Software Development Blog | Digital Transformation Blog

19 Sep 2019

DELIVERY SERVICES: BRIDGING COMMUNICATION GAPS

Project Management , Career Advancement , Agile , Distributed Teams , Software Development , Teamwork

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The last twelve months have been integral in our continuous effort to refine and improve our delivery process both for our engineers and our customers. In June 2018, we started a pilot program creating the role of Engineering Manager on our Delivery Services teams. The pilot proved to be successful in the first 25 teams, so starting in 2019, we’ve expanded to roughly 120 teams and plan to add more in the future.

07 Aug 2019

Microsoft Teams vs. Slack @Unosquare

Effective Communication , Distributed Teams , Team Building

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When it came time to decide on which communication hub to use for Unosquare, the decision was pretty simple. I chose Microsoft Teams over Slack and it’s a decision I’m still happy with today. We were already Office 365 and Skype for Business users, so it was a natural progression for use to implement Teams for our globally distributed employees. We expected some resistance from those that were (and still are) loyal to Slack when we made the official decision to use Teams, but the reason behind our decision makes sense for Unosquare.

01 Jul 2019

The Pros & Cons of Software Outsourcing Projects

Distributed Teams , Outsourcing , Software Development , Rightsourcing

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My first post in this series compared IT Staff Augmentation and Software Outsourcing to set the table for a conversation about the pros and cons of both models. Then, we looked at the pros and cons of IT Staff Augmentation model. In this post, I will do the same exercise for Software Outsourcing projects. It’s important to remember the distinction between the two options in order to make the right decision for your firm and your software development needs.

21 Jun 2019

Don’t Make This Mistake in Your Staff Augmentation Agreement

Agile , Distributed Teams , Team Building , Software Development , Rightsourcing

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As Unosquare expands its presence from our Mexico and Northern Ireland delivery centers, we continue to learn valuable lessons on the key drivers for successful software development with distributed teams. One of the more important lessons we’ve learned is to set clear expectations early in the client relationship in order to prevent problems down the line.

29 May 2019

Quality Assurance Questions to Ask in Agile Software Development

Effective Communication , Distributed Teams , Software Development , QA , Quality Assurance , Testing

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Strong collaboration and communication with your development partners is very important to the Agile process. But, remember that in your role there are some important quality assurance questions that you should ask yourself to keep your processes consistent.

WHY ARE YOU ONLY TESTING WHAT THE USER STORY TELLS YOU?

User stories should have acceptance criteria added by a product owner or business analyst. These are usually helpful for QA to know when they can consider a story as “Passed QA.” However, it’s important not to just stick to the AC and test only the “Happy Path” for a feature. The AC usually tells us what we want to happen, but it’s our job as testers to think about what could happen. Remember to use your QA skills to think outside the box and run validation and negative tests to improve your test coverage on a story.

16 May 2019

IT Staff Augmentation vs Outsourcing for Software Development

Agile , Distributed Teams , Team Building , Software Development , Rightsourcing

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Often IT professionals don’t see much of a difference between staff augmentation and software outsourcing when they are putting together development teams. Before I worked at Unosquare, I wasn’t really aware of the distinction and thought of them basically as synonyms. But now that I’m a Tech Lead, I’ve learned that there is a clear and important distinction between staff augmentation vs outsourcing and have come to understand why it’s vital that companies choose the right solution when getting started with remote team services.

09 May 2019

Don’t Forget These Quality Assurance Soft Skills

Effective Communication , Distributed Teams , Team Building , Software Development , Quality Assurance , Testing

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Improving your "soft skills" will support a development team in effectively meeting project goals. When it comes to QA, these are some some of the more contemporary communication skills that have served to be effective in communicating with our Agile teams at Unosquare.

1. BE TACTFUL

03 May 2019

Software Development Guidelines Pt 2: The Do's & Don'ts

Agile , Distributed Teams , Team Building , Software Development

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As a reminder, last week we covered: Starting with Why, Defining Roles, Breaking Things Down, Drawing Pictures and Writing Words and Not Starting with the Small Stuff. These steps should provide a pretty solid foundation for a team to build on. So without further ado, mute your notifications for 10 minutes and let’s dive in to the remaining “Do’s and Don’ts” of our software development guideline.

25 Apr 2019

Software Development Guide Pt 1: Do's & Don'ts of Software Development

Agile , Distributed Teams , Team Building , Software Development

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Since I joined Unosquare, my co-worker Tom DiGati has been hounding me to write up a post for our blog. I suck at writing, so it takes me a while to do these things. I politely deferred (aka, blew him off) until his promises of eternal gratitude, friendship and agreeing to ride bikes whenever I wanted (you owe me, Tom) changed my mind. So, I sat down to labor over words that had been rattling around my brain for a while. This post is representative of the experiences I’ve had over the years creating products, services, and apps.