Certification Hub

The project

The Problem: Managing reviewer certification activities required significant manual effort from both reviewers and administrators, who often had to work across multiple platforms. This process was time-consuming, prone to errors, and provided a fragmented user experience.

The Solution: To address these challenges, we developed CertificationHub, a web application for WMDA reviewers and administrators. The platform centralizes reviewer management and certification tracking in a single, user-friendly environment.

Reviewers can:

View their current credit score and certification status Access completed credit activities Indicate periods of unavailability Manage their personal profile and reviewer information

Administrators can:

Search and filter reviewers using multiple criteria Update reviewer availability and personal information Access an overview of all completed audits

Impact: CertificationHub significantly reduces the administrative workload involved in managing reviewers by providing efficient management tools and a centralized source of information. Reviewers gain direct access to up-to-date certification data, while the risk of errors and miscommunication is reduced through the use of a single platform. Overall, the system delivers a more efficient and enjoyable experience for both reviewers and administrators.

Did you cache the reference?

The customer

Client & Collaboration: Our client was the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), an international organization that supports global collaboration between stem cell donor registries and transplant centers to facilitate life-saving donor searches and transplants worldwide.

Communication with the client was frequent and well-structured throughout the project. Weekly meetings provided opportunities to discuss progress, validate requirements, and receive feedback on design decisions. This iterative approach ensured that the system remained aligned with the client’s needs and significantly reduced the risk of misunderstandings.

The client representative was highly knowledgeable about reviewer workflows and business processes, which proved invaluable during requirements elicitation. However, as she was not deeply involved in the technical aspects of the system, some implementation-related questions required input from additional stakeholders. While this occasionally resulted in differing interpretations of requirements, these situations were resolved through careful documentation, discussion, and confirmation before development proceeded.

Within the team, work was distributed based on ownership of specific system features rather than separating frontend and backend responsibilities. Each team member was responsible for the complete implementation of their assigned pages, including user interface, business logic, and data handling. This approach improved accountability, simplified maintenance, and allowed the team to adapt flexibly when sprint priorities or individual availability changed.

We strive for a world where access to life-saving cellular therapies for all patients is assured and donors’ rights and safety are protected​." - Our vision, WMDA

The team

Team Roles:

Our team followed a SCRUM-based approach, with a Scrum Master responsible for sprint planning and process management, a Product Owner overseeing project direction and quality, and team members taking ownership of specific system features. In addition to individual responsibilities, sprint planning, testing, code reviews, and document reviews were shared across the entire team.

Division of Work:

Work was divided by feature ownership rather than by frontend or backend roles. Each team member was responsible for the complete implementation of assigned features, including user interface, business logic, and integration. This provided clear accountability while encouraging collaboration during testing, reviews, and integration.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges was dealing with evolving client requirements and occasionally conflicting stakeholder feedback. In addition, several features proved more technically complex than initially expected, leading to underestimated workloads. To address this, we improved our sprint planning by breaking work into smaller tasks, prioritizing requirements, and using regular reviews to validate assumptions before implementation.

What we are Proud of: As a team, we are most proud of the collaboration we maintained with the client throughout the project. Regular meetings and feedback sessions helped us incorporate changes and refine the system as requirements evolved. We also successfully navigated challenges such as changing requirements, differing stakeholder input, and underestimated task complexity. Despite these obstacles, we delivered a functional end product that met the client’s needs and reflected the feedback gathered throughout the development process.

The technologies

Frontend

Angular: used to develop the web application’s user interface. Angular’s component-based architecture enabled the creation of reusable and maintainable pages for both reviewers and administrators, while providing a responsive user experience.

Backend

.NET 10: used to implement the application’s business logic and REST APIs. The backend handles authentication, authorization, data processing, and communication between the frontend and the database.

Database

PostgreSQL: used as the central relational database for storing reviewer profiles, certification activities, audit information, availability data, and other system-related records. Its reliability and support for complex queries made it well-suited for the application’s data requirements.

Testing & Quality Assurance

Unit and end-to-end testing were used to verify the correctness of critical functionality and improve the reliability of the system throughout development.

Deployment

Microsoft Azure: used to host and deploy the application in a cloud environment. Azure provided the infrastructure required to run the frontend, backend, and database services while supporting secure access and scalability.