When using a website menu on a mobile device, how exactly does the user get to a landing page? Click on the heading? The chevron icon? Do you need an extra menu item for the landing page? Simple questions, banal even, but as a jobbing designer we have to resolve them one way or another. The best way to trash your projects’ usability is to not consider the little things as you go along.
Local governments are always on the lookout for opportunities to improve their services for their citizens. Common Ground is here to support them and expand their possibilities. Several municipalities are already on their way to make internal automation and information provision to their residents easier, smarter and more flexible. However, this incredibly rewarding work does not come without its challenges! In this article, I describe how Common Ground works, while highlighting points of attention for local governments. The article also includes some best practices for municipalities that are ready to start their journey towards better service provision.
Harvey Neve headed up digital products and transformation at Public Health England for three years before moving on to become director of a digital technology services consultancy. In this interview he shares his extensive experience of leading change and driving forward digital innovation.
The perfect team is an agile team; built for speed, small at just four or five people, confident and empowered to make decisions. They understand one-way and two-way doors and the urgency of decision making. There are no impasses, if it comes to it they will roll a dice.
Assumptions are made by people who build brilliant businesses alongside people who can program the most intelligent code. Numerous lists of user stories are transformed into long streams of ones and zeros. But there is so much time and effort put in the system, that they forget one little tiny piece of the puzzle... The user.
Do you work on a digital product with multidisciplinary teams? Are you leading an organisation through a difficult digital transformation? Then you know that it’s extremely important to get everyone on the same page. The classic method to achieve this is to formulate a vision and a mission. These are then supplemented with a set of core values, targets and KPIs. And voila! Everyone knows what the objective is. Or is it more complicated than that?
When you build a new digital solution, there’s a sense of achievement for the whole team. Designers, software engineers, product managers and users. If you do it right, they work together, focused on the top of the mountain. The end goal. The finish line. But first you need the right building blocks in place, and you need to know where the finish line is.
In 1909, Henry Ford famously said about the Model T, “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” Retail offerings and customer expectations have changed dramatically since then, of course.
Worth is attending Liferay's Digital Solutions Forum in London on November 8th (Hilton London Tower Bridge), and Scrum Master Marian Maas is there to answer all your questions about agile delivery in a government context.
What springs to mind when you think of design? You venture towards thoughts of design practitioners, you may picture someone who is ‘talented’ in making things look great in Photoshop, someone who is skilled in illustrating and has more than necessary knowledge about colour theory.
My interest in connectivity began as a child. While other children drew houses, trees and figures, I drew lines, components and systems. Even from an early age, system connectivity fascinated me. With the dawn of the Internet of Things (IoT) - wherein everyday devices have embedded computing intelligence - increasingly becoming commonplace, I’ve put my interest in connected systems to practical use, and one such practical application is in my own home. I have equipped it with over 100 sensors, which measure and control what’s happening in and around it.
So, what is DevOps? That's a fair question that many might have. To get a better understanding of DevOps, it’s important to go back in time to uncover how and why DevOps emerged. Around ten years ago, internet, cloud, big data and IoT became more widespread. With these advancements, many new challenges emerged. These challenges created a need for efficiency and a need to be responsive to rapidly changing business conditions. Any savvy digital entrepreneur wants to go to market fast, fail fast, gather feedback, and change the product to better suit customer needs. Therefore, it became very important to understand why development slows down and how to tackle this issue. It quickly became clear that many issues were created because of a lack of collaboration between different development teams.
On a recent project for a large university, they had a problem. Not the main problem: that of needing to update their website and intranet to cope with the demands of cut-throat competitive pressures and a discerning customer base.
Explaining the meaning of Agile or “to be agile” is no easy task. The saying “The more you learn, the less you know”, definitely applies to this topic. In an attempt to demystify its different meanings, this article explores Agile from three different perspectives, concluding with a fourth, holistic perspective. This is the first of two articles, the second part will explore 'the Agile Mindset' and the typical characteristics of Agile organizations.
