Hansoft Best Practice Roundtable

Thursday November 4, 1-2:30 pm

Discuss game production challenges with other experienced developers over lunch. Hansoft Senior Production Experts Jon Leslie and Bill McGehee will present Hansoft solutions to typical production problems and answer your questions about how your organization can maximize productivity by fine-tuning your Hansoft usage. The round table will be moderated by Hansoft CEO Patric Palm.

Examples of questions to be addressed during the session:

- How to apply lean principles to make asset creation more efficient and reduce asset waste.

- How to run a tight QA process and manage escaped bugs in agile development as well as bringing external QA closer to the team.

- How to find and manage cross scrum team dependencies.

- How to collaborate closer with external parties and reduce the risks of failure when outsourcing.

- How to build a product backlog for a large multi-team project. How do we make sure that the structure of who makes the calls is accurately reflected?

- How to use Scrum for feature development and Kanban for assets in the same project.

Grab your lunch and join in!

Get a preview of upcoming Hansoft 6.5 at our booth

Hansoft 6.5: Simplifying Global Collaboration:

- Using localised Hansoft in 日本 日本語

- Outsource & Collaborate

- Simplify team management

See you at the IGDA Leadership Forum!

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Below are some of the conferences, expos and other events where Hansoft will be represented.

Will you be around? Want a demo of the latest version of Hansoft, chat about project management best practices or just hang out with the Hansoft crew? Contact us at solutions@hansoft.se and we'll put you in contact with the person on site.

>> Nordic Game, Malmö, April 27-30

>> IGDA Finland Gathering, Helsinki, May 4

>> GDC Canada, Vancouver, May 6-7

>> Projektverktygsdagen, Stockholm, May 27

>> Better Software Conference, Las Vegas, June 6-11

>> E3, Los Angeles, June 15-18

>> Norweigan Developers Conference, Oslo, June 16-18

>> Develop in Brighton, July 13-15

>> Casual Connect, Seattle, July 20-22

>> SIGGRAPH, Los Angeles, July 25-29

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Hansoft's founders: Patric Palm, Erik Olofsson and Hans Andersson were among Sweden's 50 most sucessful young entrepreneurs when the Swedish carrer network shortcut listed 100 people under the age of 35 who take part in "shaping the future of Sweden".

Read more about "Uppstickarna" here (in Swedish).

Hansoft 5.3 has made it to the final of Game Developer Magazine's Frontline Awards in the category "Programming /Production tools". The winners will be announced in the January issue of Game Developer.

Read more about the Frontline Awards.

Hans Andersson, Chief Development Officer and Hansoft co-founder, was listed as one of the gaming industry's "30 under 30" superstars in the latest issue of Develop.

Download the latest issue of Develop here.

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The Swedish career network “Shortcut” has, for the eighth consecutive year, listed 100 “Upcoming” entrepreneurs under the age of 36, who have reached success during the year and served as an inspiration for future entrepreneurs. The jury, consisting of front figures from Swedish industries, has awarded Patric, Hans and Erik place number 31-50 in the listing.

“At Shortcut, we want to recognize inspiring role models who show that it, despite a tough job situation, is possible to create their own career by starting and running a business. For many people this is only a dream and we hope that “upcoming 2009” can inspire more young entrepreneurs to take the step towards their own business”, said Mia Berin Kamlén, Marketing Director at Shortcut.

Read more about Upcoming 2009 and view the full list here (in Swedish only)

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From Brighton, Newcastle and Cologne in Europe, to Chicago, Orlando and Austin in the US, to Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo in Asia. But it’s not over yet. If you want to meet with us, there is a fair chance that we’ll be in your area soon.

This is Hansoft on tour schedule, autumn 2009:

>> GDC China, Shanghai, Oct 11-13: Jason Eyre will be present and more than happy to discuss the advantages of Hansoft over a beer or coffee.

>> Germany Scrum Gathering, Munich, Oct 19-21: Come and listen to Patric’s keynote speech on “Making Agile matter to the bottom line by understanding group dynamics”, October 20 09.00-10.00.

>> IGDA Leadership Forum, San Francisco, Nov 12-13: Double chance to learn more about Hansoft. Get a demo at our booth or listen to Patric’s lunch presentation on November 12.

>> MIGS, Montreal, Nov 16-17: Meet us in the business lounge and get your private demo. The on-line meeting planner is now open.

>> Embedded Systems Conference, Grenoble, Dec 1-3: Patric and John will share their expertise on how to make your projects more lean at Hansoft’s booth at the expo.

>> Game Connection, Lyon, Dec 8-10: Last chance before Christmas – Jason and Parul will be prepared with a meeting room and ready to show how Hansoft can make your team more productive.

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Patric will talk about group dynamics in scrum teams, something that is often not focused on enough, even though it is a critical part of scrum.

The session will talk about difficulties connected with group composition and development, and discuss solutions on typical problems. There will be a particular focus on large projects with multiple teams working in parallel, sometimes distributed. Typical challenges and some practices to address them will be discussed.

Patric discusses project management and QA best practices on a daily basis with clients in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. He also serves as member of the jury of business plan competition Venture Cup, as board member on a number of non-profit organizations and is an instructor within the Swedish Air Force.

The speech "Making Agile matter to the bottom line by understanding group dynamics" will be held during Germany Scrum Gathering in Munich on October 19, 10.30-12.00 in salon EKG, Hilton Munich City.

Read more about Germany Scrum Gathering and sign up here.

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The team from Hansoft is now back at the office in Uppsala after a hectic week in Brigthon.

