Competitive advantage secured with customised PHP training

QS, the world's leading career and education network, has built its success around highly innovative online solutions. They stay firmly ahead of their competitors by adopting remarkable business agility – bringing revolutionary web-based projects to market faster than anyone else in their field.

QS has secured its market leadership further by investing in Ibuildings' unique approach to PHP training.

Expertise and confidence levels across the company's development team are consistently high and productivity has been boosted. New tools and a new approach to project management, introduced as part of the training programme, promise considerable increased business flexibility.

The challenge

"To say that our website is mission-critical is almost an understatement," says Dave Smith, Head of Web Development at QS. "We operate right at the leading edge of online solutions for the university sector worldwide and we have to bring major new projects to market incredibly quickly. Because new projects tend to be highly innovative, we have to adopt an iterative approach to development. As we demonstrate each phase of the development, clients often recognise new opportunities. Flexibility is a key competitive advantage for us."

Such levels of agility require strong project management, high levels of productivity, skilful use of the latest tools and a consistently high level of expertise from the QS developers.

The company recognised the business value that could be delivered by enhancing the skills of their thirteen-strong development team still further.

A custom-made solution for a non-standard world

QS looked at a number of training companies that specialise in PHP, but quickly came to the conclusion that a traditional training approach simply wouldn't meet their needs.

"We were already aware of Ibuildings' reputation as leading website developers and recognised their expertise in PHP development techniques. They also provide a range of training services," Dave explains. "The most compelling reason for choosing Ibuildings, though, was their approach to customised training. We wanted much more than just an out-of-the-box solution."

"The process began with a Brainstorming session to define very clear objectives for the programme. Next, each PHP developer was interviewed in depth to carefully assess his or her personal knowledge level and their expectations. This ensured that the programme was able to bring our entire team to the same expertise level. Groups were divided into sub groups, so that no-one was de-motivated by having to sit through subjects they had already mastered."

Over the course of six days, the QS development team delved into topics ranging from development standards and estimating to functional and technical design, unit testing and quality assurance. Each topic was fully customised to the team’s needs, based on the interviews carried out with team members and management.

Talking the same language

"Another major factor in selecting Ibuildings was our decision that whoever would deliver the training should not be trainers, but software engineers who can train," says Dave. "We wanted people who could draw on personal experience from real-life projects."

"It worked fantastically well. Ibuildings' use of 'case-hardened', practicing software developers meant that our people immediately related to them. They came to us with credibility and we all spoke the same language."

Dave also values the communications skills of the Ibuildings professionals – including their ability to introduce humour into the workshops.

Delivering real value to business managers

Dave Smith sums up: "It will be a year before we have definitive metrics on productivity improvements. Nevertheless, even at this early stage, the whole team has recognised real progress."

"Every time I come out of planning meetings, I feel so much better about the project as everyone is on the same page, all of the time. Perhaps even more telling are the very positive comments coming from QS business managers – our clients. They too value the improvements in productivity and tighter control over projects. A great success!"

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Would you like to know how our customised training approach could add value for your organisation?

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