As a User Experience designer, one of my main tasks is to make it easy for users to achieve their goals and perform their tasks using the service we create. We summarise this as “having a good experience” while using the application, the service, and preferably throughout all interactions a person has with a product or service. However, sometimes this is not enough to keep people engaged or to motivate them. Gamification can enhance experience to improve motivation and engagement.
The first part of this article has been an exploration of Agile from different perspectives, concluding that many are doing Agile by focussing on specific frameworks or practices. It also briefly touched upon the holistic perspective on Agile where a shift in mindset is considered the ultimate goal.
One of our biggest challenges when my fellow Security colleague Wouter and I started our Agile Security Journey at Worth, was enabling and scaling security processes into agile teams. The majority of our developers & QA engineers were very excited about security, but there was no platform for them to learn new skills or share knowledge. Therefore, the solution was simple: starting a Security Champions guild. In this article, the Security Team will take you on this journey.
Most people are lazy, and testers are no exception. It’s one of the main reasons automated end-to-end and regression tests exist. But there are dozens of different automation tools in every thinkable programming language (however… I would pay to see someone port Selenium to Fortran), so which one do you pick? In this blog I will make a case for CodeceptJS and offer a short introduction.
This is part one in a short series of articles on the nature of metrics, especially within product and software development. In this article, we’ll talk about: - Data distortion - Data literacy - Data disillusionment
This is part two in a short series on the nature of metrics generally and within software development particularly. In the previous article, we outlined two recent examples of the very-real danger inherent in poor metrics. In this article, we outline just some of the theory as to why poor metrics happen.
This is part three in a short series on the nature of metrics generally and within software development particularly.
This is part four - the final part - in a short series of articles on the nature of metrics generally but within product and especially software development particularly.
The aim of the article is not to put forward the idea of deletion for deletion's sake. Sometimes solutions to things are large, this approach aims to simplify as much as possible.
There are many things that come together to make a digital product or service delivery a success. Knowing your users and their needs. Understanding your organisation and how it functions. And either having the in-house technical expertise to deliver digital solutions, or working in partnership with a firm like us.
This may sound obvious, but a good discovery phase leads to better digital solutions. It’s certainly true in our experience. But the opposite is also true: jumping straight into development or doing it under pressure or without a clear goal, rarely leads to good results.
Testing is a great way to assert the existence of value in your product. And for that reason, inclusion of testing in development workflows has become much more popular. But how do you write tests that will last over time, not slow you down with complexity, and add value to the end product?
Whether you choose to develop products in-house or with an external partner like WORTH, the success of your project largely depends on the teams involved. Forming a successful digital team is like cooking a good meal. You need fine ingredients, the best cooking materials, knowledge and experience. In the checklist below, we break down the top 10 ingredients for a successful digital development team.
Following a competitive procurement process, Worth Systems has been appointed as development partner to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on the build of their new digital funding service.
Most software product and service delivery projects are done in house or externally, with the project management being internal. In recent years, however, we are seeing an increase in the use of hybrid teams that combine in-house and external experts.
Mutation testing assesses the quality of your test suite. It works by making an edit to your code, then running the test suite and identifying what in your code base can break or change without tripping one of your unit tests. If something can be changed without a test failing, then a hole in your test suite is revealed and reported on.
In this blog post we’ll look at the different types of performance testing and how to get started if you’re new to it.
Over the last few years, whenever I’ve been in a conversation about content management, the question keeps coming up, “Is it headless?”
It’s been a year since the UK first went into lockdown and we mark the occasion in a slightly unusual way — by launching our new office in Stellenbosch's infamous Technopark, near Cape Town, South Africa.
What do we mean by the word vision? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as 'The ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom'. However, within a commercial context, I have come across a vision which seems to have no real purpose, isn't backed by evidence and lacks the practicality to drive the business towards its desired future state far too often.
