Sapiens

Within 2 weeks, we presented the audit report to key technical stakeholders in the R&D department. The report acknowledged the feasibility of migration while identifying gaps that needed addressing to bring JFC on par with the previous tool. It also highlighted critical concerns about data consistency, overall maintainability, front-end application performance, and Developer Experience.

We provided a list of recommended actions with priorities and effort estimates. The stakeholders appreciated the outcome and invited us to join an R&D development team to implement the audit recommendations.

One significant business challenge our team tackled was enabling JFC to support custom components, a common need for Sapiens' customers. Previously, JFC only allowed predefined components. Using a specific Sapiens client as an example, our Product Owner and Tech Lead devised a comprehensive plan:

(1) Create a bridge for custom components

(2) Migrate the client's components

(3) Migrate entire journeys

(4) Develop a tool for automating the migration of all live journeys.

Our entire development team estimated the plan and outlined it as a roadmap with four milestones.
The first milestone was completed in three months, delivering a universal architectural solution for integrating custom components into JFC that will fit any client's needs. Once plugged in using the bridge, they become available in the drag & drop toolbox like all predefined components in JFC. This solution was documented for all developers at Sapiens.

Over nine months, we achieved all milestones, enabling Sapiens to confidently communicate migration readiness to their critical insurance provider and continue progress independently.

Meanwhile, our other developers concentrated on implementing audit recommendations to enhance the overall Journey Form Composer. We started by transitioning the entire codebase from a multi-repository structure to a mono repository (consolidating 40+ repos). This change had a substantial positive impact on the development team's speed and efficiency. Thanks to a streamlined code development and maintenance process, it notably hastened the delivery of subsequent features.

We also introduced a system for migrations from scratch, enabling Sapiens to support various client product versions. Additionally, the introduction of database transactions proved to be a valuable enhancement. In terms of DevOps, our team established a comprehensive application building pipeline using GitHub pipelines. We ensured a smooth skill transfer to Sapiens' developers over a few months, enabling them to handle any issues independently.

Implementing build caching with NX Cloud, introduced by our team, saved hundreds of hours of computing time for GitHub Actions and development efforts. This efficiency translated to substantial monthly financial savings for Sapiens.

Upon joining the project, we observed a scarcity of end-to-end (E2E) tests, which posed a notable product risk. Given the complexity of Journey Form Composer and its sizable development team, the absence of E2E tests integrated into the CI/CD process left room for potential bugs. As manual testing had led to substantial overhead, our QA Automation Leader devised an E2E testing strategy.

The aim was to achieve full feature coverage with E2E tests, prioritizing critical use cases initially and progressively moving to less frequently used features. The goal was to reduce manual testing to only new features in each sprint, eliminating the need for regression testing. With Development Manager's approval, the QA Automation Engineer led the planning, guided other QAs, provided estimates, and played a central role in the execution of test development.

After a year, the comprehensive application coverage was successfully achieved through E2E tests, a significant milestone documented for future reference.

Efficient team augmentation was a pivotal aspect for Sapiens. Our developers seamlessly integrated into the JFC development team, aiming to bolster Sapiens' developers' expertise and seniority. While initially focused on specific challenges (custom components and client migration) and product improvements, our developers immediately embraced the Scrum process, its ceremonies, and the organization's tools.

From day one, they actively engaged Sapiens developers, prioritized transparency, and facilitated knowledge transfer. Our Tech Lead swiftly evolved into a crucial consultant and mentor for the team while our experienced Product Owner helped to fine-tune the Scrum and Software Development Processes.

Following the implementation of audit recommendations and client migration, our collaboration with Sapiens' team intensified as we advanced the product roadmap. To foster closer collaboration, we divided into two mixed sub-teams, reshuffling every two months to encourage knowledge exchange between developers.

Our recent significant achievement for Sapiens was crafting an architecture from the ground up for constructing intricate forms using metadata models sourced from other Sapiens services. This marked a crucial business milestone, allowing Journey Form Composer to generate forms tailored to specific received data automatically. Prior to this, form composition was limited to drag-and-drop UI.

We brought to the table valuable insights due to experience gained while building uniforms and Forminer, which solved a similar challenge in their foundation. Our Architect collaborated closely with business stakeholders and technical leaders, gathering requirements and analyzing various data models to propose a solution. The entire development team swiftly embraced this solution.