Micro Solutions

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the COO/CTO of a midsized company (100-150 fte) based in the Netherlands that provides ventilation systems for poultry/pig/mushroom producers and feed systems for poultry and pig producers worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Micro Solutions, and what were your goals?

We're developing a state of art 'Whole House' controller for our customers and we need a lot of knowledge on the latest set-ups of system architecture/test-driven development/ DevOps and the capacity to convert it from idea to reality. Micro Solutions is one of the partners that we selected to develop the first MVP that needs to be released at the end of 2022.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We met Micro Solutions at one of the exhibitions in which we participated. At that time we saw the potential to hire them to develop a data hub for our controller. After a thorough investigation we found out that they could contribute more to that project: support with setting up the software architecture/ programming and testing (CI/CD)/ HIL setups.

The investigation was backed up with detailed job interviews with Micro Solution employees and we were impressed by the level of their 'software development skills. Also, the customer-focused mindset generated a lot of confidence to collaborate with this company.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

In this project, we've two more major partners that support us in developing the product from specifications to features. One of the partners is specialized in UX/UI and another partner in Control Engineering.

Micro Solutions focuses on the 'platform' part, which consists of all the middleware/backend development from user story to feature development of Device Management / Data Management / Provisioning / Control Runtime / DevOps and Quality Assurance. They are part of the total team that needs to deliver a working controller that combines great functionality and connectivity and sublime UX for the House of the Future (for poultry/pig/mushroom producers).

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

At the moment 8 Micro Solution employees are working in this project, two team leads/senior software developers for Control Runtime and System Management, 3 senior software developers, 1 QA engineer, 1 DevOps engineer, and 1 Embedded Verification engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

In a couple of weeks, we will have a celebration when the platform is capable of hosting the domain software. In a couple of months, we will start field testing and we're confident that the controller is capable of doing the job, thanks to the getting things done mentality of Micro Solutions. They are a great partner, passionately generating added value.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We've chosen an Agile approach (3-week sprints currently) to manage the project using a lot of up-to-date tools including Jira, Slack, and Sphinx. After some adaptations, the velocity of the development meets the expectations and the collaboration is great.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Customer focus in mind and execution: they either have the skills or make sure that they get them. A nice example is a decision to implement Golang programming for a part of the platform by our lead architect and the way that Micro Solutions hired the right people in a very short span of time to be able to execute this decision.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Of course in a project with this much complexity and 4 key partners, there are lessons learned. Micro Solutions is open to that and wants to improve and learn all the time. That counts!