Background
AFL manufactures, engineers and installs the fiber optic products and equipment that communications providers need to deliver voice, video, internet and wireless services. Its work spans telco, broadband and wireless networks, electric utilities, OEMs, enterprises and private networks.
The engagement
AFL's Test and Inspection Division introduced the Rogue product line, which AFL positions as the fastest, most flexible testing platform in the industry. The line is built on mobile app technology across iOS, Android and the cloud, and AFL brought in Megsoft to help develop the software and bring the product to market.
The platform
Rogue is modular: test modules install in a base unit, and the instrument is set up and run from a mobile device, with results available to AFL's cloud tools. The application Megsoft's team built with AFL powered the platform.
Where AFL started
Mobile development was new to AFL. Its engineers had written a code base and a working prototype, and the company wanted cross-platform development to be simpler, in the language its engineers already used.
The challenge
AFL needed production-grade mobile software to match its new test hardware, on a technology that was new to the company, with time to market at stake.
The problem was not writing an app. It was turning a prototype into production software without slowing the launch, with a partner working inside AFL's engineering effort rather than beside it.
New technology
Mobile app development across iOS, Android and the cloud was new to AFL.
A prototype, not a product
AFL's engineers had a working prototype that had to mature into a production application.
Time to market
For a new product line, development time and time to market were critical.
Two companies, two locations
The two teams had to collaborate every day without sharing an office.
Approach and solution
Megsoft built on what AFL already had, its code and its engineers, and brought the delivery practices that turn a prototype into a product.
Design together
The two teams defined the application together in joint application design sessions, so the software followed the instrument AFL was building.
One codebase, one team
Megsoft started from the code base AFL's engineers had written, in the language they already used, and both teams worked on the same code every day.
Release in cycles
Work ran in Scrum-based release cycles, so the application could keep pace with a product that was always evolving.
Deliver continuously
New builds reached AFL's testers continuously, and crash reports came back to both teams, so problems surfaced early.
Solution highlights
The instrument's interface
The application powered AFL's modular test platform: it was how the instrument was set up and run.
Built on AFL's own code
The prototype's code base became the foundation of the production application, so AFL's early work carried forward.
Remote by design
The two teams worked from shared tools every day, from chat and issue tracking to the code itself, so two offices worked as one team.
A mature delivery strategy
Continuous delivery, release cycles and joint design sessions kept the application in step with the product.
Results
AFL's prototype became a mature, production application that powered its Rogue modular test platform.
The joint model mattered as much as the code. AFL's engineers kept working in their own language and codebase, side by side with Megsoft, which helped shorten development time and the time it took to bring the product to market.
| What changed | Before | With the joint team | What it means for AFL |
|---|---|---|---|
| The application | A prototype written by AFL's engineers | A mature Android application for the Rogue platform | A production application for a new product line |
| Development | Mobile development new to AFL | One team, building on AFL's code and skills | A shorter path to market |
| Delivery | Some early experience with cross-platform tools | Continuous delivery, release cycles and joint design sessions | An application that keeps up with an evolving product |
| Collaboration | Two companies in different locations | Daily collaboration without a co-located team | An effective process across two organizations |
Megsoft Consulting Team was instrumental in the project's success. […] Megsoft assisted us in employing a mature Mobile Software Delivery Strategy […] to keep up with an always evolving product.
Dane Krampitz, Director of Engineering, AFL Global
When the product is hardware, the app is part of it
Join the engineers, build on their work
A test instrument that is run from a phone is only as good as the application on the phone. For AFL, that application had to be as serious as the optics it controls.
It is the model Megsoft brings to product companies: join the client's engineers, start from what they have built, and bring the product to market together.
Is your next product an instrument with an app for an interface?
If your engineers have a working prototype and the market is waiting, the fastest path is often to build on what they wrote, with a team that joins theirs instead of replacing it.