About Me

I am Nicolás

• I'm a founding member of Fiqus, a software development cooperative in Argentina

• I'm a developer, but currently I'm coordinating projects and attending commercial opportunities

• I participate as one of the FIT coordinators and I am part of the FACTTIC board

About FACTTIC

Some facts

• FACTTIC is the Argentinian Federation of Tech Worker Cooperatives

• Founded in 2011

• 16 software development cooperatives are members

• Its members are distributed in different regions of the country, so we interact mostly in virtual way

How we interact

• We share a mailing list in which only members of the federation can participate.

• We communicate on a daily basis through Mattermost (an open source chat)

• We have a virtual board meeting once a month (open to anyone who wants to participate)

• We have face-to-face meetings once a year

About FIT

A brief introduction

• It's an area in FACTTIC

• Starting point: Cooperatives communicating the status of their projects and their availability.

• Current state: It became the area where we share projects.

Some basic rules

• If you want to be part of FIT, you have to be a member of the federation

• You can be a FACTTIC member and not participate in FIT

How we interact

• We have monthly virtual meetings

• We share a specific Mattermost channel

Workflow introduction

• Not all cooperatives work in the same technologies, but if they do, we avoid competition when a client is looking for resources

• There are many possibilities that can occur when trying to share projects

• We are constantly learning how to improve this workflow

Workflow

CASE 1: "WORKFLOW FOR STAFF AUGMENTATION"

A project demands more developers than the cooperative wants or can assign to the project

"WORKFLOW FOR STAFF AUGMENTATION"

• Let's suppose we are cooperative A and our client asks us for more developers on the team

• Perhaps because of a strategic issue or because of a specific technology we cannot satisfy that need.

• We communicate to the FIT the request of developers in certain technologies

"WORKFLOW FOR STAFF AUGMENTATION"

• If there are interested cooperatives, the candidates are evaluated

• If they qualify for the project and the client agrees, they can join the development team

• The client is told that the developer is from another cooperative

• We explain what intercooperation is and how we work in that way

"WORKFLOW FOR STAFF AUGMENTATION"

• The coordination of the project is always carried out by the cooperative A

• Although several cooperatives are working on the project, the commercial agreement is carried out by only one cooperative, in this case cooperative A

Workflow

CASE 2: "WORKFLOW TO DELEGATE A PROJECT"

A potential client requires development and for some reason we decide not to take it

"WORKFLOW TO DELEGATE A PROJECT"

• Let's suppose we're cooperative B and a job opportunity appears

• Perhaps because of a strategic issue or because of a specific technology we wont take the project

• Then we communicate it to FIT, specifying the received request

• We wait to see if there are co-operatives interested and available to take it

"WORKFLOW TO DELEGATE A PROJECT"

• If there is NO INTERESTED cooperative, then the client is informed that we don't have the availability to take it

• If there is one or more interested co-operatives, then the workflow is put into action

"WORKFLOW TO DELEGATE A PROJECT"

• If there is ONLY ONE interested party, the contact is passed and they can continue with the client directly

• If there is MORE THAN ONE interested party:

  • And the project requires JUST ONE developer, it's given to the cooperative who needs it most.
  • But if the project requires MORE THAN ONE developer, the interested co-operatives manage the project as a team.

Case studies

• Client from Canada: (CASE 1)

  • Reservations & Ticketing Management Platform
  • 5 years of development
  • Technologies: MongoDB, NodeJS, VueJS and Elixir
  • 30 developers from 7 different cooperatives participate in the project

Case studies

• Another client from Canada: (CASE 1)

  • Website that shows real-time psychological insights of staff
  • 2 years of development
  • Technologies: PostrgeSQL, ReactJS and Django
  • 3 developers from 2 different cooperatives participate in the project

Case studies

• Client from Chile: (CASE 2)

  • Mobile application to show mall services
  • 1 year of development
  • Technologies: React Native, PostrgeSQL, Flask
  • 4 developers from 3 different cooperatives participated in the project

Case studies

• Client from Argentina: (CASE 2)

  • Web system specialized in displaying vulnerability alerts on servers
  • 2 years of development
  • Technologies: BackboneJS, PostgreSQL, Flask
  • 4 developers from 2 different cooperatives participated in the project

Next challenge

International FIT

• Now that we have a local model that works ...

  Can we replicate it with cooperatives on the outside?

• We think we can do it

First Steps

• Share some activity (like this S&T)

• To build trusted relationships

• Get to know each other in person, spend some time together

Trip to UK

• It is the first trip that will be made from the Federation with that intention

• We will visit the cooperatives of CoTech, the UK federation of tech cooperatives

• On our return we will tell you about the experience.