Communication

Effective communication is the backbone of any software project's success. This is especially important for distributed teams. Effective use of communication ensures that all members of the development and management teams have the same clear understanding of the project's peculiarities during the whole process of development and that no time is lost due to misunderstandings or unnecessary investigation.

At Intelliarts we maintain a 24-hours feedback policy, which ensures that any incoming request or question is answered as soon as possible but not later than 24 hours. This allows our customers to be on the same page with the development team during all phases of the project development.

To make communication more efficient at critical project stages we are able to accommodate time zone difference shifting team schedule, to increase the amount of time remote and local teams are working together.

Intelliarts engineers are available via e-mail, instant messaging, VoIP and phone. The most common communication use cases are briefly described below.

Workshops/Trainings

In case of long-term, complex projects remote communication might not be enough. We find it useful conducting project workshops in the beginning and near to the end of a project.

Inception phase workshop is used to give developers a better understanding of the project goal, clearly define requirements and establish relations between remote and local team members. Initial workshop might include a training to get the team familiar with the domain or product. In the transition phase on-site workshop decreases the amount of time needed to put the implemented solution into the production environment.

Weekly Conferences

Usually once a week we have project status conference calls. Before the call local team project manager or a team leader sends a status report to the customer. On the call parties discuss issues that arose during the previous week and plans for the next week. After the call meeting minutes are sent to all team members via e-mail.

Daily Operations

In our daily work developers use e-mail, IM and VoIP services to clarify project requirements, discuss architecture and design solutions, report about possible risks. We often use web meetings services, like a WebEx, to gain a better understanding when discussing complex things.