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Discover the secrets of Amsterdam Standard's successful recruitment process for finding top-notch talent in software development. From sourcing candidates to ensuring they fit in with the team, we'll take you through every step to ensure a successful recruiting process. Find out why hiring the right people is crucial to our success and how we make sure new members feel welcome when joining the team.

#### At Amsterdam Standard, we know that putting together an amazing team is key to our success. That's why recruitment and hiring the right people for our software development company is of utmost importance! Let us take you through how we go about finding top-notch talent - from sourcing candidates to making sure they'll fit in with the rest of their future colleagues. When it comes time to welcome new members aboard, nothing says "Welcome!" like a successful recruiting process!


Our recruitment process is designed to be straightforward, and we want to make sure you understand each step along the way.

### Job Posting
To start, we'll create a job posting that outlines the requirements and responsibilities of the role, and we'll share it on various job boards and social media channels to reach a wide audience.

### HR Interview
After you submit your resume, our friendly HR team will review your application to assess your qualifications and experience. We're looking for candidates who have the right skills and experience for the role and who share our passion for software development and technology.
If we think you could be a good fit, we'll schedule a 30-minute video interview to learn more about your qualifications and experience. During this conversation, we'll also assess your communication skills and see if you're a good fit for our company culture.

### Technical Interview
Next, we'll set up a video interview with our technical team to evaluate your technical expertise, communication skills, and ability to work collaboratively. Throughout the process, we'll be happy to answer any questions you have about the role or our organization.

### Test/Client meeting
Depending on the process, we may ask you to complete a task or schedule a quick call with one of our clients. 

### Feedback
We value your time and will always provide feedback on your application, regardless of the outcome.

### Offer and Onboarding
If we decide you're a great fit for the role, we'll extend a job offer that includes the salary, benefits, and other terms of employment. After you accept the offer, we'll handle the onboarding process to ensure you have everything you need to succeed in your new role.

At Amsterdam Standard, we believe that hiring the right talent is crucial, and we're committed to building a team of passionate individuals who work collaboratively to deliver innovative solutions to our clients. 

#### We look forward to getting to know you better!


How Amsterdam Standard hires the best talent

As AI technology becomes more advanced, we're beginning to wonder if project managers will become obsolete. Find out how Artificial Intelligence can help rather than hinder the ever-evolving world of project management.

#### A couple of weeks back, ChatGPT saw the light of day; we were thrilled about its initial possibilities. On the other hand - we immediately began to wonder if we would soon become redundant. Can the AI tools develop an app or go in the project manager's shoes? 

#### Before answering this bothering question, let’s check how project managers, scrum masters, and product owners can benefit from AI. 


1. Algorithms.
All the projects we need to manage goes hand with a huge amount of data. In waterfall methodologies, we had, for instance, a project journal. It was a mine of knowledge about the project that could benefit future ones - having data from the past could help project managers to make better decisions, mitigate risks and be more accurate in decision-making. Agile methodologies also use data for the project's calculations, e.g.: velocity, estimations, burn-down charts, and cumulative flow diagrams. AI algorithms help project managers to analyze large amounts of data. It could benefit in identifying patterns and managing risks and projects schedule. 

2. Automation.
All project managers know that there are repetitive project parts, so automating some tasks could bring more efficiency to the project and give project managers more time for other project activities. 


3. Tracking and monitoring.
Project management tools that use AI can be helpful for project management tracking and monitoring. Real-time updates about project progress or identifying potential blockers before they will actually arise would be a perfect help.


4. Communication.
AI can be used to schedule meetings automatically, listen during the meeting, and at the end, provide a summary with action points after discussion. Moreover, providing translations on-fly is also a helpful option. AI-powered virtual assistants can automate stand-up meetings, save time and reduce the administrative burden on the Scrum Master - but within this option, I’d be very cautious. 


5. Continuous Improvement.
 AI algorithms can help identify areas for continuous improvement within a Scrum team. For example: identifying inefficiencies in the process or areas where team members need additional help or training.