Rather than focusing on frameworks like Safe or Scrum@Scale, at Agile Amsterdam 2018, we concentrated on the agile mindset. Among different approaches and contexts, I noticed that several speakers made the same argument, so I have compiled these five action points to help scale agile.
Recently my colleague Nuno shared a talk by Dave Thomas with the tantalizing title “Agile is dead”. My initial response was one of slight annoyance being trolled with another agile bashing click bait video. I watched it all the way through with a sense of deja-vu, then it hit me. I had seen it before!
This is our second blog post on performance testing. In the previous article, we reviewed the different types of performance testing and how those might apply to the application that you are testing. This article will go into more detail about how you can approach performance testing, the pitfalls to avoid, and what to consider when choosing the best tooling for you.
Twenty years ago, in February 2002, Ernout van der Waard founded Worth Internet Systems at his kitchen table. He was a Software Engineering student driven by a passion for connectivity and digital. Over the past two decades, Worth has grown into an international agency with branches in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and South Africa. It now employs over 100 people in various disciplines: from UX designers to developers, scrum masters, testers and security specialists.
When should you choose to outsource your software development? It’s a question we get asked a lot. We like to turn the question around and ask: when should you choose in-house development? Both routes have pros and cons, so here are five considerations to help with your decision.
Tired of watching your UI tests run through the same setup steps again and again? How long does it take to get to the point in the test where you’re actually testing the feature that you need to check? How many times have your tests failed in your setup or teardown and caused a test failure that has nothing to do with the feature that you’re working on?
If you’re reading this, you most likely embarked on a transformation project over the last year. Maybe it was driven by your response to the pandemic. Or perhaps you planned it before and expedited it due to the crisis.
If you work on a product or digital team, chances are good that you’re currently looking for a way to quickly and effectively manage or update content across multiple platforms. That is essential to optimise your customers’ experience or improve digital interaction. But the growing number of mobile and web-based applications makes that more difficult than ever. In this interview, Arien Kock, head of Software Engineering at Worth, explains how you can turn your digital product roadmap into an execution powerhouse.
Getting a product to market quickly and cost effectively, should be at the crux of any product development strategy. But building your reputation within the market, and retaining users once your product is live, will be determined by the quality of the product - it's reliability, accessibility, usability, and how well it meets user needs.
Huge invoices. Months to solve a problem. A standardised approach. A risk-averse methodology. Do you ever question if you have the right digital transformation partner? Choosing a digital partner that is right for your needs is an important decision. With thousands of firms in the market (both offshore & onshore) and even more freelancers, it’s difficult to know who is able to deliver high quality work in today’s fast-paced, change-oriented landscape, and who is lacking the skills, expertise and approach that will make them the right fit for your business.
The old proverb ‘give a dog a bad name’ can, sadly, be applied to digital transformation - the primary business pursuit of the past decade. The problem is there are so many ways to get transformation projects wrong, waste valuable time and pour resources down the drain. In fact, the worldwide failure rate is estimated at between 70 and 85%.
I have a confession: after 20 years of software development, I still haven’t found the perfect recipe for creating a high-performance software team. Every project and every team works slightly differently and requires special ingredients to develop software efficiently and productively. How do you build a strong team? Which design techniques and development methods help you deliver value quickly? How do you measure team performance and how do you, as a manager, create an environment in which teams can perform at their best? All good questions! I am happy to share the five steps you need to take to turn an agile team into a high-performance software team.
The coronavirus pandemic prompted many municipalities to improve their digital services for residents and business owners. New digital solutions allow municipalities to work more efficiently and better meet the needs of the end users: their citizens. Skilful use of public data and geomapping – in other words, making this data visual – makes it possible to convert it into interactive, smart digital maps. This results in new digital applications that allow requests to the municipality to be fully digitalised and simplified for the end user. This article describes three advantages of the wider use of geo-mapping for municipalities, so they can better serve their citizens. Keep on reading.
