Innovative tool to support software development

Nexapp, the Quebec-based company that aims to improve the future of software engineering, launches Axify. This innovative data-driven tool helps development teams optimize their delivery processes.

Software development is complex, as multiple variables constantly change, from process and engineering to team management. The challenge is to make the right decisions in a fast-paced environment, making all the difference in a feature's time-to-market and value generation.

Axify provides development teams with tools that improve product alignment and development cycles, resulting in continuous value delivery, efficiency, and reduced downtime and bottlenecks. In fact, according to the State of DevOps 2021 study, elite teams deliver 6,570 times faster than the lowest-performing teams and deploy 973 times more often.

Measuring team morale in a talent shortage context

The pandemic has dramatically accelerated the need for talent in information and communication technologies. Indeed, in Quebec alone, more than 12,000 jobs are still vacant in this field. This situation has consequences on the productivity of companies because of the scarcity and rotation of the workforce. Since we will be facing this issue for several years to come, it is even more critical to improve the efficiency of existing teams.

Axify is the only platform that correlates team morale with other software delivery performance metrics. The tool measures an employee's sense of alignment, security, motivation, stress and inclusion.

"Several studies show that team collaboration improves productivity in software development," says Jonathan Lessard, CEO of Nexapp. "By taking team morale into consideration in its data, Axify can help strengthen team members' motivation and sense of belonging and contribute to talent retention while preventing burnout and siloed work, important vectors of operational excellence," he continues.

Since its creation, Axify has enabled several local companies to improve their practices. Among other things, the platform has allowed: Scrum Masters to save an hour a day, in addition to avoiding data entry errors; teams to better measure the status of their projects and project themselves with more confidence to define delivery dates; improve collaboration between team members to achieve the sprint objective; better-structured ceremonies to bring out more value.

Facing a rapid growth

Over the years, Nexapp has developed its software engineering know-how while distinguishing itself through a strong culture and talent development. Its new Axify platform was born out of the company's desire to deploy this know-how on a large scale, first to cope with its growth and then to make it accessible to other organizations working in the field.

Leveraging existing theory and metrics, including DORA and the State of DevOps 2021 report, Axify shortens development cycles, resulting in more value delivered to customers. To do this, the platform gathers all the data to drive operational excellence on multiple levels, including technical quality, process efficiency and team morale.

"Our team has done much research to optimize our processes and target the things that make a difference in measuring performance. Axify is the result of this work, and we want to share it to help improve the future of software engineering," says Jonathan Lessard.

A first investment of $2 million

Innovative and recognized for the quality of its technological projects, Nexapp can count on the support of important financial partners such as Investissement Québec, the BDC, the City of Québec, the Ministère de l'Économie et de l'Innovation (MEI) as well as Canada NRC/NRC. We will invest more than 2 million dollars in developing and commercializing the tool by year-end.

About Nexapp

Nexapp was founded in 2014 by three software developers with a mission to raise the standard of quality in technology projects. By putting people first, optimizing processes, and leveraging software engineering best practices, Nexapp builds sustainable solutions and delivers products with great value. With a team of over seventy talents, Nexapp aims to improve the future of software development by equipping development teams. To do so, the team has developed Axify.

About Axify

Axify's mission is to strengthen the collaboration of software development teams for better product alignment and delivery through people, process and software quality actionable highlights.

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