6. Sprint Planning.
AI algorithms can assist in sprint planning by suggesting the most efficient sprint plan based on the team's capacity, project requirements, and past performance.


7. Customer data.
From the perspective of Product Owners, AI algorithms could be helpful in analyzing customer data and behavior to provide valuable insights into customer needs and preferences. This information would be perfect for Product Owners, to help them make decisions about possible features and capabilities to prioritize.

8. Market Trends.
 Thanks to AI, Product Owner can stay up-to-date on market trends, new technologies, and emerging competition. With this information provided, Product Owners could be more efficient in creating product strategies and ensuring that the product stays relevant and competitive in the market.


To sum up, AI can be a perfect and robust solution for Project Managers, Scrum Masters, and Product Owners. It can automate and bring efficiency in areas such us:
2. Project scheduling and budgeting
3. Data analysis from existing and historical projects
4. Administrative tasks associated with a project
5. Setting KPIs 
6. Project task management and prioritization
7. Task automation
8. Risk prediction and mitigation
9. Resource allocation
10. Team collaboration
11. Support documentation


If we want to present the Project Manager role in one sentence, we can say that he has to take care of the project triangle: budget, time, and scope. It’s usually not an easy piece of the cake, and [around 60% of projects can fail](https://online.champlain.edu/blog/will-artificial-intelligence-replace-project-managers-future):

- 21% of projects were cancelled prior to being delivered or were never used;
- Only 37% of all projects succeeded in delivering the required functionality on time and on budget;
- 46% of projects were over budget ;
- 63% of projects were either challenged or failed; and
- 71% of projects were delivered late.

If bringing AI to the table could reduce this appalling number and, at the same time, take the weight off the Project Manager's shoulders, I believe it’s a massive opportunity for improvement than a danger.


Apart from all the analytical and paperwork parts of the PM’s job - an equally significant part of it is working with people and communication. I believe Project Managers (or even Scrum Masters and Product Owners) have leadership skills and public speaking skills and should be able to maintain good relationships with the teams and customers. Moreover, they are often negotiators with excellent communication skills that so far can’t be replaced by AI. Taking care of your team and responding to their individual and personal needs is not a job for AI, but it requires human input with emotional intelligence. 


Is AI going to replace project managers?

Discover the many career opportunities available at Amsterdam Standard. With a focus on software development, quality assurance, and project management, you'll find yourself in good company with talented individuals who share your passion for technology and innovation. Join us today and unlock your potential!

### Looking for a challenging and rewarding career opportunity? 

#### Look no further than Amsterdam Standard! As a software house, Amsterdam Standard offers a variety of exciting career paths for talented individuals who are passionate about technology and innovation.

At Amsterdam Standard, you'll be part of a technical team that values growth, enjoys what they are doing, and looking for stable employment. Whether you're interested in software development, quality assurance, or project management, you'll find plenty of opportunities to grow and develop your skills at this forward-thinking company.

One of the key benefits of working at Amsterdam Standard is the chance to work on a wide range of exciting projects. From building e-commerce platforms to developing sophisticated ad tools, you'll be challenged to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions to complex problems.

In addition to its stimulating work environment, Amsterdam Standard also offers a range of employee benefits and perks. These include flexible working hours, paid days off on B2B contracts, and opportunities for training and professional development. The company also values work-life balance and offers a supportive culture that encourages employees to pursue their passions both inside and outside of work.

If you're looking for a dynamic and rewarding career in the tech industry, Amsterdam Standard is the place to be. With its commitment to innovation, creativity, and personal growth, this software development company is the perfect place to take your skills to the next level. 
So why wait? 
[Visit our job page](https://amsterdamstandard.com/en/careers) today to learn more about the exciting career opportunities available in AS!


Unlock your potential with AS

Is your development team feeling unmotivated? Learn the top six things that might be preventing developers from doing their best work, and how you can start finding solutions.

