Business | Read the latest blogs, news and views from Infomentum. (2)

It's been almost two years since our ways of working have changed completely. Although the offices are opening their doors again, online meetings are part of our working life, and they are here to stay.

What is your favourite part of an IT project?

Mine has always been writing user stories. It is when all the ideas take shape and begin their journey to a shiny new product. I know that not everybody feels the same way. I understand why, especially when it comes to writing User Stories for back-end systems, for example, APIs, as these can be particularly challenging.

One of the things I love about MuleSoft (aside from the cool tech) is how they engage their partner network. From the big Systems Integrators and the more boutique players like Infomentum, everyone gets involved! In March, there was no time for opposition (although still a fair bit of competition) as the Partner network came together to raise money for charities aiming to end Child Poverty.

Diversity is in Infomentum's DNA. From our Directors to team members, we strongly believe in a multi-cultural and inclusive work environment. It's the reason we became a Skilled Worker Visa (formerly a Tier 2 General work visa) sponsorship company.

Public sector customers will now be able to purchase a range of services from digital transformation consultancy Infomentum on the UK government’s G-Cloud 12 framework. We received the news that our application was successful earlier this month, with services going live on the marketplace today. 

API-led integration can propel your organisation to new heights; better customer service, increased efficiency and innovation are only a few of the benefits of a successful initiative.

How do you keep your retrospectives fresh and the team engaged? It is a challenge many agile teams face. As organisations adjust to running almost every meeting online, the issue of conference call fatigue is making this even more important. To run effective agile retrospectives in any climate you need an efficient delivery approach that will spur your team. Remote or face to face, it is essential to keep the retrospective short, focused and engaging - read on to find out how.

The last few months have been challenging for most Sales teams, and ours has been no exception. The uncertainty of the economic climate has led many businesses to hibernate. In the space of a couple of weeks, the market went quiet; projects were put on hold, budgets cut.

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!

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.