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At Apliteni, innovation isn’t just a buzzword – it’s embedded in our DNA. Guided by principles of evidence-based experimentation, we are always on the quest to improve our processes. Our ultimate goal? Delivering software upgrades and features quickly and with outstanding quality.
As we work on some groundbreaking new features (get ready for some major updates!), we’ve recognized the need to rethink our development approach. To accomplish our ambitious objectives, we’ve made the strategic decision to shift from our long-established traditional departmental approach to specialized, task-oriented teams.
One Team, One Focus
We decided to assemble cross-functional professionals in teams with a particular goal in place. This allows them to focus exclusively on one feature or critical task, eliminating prioritizing issues. The intensive, deep-dive approach adds to the final product’s quality and significantly streamlines the process.
For example, our QA experts are now integrated within these specialized teams. Their deep understanding of the feature’s technical and functional aspects helps identify and resolve the issue proactively.
Despite the specialized focus, we’ve kept sight of the value of communication. Employees can freely reach out to colleagues in other specialized teams for consultations, code reviews, or to share best practices, ensuring a well-rounded approach to problem-solving.
Empowerment Over Hierarchy
One of the unique features of Apliteni’s work culture is the trust and respect we invest in our employees. We already offer unlimited Paid Time Off as a testament to this. So, we eliminated team lead roles in most of our teams. Through that, we’re cultivating an environment where all employees can focus on refining their hard skills without unnecessary people management duties.
The absence of an appointed lead means responsibility is a collective undertaking. Teams collaboratively decide on task distribution, developmental strategies, and other duties. Therefore, the result of the final product is the entire team’s responsibility, fostering a culture of shared accountability.
Supercharging the RFC Process
We’ve always implemented a comprehensive RFC process, allowing all employees to document and contribute ideas. However, multiple reviews and hand-offs from one department to the other often slowed the existing system, leading to delays.
To address this, each task-oriented team now includes designated roles such as designers, front-end developers, back-end developers, DevOps engineers, and QA personnel. This means that all facets of an idea implementation are thoroughly reviewed and considered at the initiation stage. As a result, projects proceed more synchronously, accelerating the timeline without compromising quality.
Our commitment to continuous improvement and delivering high-quality updates to the Keitaro tracker remains. The new operational shifts are designed to unleash the full potential of our development teams and, most importantly, expedite the release of exceptional new features for our users.
