redburn / softwire - financial research site case study
TRANSCRIPT
• Financialnewsandresearchportal
• AngularJSsinglepagefront-endapplication
• CustomOAuthauthenticationsolution
• IntegrationswithexternalXMLfeeds,databases,andemailsasdatasources
• ASP.NETMVC/WebAPI,C#,EntityFramework,SQLServerback-end
At A Glance
Softwire built a sophisticated financial news and research site for Redburn, a leading equity broker, with a high degree of UI quality.
The Challenge
SoftwirebuiltafinancialnewsandresearchsiteforRedburn,aleadingequitybrokerandresearchprovider.Redburnwere looking fora freshdirectionfortheironlineinvestmentresearchofferingandneededacompanyabletoimplementtheirdesiredgraphicdesigntoahighdegreeoffidelityandtechnicalquality.
Theprojectposedanumberofchallengesforourteamincludinghighfidelityimplementationofdesignswithoutcompromiseonfunctionality.Itwasvitalthatthesitewasresponsivelydesignedformobile,tabletanddesktop,aswellashavingahigh-qualityappearancewhenprinted.Theteamwerealsorequiredtoensurethesmoothintegrationofmultipledatasources(APIs,databases,emails)fromavarietyoforganisations,inaliveupdatemanner.
We delivered the project in anAgilemanner, and in close collaborationwiththeRedburnproductownersandstakeholders.Wealsoworkedwithend users to elicit feedback about releases prior to go-live, which wasincorporatedintotheproductbacklog,andultimatelyresultedinapositivelyreceivedlivelaunch.
The Outcome
Ourinvestmentintestingandtoolingdeliveredsignificantvalueoverthecourseofdevelopment,andcontributedtohigherqualityandlowercostofownership.Ourin-houseUXanddesigncapability,andourstrongfrontenddevelopersmeantwecouldquicklydeliverthehighqualityUIrequired,whilstusingourmanagementandconsultancyexpertisetorefineRedburn’sbusinessrequirements.
WearecontinuingtosupportandextendtheresearchplatformforRedburn’sinternalusers,anditwillberolledoutgloballytocustomersinthenearfuture.RedburnhaveadditionallycommissionedSoftwiretocarryoutfurtherphasesofworkonthisprojectafterhavingreceivedverypositivefeedbackfromitsinternaluserssincerelease.
The SolutionWearchitectedandbuilttheplatformasaresponsivewebsiteusingaMicrosofttechstack,withourdesignteamprovidingiterativeupdatestotheoriginaldesignsfollowinginitialuserfeedback.Forthefront-end,wechosethemodernframeworkAngularJStoprovidethelookandfeelRedburnwerelookingfor.Asignificantamountofsystemlogicwasimplementedclient-side,improvingresponsivenessanduserexperience.
Whenfacedwithareasoftechnicalrisk,weundertookatechnical‘spike’earlyonintheproject,ashortburstoffocusseddevelopmentwiththesoleintentionofreducingoreliminatingtherisk.Onesuchexamplewastheriskaroundthirdpartydependencies:integratingthirdpartyAPIs,variousRedburndatabases,andinparticularparsinghuman-writtenemailstointegratecontentintothesystem.
Inkeepingwithourcultureofautomation,wedeliveredafullsuiteofautomatedtestsatalllevelsofthesystem,includingcode-leveltests(JavaScriptandC#),integrationtests,smoketestsandbrowsertests(viaSelenium).
ThesystemishostedinthecloudonMicrosoftAzure,anddeployedautomaticallytothreeenvironments(UAT,stage,live)withablue/greenproductionsetup(runningidenticalenvironmentswhichtrafficcanbeswitchedbetween,providingzero-downtimeupdatesandanimmediaterollbackpathincaseofissues).WetackledriskyareasearlyandcommunicatedfrequentlywithRedburnstakeholderstoachieveasuccessfulresult.