What is Lifecycle, I hear you saying? We'll get to that soon. First, let's go on a journey together and set the scene.

Back when EndGame first started, our primary focus in this area was providing support for our clients after development was completed. We tried our best, tackling issues as they popped up. We were stuck in a cycle of being reactive and working siloed from our development teams. We dreamed of becoming proactive, as all operations and support teams do, and we quickly realised we couldn't achieve that by simply offering off-the-shelf support and something had to change. But how exactly does one go about this dream of being a proactive operations team?

Introducing, Lifecycle.

So, go on then, tell us what Lifecycle is! Well, simply put, it is a set of services that wrap around development and Virtual Product Teams (VPTs) so they can go faster and focus on scaling with a dedicated Lifecycle Lead leading the charge.

When we talk Lifecycle, the majority of the work can be broken into these two streams:

Software Delivery Platform – For the team.

Building SaaS following good practices helps the product team to deliver products, faster.

Production Platform – For end-users.

Empowering our end users with innovative SaaS products that are here for good.

What is a Lifecycle Lead?

Typically, our Lifecycle Leads are Technical Support Analysts or members of our DevOps team, but they can also be developers with a passion for this kind of work. The Lifecycle Lead works closely with the VPT or development team to ensure best practices are followed, execute monthly procedures, hold team members accountable, and educate their team on the values and principles of Lifecycle. We believe this role is so essential to our teams that we've integrated it into all of our product teams here at EndGame.

Sound good? Let’s dive deeper and break things down further.

1. Infrastructure: Laying the Groundwork

• Observability: We're keeping an eye on things by monitoring and analysing the performance, stability, and overall health of the systems and applications we support. We're like digital detectives, tracking potential issues and bottlenecks, and ensuring everything is running smoothly.
• Monitoring Integrations: We make sure all the necessary monitoring tools are integrated into our systems, giving us a comprehensive view of what's happening under the hood.
• Monitor Performance: We track vital performance indicators, so we know if something is amiss, and we can quickly jump in to fix it.

2. Risk Management: Playing It Safe

• Security Scanning: Our security measures are top-notch, including implementing regular security audits, code scanning, perimeter scanning, and best practices to minimise risks and protect our clients' digital assets.
• Continuity: We've got our clients covered with robust backup and disaster recovery strategies, ensuring data redundancy and having recovery procedures ready to roll – just in case. We also like to act out our DR plans with our clients so we're all ready to go as a team.
• Knowledge Sharing: No siloing. Our teams spread technical expertise, best practices, and lessons learned. We foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• Policy: We handle the management and implementation of essential policies, keeping everything in line with industry standards and regulations.

3. Development: Engineering Excellence

• Engineering Standards: We're committed to upholding high engineering standards focused on security and scalability, ensuring our Virtual Product Teams deliver top-quality products.
• Development Processes: Our Lifecycle Leads help consult on development processes to ensure they are streamlined and efficient, making it easier for teams to create amazing products.
• CI/CD: With continuous integration and continuous deployment, we keep things moving smoothly and ensure faster delivery of new features and updates.
• Automated Testing: We rely on automated testing to maintain a high level of quality assurance and catch any pesky bugs before they cause trouble.

4. Intellectual Property: Protecting What Matters

• Source Code Management: We take care of managing source code, making sure everything is organised, secure, and easily accessible for our teams.
• Documentation: We don't skimp on documentation, ensuring that all important details are recorded, up-to-date, and accessible when needed.
• Licensing: We pay to document and track open-source libraries and projects embedded in our clients' products, ensuring that all licensing requirements are met and maintained.

These all lead into our Monthly Report which our Lifecycle Leads put together for our clients. It allows you to get a stocktake on how the product is running in the background, a set of actionable recommendations and is meant to arm you with the knowledge required to report at a board level. Heck, you could even copy/paste the first page into your board report and call it a day.
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What’s next?

We've spent the past year road-testing Lifecycle with our current clients, fine-tuning it to the point where we're excited to expand our offering to new clients who might not have engaged with us for development or strategy work. Our pricing model is straightforward and transparent, based on the usage of shared or dedicated resources, and clearly defined time and materials for the people-hours utilised throughout the month - that way, there won't be any surprises when the bill arrives.

So, when was the last time you tested your backups?

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Would you like more information about how our lifecycle services can help your product? Drop the team an email on support@end-game.com