How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Humans More than Robots
by Yuri Mediakov, PM at BraveGeeks Team
I went to the movies recently and noticed a woman standing by the exit. As people exited the theater, she would quickly thank them for their visit and invite them to come again. She repeated this platitude maybe 50 times over the course of a few minutes. I thought to myself: Does this actually work? Do people actually visit the theater again just because this woman repeated her dull, memorized phrase to them?
One day, I contacted my cell phone provider. I said that I’d be traveling to another region and asked them…
by Yuri Mediakov, PM at BraveGeeks Team
Dave Thomas, one of the creators of the Agile Manifesto, has declared Agile as dead, stating that the values of being agile have been totally lost behind the implementation.
In recent years, a barrage of criticism has come down upon Agile, as well as on Scrum, one of its most popular implementations. “It encourages risky decisions.” “Lots of meetings and nothing to do.” “It creates technical debt that never ends.” These are just some of the opinions I’ve heard. There are numerous critical articles on the Internet about Agile and Scrum.
I have…
by Yuri Mediakov, PM at BraveGeeks Team
At BraveGeeks, we do custom software development. It’s been said that project-management standards are lower for custom development than they are for product development by “in-house” teams. We disagree.
Transparency requirements for project management processes for custom development are even higher than for in-house teams. The customer’s internal standards don’t apply to us, and it’s easy for them to stop requesting our services. Have you ever heard of a company’s internal team being fired for one failed release? That happens all too often to custom software development companies.
Custom development has three important…
by Yuri Mediakov, PM at BraveGeeks Team
Anyone who works in software development is constantly being asked to provide estimates for projects. An estimate usually has to be given for both work hours and calendar days. At this stage, the project description consists of a small text document and, in a best-case scenario, UI mockups.
It’s a very logical and understandable request: a business needs to estimate development costs in order to make a budget, construct a plan, and estimate the amount of investment required and the timeline for getting it back. …
The computer game industry is huge. As far as production budgets and revenue go, it’s on par with the motion-picture industry. Red Dead Redemption 2, which came out in 2018, earned more than $725 million its opening weekend. For comparison, Han Solo, which also came out in 2018, earned only $84 million its opening weekend. But whereas computer games have already matured as an industry, eSports are only beginning to grow.
Alex Grey, a journalist for the World Economic Forum, reported that eSports audience will reach 380 million worldwide this year, comprising 165 dedicated fans and 215 occasional viewers. …
The choice of first mobile platform to develop the app could be complicated. It is especially fair for startups and small companies with limited resources. The question here is not so much about the cost of development but rather about the cost of marketing, further improvement and support of the app.
Hybrid app solution that lays on the surface seems to be the good one. The hybrid app can be instantly released on both platforms but this is only one side of the coin. …
Imagine using public transportation in a new city for the first time. It’s relatively easy, right? You should just get a map or download an app to help yourself navigate around. However, Dubai metro is far from being typical. There are many rules that are bound to the cultural background of the place. For example, did you know that men and women travel in separate carriages, and there are even the Golden Class carriages for the wealthier passengers? Or that you can only pay with a special Nol card for your ride?
Dealing with all those differences requires a friendly…
