GesA is one tool by Kauffeld & Lorenzo, developed also through a cooperation with us, WATA Factory. It is an acronym that stands for GESundes Arbeiten, which translates to healthy working. In this article, we will delve into more detail to explore what the tool can accomplish and how it can assist businesses in developing their employees in a healthy manner.

Today’s working world places increasingly higher demands on employees and managers. Health problems and mental illnesses are on the rise, leading, among other things, to absenteeism from work. This makes the identification of both requirements and resources in the workplace a new central concern for executives and company management.

At the same time, it is evident that measures taken are often not planned in a targeted manner and cannot be established in the long term, but rather implemented sporadically following a “scattergun approach.” However, the greatest benefit can only be achieved when measures are individualized: Without a specific analysis and corresponding measures, interventions implemented in a scattergun manner are not efficient. Analyzing individual and team requirements and resources is time-consuming, and feedback is usually not provided at an individual level, which significantly impacts employees’ motivation to participate in such analyses over the long term. That is the point where GesA can come into play and help companies.

What is GesA?

This tool conducts diagnostics for resources and demands of employees at work and promotes interventions to enhance the current state, thereby promoting their health and job satisfaction. By combining an app, an action wiki, and a dashboard, companies using GesA can optimize the health management for their workers on three levels.

• First, for their employees: The GesA app enables your employees to independently identify and analyze personal resources and demands in their work environment using a scientifically validated questionnaire (Schulte et al., 2021). Based on this, they receive individual, behavior-based measures for improving their own state. They can always decide for themselves whether and which results they want to share anonymously with the company or their supervisor in order to initiate changes in their work environment.
• Second, on the manager level: The voluntarily and anonymously shared app results are presented in a web-based dashboard, allowing managers to evaluate and analyze the situation in their areas of responsibility. With the help of the comprehensive GesA wiki, they can derive measures related to given conditions and gain comprehensive information on the topic of health-oriented leadership behavior.
• Third, the company management: The web-based dashboard allows company management to access the voluntarily and anonymously shared app results at any time and stay informed about the current status in their company. Through a filtering function, the results can be easily output according to predefined criteria. This enables potentials and changes in the company to be understood even faster and suitable measures to be planned accordingly.

Why use GesA?

Mental health is becoming increasingly important for leading companies, as the number of mental illnesses in the workplace context is rising, and the number of well-educated workers in the job market is decreasing. We observe a trend and see that it is time to think preventively, to protect employees, and thus increase their commitment to your company. Additionally, laws and recommendations like the ESG criteria are becoming stricter. A professional solution to meet these external obligations and to advocate for the mental health of employees is provided by the GesA tool. This approach, with a scientifically validated questionnaire for diagnostics and direct feedback, combined with interventions on an individual but also on a systematic team level, is unique.

Strong features of GesA

This tool offers a comprehensive solution for managing the health of your workforce, specifically targeting work-related psychological factors. It consolidates various aspects of health management into a single platform, streamlining processes for your company. One of the key features of this tool is its scientifically validated analysis of demands and resources.

The involvement of employees in the health management process is prioritized. Through individual evaluation, immediate feedback, and tailored measures generated by its algorithm, this tool ensures that each team member receives personalized support. This approach not only addresses the needs of individual employees but also enhances overall workplace well-being. Furthermore, this platform caters to both individual and team levels of health management. It offers an extensive information pool comprising behavioral and contextual measures to improve working conditions and promote the health of employees and managers alike.

Integration is seamless with this tool, whether it be with existing measures within your company or external resources. It understands the importance of accommodating company-specific preferences and allows for customization to meet your unique needs. Finally, this tool includes robust evaluation features to reflect changes and trend measurements over time. This enables you to track progress and make informed decisions to further enhance your company’s health management strategies.

WATA Factory has played a pivotal role in the development of GesA, harnessing our deep expertise in software development and steadfast commitment to employee well-being. With our specialization in a variety of programming languages, we’ve tailored GesA to precisely address the nuanced demands of modern workplaces. As we continue to grow, GesA stands as a testament to the tangible results that collaboration, innovation and a commitment to employee well-being can bring about.

Want to know more?

If this post made you curious do not hesitate to visit the website of the GesA App. Furthermore, you can, at any time, contact Dr. Julia Straube (j.straube@kauffeld-lorenzo.de) directly. An online meeting can clarify further questions or requests. They are happy to help. It is time to take mental health more seriously. Let’s do that together.

The post Enhancing mental health in the workplace: The GesA approach appeared first on WATA Factory.

In the automated test environment E2E*, many technologies have been released for development over the years, both by the Flutter team itself and by external developer communities who have recognised the potential of this software development tool.

Today we want to take a look at a technology originating from the developers, Maestro.

*(End To End, summarising the path from point X to point Y of the application as QA from the user’s point of view).

About automatic testing in Flutter

To decide whether to opt for one technology or another when it comes to automating our application’s test cases, we first need to understand what exactly “automated flutter tests” are.

