For International Developers' Day, we spoke to Nicolas Puslecki, Product Development Manager at IN Groupe.
What is your background?
During my audiovisual studies, I discovered the profession of developer on an internship. This experience made me want to work in this field. When I finished my master's degree in 2008, I joined a third-party application maintenance (TMA) within a digital services company (ESN). There I was able to discover project management and learn to lead a team of developers.
In 2016, I joined IN Groupe as a project manager. I worked in particular on the implementation of digital portals for the Ministry of Transport. Today, I am in charge of product development for the Secure Authorisations Business-Line, which includes three teams:
- The Hub Pro Transport team, in charge of the future HGV driver card portal
- The Core team, which develops generic technical components that can be used for several projects
- The Verify team, which has been working since April on the TousAntiCovid Verif mobile application, the only application authorised to check health passes in France for the recovery of activities and travel
What are your tasks?
I define the needs and the technical roadmap with the Business-Line and marketing management. My job is to refine these requirements and estimate the scope and budget. Then I organise the product development teams around the product strategy. I work with them to identify the technical components needed for the projects, but also those that will be useful for future needs.
I liaise with the other teams involved in the project, such as the IT Department, the IT Security Department and the industrial services, in charge of contact centres and archiving, for instance.
I make sure that the teams have the means to carry out their mission and that they will be able to deliver their work with the required level of quality.
On a day-to-day basis, I organise the backlog, i.e. the prioritisation and distribution of tasks within the teams, in order to manage project priorities.
What is expected of a developer at IN Groupe?
In terms of technologies, we work in particular on Java, Angular, MongoDB but we also do native mobile development on Android and iOS for example. We appreciate versatile and " all-rounder " profiles as many different technologies are involved in our projects: Keycloak, Axway, GED, Ldap, Ansible...
Above all, we expect strong technical skills and expertise that allow us to challenge the architects, the IT department and the IS department. In addition, you need to show initiative, for instance by proposing technical solutions adapted to business needs. Team spirit is also a major quality expected at IN Groupe, especially during rush phases when cohesion and mutual aid within the team are crucial.
Finally, I would say that what also characterises IN Groupe is a strong sensitivity to the security of developments and the protection of personal data. We work on projects that require knowledge of the ISO 27001 standard and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
What is the daily routine of the development teams?
We work with an agile method. Every day, we start with a fifteen-minute meeting, the daily meeting, to review the team's blocking points and the day's activity. Then we have a backlog review during which we discuss future features and everyone can suggest improvements. This is also an opportunity to challenge each other or to assess the technical feasibility of a particular point.
On the other hand, our daily routine is punctuated by sprint retrospectives to review the positive and negative points of a development cycle, by sprint plans to organise the completion of tasks during a sprint, and by continuous improvement.
During the day, we also carry out code reviews and analyses. In addition to our development work, we carry out other tasks such as managing deliveries and packaging with integrators.
What motivates your teams?
Work on projects that contribute to the lives of citizens with a real impact. This is the case, for example, with the platforms created for the Mobility Inclusion Card or the Air Quality Certificate (Crit'Air), but also currently with the mobile application TousAntiCovid Verif, based on our IN Verify solution.
The teams are also motivated by the diversity of the professions involved in a project, as IN Groupe is able to manage all the subjects: account creation, ordering, invoicing, instruction, contact centre, digitisation, etc., as well as all the phases of a project, from the initial study to support, including implementation, acceptance and delivery.
In addition, the many recent technologies on which we work, such as Java 11+, Angular 10+, Jenkins, Gitlab, AWX and Keycloak, are also a source of motivation for the teams. Similarly, the possibility of working on multi-project and international products, whose code is reusable and generic, is a strength for the developers at IN Groupe.
Finally, the provision of work and relaxation areas dedicated to developers, as well as the inclusion of Product Owners (POs) within the development teams, facilitate exchanges and conviviality.
Finally, can you tell us about the development of the TousAntiCovid Verif mobile application?
TousAntiCovid Verif is a mobile application for professionals. It aims to help them to carry out the mandatory verifications of health passes for access to certain places open to the public. This is to combat the spread of COVID-19 and to allow the recovery of activities and travel.
This project makes us particularly proud and is a great adventure for the whole team. With more than two million downloads, this is a large-scale application that IN Groupe has developed in conjunction with Inria and on behalf of the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, with a focus on personal data security.
TousAntiCovid Verif is a good example of IN Groupe's development agility. On the one hand, we were able to deliver a solution in record time, but we also provided highly responsive support and demonstrated our ability to respond to requests for changes, with at least one delivery per week.
Finally, this project allowed us to demonstrate the robustness of our IT and security infrastructures, which can handle a very large number of connections.
