[Case Study] Engineering Company Evoltech Utilizes Backlog to Codify Organizational Problem-Solving Processes as Knowledge

Nulab Inc. (Headquarters: Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, hereinafter Nulab) provides the project and task management tool "Backlog" (https://backlog.com/ja/), which is being utilized by Evoltech Inc. (Headquarters: Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, hereinafter Evoltech), an engineering company engaged in contract development and engineer dispatch, for improving organizational operations and administrative department tasks.

Evoltech is promoting the improvement of meeting operations and the elimination of reliance on individuals by extending the task management system utilizing Backlog from the administrative department to the entire organization. By visualizing task progress and problem-solving processes, and accumulating knowledge as organizational know-how, they are fostering "self-driving teams" where members proactively tackle challenges.

*The following comments are excerpted, edited, and re-composed from the case study article "A Chain of Knowledge to 'Improve the Organization': Transformation into a 'Self-Driving Team' Achieved through Backlog Penetration in Administrative Departments" (https://backlog.com/ja/customers/case-study-evoltech/).

Background of Backlog Adoption Evoltech is an engineering company primarily engaged in contract development and engineer dispatch. In addition to its Nagoya headquarters, it has bases in Hamamatsu and Nagano, with many engineers working on-site at client locations. At the company, meetings aimed at solving organizational issues often spent too much time on status sharing and reporting, leaving insufficient time for essential discussions. Furthermore, the way tasks were handled and documents were created depended on individuals, leading to issues of reliance on individuals, such as taking a long time to find past information. To improve this situation, Backlog was introduced as a tool that could centralize task management and information sharing. Since its introduction, the company has been working to visualize organizational problem-solving processes and accumulate the methods of work and decision-making processes as organizational knowledge.

Initiatives Utilizing Backlog Improving meetings to be discussion-centric through pre-meeting information sharing Evoltech utilizes Backlog's document function to have members write reports in meeting minutes before meetings. By sharing information in advance, meetings can focus on discussions for problem-solving rather than spending time on status confirmation.

Standardizing task management by preparing issue templates When registering issues in Backlog, templates are utilized to establish a system where tasks can be registered simply by entering necessary information. This includes assigning responsible persons and deadlines.