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Story Workshops Explained

February 19th, 2009 » No Comments »

from flickr user penmachine - flickr.com/photos/penmachine

from flickr user penmachine - flickr.com/photos/penmachine

Here at Integrum we often have our clients ask us “… What do you mean Story Workshop?” when we explain our estimation process with them. Rather than having the client hand us a huge document to explain their project we use the Story Workshop Method.

The best analogy to this is a movie and its storyboards. The director and writers of the movie get together and sketch out what each scene will roughly look like before they ever get to shooting. This allows them to place the visual reminders in the storyboards of what the key elements for each scene are going to be. When it comes time to shoot the movie, these storyboards start the process, then the actors, directors, and set designers make adjustments or even wholesale changes based off of the reality of the scene’s already shot; move this table over, add more blood, louder zombies, or whatever is needed to fit the reality of the movie and how it has grown.

We treat our client software in much the same way. We talk through the application at a high level with the client to really suss out the details of what they want their app to accomplish. Then using our itterative methods, we take those stories we write and use them as talking points to make the scene real; move this button 10 pixels left, make the logo bigger, the user should be able to flow more like this through the screens, etc.

Until you see the software (movie) pieces already built (scenes already shot), you won’t know exactly what you want the next part to look like. This gives our clients the best chance to build what they REALLY want in relation to the ever changing world around them.

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What People are Saying

"We love working with Integrum — they always get excited about new projects and changes we want to make to the site, and their enthusiasm for web design and development really shows. They’re also great at explaining things in “layman’s terms” for those of us who aren’t so tech-savvy."

— Jackie, www.rattlebox.com

Announcements

So…you’d like to work for Integrum?

With a stable of long term clients and growth on the mobile development side as well, Integrum is looking to bring more talented developers to our team.  We’re currently looking for Rails developers from n00b to the cliched ‘rockstar’ level.

We do real Agile (capital A because we don’t fake it) and SCRUM development, so you’ll have to be comfortable talking with clients on a regular basis.  If you’ve got an interest in iPhone or Android development to go along with the Rails stuff, that’s a nice bonus too.

These are full time positions, on-site at our office in Chandler, Arizona. Benefits, perks, Pac-Man, we’ve got all those. Salary is dependent on experience.

Ready to apply? Here’s our job application — a little test.

Below is what you will find in the README for the job application on github.

Please note that these tests all require some basic Ruby knowledge. If you don’t know ruby, take a few minutes to learn the basics. You will need to have Ruby, rubygems, RSpec installed, and Factory Girl installed.
In order to be considered for a position at Integrum, you must follow these steps.

1.    Fork this repository (if you don’t know how to do that, google is your friend)
2.    In the refactor-this directory you will find some Ruby code that needs to be refactored.

  • A test suite is included with failing specs.
  • Please refactor this code, this is real code we found in a real project that could be much more readable and intuitive.
  • Run spec helper_spec.rb to execute your specs and see if they are passing.
  • Please note: feel free to change the specs, but they should all be passing when you turn in your code.

3.    In the github-challenge directory, please create a Ruby script that accomplishes the following:

  • Connect to the github API
  • Find the rails/rails repository
  • Find the most recent commits
  • Print out HTML that groups the recent commits by author.

4.    Add your resume to the resume directory
5.    Commit and Push your code to your new repository
6.    Send us a pull request, we will review your code and get back to you

For more information, contact Chris Conrey at conrey@integrumtech.com or hr@integrumtech.com.

MountainWest RubyConf 2009

We’re sponsoring this years MountainWest RubyConf, March 13-14. Are you going? You should be there – we will be! For more information visit http://mtnwestrubyconf.org/2009/.

Gangplank Hacknight

What is Hacknight? The best way to find out is show up. It is whatever we make it.

Gangplank Academy

Come to Gangplank, same address as Integrum, each Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. for brown bag lunch and a presentation.

Calling all Rails Nerds!

We want you (to work for us)! Drop us a line at hr@integrumtech.com.


Press Room

Integrum wins Small Business of the Year award

How do you know a company deserves an award? When the staff is so focused on going above and beyond for clients, they miss the call from the city notifying them they’ve won.

Fortunately, the City of Chandler was able to track the staff at Integrum down and award them the 2010 Small Business of the Year award at a banquet held last Wednesday.

The 23rd Annual Awards Dinner took place at the Crowne Plaza San Marcos Resort in downtown Chandler. The event celebrates individual and business excellent in the community. Integrum was chosen based on the company’s contributions to the growth of the local economy, high quality service and innovations in the field of software development. Additionally, Integrum was recognized for the company’s community involvement through its nonprofit, Gangplank.

Jade Meskill and Derek Neighbors were on hand to accept the award.

Where We’re At:

  1. Hacknight Every Wed.
  2. Gangplank Academy Brownbag Every Wed.
  3. Boulder Startup Week May 4th-7th

Updates