A developer, software engineer, programmer, (however you like to call them) is usually a pretty unique person. As Alfred once said "Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn".
Developers on the other hand want the world to run smoothly, seamlessly... like clockwork.

I think comparing to a clockwork mechanism is on point. A developer wants to build small little springs, levers and gears. Set all of these components in a solid housing, apply some tender, love and mineral oil for things to move smoothly. And at the end of the day, the best part of it all, is when a dev can wind that single crown on the side of the clock and watch the entire mechanism come to life.

Each piece moving in sync and unison with another, one gear passing information to another. That is the endgame, that feeling is what a coder expects after hard days, weeks or even months of work.

Over the years of working with devs, being a dev, working with Product Owners and getting familiar with Product Owning I can tell that the business side and the programming side don't usually see eye to eye.

### So what kinds of tasks or processes demotivate developers?
And how to avoid them


Imagine working on a wedding cake for at least a week. A large 3 layer cake. with icing and rose petals and handmade figures adorning the top. And minutes before the wedding you are asked to dispose of it. No-one saw it, no-one tasted it. Sure you got paid, but why do the work if it's going to be thrown away.

Unused code is time spent planning, building, testing, while somewhere along the way the higher-ups decide to cancel the idea and never publish the code. This includes code that is used only for a while, as I call it temporary code. Things that are manually added then removed after a certain amount of time. Convert manual work to a manageable and automated version, devs love that.

##### Avoid temporary features with existing functionality
Most of the time temporary code is just a gimmick, an alteration of an existing functionality. Instead of asking a dev to make a new kind of modal, or a new kind of form, just use the existing ones you might already have. Especially if it's something temporary that will expire in a week? a month?

The moment a developer has to type in a start & end date of a feature in the actual code, you know you've gone too far. Automate this. Invest the time to make repetitive events or features manageable and have the content team activate or deactivate them when needed.

This excludes AB testing, that by nature is temporary code. That being said even AB tests should be prepared in an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or in a "fake it till you make it" kind of way. You are proving a concept, don't build 2 fully functional versions as an AB test. Use the AB test results to build the final version of a feature.


Best case scenario is when everyone knows the end picture of the product and everyone has a clear path towards it. But in a real world that is almost never the case. CEO's, PO's, or even clients don't really know what they want and what will bring the most value.

Way too often the development team is not involved in the long term roadmap or plans for the future. With a shortsighted backlog a developer doesn't know how to prepare for the end game.

Bad preparation can lead to redundant code or POCs (Proof of Concepts) that burn before seeing the light of day. See #1 Redundancy.

You'll soon see that most of these demotivators are closely related to each other and they intertwine.

##### We need to build a laser that can cut through foil

A dev gets asked to build a laser that can cut through foil, but only the foil, not anything underneath it. So a developer starts to build it, but somewhere along the way the PO comes back and says we need a grabber too, so the vice can hold the item while the laser cuts the foil.

A month later it turns out a huge machine was built that delicately holds a piece of candy while a laser cuts and extracts the contents from inside. If you told a dev you want to open a candy bar, he'd take it, grab the zigzagged part and just pull away the foil.

This is an exaggeration ofcourse but sometimes thats what requests without knowing where we're going look like.

Involve the dev team, or a representative in roadmap discussions, plan short and long terms plans, have one solid and unified vision of the end game. You will save a lot of time, money and stress. Often there are easier solutions to a problem.


#### Spend more time planning, and being sure of what you want. Constant spec changes and "slapped on" features are not maintainable

Closely related with #1 and #2. Some tasks demotivate a developer because they sound wrong, or are badly thought out or are just redundant. In situations like these I bring out the good, old question machine. As a dev just start asking questions, like "should this also be for logged out users" or "what happens if case B, or case C". If you get answers and there is enough data supporting the feature, then maybe the goal was misunderstood.

Usually though the answers are monosyllabic grunts of dismay which force the task giver to go back to the drawing board and figure out all the loose ends. Keep inline with your end game goals.

