Introduction

The company began as a small startup and was later acquired by a larger corporation. Its product portfolio was divided into two main categories: public (1-to-many) and enterprise packages. We worked on the enterprise products, which focused on encrypted internal video communication for corporate environments. Common use cases included all-hands meetings, conferences, internal training sessions, and corporate communications—each secured with single sign-on (SSO) and strict access control.

The Story

The team worked on the development of a Virtual Events Microsite, a product designed to facilitate virtual events on a dedicated microsite. The microsite transformed throughout the event lifecycle. Initially, it functioned as a promotional site, providing information about the event schedule and enabling registration. It also featured a calendar view with session topics and speaker details. When the event started, the site switched to live mode, showcasing the ongoing sessions and a video archive for pre-recorded content and past broadcasts. After the event ended, only the video archive was accessible. The microsite could optionally be secured with SSO, and clients had the ability to fully customize the registration interface.

The project, which was initially launched before the COVID-19 pandemic, gained substantial attention during the pandemic as companies were forced to switch to online events. Additionally, we had previous experience with similar products, providing a solid foundation for this development.

Project Size: Team and Timeline
The project was executed by a team of 10–12 members. Estimating the timeline was challenging due to several shifts in focus during the product's lifecycle. A previous proof-of-concept version existed, but the actual development took around a year. The MVP was completed early, but the project faced delays when the focus shifted for a period. Once the project regained focus, development resumed smoothly with a dedicated team.

Technology and Methodology
The project followed an agile methodology with 2–3 week sprints. The front end was developed using React.

Challenges Several challenges were encountered during the project:

• After the MVP was delivered, a shift in focus caused a delay in progress.

• Resource shortages occurred due to the project being composed of members from different teams. To address this, additional developers and testers were brought in during resource-intensive phases.

• The team was able to quickly fix bugs, which enabled smooth testing with minimal blockers.

• One specific challenge arose when testing the calendar view, as it was crucial to ensure that events were always up to date for realistic testing. We solved this by developing an automated script that used the API to randomly populate the calendar with events for each test day. This solution provided a stable, realistic testing environment and was highly appreciated by the team.

Exciting Milestones and Achievements
A particularly exciting aspect of the project was the close collaboration between the QA and UX teams. While the specifications were solid, many elements were identified during testing that were enhanced through collaboration with the UX team. This close partnership was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the project.

Additionally, we had the opportunity to deepen our knowledge in API testing, which was a significant learning experience.

The Results

The product was delivered on time and met the quality standards defined at the outset. The project was a success, and the product continues to be used by clients today.