Building complex custom digital products | How we do IT #6

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Building complex custom digital products requires more than

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just coding excellence.

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It demands advanced techniques and a specific approach in

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every aspect of software creation,

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from design through project management to quality assurance.

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All these elements work together towards a common goal,

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keeping the development process under control and delivering a

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comprehensive product that seamlessly covers the whole process.

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But how to achieve that?

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Let's take a look at some tried and tested solutions.

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Hi.

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I'm Magda, Business Development Manager at Merixstudio,

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and this is how we do it.

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This series will present you with specific design and

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development challenges and explain how we deal with them

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at Merixstudio.

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Every case is based on our experience and the projects

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we've worked on so far.

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In this episode, we'll take a closer look at the UK based

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specialist certification company.

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It's an independent nonprofit NGO and an industry leader

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in the field of high stakes testing.

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They focus on developing, administering, scoring,

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reporting results of valid examinations that assess the

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student's competence.

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The company wanted to introduce a new multistage exam that

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would assess theoretical, practical and clinical decision making skills.

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And that's when they faced a few challenges.

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Up until now, the client has been relying on outdated

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software combined with off the shelf solutions to automate the

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process of creating and conducting examinations.

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The software is burdened with technical and UX debts.

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While these systems roughly met the organization needs,

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they fell short in supporting complex testing methodologies

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and accommodating the changes related with the new exam.

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Moreover, the utilization of multiple solutions had a

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negative impact on the user experience and the easiness of the process.

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That's why to maintain the highest quality of

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examinations, the organization decided to develop a custom

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software solution.

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How can we cope with these challenges?

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Maciej Stempniak, our Senior Business Analyst,

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will share some insightful solutions based on our experience.

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Let's begin with discussing the project

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management aspects.

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How will we approach the project from this side?

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When it comes to the PM area,

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we should primarily focus on effectively managing the

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complexity of the product and the extensive scope of work.

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As the software development aligns with the evolving

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concept of the new exam,

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we highly recommend adopting the Scrum framework.

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This agile approach empowers us to define clear objectives for

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each sprint and enables us to adapt to changing priorities in

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dynamic environment.

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Furthermore, this kind of large scale project involving numerous team

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members requires implementing the roles of scrum master and

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proxy product owner.

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This will ensure high standards for both the team's performance

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and the product's development.

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Scrum master ensures the efficiency of processes within the team.

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Additionally, they take care of the team motivation.

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For the product owner,

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the responsibility lies in optimizing the backlog in terms

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of business value, usability, and feasibility.

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They manage the product roadmap and address strategic needs.

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To clearly visualize the work progress and effectively plan

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the tasks, we need a well suited roadmap.

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Crafting it requires leveraging advanced estimation and

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prioritization techniques.

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For the purpose of the first one,

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we would use the scrum story points method.

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It allows teams to efficiently estimate and plan their

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projects without getting bogged down into exhaustive details.

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Instead of attempting to precisely predict the number of

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days or hours for each task,

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the team focuses on comparing the relative difficulty of one

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task against another.

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On the other hand, for effective task prioritization,

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we can use well regarded Moscow method.

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It's very useful for managing backlog and requirements.

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It allows us to assess what we would definitely accomplish in a given period.

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Proper project management is definitely a crucial part of

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dealing with complex products.

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But what about the technology?

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Tech solutions should all be about ensuring reliability,

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scalability, and security as the system evolves and has to

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collect analytical data as well as track record changes with

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clear audit trail.

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It is also key to provide high performance with zero downtime during the exam.

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Apps that reflects such complex processes invariably call for

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well considered architecture.

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It needs to encompass all dependencies, remain scalable,

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and prime for future expansion.

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That's why Software Architect ongoing engagement in building

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complex products is more than welcome.

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In this case, we decide to create a modular event driven architecture.

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We base the whole application on what's going on in the event

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stream, not on user request.

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We opt for this solution to achieve utmost scalability,

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effortlessly adding new component instances to bolster

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throughput, and an architecture bid upon event facilitates

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parallel handling of multiple requests.

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And what about the architecture style?

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Does every complex digital product require microservices?

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Well, not always.

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While microservices are often considered the default choice

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for comprehensive systems,

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we intentionally deviate from using them in this specific case.

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This decision primarily stems from the ongoing product

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development phase on the client's end.

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Our main emphasis revolves around crafting the domain and

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integrating the business logic within the application.

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Prematurely dividing the application into independent

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microservices could potentially complicate the rectification of

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any missteps later on.

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It is of utmost importance for the solution to maintain the

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required flexibility to adapt to ever evolving product needs.

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While we do have satellite applications connected via message bus,

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it is imperative to clarify that they do not operate as

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independent microservices, although they may become them.

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One day.

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So let's move on to the design aspect of the projects.

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How can we ensure the highest level of usability for such a

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complex product?

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First of all, we need to understand the product inside

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out, considering all its dependencies, user profiling,

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and business context to kick start our collaboration.

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An extended discovery workshop will be essential in

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acquainting ourselves with the fundamental requirements and

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domain knowledge.

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Yet, we cannot stop here.

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Given the scale of the app and the long term perspective of

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our work and the modular architecture we've recommended,

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we'll need more time and special approach to delve into

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the product details.

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That's why we propose a gradual development process,

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breaking down the work into specific modules and start it

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with the dedicated discovery phase.

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We kick off an in-depth discovery session using the

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insights gained to generate tailor made solutions for the

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identified requirements.

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These proposals will then be validated with the client

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through internal usability testing.

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Once the details are finalized,

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we proceed to the development phase led by our skilled

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programmers and QA engineers.

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Lastly, we gather feedback from end users to continually improve

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and enhance the product.

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From the UI perspective, in projects of this magnitude,

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a well defined design system and style guides are essential.

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They provide centralized, scalable,

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and consistent approach to design,

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facilitating seamless collaboration among teams and stakeholders.

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So as we can see,

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building complex custom products involves not only the

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right technological solutions, but also proven

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processes and specific roles within the team.

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They enable the management of the vast scope of work and

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effective tackling of comprehensive technical and business issues.

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I hope this video will help you to make sure your IT

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partner has the mature enough approach to face advanced

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challenges that always come with complex product development.

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Thanks for watching,

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and don't forget to check out more content on our insights.