Writing code is not like building a house, where you first see some foundations being poured, then walls being erected, followed by a roof and windows, doors. Often during development of an application there is background work that is being done. The end user or stakeholder doesn't see this and wrongly assumes someone is being lazy or not pulling their weight.

This is more about educating the stakeholders about how code development works. Not everything is done on the frontend, and not everything is always a tangible feature. Trust in your dev team and with proper scrum methodologies the higher-ups can always be up to date with current progress of features.

##### House keeping and plain old boring work

The next 2 are demotivators that popped up often in my polls. But they are more about house keeping. Chores that just have to be done even if it's not any fun. Even in a normal household taking out the trash or cleaning the bathroom is something most people would like to skip. But they still need to be done.

Personally this one doesn't demotivate me but it is possible that getting an issue ticket that can't be reproduced sucks out your passion. Following the steps the tester used and not getting the same error is somewhat soothing (because it's not happening for everyone), but also frustrating (because you'll need to fix it some day). Knowing there is some kind of combination of actions that cause this can keep you up at night.

Many times it's just bad luck, a network delay or interruption, some other process lagging on the end users device, or on the server, an outdated device or just plain user error.

There is no magic remede for this apart from more tests, QA testing, testing on older and slower devices or traditionally blame it on a fluke and hope there are no more issues of the same nature in the future.

This is the definition of a chore. Code should be documented and described so that team members and new onboarders have an easier time getting to grips with all thats happening in a project. This has a lot of added value but is often overlooked or ignored either because no-one wants to do chores or #4, its invisible progress.

As boring as it can be, writing documentation is just something developers need to do. And higher-ups need to understand its value in the long term. Along with automated testing it's the easiest components of an application to exclude and save costs on.

Try to share code documentation amongst the team, everyone should be pulling their weight and not have 1 person dedicated to going chores. Documentation can be done in small shifts to make the chore seem shorter and easier to do.

##### Coding is not a production line

Your software, your developers and your entire organisation should be striving towards making an autonomous machine. IT is not a factory, it's not manual labour. You wouldn't want a watch where you'd need to manually turn a gear every once a while for it to keep running?

A happy dev is one that knows what the end game is, that is well informed and has time to figure out the best path towards a solution. A good dev can assist in decision making, and can also determine where cost optimisations can be made. A mature dev knows that even the boring tasks, the chores to do around the house are also part of the game and adapts to it, not complains and avoids doing it.

Low hanging fruit and "quick wins" give immediate results but many times also bring tech debt. Give a little thought to the graph in this article. 

![geeks-and-repetitive-tasks-02-1024x622-1 (1).png](https://public.amsterdamstandard.com/geeks_and_repetitive_tasks_02_1024x622_1_1_b5e19901e0.png)
_Image courtousy of https://outfunnel.com/pipedrive-automations/_

Top 6 things that demotivate a developer

Today, as a summary of this year, we’d like to share with you our project management best practices.


In our honest opinion, this is a mandatory meeting to have a good start on cooperation at the very beginning of the project lifecycle. In Amsterdam Standard, this meeting is usually organized by the Delivery Manager (or Project Manager). As a first step, make sure all the right people are invited and everyone is fine with chosen date and time. Next and crucial: prepare an agenda, choose a person who’ll lead the meeting (DM/PM), and ask your customer what topics he’d like to have covered. 
What exactly should be found in the agenda - it’s up to you and your needs, but when it comes to our recommendations it’s worth mentioning:
- Target market
- Product presentation
- Product/business goals
- Communication channels that will be used by the team
- Project governance, discuss company work culture
- Project responsibilities
- Risk assessment

When you’re done with a kick-off meeting we recommend going a step further. For bigger projects and teams where the project responsibility seems to be fuzzy, we’d like to show you the PM responsibility matrix. Invite relevant people to the meeting, based on who will bring the best input, and discuss which parts will be managed by who. Defining them at the same beginning of the project will help you avoid ambiguity in the later part of it. 

