One software, many customers – Are you truly agile?

Posted by Tobias Spöcker on August 2, 2018

Does your company consider itself to do agile development?

Is the Software you produce delivered to a huge customer base?

Have you ever wondered if you and your organization really follow the practices of the agile manifesto?

If yes then this is a good read for you. At TOPdesk we reached the size of a company that can no longer be labeled small. With over 600 employees across 14 countries we list ourselves as a mid size company. Although we are not a large-scale enterprise yet I figured we are already facing the downsides such an organization comes with.

Before I go into more detail about that, I would like to briefly state the agile manifesto’s core values before I set them into contrast with the practices in our company.

Tweaking the office atmosphere

Posted by Tobias Spöcker on January 16, 2017

Company culture and office atmosphere

An attractive environment helps team productivity, even managers know that by now. Everybody enjoys working in a nice office atmosphere. A variety of things can help to reach this goal. For example personally customizable workplaces or aesthetically pleasing office design which usually includes colorful furnishing and decoration. Often, simply providing all the necessary tools to accomplish the job in a good manner can also be enough to achieve this.

Of course, this is only a fraction of what leads to a good work and office atmosphere. Besides the mentioned tangible options there are also social characteristics.

Google Test Automation Conference 2016 – When top players talk about Automated Testing

Posted by Tobias Spöcker on December 5, 2016

golden-gate-foggy

This image perfectly pictures my first feelings about the conference, but let me go into a bit more detail first.
I signed up for the Google Testing blog more than a year ago. There I found a lot of interesting and useful reading about the world of automated testing. When I later got an email from Google informing me that there would be a conference held by them, I was not entirely sure wether I should apply. Is it relevant for me? Am I experienced enough to contribute? Well, what’s the worst that could happen? So I applied for it and did not regret it in the end.