What I noticed on a regular base is that most companies have a whole range of software products that do not or hardly talk with each other. Some project tools had a certain overlap with each other in terms of functionality, other tools were simply too heavy and difficult to set up. Another point that struck me is that these tools often focus on one problem and therefore often offer only one solution.
Think of tools for your specific Waterfall project or a Kanban tool while you may want to Scrum. Separate tools for your Resource Planning or a specific tool for your Hours Registration. You name it, and it is there.
Now this does not necessarily have to be a problem, but if you look at an average Media agency, IT company or other Project Organisations, you immediately notice that multiple processes and methodologies are intertwined. This in itself is not surprising, because the IT department can use its own flow or methodology, rather than the Marketing or Communication department that works with short-term campaigns.
With Getscope I wanted an integrated tool with a kind of 360 degree view where you have all the important processes involved in a project in one product. So multiple project methodologies, resource and hour management and some reporting. So that the Marketing or Communication department can use the samet tool, and when there is no need to use multiple.
When I started working as a project manager after my study at the end of 2002, I stepped into the last era of Prince 2. This era was mainly characterised by the writing of long project initiation documents that had to be signed by several managers involved before the project could start. As a result, long project lead times and a client who had to wait for the result during this excruciating iterative lead time of the project. After all, signed for the project result at the start, there is no room left for progressive insight along the way. In other words fingers crossed and pray that it will all turn out fine.
New times dawned with the introduction of Agile (Scrum / Kanban) in 2001. Clients were included and involved in Sprints, were shown an essential part of the end product at the end of the sprint and mainly sat in the driver’s seat instead of somewhere in the back seat.
New times called for new tools. Atlassian was founded quite quickly after the introduction of Agile in 2002 with their product Jira, initially a project and issue tracker tool, and still one of the biggest names in the game. And especially since they taken over Trello (founded in 2011) in 2017.
I explicitly mention these two products because they are far ends in terms of user experience, look and feel and user-friendliness. Trello is a web-based Kanban solution that is very flexible and accessible, where his big brother Jira is a mastodon. rigid, somewhat angry and difficult to understand and to talk with.
With Getscope I wanted to develop a product that is roughly in the middle of these two. I wanted to develop a tool that is accessible and has the flexibility of a Trello, but also offers a certain robustness and structure that a Jira has. But without the endless possibilities that the standard user gets lost in.
A product where you do not always have to choose which method you want to use at the start of your project. Whether you want to start with Scrum, Waterfall or Kanban, you can do it side by side and mix together. You can start with Waterfall and end with Scrum. Depending on the knowledge and skills of your team or the requirements and deliverables of your project.
A method and a collaboration tool as Trello, Jira, Monday or Getscope are just tools, important tools, but nothing more. Ultimately, it is the people who make or break the project and the tool must be subordinate to this at all times. But then it must be a tool that you understand from day one, looks nice, can start without the use of endless manuals or the hire of expensive consultants.
And that’s where Getscope comes in. Light-weighted, intuitive, structured, 360 view on your project, easy to use. And not unimportantly, it also looks nice.
So for that reason I started with Getscope.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, I am always open to feedback or collaborations. Mail me at guido@getscope.com and until then,
Have fun and Happy Scoping!
Guido Schilperoort
Founder @ Getscope
