Tools, policies and processes
At Deeson, project teams are free to do what they need to in order to get the job done.
That’s our primary aim, but in an agency we need to have some standard practices that hold us together, as well as the freedom to work in the way we need to, so that we can deliver great work for our clients.
Here’s a quick rundown of our company-wide standard:
Company-wide tools.
Discipline-specific software, tools and standards, e.g. development environments.
Project oversight boards act as a living risk register. Every project board also includes key delivery metrics which help us assess the health of the project (internal only).
Our time recording tool – Harvest.
Our forecasting and resource planning tool – Forecast.
Our project management tool – JIRA.
Our instant communication tool – Slack.
Google Drive – Project documentation repository and shared files with clients.
Our Invoicing tool – Xero.
Our HR tool for annual leave/sickness requests – Bamboo HR.
If a company-wide standard tool or process isn’t working as well as you think it could or you think there’s a better way, get a group together and recommend a better way for consideration.
Clients on Slack.
We've found Slack to be an excellent internal communication tool and we also use it with clients as an additional communication method while we're working on their projects.
There are a few things we make clear to our clients:
It’s a great way for both of us to get quick answers to each other's questions; we'll be able to post updates and when applicable hold short, effective conversations.
We've achieved a great balance of being responsive whilst still allowing our team to focus on their work. Slack doesn’t promise any faster response times than we're already able to deliver via other communication means.
Likewise, we're not asking clients to be any more available to us than they already are.
And there are a few things we expect our employees to be aware of:
Client Slack channels use the naming protocol 'ext-[clientname]' or 'ext-[clientname]-[personname]'.
Client Slack channels are always private channels.
We only invite the necessary client-facing team members to the channel.
We always brief the client on how we use Slack for client service when we set them up.
Company-wide processes and policies.
Estimating methodology (currently internal only).
Recruitment.
Company business policies.
Last updated
