JARVIS: Project Management Platform for Renewable Energy Construction

JARVIS is a groundbreaking platform built to transform how renewable energy projects are delivered. Designed and developed for one of Europe’s largest energy providers, the system brought order to the chaos of large-scale wind and solar farm construction. At a time when the client was accelerating its push toward net-zero, JARVIS offered a single, integrated hub for planning, execution, communication, and documentation-built to scale with their ambitions.

Client Context

The project originated within the renewables division of this public sector energy giant. With aggressive goals to expand renewable capacity across the continent, the company faced a critical operational hurdle: managing dozens of complex, long-running construction projects with outdated tools and fragmented workflows. Each site could span over 50 turbines, involve hundreds of stakeholders, and run over many months, even years.

When a new VP of Construction joined the company, he brought a fresh perspective and a mandate for change. He envisioned a project delivery model blending traditional waterfall planning with agile execution-a dual-mode approach that would allow the organisation to plan with confidence while staying responsive to on-the-ground realities.

The Challenge

But the tools in place weren’t fit for purpose. Project schedules lived in Microsoft Project, but collaboration was disjointed. Document management was messy, often lacking version control or proper approval workflows. Field teams had started using WhatsApp to stay in touch-informal, fast, and unapproved. The risk of miscommunication and duplicated work was high, and the lack of central oversight made strategic planning difficult.

The client needed:

• A unified platform for planning, execution, and collaboration
• Integration with familiar tools like SharePoint and Teams
• Reliable, scalable architecture fit for future growth

Our Approach

From the outset, we took a fully Agile approach. We assembled a dedicated team of four developers, a QA engineer, a designer, and a full-time product owner. Working hand-in-hand with the client’s VP of Construction (who effectively served as their internal product owner), we began by running discovery workshops to understand the nuances of their delivery model and pain points across project sites.

Together, we designed a system architecture that could support both waterfall-style project planning and agile-style execution. The platform would integrate deeply with Microsoft’s ecosystem, connecting with SharePoint for document storage and Microsoft Teams for communication.

We originally planned to integrate with Microsoft Project for scheduling, but the Graph API limitations-especially around project planning-quickly became apparent. The API’s asynchronous nature introduced performance issues and instability. After several attempts and extensive discussions with the client, we pivoted and built a custom scheduling engine directly into the application.

This decision proved pivotal. By using Syncfusion’s Gantt chart and Kanban board components, we delivered an intuitive interface for both long-term planning and day-to-day task tracking. Though we experimented with another vendor, Bryntum, at the time their components didn’t work well together. We learned a valuable lesson about pushing too hard for a unified UI when a separation of views would have been more robust.

Delivery and Timeline

The first pilot of JARVIS was ready in just four months. Although internal delays on the client side meant that onboarding came slightly later, the MVP was considered complete after eight months. By the eleven-month mark, we had delivered a fully functioning platform and handed it over to the client’s internal team for ongoing development.

Technology and Architecture

JARVIS marked a major step forward in the client’s technology stack. It was the first internal project to introduce containerised microservices, Azure Service Bus, and full API gateway management via Azure API Management.

The backend consisted of multiple .NET microservices, each exposed through secure REST endpoints and coordinated via Azure Service Bus. These services handled everything from user management and permissions to task coordination and project data synchronisation.

The frontend was built using Vue.js and TypeScript, with Syncfusion components providing advanced visual scheduling tools like Gantt charts and Kanban boards. CI/CD pipelines were established using Azure DevOps, ensuring fast, reliable delivery throughout the engagement.

For security and access control, the system used Azure Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), with OAuth 2.0 and JWT tokens ensuring secure, scalable identity management.

Crucially, JARVIS was deeply integrated into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem:

• SharePoint was extended with custom metadata aligned with IEC 61355 for document classification.
• Microsoft Teams was used to auto-generate project-specific workspaces and channels per work package.
• Teams and SharePoint access allowed users to interact with documents and discussions without ever needing to log into the core application, boosting adoption and usability.

This architecture enabled:

• Real-time collaboration across distributed teams
• Offline-first functionality for remote project locations
• A scalable foundation for long-term development

Key Features Delivered

JARVIS introduced a robust set of features designed to reflect how the client’s teams actually worked. Among the most impactful were:

• Integrated project scheduling: A bespoke scheduling engine featuring Gantt charts allowed project managers to plan, update, and monitor complex construction projects across multiple teams and timelines.
• Agile execution tools: A Kanban board system was used to track work package deliverables, providing flexibility and real-time visibility into progress.
• Smart document management: Deep integration with SharePoint allowed for centralised file storage with advanced metadata tagging compliant with IEC 61355, making it easier to find, categorise, and approve critical documentation.
• Automated project setup: Creating a new project in JARVIS would automatically provision the appropriate SharePoint site and Microsoft Teams workspace, including channels aligned to work packages to ensure focused communication.
• Seamless communications layer: Thanks to the Microsoft Teams integration, users in the field and in the office could collaborate directly within their native tools without needing to learn a new interface or platform.

These features collectively improved efficiency, reduced manual work, and enhanced both accountability and transparency across the lifecycle of each project.

Impact and Outcomes

JARVIS allowed project managers to build and adjust schedules based on historical data. Each project, when created, automatically spawned a SharePoint site for document storage and a Microsoft Teams workspace with dedicated channels per work package. This ensured that communication remained focused and contextually relevant.

The seamless integration with tools users already relied on meant the barrier to adoption was low. Office staff could message field engineers through Teams, while documents were accessible directly from their laptops without needing to log into JARVIS. This kind of thoughtful integration, respecting existing user habits while introducing better structure, was key to the platform’s success.

Lessons Learned

JARVIS taught us and the client several valuable lessons, both technical and organisational:

• The importance of strong governance: The steering group structure we implemented ensured ongoing alignment with executive goals and gave project stakeholders a clear channel for feedback, helping to reduce scope creep and maintain momentum.
• Knowing when to pivot: Our initial attempts to integrate with Microsoft Project for Web through Graph API revealed unexpected limitations. Being able to adapt quickly and move to a bespoke solution saved time and delivered a more robust outcome.
• Change management in enterprise IT: Introducing microservices, containerisation, and modern DevOps practices to a traditionally conservative IT environment required careful coordination. Success was possible because we worked closely with the client’s internal teams to address concerns and transfer knowledge early.
• Design decisions and user empathy: Our experience combining Syncfusion and Bryntum components taught us not only about technical limitations, but also the importance of designing workflows that align with user expectations and behaviours.

These lessons are now part of our own delivery methodology and continue to inform our approach on similarly complex, strategic engagements.

Conclusion

JARVIS was more than just a project platform-it was a strategic shift in how renewable infrastructure is delivered. By combining modern cloud-native technologies with strong Agile practices and real-world usability, it laid the foundation for faster, smarter, and more collaborative project delivery across Europe’s renewable energy transition.