.Net-based custom software development

The client and industry - The client is a venture backed start-up in the States that creates innovative software tools to help bail bond industry to reduce revenue loss and liability. The tools fill in the knowledge gap among the participants of bonding industry such as insurance companies, agencies, agents, courts and jails and are tailored for bail bond mans ease-of-life.

The core workflow is driven by bond life cycle. When an agent goes to jail and bails out a suspect with a bond, the bond is “executed”. When the case is resolved, the bond is “discharged”. However, if the suspect skips, and the agent fails to bring the suspect to court within a certain timeframe, the bond is “forfeited”. Insurance companies, agencies and agents make profit and take liability accordingly to a portion or full amount of the face value of a bond.

Development environment - The code repository resides in USA . 4 geographical distributed teams including the onshore team works round-the-clock by daily hand off. Continuous building and automatic testing is paramount and have been carefully handled with the collaboration of onshore and offshore teams, in order to avoid any broken code checked in and failure of build that cause the suspension of the other team's relay. The time is critical as well. The investors need to see the first portion of working software in 3 months and the result of the demo will determine the start-up's destiny.

Solution - With previous Agile/XP project experience, ShineTech work closely with the other teams to adopt incremental, iterative development approach. A team is ramped up from 3 resources to a group of 10 people within 2 weeks with a set of mixed skill and expertise in .Net technologies, VOIP and video conferencing techniques, third party presentation controls, SQL server and etc. The team is comprised of roles include project manager, system architect, senior and junior developers and QA persons.

The team goes for incrementally iterative development, implement features in a time boxed fashion, conduct remote pair programming to facilitate knowledge transfer between teams and utilize test driven and code review advantages for core modules to improve software quality. As the demo deadline is fixed, a daily build environment is in need to mitigate the risk of late integration bump and also help client track team progress and gear the production direction timely.

Result - The Office and Communication modules were created for the first iteration by which time the team can demo sending letters, emails and text messages, scheduling appointments and setting remainders. The Inventory module was created for the second iteration by which time the team can demo receiving, assigning and tracking bond powers. The Acounting modules were created by the end of the third iteration by which time the team can demo tracking of business expense, paying bills and petty cash fund. Management of Invoicing, accounts receivable and a chart of accounts are also included.

By close collaboration with the client, the demo is in time and the quality is warranted. With more investment being added, the project continues and evolves to enhance features and add new modules. Now, after working with the client near a year, the software has been in production with a well amount of users.

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