What do you consider the biggest reward of business travel and planned events? How does it feel to collaborate in multinational teams face to face and what do such experiences bring to software developers? Let’s find out first hand!
Our colleague Aleksa traveled to Kleinostheim, Germany to participate in planning one of the biggest Edenred projects together with more than 100 experts who came from all around the world. Quadrix Soft has a collaboration with UTA Edenred with Aleksa as our representative who leads one of the Edenred Salesforce Development teams and works on all Salesforce-related topics as an integral part of their company. Thanks to his excellent tech and management competence he has shown working as a Salesforce developer, he represented his team at the in-person planning with other Edenred global team members and leaders who also work on this project.
We asked Aleksa to share his impressions after participating in this international project planning event and tell us more about how this experience impacted him. In this interview, Aleksa talks about his face-to-face collaboration, not just with worldwide experts from the software development area, but also with professionals from many other fields and departments within the organization. If you are just starting a software development career, stick with us till the end as Aleksa gives his view and tips on how to get to the point of working on such a big project. Let’s dive into it.
1. Would you like to share what project you were planning with the teams in Germany?
We were on the next stage of planning the Smart Move project, which is one of the biggest projects in Edenred at the moment. More than 10 teams, including ours, have actively been working on it. It was truly a pleasure seeing all the other teams in person after only being able to see their avatar photos on Teams and Jira.
2. Where did the project planning event take place?
The project planning event was at Seminarzentrum which is located near Frankfurt. Quite a nice place!
3. Can you tell us more about the organization of the planning meeting and what was your role in the team?
The organization invited representatives from all the teams that work on the Smart Move project. There are currently more than 10 teams involved that actively work on the project. On the first day, we had an intro presentation after each of the teams present needed to do their own individual planning. We had to estimate the capacity, review the upcoming implementations, calculate risks and dependencies, and prioritize our work based on certain aspects of the tasks. We could also approach other teams and check their management boards, ask questions, and discuss different solutions. I represented the technical side of our Salesforce team.
4. What did you find the most challenging about the planning activities?
Keeping a focus on the entire team and calculating every move before you make it, was definitely one of the most challenging things there. Once you make a decision and put everything on the board (or promise other team members something) that is taken as an absolute for the upcoming time period. I had to step out of the development zone and dig into other fields as well.
5. Is there any difference between working with your team members from Edenred remotely and onsite there?
Seeing them all in person brought a new social element to our work. I have to say we enjoyed the process much more rather than doing all of it online. We interacted with each other more and got to know everything on a deeper level.
6. How much did this whole experience mean to you?
This means a lot for sure, as it expanded my knowledge of the organization processes as a whole. I got to know how large companies organize and keep things in check, which is actually pretty important even for developers. I met a lot of people from different teams and got their perspectives on things.
7. What is your advice for people that are just starting a software development career and want to be a part of bigger projects?
Be patient and start small. I think you have to build yourself and your career with smaller projects in the beginning. Of course, those projects need to give you personal space for your own growth. They need to be challenging and allow you to explore the solutions as you go.
As you progress, you should seek new challenges, even the ones that scare you at first. That’s how you learn. Each project will bring something new, but you will get the hang of it and later on you’ll be ready for jumping into deep waters with bigger projects.
Thank you Aleksa for making time to share the insights that can be of help to all those who are starting software development careers and how it is to work on large projects with big companies such as UTA Edenred, the leading mobility service provider in Europe.
