Site icon NodeXperts

Managing Large Teams and Dependencies

v4nodexpert

Enterprise Product Development

Abstract

We at NodeXperts, believe in providing high-quality, customer-centric, innovative solutions and on-time product delivery. 

But, how do we make sure being an offshore team that a mission-critical software project is going to turn out the way our clients need and expect it to be? 

There are various aspects and challenges to look after when 250+ members of creative minds and various profiles work collaboratively as an augmented offshore team with a prime focus in delivering an integrated Platform.

Some of the key aspects are that need to be addressed were – 

What We’ll Cover in this White Paper

This white paper contains strategies that we followed to deliver one of the biggest enterprise products as a single team and how we bridged the gaps in our successful project delivery.

  1. Our Journey
    1. Projects Kick-off
    2. Initial Challenges
    3. Team Expansion
    4. Global Team Integration
    5. Next Challenges
  2. Our Team
    1. Characteristics
    2. Opportunities
    3. Team Culture
  3. Our Execution Plans
    1. Requirement Engineering
      • Understood their business
      • Scope the problems
      • Provided solutions
    2. Project Strategy
      • Team Hierarchy
      • Finalized the process flow
      • Finalized the tools
      • Schedule
      • Hiring & Training Process
      • Streamlined the Documentation, Development Guidelines, Quality, and Delivery Process
    3. Software Development

Built the utility components and solutions to speed up the features of software development process

  1. Software Quality
    We streamlined the guidelines for QA process as well which includes:
    • Coding Standards
    • E2e testing
    • Sanity Testing
    • NFT testing
    • Integrated with Pipeline
  2. Automation in Infrastructure
    Automation in DevOps, DevSecOps, SecApp to speed up development and release process, and any security threats.
  3. Security
    Embedded security in SDLC. 
  4. Product Release
    Product release with 3DLs 
  5. Site Reliability Models
    Integrated tools with the system to have a reliable system. 

1. Our Journey

After proving our capabilities to clients and completing the formalities, the project started and it was huge, so we needed onboard members, compromising of Architects, Consultants, Designers, Developers, Scrum Masters, Project Managers. We were gearing up for taking up this challenge as a team and started streamlining all our processes including development, hiring, training plan, etc, and needed to work as a team to meet all the expectations of clients. All of this was finalized to be done in 2-3 months until the onboarding process was completed. 

1.1 Project Kick off

As consultants, we suggested the client begin with 25 members for initial 3 months, and the reason was pretty clear. Initially, we needed to:

After 2 months of the onboarding process, they started with 25 members for an initial period of 3 months.

1.2. Challenges

Managing a team of 250+ members (offshore team) was not going to be easy, therefore we utilized the 2 months of onboarding and initial 3 months of the project to the fullest to:

1.3 Team Expansion

1.5 More Challenges

2. What NodeXperts brought to the table

We at NodeXperts don’t believe in micro-management and gave full opportunity to the internal leadership of teams to drive their team as they desired to, given they follow all the development and code quality guidelines with maintaining the quality and timeline of the project.

2.1 Team Characteristics

Core working values in the project:

2.2. Opportunities

We at NodeXperts provide ample learning and growth opportunities to individuals by the means of:

2.3 Team Culture
In order to build better communication and collaboration with the onshore team, we created a process of sending a few members every month to the onsite office. This significantly helped our communication and ownership in each ART and team. 

Our Approach

To bridge the gap, soon after the onboarding process got completed, we have sent a team of requirement engineering and solutions architects to client locations to understand their ideas, vision and business better, before starting to devise a solution.

3.1.3 Solution Provided

After defining a high-level scope, we worked along with the on-shore team and  finalized:

3.2. Project Strategy

With a team of 250+ members, we understood that we require a proper vision and clarity in our thoughts, therefore the first part of the process was to finalize the hierarchy, team distributions, process & tools.

3.2.1 Team Hierarchy (Cross-Functional Teams)

We divided our team into independent units which we named “POD” – Point of Delivery, responsible for delivering a module or a unit of a product

Each POD has members of a specific skill set, the same are enlisted below: 

3.2.6 Streamlined the Documentation, Development Guidelines, Quality, and Delivery Process

Being an enterprise project, maintaining the quality of the project was our primary objective along with timely delivery.

A good software project must have the following characteristics:


Therefore, all of our processes & checklists were designed and adopted against the above-mentioned characteristics and were introduced to all our development teams, specifically to our leadership teams.

We had to be smart and precise enough to work with 250 members in an effective way.

Besides, we had defined the number of checklists for pods to ensure the coding and build quality. Some of the points in this checklist were related to the following:

Complete the development related 2 days before the sprint, so have ample time for QA, reviews, acceptance testing, and bug fixes.

All pointers should be ticked from coding guidelines checklists as part of PR e.g.:

Mandatory review process:

Conclusion

For our clients, we set up a complete augmented team that works as an extension of their product teams directly with their clients. This level of seamless collaboration has been made possible only due to the technical prowess and accountability that NodeXperts has demonstrated. 

NodeXperts makes technology more intuitive by embedding it with processes, data insights, and analytics to its solutions and services. 

With more than a decade of domain expertise, NodeXperts is one of the leading technology services providers for various industry segments including the government and public sector. Today, NodeXperts is a fast-growing young leader in business process management and technology services, leveraging the power of intelligent processes, in-depth analytics, and innovatiion to help its clients drive efficiency across their enterprise. 

Client Team – “The project has a complex and challenging setup and navigating that is always a challenge. For a project of this magnitude to succeed it is important that collaboration and teamwork are at the heart of any execution plan. One key success driver, however, is a clear understanding of the role each individual needs to play, which can be extremely challenging especially with globally dispersed teams.
Nodexperts is a great partner to work with!
“We understand the problems inherent in a large-scale delivery and always take proactive measures to mitigate risks whilst going beyond the call of duty to support favorable business outcomes.”

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