Dev Team Goes Back to the Future in the DeLorean Room!

Recently Auto/Mate’s Software Development Team, “Dev Team” for short, held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the grand opening of their new DeLorean room. Formerly an underutilized room on the top floor of the Auto/Mate building, this multipurpose room was designed for the exclusive use of the Dev Team members.

 

Shylah Weber, Software Development Manager, was a leader on the project. “Software development is very collaborative and our team didn’t have dedicated space to gather,” said Weber. “Conference rooms weren’t always available, and when our team spontaneously gathered in cubicle areas, it was sometimes distracting for other employees.”

 

Last year it became clear that the growing Dev Team needed its own room. Weber collected input from fellow team members and put together a list of requirements. “Software development is an iterative process, and we wanted the DeLorean room to have everything our developers need to innovate and meet our product goals,” said Weber.

 

Since the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the DeLorean room has become a busy place. Dev Team members routinely gather for a variety of activities, including pair programming, a process that involves two programmers reviewing the same code to work out bugs. Teams meet for daily stand ups, where Software Engineers and Web Developers share what they are working on with their team each morning. On projects that require partnership with OEMs, the room is used to hold web meetings with manufacturers.

 

 

“We also use the room to conduct interviews with potential new team members, hold weekly planning meetings and it has become a favorite place for the team during lunch,” said Weber.

 

Are you wondering why it’s called the DeLorean room? All the meeting rooms at Auto/Mate are named after discontinued vehicles, such as the Duesenberg, Studebaker and Packard.

 

“We chose DeLorean because it represents how our team fits into Auto/Mate’s culture,” said Praveen Tamvada, Director of Product Strategy. “Auto/Mate’s DMS evolved out of Wang’s F&I software more than 40 years ago, and today we are taking it into the future with some really cutting edge solutions. The DeLorean in the movie ‘Back to the Future’ is the time machine, and we view our room as a representation of a time machine for Auto/Mate’s DMS and its success in the market.”

 

The Dev Team’s slogan is “Create. Innovate. Grow.” and the DeLorean room provides a place for these values to flourish. Stay tuned for exciting new developments in Auto/Mate’s DMS software that will take us Back to the Future!