Industry: Software Development
JetBrains products used: Space, Kotlin, TeamCity
Organization Size: 10
Country: Czech Republic
“Our Code Reviews improved significantly and we’ve been able to leverage Space’s webhooks with TeamCity to build each reviewed branch and deploy it to our QA so the branch can be tested before being merged. It’s now also easier to track who’s out of the office.”
— Tadeas Kriz, CTO and CoFounder, Brightify
I'm Tadeas Kriz, CTO and CoFounder of Brightify. I've been developing professionally for more than 10 years, using JetBrains tools throughout all that time. Currently I'm leading a team of developers working on Kotlin Multiplatform mobile apps. One of my responsibilities is to make sure the team has all the dev tools they need to succeed. I'm also trying out new technologies and processes to improve our workflow.
We develop native mobile applications using Kotlin Multiplatform in various fields, from ticketing to automotive. We enjoy helping startups from chiselling out the idea to deploying a product to users.
We've been looking for a one-system solution for our software development process for a long time. We've been using Atlassian products for a long time, starting with Jira and eventually expanding to Confluence, Bitbucket Server, Crowd, and Bamboo. However, Atlassian's approach to new features (taking years to respond) made us look for alternatives. When Space was released in preview, we quickly jumped at the opportunity and started using it to host our code and do code reviews.
We were interested in trying Basecamp, but ultimately Space by JetBrains was the best because the integration with our development process is a great fit.
So far Space has replaced:
What we hope Space will eventually replace:
I don't expect all of that will be part of Space, but hopefully through plugins it may come as integration with other tools.
We love trying new things and then see if they improve our workflow. Space did, so we kept using it.
It's already replacing other systems we’ve been using with a single solution. Once the On-premises version is available, the benefit is in hosting and maintaining fewer services and spending less time on ICT.
Our Code Reviews improved significantly, and we’ve been able to leverage Space's webhooks with TeamCity to build each reviewed branch and deploy it to our QA so the branch can be tested before being merged. It's now also easier to track who’s out of the office.
Some parts of Space were easier to get used to, like the Code Review functionality, which is amazing. The UI/UX can be cumbersome at times, but overall we got used to it without major difficulties.
The issues are too simple for us to use and we'd love tighter integration between Space and YouTrack.
However, the chat has been a pain point of our Space usage. It's nice to have everything in one place, but the chat just doesn't feel right for my team.
JetBrains' blog posts are always a great source of information and I read them regularly. I prefer the blog posts over the videos and webinars, because I can read them at my own pace. Twitter tips are cool, but I try to use Twitter during my downtime so I'm not focused enough when reading them.
tadeas@brightify.org, @TadeasKriz on X, or brightify.github.io website
Anna Vinogradova, Chief Marketing Officer, AmberCore Software Ltd
Communication has become faster since we started using Space. I think the deciding factors in choosing to go with Space were its ease of use and versatility.
Andras Kindler, Co-Founder, Makery
Rather than using a multitude of individual tools, we’ve always preferred integrated environments. We started looking for a new digital home, and when we heard about Space at KotlinConf, we really liked the concept. So we decided to sign up.
Garth Gilmour, Head of Learning, Instil
When the social distancing restrictions were introduced in March 2020, we needed a tool that would let us collaborate online with students as part of virtual deliveries, and Space was the obvious choice.