To Infinity and Beyond: The Efflorescence of SaaS

Dylan Herbert

VP of People, Opreto

7 minute read

There are many software systems that can help your business grow and succeed; many of these have undergone capitalization and become well-known Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings, while some are open source software systems you can freely download, modify and host yourself. It is increasingly rare to commission and run software systems built to your specifications by software artisans. You might be asking yourself whether to pay the subscription costs for a SaaS product, or if you’re better off putting in some development and deployment work to host and support your own in-house systems. Well, there is a secret benefit to using SaaS solutions that makes it more appealing for nearly any use case, with one glaring exception where it makes more sense to run your own servers.

Swiss Army Knives Are Agile

Aaron Mavrinac

VP of Operations, Opreto

4 minute read

Every discipline and every niche has a “Swiss Army knife of X”. Why are they so prevalent, and what makes them so valuable to engineers and software developers?

How to Start New Agile Software Projects: Selecting An Architecture

Xavier Spriet

VP of Technology, Opreto

3 minute read

In my last post, I described the initial phase of determining the trajectory for a greenfield softtware project. Once you have established your vision and created a roadmap, the next step is to decide how the software system is to be built. This involves finding a suitable architecture for the system and devising a macroscopic design of the different components and interactions involved.

How to Start New Agile Software Projects: Vision & Mapping

Xavier Spriet

VP of Technology, Opreto

3 minute read

If you’re a technical leader overseeing the development of a greenfield software project, then you know how crucial it is to get the design right.

In this article and the next, we’ll explore how to approach the initial technical modeling of the system. We’ll look at some of the best practices for making critical decisions to establish an efficient development plan that will lead to maximum system quality and reliability. We’ll cover concepts such as the high-level characteristics of a system, user story maps, and what product roadmaps should look like.

Tools Startups Can Use in 2023

Dylan Herbert

VP of People, Opreto

10 minute read

Business startups face many different and complex challenges, and all of them threaten to slow down or break momentum during the challenging initial stages of business development. Luckily there are a variety of approaches, techniques, and tools available in 2023 to help you get started, bust through barriers, and break stalemates. From using services provided by others to adopting process changes that build good habits from within, here are the four biggest blockage-breakers we have used at Opreto in 2022 to keep our business moving forward.

Experiment and Leap

Alan P. Laudicina

President, Opreto

3 minute read

As a technical leader, you must make software development decisions that minimize risk for your company, and doing nothing may seem like the safest path. However, sometimes the risk of doing nothing can be the most significant. So, how do you know when to take a leap and go for it and when to hold steady?

Detroit River Boat Tracker Project

Aaron Mavrinac

VP of Operations, Opreto

8 minute read

You’ll often hear about the importance of getting started, breaking ground, getting moving on a thing. Whether you have a specific goal you want to achieve, or you just want to get your feet in the door of a particular industry or technological stack, the outlook from a thousand feet can be daunting. So how do you choose where to begin?

How to Start New Agile Software Projects: Business Domain Discovery

Xavier Spriet

VP of Technology, Opreto

4 minute read

How do you help someone solve a problem if you don’t speak the same language? You learn their language and teach them a bit of yours. Without a shared language, you won’t understand the problem, and your solution may not end up being a fit. You are endangering the entire project. Read on to find out how I establish a shared language with new clients.

The Mission of the Prosigliere

Dylan Herbert

VP of People, Opreto

4 minute read

When you begin something, it is important to define your mission. It is difficult to get a team moving in a single direction without one, and it is impossible to know whether you are succeeding or not without some idea of where you were supposed to be headed. Missions galvanize teams, and give structure to effort. As prosiglieres, we summarize our approach with the motto: “Clear Eyes, Steady Hands, Right Advice”. However there is more to be said about just what our objectives are, and what it means to pursue these qualities. Read this post to find out what our mission is - for ourselves, our teams, and for this website.

What a Prosigliere is, and Why You Don’t Need a Perfect Name

Dylan Herbert

VP of People, Opreto

7 minute read

Names are important, but it is also possible to get hung up on one too much. It’s important to remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Trying to appeal to every audience - to cater to every taste, or account for every way your name can be twisted, is a foolish way to spend your first days in any kind of startup situation, whether you are part of a business, a non-profit, a community organization, or a band you started in your garage.