Responding to change has never been as important as it is now. If not to improve cooperation with your customers or service users, then definitely to set up and maintain an efficient internal organisation. Responding intelligently to change means taking into account people, processes and the organisational culture. IT and IT leadership play a key role in the change process. However, success in an IT project is not a given, in some sectors the failure rate is as high as 1 in 2. So, how can you optimise the organisation and scale up digital delivery? These are the 8 most important steps.
Needless complexity is something you can and want to avoid in IT systems. When it comes to IT, the simplest solution is almost always the best. You need a solution that takes you where you want to go. A solution that can be launched quickly. A solution that helps you get feedback from real users who actually use it. A solution that delays decision-making until the right moment. A solution that doesn’t stop you and your organisation from making different, better decisions in the future – decisions that deliver a solid digital service.
Are your designs for apps and websites a guaranteed success? Do you always hit the mark? From the outside, it seems like some companies and entrepreneurs have the Midas touch. But in truth, they simply excel in one crucial skill: prototyping. Investing in prototyping pays off in more ways than one. We all know that product and service innovation can be beneficial. The trick is to do it quickly, and retain and gain customers. Speed is of the essence in a complex environment where existing IT infrastructure and past choices can form obstacles for innovation. Your chances of success can be improved by prototyping your design for a product or service. So how do you use prototyping to go from idea to impact? When do you use it and what are the benefits? And how about those three P’s?
When customers or colleagues don’t use your application, it’s a write-off for your organisation. A great many digital projects fail: we are talking about a whopping 70-90% – and it usually happens for good reason. It is crucial to know what your target audience is looking for. You collect that knowledge by continuously focusing on the user of your product. To uncover and monitor what your user wants, you can apply user research and user testing. This article describes how you can leverage these methods in your design process. The two techniques can give you and your development team insight into what's happening. We also tell you how to maximise their value.
The future is uncertain. What should you base your long-term plans on? Lately, that is a question I hear very often. The greater the uncertainty, the more difficult it is to assess the consequences of choices. Yet you often know how to make wise choices: by checking assumptions and applying an appropriate decision-making process. In this blog, I will reveal how to decide whether to build new software or buy existing software.
In the digital world, terms such as innovation, flexibility and change are all around us. And all of it has to happen at the speed of light because standing still with a digital product is equivalent to going backwards. But as a Product Owner or IT manager, how do you know which choices to make in the field of technology in order to move forward, now and in the future? Gartner advises: ‘Organisations have been prepared for one kind of future, but now they must prepare for multiple future scenarios.’ So in order to be innovative and flexible, you must be prepared to go with the flow. Is your organisation already set up in such a way that processes can be adapted, if necessary? My tip for being prepared for what the future brings is composable architecture. You've probably heard the term composable before. But what exactly is composable architecture and what are its main advantages?
It’s one of today's sad truths: many IT projects run aground. This, in a time when having a digital edge is crucial for the survival of your organisation. Improve the collaboration with your colleagues, users, customers, partner companies and other stakeholders to nail down digital innovation in your organisation. IT leaders see technology as a driver for growth. But that implies digital innovation and creating a digital advantage. Studies show, however, that few executives are happy with how their organisation handles the theme of innovation. Sometimes this is because the process of innovation goes too slow, or because innovation is done piecemeal – leaving change throughout the organisation lagging. Innovation should be a standard business practice and ought to have a substantial impact on business operations and results. With the four following tips, you can set your teams on their way!
Are you working with agile technology that allows you to innovate faster? This is possible with composable architecture: a set of modular components, such as microservices, headless applications and APIs that can be easily developed and tailored to the specific requirements of your company. Composable architecture offers various advantages. Your data is more centralised, with reduced technical debt and dependency of IT platforms for updates and new releases. However, should your organisation go this route, you best be aware of the potential security and privacy risks. Are you curious about safely deploying IT to make your organisation more agile? Today, I share my experiences with you.
The world keeps evolving, but can you keep up? For example, by offering new products that match your customers’ needs better. Or maybe through improving your digital services. What can we expect in 2023? These are the software development trends for this year. Respond accordingly and make the difference!
