RADWAG Departments. Software Development Department in the Eye of an IT Engineer, Software Specialist
RADWAG Wagi Elektroniczne stands for the top-quality products, the cutting-edge technological solutions and the most valuable employees who create the said products and produce the said solutions, and who promote and sell them.
We hire over 400 of these most valuable, there are no others in RADWAG, employees. Each and every single one of us completes his-own or her-own tasks, mutually we all take care for our common goals. Namely, products and services of the best quality, and satisfied customers in result. Our work consists in close cooperation between the departments, if it was not for it then the common success would not be possible.
The company structure includes many departments. RADWAG Software Development Department is one of them. We would like to introduce one of our colleagues, an employee of RADWAG Software Development Department, Kuba.
Kuba, a Software Specialist and coordinator for training regarding the software, has been working for RADWAG since 2016. Earlier, he was a freelance English Translator, however, he missed being in touch with other people, therefore, he decided to find a full-time job and work under the employment contract. He could not have found a better post. The training sessions he gives provide him with what he needed, he is in touch with people, but also with both spoken and written English.
Kuba completed a postgraduate studies regarding modern business services. The course made him familiar with the code of business meeting practice, thanks to this he knows how to behave appropriately when talking with people from different cultures. – I feel I am very well prepared to give international training - he concludes.
– Kuba, what do you exactly do, what are the tasks you take upon in RADWAG and how do you contribute to RADWAG product quality?
– My responsibility goes to three basic areas: designing our products and managing their development strategy, IT help-desk, and training.
I influence directly the form and functionality of some of our products; especially programs such as RMCS and Pipettes. It is up to me, how these tools will improve and look like in the future. I plan the change direction with reference to opinions of our users, I test and verify whether the mechanisms work the way they should or not.
The next area of my professional activity is technical support I provide within the scope of IT help-desk service, and the last one – locally organized training sessions for Polish and foreign customers, and workshops organized abroad, plus business trips concerning implementation of the RMCS system, both local and global.
Earlier, the training took the major part of my working week; these days, due to the pandemic situation, it is organised mostly in a form of online workshops and requires less time, therefore, I spend more hours on design and help-desk, also on testing of the designed solutions.
My training sessions cover the use of our proprietary IT software and weighing systems based on RADWAG products.
– What do you find to be the greatest success that you have achieved as a RADWAG employee?
– Like I have already said, I am in charge of development and implementation of RMCS. RMCS is a complex system intended for use in mass laboratory, it provides comprehensive support of mass standard calibration procedure; when I say 'comprehensive' I mean the whole process from the moment of order placing, through its realisation to calibration certificate issue. Mass comparator operation supported by RMCS software results with better throughput, accurate and reliable results and lower cost.
RMCS system is a precise mechanism, comprised of few computers, databases and mass comparators - the most precise devices on Earth, use of which is explained to its users-to-be in details during the training. Such implementations and training sessions are planned several months in advance. If this complicated and well-scheduled in time process of RMCS implementation goes smoothly on-site and ends with no surprising complications then it is highly gratifying and gives real satisfaction and fulfilment.
Such complex projects like the complete RMCS implementations and associated training require attention, scrutiny and concept. When I plan changes and implementations, these traits are a must for me, I have to foresee benefits-to-be and potential difficulties we, the software developers, may encounter ourselves, as well as our customer while taking advantage of this software. Another situation when the said traits are crucial is the very moment of contact with the customer, a person from a different culture with whom I spend a few days. What we find normal and ordinary, the customer may perceive in a completely different way.
– What is your role in the relay race that work in RADWAG is? Who passes the baton to you, to whom you pass it later on?
It depends on what I am occupied with at a given point of time. When I work on software development I delegate the tasks among the software developers, they come back to me with the results of their work for verification. If I am not fully satisfied then we go one step back, and again, and again until our efforts end in success.
When I work with a customer – either actual or potential one – I do research on the current market needs. On average, once or twice a year I prepare a document for each program under my management, I report and plan changes that are to be implemented and I focus on realisation of the assumed goals.
– What do you think about your cooperation with the company, your team-mates, colleagues from other departments?
– I often cooperate with our mass laboratory operating under the auspices of RADWAG. The laboratory employees are people with whom I consult all aspects of the RMCS and Pipettes software regarding metrology issues, used mathematical formulas and compliance with international documents regulating law to which our systems and products must adhere. They come to me whenever, in order to address their needs, they require some software modification. I, in turn, ask for their advice on customer or my own ideas.
Colleagues from the Advertising Department contact me when, for example, they are working on a brochure or a multimedia presentation, or any other marketing material. Also employees of the Sales Department who deal with a particularly demanding customer are in a need for consultation on a subject matter with me.
I cooperate with colleagues from other departments on an extensive manner and the cooperation is probably successful, we could ask them about that. :) When speaking of my department, we are a close-knit team I should say; quite recently we all watched the European football championship together.
