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The weeks preceding the lockdown were tense. As a CTO at Infomentum, I am responsible not only for the internal IT but also for providing our customers with reliable and efficient co-managed services. My team had many ongoing projects, customers on 24/7 support contracts, and, on top of it, manage our transition to remote working to take care of. This was no easy task, but I was determined, there was no way we were going to let anyone down!

Unit testing has always been an integral part of software engineering because it ensures that problems in the code are isolated and fixed long before they become an issue in production. With the introduction and adoption of Agile framework, unit testing has changed dramatically because of the test-driven development (TDD) methodology. TDD is a software development strategy in which unit tests are used to drive the development process. In this blog, I explain how to practice TDD and share some tips on how to write great unit tests using MUnit.

While crime rates in the UK have dropped by more than 20%, cybercrime seems to be on the rise. Phishing related attacks are up by a staggering 667% compared to pre-pandemic February, and more than £2M has been reported lost by victims of Coronavirus-related scams. Despite common belief, not all cybercriminals are technology wizards who spend their days in a basement hacking into government servers. Some use simple tricks and social engineering, which hardly require technical expertise.

In our previous blogs, we described the transition to running projects remotely, explained the adjustments we made to keep effective communication with our distributed team and dived deep into practicalities of remote Agile Sprint Planning. We initially thought of dedicating this blog to remote agile stand-ups but in the end, decided to change the focus slightly. At times when 35-40% of adults in the UK have reported concerns about their mental health, and every second person worries about his/her wellbeing, it's crucial to support our employees. So, what exactly can be done? When it comes to staff emotional health, we believe there is no 'fits all' solution; it is a combination of small adjustments that can be weaved into every meeting or team interaction.

According to the 6th principle of the Agile Manifesto: "The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation." So, does it mean that managing agile projects in the new world of large-scale remote working is impossible? Our answer is no! In the previous blog, we talked about how we ensure efficient communication with the home-based teams. In this blog, we discuss the important adjustments we’ve made to our remote Sprint Planning meetings as part of our Agile project delivery.

If you read my previous blog post on competing in the API economy, you probably have a feel for just how important APIs are for modern organisations. Implementing an API strategy unlocks internal assets and makes you a competitive and relevant force in our diverse and fast-changing tech landscape.

There is still much confusion about the differences and commonalities between SOA (service-oriented architecture), microservices, APIs and, even, point-to-point integration. Is microservices-based approach an alternative to SOA or one of its flavours? What is the relationship between microservices and APIs?
And why you shouldn't rush into exposing your APIs to the external market until they are ready and mature.

The pom.xml file contains the core information about a project and its configuration details including its dependencies, build directory, source directory, test source directory, plugin, goals etc. Maven reads the pom.xml file, then executes the goal.

The quality of communication within a project team is often the most important aspect in the successful delivery of any project. Since our switch to remote working at the start of the pandemic, we’ve been faced with the challenge of using our project management tools in different ways to ensure that the quality of our communication and collaboration doesn’t suffer.

COVID-19 has turned our lives upside down. Just a few weeks ago, companies had to quickly transition all employees to work remotely. As businesses and people are gradually adjusting to the new circumstances and realising the benefits of working from home, many predict that this operation model is here to stay far beyond the crisis.