Have you ever wondered what is behind the success of a car assembly line? How they manage to optimise work and minimise waste, operating only on what brings value?

Looking for an impossible task? Try to find a corner of the global finance world yet unturned by fintech startups.

When I think of Italy, there are plenty of images that come to my mind. However, apart from such obvious things like the Colosseum, the Grand Canal in Venice or Tuscan hills, there’s one thing without which this south European country wouldn’t be the same – industrial design from the early 70s.

To say that a lot has happened in the last quarter of 2018 would be an understatement. Just a few weeks ago the Bank of Lithuania has granted a licence to Revolut - which basically means that the UK fintech champion can launch current accounts, loans (business and consumer), and overdrafts. First in Lithuania, later on across the EU.

Imagine the nightmare of every project team: all tickets in the sprint are done, but the feature itself is not working. Unfortunately, as I’ve experienced too many times before, such a scenario is not that far from the reality of project management. It all boils down to finding the right form of task description. In most cases, we balance between poorly described tasks, which results in extra clarification meetings or calls during a sprint, and exhaustive, detailed lists of requirements which tend to kill developers’ creativity.

Great news! Netguru has been ranked as one of the most desired IT employers in Poland alongside such giants as Facebook, SpaceX and Netflix, according to Bulldogjob, a leading portal providing knowledge about companies, positions, and work conditions in the IT industry. 

Agile project management is still going strong in 2019, and since it’s a big part of our daily work at Netguru, we try to stay up-to-date with the best tools and techniques out there. Here’s a list we’ve compiled of the best tools for PMs, some of which we use across the company, and some, we think, do a great job in certain circumstances.

In our everyday work we use many tools that help us create many things better and faster - Confluence, Github, Jira, Google Calendar etc. We are growing fast and the number of tools we use can be a little overwhelming for newcomers and even for veterans. It's sometimes difficult to find all the needed pieces of information without getting disturbed. Some of the tools we use don’t provide the kinds of summaries or insights that could help us to better monitor our work progress.

If you’re a product owner and want to work with a team from bespoke software development company that will develop your product, imagine the following situation. You’re a sport team coach and your task is to draft a team of players that will guarantee a victory in the championship. Who you need is a star that will lead your whole team and a ball handler guy who will turn your idea for the game into a game plan. You will also need a glue guy who will pass the ball smoothly and dominating centers who will score points. A dirty job guy may also come in handy to check whether you are turning your strategy into life. “OK, but what does sport have in common with software development”? you may ask. Not much. But it was a fun way to start this blogpost. ;)

You have an idea for a product. Excitement is going through the roof, you have all the ideas in your head, and you’re ready to start assembling the team. The business plan is flawless, all features are well described, and you even know the approximate date of releasing the product. But wait… aren’t you missing something? Are you sure that your potential clients will love your product? Is your solution going to fulfill their real needs just as you’ve imagined? Are you positive that it will be useful? If you don’t show your product to your potential clients, you can’t be 100 percent sure you will succeed. That’s why you should validate your idea by creating a prototype of your solution. In this way you can make necessary changes before spending money on developing a product that simply won’t work the way you’ve imagined.