July 27, 2020
Pason’s Research and Development (R&D) department works hard to develop quality products and release valuable features that make our company what it is — a leader in energy technology. They are continuing their work, despite these trying times of COVID-19.
Datahub, Site Reliability, and Enterprise Applications
Pason’s DataHub, Site Reliability, and Enterprise Applications teams are still going strong keeping the company’s data centre and applications running smoothly. According to Behtash, Director of Software Development, Drilling Management Applications and Enterprise Applications, the team is working full steam ahead.
These three teams are still doing what they do best: The DataHub team continues to develop new projects at high velocity, all while remaining responsive to customer support and responding to key customer needs. The Site Reliability team continues to monitor Pason’s data centre applications to ensure the data centre is always up and running for our customers. Meanwhile, Enterprise Applications is keeping up with monitoring and tracking applications used by Pason Help Desk, Field Technicians, and the Finance team.
Behtash explains the teams were big on “hallway interactions” before the pandemic. He says the groups relied heavily on those interactions to get their work done. However, they’ve transitioned to working from home and have adjusted to working in a new way.
“A lot of the issues we face were resolved in discussions that take place in hallways,” Behtash says. “Face-to-face interactions were key to resolving day-to-day technical challenges.”
However, Pason has been releasing software updates regularly, without skipping a beat.
Additionally, the teams have been participating in weekly virtual code talks, hosted by Tom, Principal Software Engineer. During the initial code-talk session — which occurred the first week after the team began working from home — it became apparent that the teams were craving for more social interactions.
The weekly meeting was introduced as a casual chat with no real topic, just a free flow of anything participants wanted to discuss.
Electronic Drilling Recorder (EDR), Hardware, Drilling Systems and User Experience (UX)
Meanwhile, on the Rigsite side of R&D, Ryan van Beurden, VP, Rigsite R&D, says the teams are working from home as much as practical.
Ryan says the Rigsite teams include the Electronic Drilling Recorder (EDR) and Rigsite Software teams, Hardware, Drilling Systems, User Experience (UX), and Quality Assurance (QA) — a team that validates all Rigsite work.
“Basically, we are service groups who exist to support our business units and customers. We take part in the design, development, and testing that goes into our products — whether it’s computer software, hardware, or anything else for the rigs,” he says.
Currently, Pason’s software team is primarily working from home. Meanwhile, the teams responsible for hardware products and QA work from home as much as they can, only coming in when they absolutely need to.
“The Hardware team works on physical products and they need the lab and some of the tools to do so,” Ryan says. “While some of them have brought limited tools home, when you have significant work to do, nothing beats having the resources of the lab.”
Like other Pason departments, Ryan says he, along with his teams, miss socializing with other Pasonites. However, he says that he is extremely impressed with how the teams have been keeping up with communication.
“The software team in particular has been so good at just continuing their work like nothing is out of the ordinary,” Ryan says. “They have their meetings virtually, and everyone, from the comforts of their homes, gets their coding done.”
Customer focus has not faltered, Ryan says, adding the dynamic has remained the same, which shows how agile Pason can be, even in trying times.
“Pason is always changing. Yet, somehow, there's always this underlying energy that says, ‘We get stuff done. We will figure it out.’”
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