In light of the COVID-19 pandemic Wattle are now operating as a fully remote business in the Cloud. In this article we discuss how each area of our organisation makes remote working happen and outline the tools, methodologies and process we use to continue to deliver seamless digital transformation projects for our clients.
Its been a challenge but, as a technology company, many of our team already work remotely, so we were able to make the fully-remote move relatively swiftly and seamlessly. Many businesses have not been so fortunate.
In a time where we need to band together as a society we'd like to share the tools, methodologies and processes we have implemented to make the remote working switch. Some of the tools below will be specific to the software development services we provide but many, like Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint, are applicable to any business setting up to work remotely.
If you would like any further information or some help please do get in touch.
Our business-critical systems are all cloud-based and include capabilities for fully remote project delivery, ongoing support provision, secure chat and video conferencing and online team collaboration. In addition to using Skype for traditional phone calls, the most fundamental Wattle communication channels are Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint.
Microsoft Teams
On a day to day basis, Teams facilitates communications across the business where face to face contact is not possible. Teams enables secure video conferencing internally, and externally with clients, along with specific groups and channels enabling us to collaborate seamlessly on projects online.
Microsoft SharePoint
SharePoint acts as both our company intranet and cloud-based document management system. We can share and manage content online, empower greater teamwork, quickly find information, and seamlessly collaborate across the organisation.
During day to day project delivery we deploy a range of software including Azure DevOps and SharePoint Portals for project management, Float, Microsoft Project and Lucid Chart for scheduling, and Teams for communications where face to face isn’t an option.
Whilst the use of these digital channels is common practice internally at Wattle, delivering major client digital transformation programmes without significant face to face time is a challenge we've had to overcome.
Virtual Daily Stand Ups
The daily stand up is an essential part of the agile software development process. The nature of a stand up is that it promotes a more productive use of time by forcing everyone to stand up and highlight key project achievements and challenges in a concise timeframe. To achieve this remotely we utilise Microsoft Teams and a Teams plugin called Agile Polly, an virtual stand up tool where team members can write up their daily stand up, and flag any blockers.
Remote Sprint Retrospectives
The Sprint Retrospective is an opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint. The Sprint Retrospective occurs after the Sprint Review and prior to the next Sprint Planning. To achieve this remotely, we utilise an online collaborative whiteboarding platform called Miro. This tool enables our team and the client team to collaborate in much the same way as you would expect face to face.
Managing Go-Live
The biggest challenge faced by our remote delivery teams comes with the launch and go-live of the website CMS and CRM solutions we provide. A go-live requires our Project Managers to coordinate both a large internal team and an expectant and excited client team.
Our primary tool for communication and collaboration during this process is Microsoft Teams, where we host an 'always open' video channel for the duration of the process. We then schedule additional video calls with the client team every two hours to provide ongoing updates on progress. This communications methodology is highly effective when combined with clear objectives for the go-live process. Every team member is then kept up to date, in real time, every step of the way which means:
Whilst Microsoft Teams is our core remote communications platform, it is Visual Studio that has enabled our Development teams to live share what they are working on. Visual Studio is a relatively easy solution to set up and makes a huge difference when two or more Developers are working on the same set of code. The solutions 'live share' feature works much in the same way as SharePoint and Google Docs, but instead of documents it allows for real time editing and debugging of code.
To provide the development teams with remote access to software and machines we use TeamViewer, a comprehensive, remote access, remote control and remote support solution. We also deploy Azure DevOps to host all of our source code and to manage our CI/CD to the cloud.
Now, more than ever, organisations need to be 'open for business as usual'. We all need to continue to keep in touch with our clients and prospects and to market our products and services effectively.
At Wattle that means utilising Microsoft Teams to conduct virtual client visits, sales meetings and online software demonstrations. We also utilise LinkedIn as a key communications channel and have converted any planned event-base activity into online webinar format.
Our Marketing team rely on our Microsoft Dynamics 365, a cloud-based CRM system, as a single source of truth for client data and to continue to run marketing campaigns. SharePoint is our go-to cloud-based document management system that ensures our commercial team can collaborate on tender responses and sales bids.
We hope we have provided some useful tools and insights to help other organisations work more effectively remotely. We would love to hear from you about your approaches. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact our team on info@wearewattle.com
