TÜV certification interview

Why is it important for the Shopmacher to be TÜV-certified?

Ultimately, it’s about trust. Because trust is a decisive factor in the run-up to a budding IT project. There are so many service providers in our business. And of course everyone claims to know their business, possibly even better than the competition. In this context, reference customers usually have their say to prove this. This is important and right – and we are also pleased to receive words of praise. But it was also important for us to receive this certificate from an independent testing body such as TÜV, which primarily examines methodology and processes. The certification is proof that our working methods meet the very highest standards. This is another building block for building trust. And trust is a decisive factor in the run-up to a budding IT project.

How can an agency standardize processes?

Over the years, we have established standards in a wide variety of customer projects, such as the way in which we gather requirements and transfer them to software development. These processes have been examined and certified by TÜV: The Shopmacher development standards comply with overarching conventions, such as the agile frameworks Scrum or Kanban. And we have also described under which conditions which agile framework is preferable. It was already clear to us beforehand that this would work for us, which is why we work in exactly the same way and not differently. The fact that nuances between the well-known frameworks that we have developed for ourselves are even considered a benchmark for the industry surprised us to some extent and also makes us a little proud.

When you win a new project, what does your working method look like from the first customer inquiry to the final delivery?

That is multifaceted. But let’s take the entire process of requirements assessment, for example – when a customer approaches us with a request. Our process stipulates that we do not simply implement this – even if it has already been very well prepared and specified. There is a simple reason for this: we usually work with our customers for months, often years. Before we start coding anything, we need to understand the context, the goal and the business behind the requirement. This is because specific requirements often change in the course of the collaboration, and then joint prioritizations and decisions have to be made. To do this, we need the business context in order to be able to advise and implement appropriately.

If you look at the marketing of IT service providers, most of them claim that they want to understand the customer. What else? But we don’t just claim that, we demonstrate a procedure for initiating orders that proves how and why we do it. Something like this is assessed positively in the TÜV audit, or deductions are made if you cannot substantiate a claim. When it comes to implementation, we work in an agile way: backlog > Epics > User stories > Acceptance criteria > Test driven development > Release by the customer > Deployment > Automated testing. You will find these buzzwords as bullshit bingo in the marketing of almost every IT service provider. “Agile” is on everyone’s lips – from the dog park to the dance competition. But in IT, there are very specific work steps behind it, which must be adhered to for good reason. If not, lip service will blow up in your face at the TÜV at the latest.

How do customers benefit from this process standardization?

If standards work (which the certification confirms), you work more efficiently. As a rule, service providers like us calculate effort x daily rate. As a customer, you therefore have a certain degree of certainty that the effort factor has been estimated reasonably realistic and that there are few frictional losses if the procedure is standardized.

And standardization also includes documentation. A topic that is often neglected at a lower level. If a project needs to be handed over, migrated or otherwise understood by an external entity at some point, there will be problems without documentation. Not if you adhere to standards.

What security do potential new customers of Shopmacher have with the TÜV seal?

“Security” is perhaps the wrong term. But at least there is a higher probability that professionals are at work here and that the framework conditions for excellent implementation are in place. As an IT manager, you need reliable criteria for budget allocation. It is certainly a truism that it cannot be price alone. It’s always about quality too. But what should you base your decision on? Certification is an independent award.

4.5 hours of auditing and 150 questions sounds pretty demanding. How do you prepare for it? Which questions were particularly challenging?

Yes, that was it too! We really didn’t get anything for free.

In practice, it was like a tax audit. The auditors requested documents in advance according to a checklist, prepared themselves and then questioned us here on the topics that they could not directly understand on the basis of the documents provided. Then, at some point, the result came.

The biggest challenge was certainly to provide as much documentation as possible in advance. Although we have documented many of our processes – for the onboarding of new employees alone – we are not a government agency. Some things were more of an ad hoc process here too. We have actually improved in these areas as a result of the audit because we now have even better documentation.

What are your further plans in terms of process optimization and how will the TÜV audit help?

Interestingly, the auditors also confirmed that we don’t have to pour everything we do into processes. It sounds paradoxical – but it’s not: a good process also means that not everything has to be squeezed into a process!

Our tried and tested maxim therefore remains the same in our practical work: When we have mastered a new task, we ask ourselves whether the path to the solution was a one-off or whether we will encounter it again in this form. And only if we answer “yes” to this question do we turn it into a process.

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