Hello. We are Future Platforms – a group of mobile specialists who have been delivering mobile apps and mobile solutions since August 2000. We have worked for Orange, the BBC, Channel 4, Microsoft, the AA, Lastminute.com, Hasbro, Intel and many more. In November 2011 we were acquired by Vexed Digital who we now work with.
We think that a cross-disciplinary, collaborative approach is the way to launch great products for our clients. We didn’t invent this approach; we stole it from iconic businesses like Pixar, Google and Apple, but we’ve invested heavily in it over the years: in the structure of our organisation and support and training.
We’re explicitly collaborative with our clients, involving them in the process through workshops, regular reviews and open communication channels. Internally we are organised in cross-disciplinary teams of business-people, designers, developers and testers – co-located and working snugly together.
We run an unusually formal implementation of Scrum, a lightweight project management process. Work is managed through a Backlog of “stories” that express the product’s scope in terms of its value to the client and their customers.
All of our production work is run within 2-week long “sprints”. At sprint boundaries our teams meet, demonstrate progress, identify process improvements, and plan in the following sprint of work. Progress is tracked and made visible. We like to have our clients attend these fortnightly meetings to see progress and help us steer their project in the right direction.