Agile solutions at human scale
Humans build relationships and communities. That simple fact is often overlooked in software development, leading to siloed groups, lack of trust, and ultimately lost productivity. Often, these issues are addressed by additional process, further distancing key players from each other.
At its core, the agile philosophy is about finding what works for your specific team and project, by focussing on continually improving. It's more than picking which process to use - it's about evolving the process and technology that will enable your team to be successful.
Umaji provides consulting services to help your business do just that. With expertise in team management, software architecture, agile process and bringing projects back on track, we believe people are the rosetta stone of any successful development endeavour, and can help you increase efficiency and team engagement.
Services we provide
Process, Culture and Structure Assessment & Recommendations
The first step in improving is to identify where changes are needed, and be able to prioritize them. Based on your preferred approach, we make this assessment by meeting with team members, and report on those findings and make recommendations to leadership.
This approach provides space for employees to provide honest and open feedback, allowing your company's leadership to have a clearer picture of what the main hurdles to efficiency are. Recommendations can then cover all aspects of work organization, from culture to structure and processes.
Mentoring and Support of Managers and Leaders
Pressure management (for oneself and team), healthy feedback for employees, difficult employees or situations, retention strategies... managing people is a vast domain where it is easy to be overwhelmed. We ask a lot of our managers, often without as much support as we think we are providing them.
By regular sessions with an experienced director and leader, you can allow your own leaders to develop their skills, in turn helping them develop the people they are responsible for.
Project Realignment & Recovery
Throughout his years of experience, David has met many projects that were in difficult positions, and brought them back on track. In many cases, these projects weigh on both company goals and individuals. This often leads to a spiral of pressure which, paradoxically, further reduces team efficiency. Despite this, it is perfectly possible to have a team that is happy, high performing and fully engaged in a difficult project.
Each project is a unique challenge. Our expertise can help you better understand where the project stands, and which strategies can be used to improve results, as well as team health and happiness.
Architecture & Systems Integration
Having multiple years of experience in large-scale systems architecture, we can also offer our services in that area. Systems integration, unified modeling, web services or API design, cloud architecture, feature mapping, legacy system management, etc - let us know what you need, and we will let you know how we can help.
Transition & Interim roles
We can also fill temporary needs for manager or director positions, helping transition towards your future permanent structure. Let us discuss your current situation, and we will establish a clearly defined role frame that will bring you where you want to be.