With a focus on “end to end”, Flutter provides the flutter_test and bdd_widget_test libraries. These are tools that are placed inside the application we develop and have full access to the different widgets, pages and lines of code and give us great control over everything that happens inside the application and are the best solution for unit testing in Flutter.

They also offer compatibility with Cucumber, which makes our tests much more readable for non-technical users thanks to the Gherkin language offered there.

Although all this is offered, one major point must still be taken into account. And that is the extensive knowledge that the tester needs about Flutter, the libraries mentioned and Cucumber. This is usually the biggest mountain to climb in terms of QA in our project.

And this is exactly where Maestro comes into play.

Maestro, effectiveness in simplicity

Written on the basis of Appium, Espresso, UIAutomator and XCTest, among others, the so-called “flow” (the definition of the user’s steps in the application) offers test options that can be executed very easily and immediately anywhere, as they are not part of the project but run externally..

The execution takes place via a .yaml format (a language that is easy to read and write even for people without extensive knowledge of technical terms).

It is designed so that the available commands not only make it easy to recognise each emulator played on the screen without having to link anything, but also so that the various widgets required to complete the desired test route can be found quickly.

To compensate for the lack of compatibility with the POM and Cucumber model, Maestro offers the possibility to organise a structure of nested executions called “nested flows”. With the help of the “runFlow” command, which enables the separate execution of Maestro files when nested correctly, the reuse of code and the ability to organise an easily understandable and manageable structure is made considerably simpler.

Detailed information about Maestro, its advantages and disadvantages

1. Simplicity is too simple

When we look at Maestro, it is immediately recognisable that we have already seen everything, which is both good and bad. We will return to this topic in the next section, as it is perhaps the biggest potential turning point.

Features such as the correct implementation of a Page Object Model, Cucucmber, database connectivity and other advanced additions are not possible with Maestro, at least not in the same way as offered by the other systems.

It is therefore essential to prioritize the complexity of the application to be worked on before choosing the tool, which is very powerful and with very good projection, but also relatively new.

2. Human language

Maestro is quick to learn and thanks to the use of the .yaml language, no advanced knowledge is required. It also offers the ability to execute commands with Javascript, which provides an interesting additional level of depth.

This simple code would already allow us to open an application on a device and simulate a keystroke.

This would be much more complex in the libraries mentioned above.

3. Variety of environments

Not only does it provide assistance with the portability of tests as it is not part of the base project, but the tool recognises both connected devices and simulated emulators from Android Studio (Android devices) and XCode (IOS devices).

In return for this convenience, Maestro loses tools on the tester’s side, as it cannot access things that are available in the base project.

Maestro at WATA Factory

Maestro is a tool whose usefulness and future prediction has been recognised by WATA Factory. The simplicity of test development is something not seen in other tools, and even if the tool is not used in some projects due to their complexity, it is always at the centre of discussions about automated testing in future Flutter applications.

The post The future of automated testing E2E in Flutter: Maestro appeared first on WATA Factory.

The format consists of two sessions:

• Session 1: two talks. The first one is an introduction to Flutter, the second about testing and good practices. Start at 11 am (Register here).
• Session 2: Codelabs for beginners and advanced. Start at 4:00 pm, held by the same speakers (Register here ).

As always, we’ll end this day of chatter with some refreshments and snacks .

ⓘ If you need to work from our premises on that day, please let us know when you sign up for the meetup. We will prepare a workspace for you with an internet connection, a super comfortable chair and a good table.

Summary

11:00h – 13:00h Session 1  We will attend two talks: an introductory talk (at 11h), and another talk on testing and good practices (at about 12h).
15:30h – 16:00h Setup time  If you need assistance to configure Flutter on your computer, the speakers will be happy to help you get your equipment ready for the codelabs.
16:00h – 19:00h Session 2  We will start in the afternoon with several codelabs. Depending on your level (beginner or advanced), you can join the codelab that suits you best, and learn hand-in-hand with the speakers.
19:15h – 20:00h Beerworking!

More info

The goal of FLUTTER ON THE ROAD is to add value to the community.
Format: talks in English, codelabs in English & Spanish.
Free admission until full. Registration for the meetup is required.
If you need to work before the event starts, we will set up a workspace for you with a table, chair and internet connection, so you can make the most of the workday at the WATA Factory premises.

The post Flutter on the road: our next Open Academy for the local community appeared first on WATA Factory.

With Flutter, we are able to create apps for iOS, Android and web with a single code, reducing development costs and time to market. This key factor offers advantages in both maintenance and code expansion. You can learn more about Flutter and its benefits on our website and of course you can also get in touch with us us via our contact form.

Although Flutter is a very young technology, at WATA Factory we can say that we are already specialised in it: We have been working with Flutter for almost 3 years, since the first version

The Flutter department has grown continuously during this time, thanks to senior profiles with a long experience in the sector, who develop Flutter projects with the highest quality standards.

If you are planning to develop a mobile or web application, contact us. We will be happy to advise you on the most suitable technology and working methods for your project.

At WATA Factory, we offer transparency throughout the development process, involve the customer as much as possible in the process and offer a guarantee for cost and delivery date.

We remain at your disposal.

With best regards,

The WATA Factory Team.

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