Assistant
In 2012 we started to cooperate with team of Speaktoit (after – API.AI, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistant_(by_Speaktoit)). Speaktoit was a startup that wanted to develop mobile application for their product. This startup demonstrated unique approach in the area of development of products for voice assistant, using their own innovative solutions in artificial intelligence.
In 2016, this startup was totally absorbed by Google and the team of this startup became responsible for development of solutions for interaction of AI with users via voice.
Thus, we had a good opportunity to collaborate with a top level customer in creating unique product.
This project was one of the most interesting in our history. It’s related not only to the essence of the project, but also to challenges which we faced during management and development of this project.
We were only one of three different parts of the projects team. All of them were located in 3 different time zones. Difference between us was not some minor 1 or 2 hours. With one part of the team difference was +3 hours, with another one difference was -9 hours.
Having above in mind, it was very important to provide excellent communication and task management during project development. How we solved this challenge?
– Strict adherence to meetings schedule – every minute was golden to us. Without good internal discipline we would be lost.
– Deep and attentive investigation of requirements and detailed clarification of them on the early stages of development (for each milestone) – we had to clarify all details, because otherwise was a risk to do something wrong and miss whole day or even more;
– Use of latest task management tools such as Jira by Atlassian, where we described each user story, made all negotiations, created bug reports, prepared reports for client regarding time spent for solving certain tasks, during certain milestone.
Our experience in cooperation with Speaktoit helped us to improve our skills from all perspectives: project management, client relations and software development.