NIF

The Client

NIF is the umbrella organization for sport in Norway, with more than 2 million members and 12,000 sports clubs in 19 region confederations and 54 national federations. NIF administers the entire Norwegian sports database. They first contacted us in 2013 to develop NIF Services. The client was pleased with our work and got in touch again in September 2014. Since then, Melon has been supporting and developing new features for seven of their applications. As NIF grew fonder of our partnership, Melon’s team of developers grew organically along with the amount and scope of the newly commissioned projects.

The Project

One of the applications Melon maintains is a reporting tool that displays information about game results, clubs’ members, upcoming events and tournaments of different federations, etc. We developed useful filters, which was a rather challenging job because of the complicated organizational structures of the Norwegian sports federations. Another application we support and develop further is Result Admin. It administrates individual’s sport results. The Judo, Athletics, Shooting and other federations are actively using it. Results are stored in one centralized database and made available to news organizations, practitioners, and athletes. Also, we maintain internal projects applications that help NIF with the complex administrative services they provide to the sports federations.

The Process

This project is strictly agile, literally following every line of the Agile Manifesto like customer collaboration over contract negotiation, working software over comprehensive documentation, individuals and interactions over processes and tools, and responding to change over following the plan. We have releases every month since the change in one application’s database affects all the interconnected applications. Key to our and productive work is the smooth communication with the client. They trust us that we are not wasting their time and that the result will be worth it.

Challenges

NIF has a huge number of applications like My Sport, Tournament Admin, Sports Admin and many more. They all use one and the same database. No application is isolated. A change in one of them, or just in a table in one of them can lead to a major bug. That’s why we always code with the big picture in mind. All the tasks are intriguing and challenging because our developers don’t have the sportsmen’s mindsets. Also, the sports are very different but they have to use one and the same applications. For example, most of the Ski Federation’s results are measured in minutes and seconds, while the Shooting Federation’s – in completely different metrics. Figuring out the logic of the applications – to suit all the different sports, is quite challenging.

Results

• Advanced data structure and organization;
• Simplified and user-friendly display of information;
• Optimized users management process;
• Growing tendency in online use of client's services;
• Improved client’s administration services; 
• Long-term partnership.