IT-Department

27.09.2017

Teamwork is everything at ControlExpert. This is naturally also the case when it comes to product management. As the name suggests, this branch of our IT department is responsible for developing, testing, and improving our products. And since ControlExpert always takes its guidance from the best, the teams’ work processes are also state of the art.

In a similar way to the industry giants Facebook and Google, the eight product management teams use “agile software development”. The principle is to react flexibly to changes on the customer and market side in order to be able to create both innovative and customer-oriented software solutions.

For Kai Müller, head of the IT department, this approach is one of the keys to ControlExpert’s success. “Customer requirements were previously just gathered together, put down on paper, divided up among the team, and then worked through in their entirety. This took a long time. And in the end it often became clear that the requirements had changed in the meantime – and nothing really fitted together any longer. If the tasks become ever more complex, it is easy to stumble, which is why they must be dealt with step by step in the right order.”

This is how it is with agile software development: After the Product Owner (in the agile development) has precisely defined the requirements together with the customer, the tasks are clearly prioritized and mostly divided into two-week stages known as sprints. Once a sprint has been completed, the results are presented and the next stage is planned. The progress and challenges are discussed in brief daily meetings. As a result, the entire team is always kept informed about the project status and can react immediately as and when necessary, if the aim of the sprint is threatened. The scrum master is responsible for ensuring that the team can work undisturbed and all processes function smoothly. Kai Müller is convinced of the benefits of the new agility: “Our employees like transparent processes and the self-reliant approach to work and justify the trust placed in them with a high degree of commitment, team spirit, and – very important – adherence to deadlines.”
Furthermore, at ControlExpert we want to keep inspiring our teams, which is why we hold an “Exploration Day” every 14 days to work on technology matters that don’t necessarily have to have anything to do with the specific projects. Or we have an informal round-table meeting once a week to present and discuss the latest issues and trends. Everybody is asked to contribute something here.

This is how innovative ideas come about, with which we redefine the rules.