching and don’t forget to subscribe to our social channels. Have a great coding day!