![IMG_2625.jpg](https://public.amsterdamstandard.com/IMG_2625_5d21566825.jpg)

What is best about project management? Even if you know the methods, have experience, and have successfully delivered many projects, it’s still all about the learning process. 

There are no perfect projects, perfect teams, or ideal project managers, but what’s most important is that we can learn from each other, discuss the cases and share the know-how. 

As a Holidays gift, I’ve put together a list of the best project management practices that our project managers team has learned over the two years of working with Amsterdam Standard teams. 

Probably known by every project manager, so it’s just a reminder to use this powerful ‘tool’. It’s good practice to make notes after extra meetings happening in your team (outside of regular Scrum ceremonies). How to make them well organized?
- always include the date and participants
- mark down goals (to have clarity on what is expected to be achieved)
- discussion points (or another form of notes that are important but are not necessarily action points)
- action points (clear follow-up actions to be taken after the meeting) - don’t forget to assign the owners!

Sometimes a good supplement to meeting minutes or project documentation might be a decision log document that gathers all the most important decisions in one place, with easy and quick access.

![Project-Management-best-practices-Dokumenty-Google.png](https://public.amsterdamstandard.com/Project_Management_best_practices_Dokumenty_Google_64fb32c9d3.png)

There’s no good project without a great and close-knit team. Make sure to plan some integration activities not only among developers but also with the customer, product owner, and all the stakeholders engaged daily in the project. 
Some ideas:
- Online beer + games - examples: 
1. Charades, e.g. scribbl.io;  
2. Q&A’s - questions “this or that” or “would you rather..”;  
3. 9 free online team building games for remote teams  )
- PubQuiz between teams - a trivia of team-related questions/photos between teams;
- Creative hackathons - night hackathons with beer&pizza;

Besides regular retrospectives with your team, it’s nice to celebrate the end of a bigger project phase (or ending the whole project). Some tips from us:
- Orgaznie a separate meeting to underline it’s an extra event;
- You can use some retrospective tools to have a nice summary and discussion, but in the big picture; you can prepare it in another way than usual (use timeline, prepare milestones, memories, make it more interactive)
- Make it more ‘festive’, focus on good things and improvements.
This kind of event should help you build a nice culture of celebration with the team, not only focusing on delivering and then rushing forward again.

As we mentioned in the point above, it’s always a good time to celebrate. Preparing a year-end summary would be a nice Holidays gift for your customer and team. The goal of this meeting should be to wrap up the passing year, celebrate the achievements, and have fun.

**What could be prepared for such a meeting?**
- Company accomplishments wrap-up
- New projects on the Client side
- Growth
- New people hired, new departments formed
- New markets
- Roadmap summary


**Team accomplishments wrap-up:**
- A number of sprints and retrospectives closed
- A number of story points burnt
- Most important releases
- A number of new people in the team
- The most important features
- The most important improvements
- Most important team achievements

**Extra content:**
- Some funny team photos, internal jokes :)

**Year-end retrospective - in big picture.**

**Goals for the new year or Q1.**

When we’re finishing the project, cooperation or someone is leaving the project it’s always nice to have a ‘goodbye meeting’, which seems to be a nice and obvious idea, but believe me - doesn't happen so often. Of course, the agenda depends on the situation and relations - and what’s more important - always ask everyone if they’re ok with it. If so, you can include below parts:

- Knowledge sharing session - someone is leaving, so this person can underline what was responsible for, and share the most important aspects and information;
- A QA’s style session could be organized - so questions are asked to a specific person leaving to about the most important things before they leave;
- If the atmosphere is good, you can ask team members to prepare some nice memories or quotes for the person who’s leaving, or just a couple of sentences saying ‘thank you for common work together;
- If the project comes to an end, you can use some ideas from above point Year-end summary, enriched with some nice team moments and accomplishments plus documentation and access handover.

I hope you find the above best practices useful for your projects or cooperation. Remember, it’s based on our Project Managers' best-practice, feel free to adjust the ideas to your needs.

Project Management - best practices

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