Project completion of the website www.poco.de

Author: Karl Maurer (Department Lead Programmmanagement)

How it all began

The first talks revolving around the project started in early 2019. At first, these talks were about determining if the plan, which was merely theoretical at that point, was doable (we will get to the plan later on  ). After discussions with system architects as well as domain experts, we were given the green light regarding the technical side of the project. But, what is it about? Let me give you a bit of background:

In 2018, the XXXLutz Group acquired POCO. As you probably know, the XXXLutz Group already runs and develops its online shops for the different brands in many countries itself (with the support of strong external partners of course). Due to the ever-growing volume in online furniture retail, it was already clear back then that a larger investment in the online shop infrastructure of POCO would be necessary within the next few years. This leads us back to the conversations that were started in early 2019 and led to the green light for the implementation of the project in the summer of 2019.

As a consequence, the rough project goal was defined as follows:

POCO gets the online shop that the XXXLutz Group already uses for its brands. POCO will continue using its existing core systems like its ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and PIM (Product Information Management) system.

Project setup

So far so good, the goal was defined! To ensure the achievement of the goal, of course the respective project setup including the necessary management support is required as well. In order to guarantee this, POCO and XXXLutz both defined a project leader each. There was a steering committee consisting of management employees from both companies that met on a regular basis, removing barriers for both project leaders. But as you can imagine, the project needs more than a lead and a steering committee in order to be realised. Rather, many single project streams and ambitious colleagues are required to work together on achieving the project goal. Here, we arrived at a rather complex subject from the point of view of the project lead. Many different project teams and service providers had to support accordingly in different phases of the project. We needed about five external companies and about seven internal teams for the realisation. You may ask yourself why I used the term “about” when referring to the five external service providers and seven teams. Don’t the project leads know how many teams were involved? This brings us to our next topic, where we will have a closer look at this subject.

Technical Setup

The technical core of the project was to establish POCO as a new additional entity in our online shop ecosystem, which is based on the SAP Commerce software solution. All tools used by the XXXLutz Group for tracking, payment, product recommendations, etc. should also be made available to POCO accordingly.

The transfer of data from POCO should be done via the middleware used by XXXLutz. A complexity was that both companies use different PIM and ERP systems. The online shop system could not be adapted to the needs of the POCO PIM/ERP system due to the already existing productive instances. All adjustments in relation to the data model/interfaces etc. therefore had to be made in the POCO core systems.

All in all, the technical setup defined by the system architecture/domain experts in the run-up to the project was successfully implemented during the project.

The biggest challenges during the project

Many different working methods and skills necessary for reaching the goal

As already mentioned, there were many different teams involved. These teams were divided into project workstreams in a logical order. Due to the different working methods (scrum, kanban, mixed forms) and different skills, this was an effective approach. All cross-team coordination was performed during regular project controlling meetings with the different controllers. This was, of course, a challenge for all people involved, but with the same goal in mind and many, many regular coordination meetings, we were able to successfully combine the different working methods and skills.

COVID-19

From March 2020, all workshops were transferred to the online format almost overnight. We continued this way until the final project completion in December 2021. In the beginning, the lockdowns that were new for everyone and the complete switch to the remote setup were a challenge, of course. After a short transition period, it became clear, however, that COVID-19 did not slow down the project, but in fact contributed to a more efficient working method. During the meetings, the minutes were written transparently on the shared screen for everyone to see, critical meetings were recorded and travel-related time loss was completely avoided. All in all, we had a new situation that was unfamiliar to everyone, but together, we managed to adapt well. The only, but big drop of bitterness is that we couldn’t have a go-live party with a wider group of participants due to the unpredictability of the pandemic.

Fluctuation and organisational changes

Due to the long duration of the project, there was some fluctuation of different project members. Fuelled by the strong online growth, the organisations involved had to adapt as well. Of course, these organisational changes also had an impact on the different project streams. So, how did we tackle these two challenges from the perspective of the project lead? With documentation, communication and adaptation. Projects never go to plan – but with these three instruments, every challenge can be overcome.

Of course, these were only a few examples of the challenges we encountered. In almost every project stream, there were smaller setbacks, all of which could be resolved with the amazing effort of the many people involved.

Screenshot of the homepage of the new online shop.

Go-live

At https://www.poco.de/ you can now visit the shop that is constantly evolving. But back to the go-live. How do you “exchange” an online shop? POCO already had an existing shop system that was frequented on a daily basis by many customers. An offline phase was no option here, of course. Besides that, there always remains a certain risk for new software developments that something doesn’t work. Therefore, a “big bang” in the form of a switch within a few minutes with the same traffic is also not a good option. So, how did we tackle this? With a go-live phase including different stages. Initially, we started with a traffic routing of only 1% of the customers to the new shop. 99% of the customers were still redirected to the old shop. In this phase, we could already determine first learnings/improvements for the new shop. We then switched as quickly as possible to 5%, 10%, 50% and finally 100% routing of all customers to the new shop. The last ordeal was Black Friday, as well as the pre-Christmas period, both of which the new shop mastered with brilliance. 

This photo of one of our devs, Jan, was taken about three seconds after the final click for the switch to 100%. A click with a big impact! :)

Conclusion

As you have probably noticed, this article only scratches the surface, trying to give an overview of the project. Summing up, there were many highly motivated colleagues in different companies involved. Despite some challenging phases, together we managed to successfully complete the project.

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Want to become part of our team? Have a look at our open positions: Click to get your dream job!

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