David Fischer developed the JMWE app to automate Jira workflows, and it gained widespread popularity. To expand his development team, he collaborated with TECUNIQUE. This partnership played a crucial role in JMWE becoming a top-selling app in the Atlassian Marketplace. Here is how it all happened.
The beginning
David is so passionate about technology that he probably dreams in code. He started dabbling in software programming when he was twelve years old and quickly discovered his talent for it. Though he may not literally dream in code, born and raised in France, he has mastered English by avidly consuming Apple computer books.
After graduating from a top engineering school in France, David worked at various tech companies, starting at Apple and Business Objects, before finding his way to the Atlassian Ecosystem and becoming Atlassian Community Champion for nine years straight. As CTO of several startups, David introduced Jira to his engineering teams and soon realized its inherent limitations. This led David to develop a plug-in to automate Jira workflows and make software development more efficient.
The birth of JMWE
The bright idea for Jira Misc Workflow Extensions, with its straightforward and not-so-sexy name, was born in 2008.
After its release, the free JMWE became a popular hit with users, prompting Atlassian to integrate its workflow extensions into its newly launched Cloud version. In addition, Atlassian approached David to support and commercialize the plug-in, which propelled JMWE to become one of the marketplace's top-selling apps.
David may have started alone, but he had a big vision to create an app that would help organizations working with Jira do more with Jira. His app would automate functions so their processes would run smoother, and engineers could spend time developing and shipping software instead of worrying about processes.
The journey of growth
As the demand for JMWE grew, David needed to scale his development team quickly. So he turned to TECUNIQUE, which provides dedicated workforce teams for software development and quality assurance. Since he was already familiar with TECUNIQUE from working with them in his previous company, it was a no-brainer.
While it took some time for TECUNIQUE to adapt to David's demanding working style, their commitment to making things work impressed David. Known in the industry as a straight-shooter, it was important to David that the TECUNIQUE engineers challenged his solutions, communicated openly without reservations, and ensured that the team solved customers' problems in the best possible way. Nothing less would do.
David was not only demanding in software development efforts but also in quality assurance and 3rd-tier customer support that TECUNIQUE was helping him with. As a result, JMWE has earned a near-perfect score in the Atlassian ecosystem with a top 4-star average.
A new beginning
Thanks to the partnership with TECUNIQUE, Innovalog expanded, and JMWE grew in popularity, leading to its acquisition by Appfire in October 2020. Today, JMWE remains one of the most popular workflow automation tools on the Atlassian Marketplace and a top-selling and top-rated Appfire app.
David credits much of his success to his partnership with TECUNIQUE. He would not hesitate to recommend agile software development companies - in the Atlassian ecosystem and beyond - to work with them. Collaboration with TECUNIQUE has been crucial to Innovalog's success, and David is grateful for his tech-savvy partner in crime.
