Situation:

Total Express was operating with a monolithic architecture, leading to complex dependencies, slower development cycles, and unclear team responsibilities, particularly as the company scaled its logistics operations.

Task:

My primary responsibility was to lead a strategic re-architecture initiative, transitioning from a monolith to a microservices-based paradigm, and to define clear responsibilities for newly formed development squads to enhance agility and efficiency.

Action:

I collaborated extensively with the architectural team to design and establish two distinct squads: the Middle Mile Squad and the Last Mile Squad. I meticulously defined the core responsibilities for each, creating a DFD (Data Flow Diagram) Level 1 for both. These diagrams served as crucial documentation, providing a clear understanding of each team’s scope and their interconnections with other business processes. I actively guided both teams in setting up their sprint cycles, establishing regular agile ceremonies (e.g., stand-ups, retrospectives, sprint reviews), and defining clear windows for software releases. Furthermore, I provided hands-on support to Product Owners, assisting them in crafting comprehensive user stories, meticulously setting dependencies between tasks, and organizing a well-structured backlog for both teams. I had hands-on involvement with the Middle Mile Squad, contributing directly to coding solutions for optimizing delivery routes and integrating data from product materials. Simultaneously, I guided both teams in adopting industry best practices for coding, conducting code reviews, and implementing quality assurance processes. I also led the initiative to introduce and integrate microservices tools such as Kubernetes for container orchestration and event-driven design patterns. Finally, I spearheaded the development and delivery of important projects, including the MDFE document generation system for the fiscal area and a new comprehensive system for managing the middle mile of production lines. These projects involved coordinating efforts across the newly defined squads and ensuring alignment with business objectives.

Result:

This comprehensive approach led to a significant clarification of team ownership, streamlined development workflows, and laid the foundational architectural groundwork for scalable microservices adoption. The successful implementation of agile methodologies resulted in improved team collaboration, increased transparency in project progress, and more predictable and efficient software delivery cycles across critical logistics domains. A marked improvement in code quality was achieved, alongside a smoother transition to a microservices architecture, equipping the teams with the necessary tools and expertise to build scalable and resilient logistics solutions. Ultimately, these efforts directly contributed to streamlining fiscal operations and improving the efficiency of product logistics, demonstrating a tangible positive impact on the company’s operational capabilities and directly supporting its growth in Latin American logistics.

During my time at Total Express, my team and I encountered difficulties in understanding the logistics system and new business rules due to inadequate documentation and influx of new personnel. To address this challenge, I was entrusted by my boss to create diagrams to help my team gain a better understanding of the system.

In collaboration with the Product Owner and Squad Leader, we decided to utilize a web-based tool called Miro to create flowcharts, activity diagrams, and site maps. I took the initiative to create an activity diagram for every new business flow related to our squad, while the Squad Leader focused on creating diagrams for the most significant flows of the distribution line.

Our efforts yielded significant results as we were able to deliver tasks 30% faster due to improved understanding of the main flows and new rules. We were able to develop system functionalities faster and with higher quality, resulting in greater overall efficiency for the company.

I was working on a project focused on reversing an order when I identified potential conflicts between the new system and the existing main system roles. Realizing the gravity of the issue, I proactively alerted the Product Owner (PO) and the Technical Leader on my team.

In order to provide clarity and context around the issue, I created a detailed diagram that illustrated the problem and presented it to the PO. To ensure the validity of my findings, I collaborated with the Technical Leader to understand the rules governing the main system. Upon review, it was confirmed that my prediction was correct.

Understanding the criticality of the situation, the PO took immediate action and engaged with other POs to address the issue. Due to the potential impact on the system, the project implementation was temporarily halted to prevent any production issues from occurring. Thanks to my timely intervention and thorough analysis, we were able to avoid any major disruptions to the system and maintain smooth operations.

You can check the diagram below:

During my first role at Total Express, I was tasked with consuming an API from Pagbem, but there was a major issue: the only available documentation was in a software called Swagger, and the PO had not yet fully understood the business requirements necessary to use the API.

To tackle this problem, I decided to create a detailed process mapping of Pagbem’s flows, using a model I had obtained as a reference. I then proceeded to create a detailed map of the main flow that Total Express needed to understand to consume the Pagbem API. This map included critical information such as databases, URLs, validations, and all other relevant information needed to send the required information to create the MDFE document.

Once I completed the documentation, I began development with the approval of our PO. However, I was later moved to another squad. Despite this, I made sure to present my work to the new team, including the diagram and my code.

Thanks to the well-structured and clear documentation, the new team was able to continue development quickly and successfully. The resulting solution allowed the company to generate MDFEs as expected, ensuring all legal requirements were met for transporting products. Overall, I’m proud to have been part of a project that delivered tangible results for Total Express.

During my time at Total Express, my squad encountered an issue with high coupling in Laravel pipelines which was affecting our coding solution. Despite being a common problem, most team members lacked a deep understanding of how to use high cohesion to overcome it.

To address this issue, I encouraged the team to apply the principles of high cohesion and low coupling by distributing responsibilities among different classes and using abstract factories to create persistence and validation classes. However, the squad lead opted to create classes without patterns, resulting in the separation of responsibilities from the god classes. Despite this, the team was able to complete the project on time, as the code was able to pass through the pipeline faster.

Additionally, we shared our experience and learning with other squads to prevent similar issues in the future. Overall, our solution was successful, and we were able to deliver the project in a timely and efficient manner.