Provide consulting to assist with architecture, product roadmap and product development backlog on a web application designed for the safe sale of used vehicles between individuals.
Starting Position
Trusted Sale had developed a web based platform from the ground up with the help of an outsourced development company. The application was in initial beta testing but wanted to include some additional elements to offer additional marketplace listing integration, promote and manage vehicle pre-owned certification and warranties and also enhance the speed of payment processing through a new financial payment gateway service. In addition the relationship with the outsourced developer was not in a good place due to the current Trusted Sale team having very limited technical skills.
Process
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Reviewed current platform architecture with development team to look at overall code structure, code quality and development principles.
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Developed some additional policies and process documents to define how development and QA should be executing.
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Reviewed current development process and suggested improvements of how the backlog was being prioritized and groomed.
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Worked with marketplace listing provider to understand the API's required and developed the requirements and high level design flows.
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Developed an export utility to extract listings and provide a regular report on new listings.
Results
Gave confidence to the current executive team that the development and QA was being done in the right fashion and following good processes. Helped get the marketplace listing integration online so that Trusted Sale listing would automatically flow to AutoTrader, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. File based export allowed for better reporting on current inventory and provided inputs to customer care team on any draft listings that were stuck in the process so they could be addressed.