Hansoft CEO Patric Palm kick started the week by winning the Games Aid Poker Tournment on Tuesday night and hence "a year of bragging rights";) The expo opened on Wednesday and Jason and Parul kept themselves busy demoing Hansoft 5.3 with the new Perforce integration at the booth.

Patric together with Ubisoft producer Lisa Charman made a great production keynote speech on Wednesday afternoon. The session was well visited and the interest was big, telling from the long line of listeners who wanted to ask questions after the session. You can see the speech in full on YouTube.

The winner of a £ 205.15 IKEA gift card in Hansoft's production survey/Meatball competition was .... Congratulations on your shopping spree and portion of meatballs!

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The Orange bar in Uppsala was full of excited people, mingling with blue drinks on the red carpet. A few hours later, after the buffet was finished, the dancefloor was filled with awesome music from the DJ booth, African drummers and dancing guests. The foosball and Labyrinth games were in full action and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.

Check out the pictures on Flickr!

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Jonas Persson

is filling the position as Senior software engineer at Hansoft. He has previously worked with Medical equipment, industrial automation and online games. Jonas has over 10 years professional experience in software development, and his latest employment was with Imentum, Sweden.

Alan Weekes

has just joined Hansoft as Support Manager. Alan holds a Bsc Degree in Computer Science & also Graduate in Sales Management combined with over 6 years experience in IT sales mainly in the Irish & UK market but also in Finland, Australia & USA. His most recent employment was with Tronix Systems, Ireland.

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CCP, developer and publisher of EVE Online, the critically-acclaimed, science fiction-based massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), has over 350 talented staff across its offices in Reykjavik, Atlanta, London and Shanghai.

"With the size of our organization and the number of projects we are working on, increased productivity and up-to-date information really make a difference on the bottom line. After a rigid evaluation to find the best tool for our agile and distributed development, Hansoft proved to be very fast and easy to use for everyone and provides many innovative solutions to today's production challenges. The flexibility of Hansoft also allows us to continue our mission of constantly refining and improving our development methodology," said CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson.

Hansoft has released version 5.2 with many updates. The QA functionality is more polished and with new features for integrating QA with Agile development. Significant enhancements have been made on the Agile backlog functionality allowing alternate views to suit different preferences among users.

Patric Palm, CEO at Hansoft commented, "CCP is not only a leader in our industry but also seem to have a very cool corporate culture and we are obviously thrilled to license Hansoft to them. I believe their pragmatic approach to production management has helped them quickly grow its organization in such a sound way. That is not an easy task, rapid growth is hard. With Hansoft 5.2 they will benefit from our latest updates addressing challenges that comes with the size and specifics of today's game development."

About CCP
CCP is recognized internationally as an industry-leading pioneer of the single-server persistent universe architecture as the developer and publisher of EVE Online, the critically-acclaimed, science fiction-based massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). Utilizing a cross-discipline approach combining cutting-edge technology and artistic excellence, CCP is dedicated to providing vibrant, compelling products that transcend the boundaries of conventional MMOGs and facilitate social networking through virtual worlds. Founded in 1997 and privately held, the company is headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, with offices in Atlanta, London and Shanghai. More information about CCP is available at the company's website, www.ccpgames.com.

About EVE Online
Set tens of thousands of years in the future, EVE Online is a breathtaking journey to the stars, to an immersive experience filled with adventure, riches, danger and glory. With over 230,000 subscribers worldwide inhabiting the same virtual universe, EVE features a vast player-run economy where your greatest asset is the starship, designed to accommodate your specific needs, skills and ambitions. EVE offers professions ranging from commodities trader to mercenary, industrial entrepreneur to pirate, mining engineer to battle fleet commander or any combination of these and much more. From brokering business deals to waging war, you will have access to a diverse array of sophisticated tools and interfaces to forge your own destiny in EVE. Learn more and sign up for a free, 14-day trial at www.eve-online.com.

Definition of Subscribers
EVE Online subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active electronic time code (ETC) to play EVE Online, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions and expired ETCs.

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Hansoft 5.1 comes with many improvements across the whole solution. Teams using a task scheduling approach and/or an Agile workflow will benefit from the new release. The most significant updates are however found in the Agile and QA functionality.

"With Hansoft 5.1 Agile teams can choose to view the product backlog in three different ways depending on situation and preference. The new wall view is pretty stunning but not for the ones easily prone to motion sickness. We have also improved the fast and easy QA functionality to satisfy the needs of larger studios and publishers. They will now find more advanced bug workflow settings and detailed access and restriction rules," says Patric Palm, CEO, Hansoft.

The multi view product backlog allows Agile teams to work with the backlog in three different ways:
- Items in a hierarchy. Create and structure items in a hierarchy. By delegating parts of the backlog team members and externals can participate as well.
- Items on a wall. Analyse, create and work with items in alternative ways by arranging them on a virtual wall.
- Items sorted/prioritised. Prioritise and sort items in this view before moving them from the backlog to a sprint/iteration.

In addition to the bug workflow improvements Hansoft 5.1 also features detailed access and restriction rules. This gives or restricts resources/groups to edit data in columns/fields, deleting bugs, customising workflow, documents and many other parts.

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"Behovet av riktigt snabba och kompletta system för lite större projekt som använder agila utvecklingsmetoder såsom Scrum är en viktig förklaring till vår tillväxt. Eftersom de flesta av våra kunder har en miljö där varje team har mellan 30 och 150 utvecklare är varje ny kund stora ordervärden för oss. Med Hansoft sparar de 10 till 20% av utvecklingstiden vilket givetvis ger stora kostnadsbesparingar för våra kunder," säger Patric Palm, VD, Hansoft.

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