Supporting EU’s complex construction project: Emmanuel Keeps BauWatch’s Ilips running smoothly

Bauwatch’s Ilips was not a new product when Emmanuel arrived. It was already live, used daily by customers, but its stability was uncertain. Built over years of continuous evolution, the code had limited documentation and required continuous oversight to ensure stability.

“The tool was about 90% complete,” recalls Marleen, the product owner. “We weren’t planning major upgrades. The goal was to keep it alive, fix issues quickly, and make sure customers could rely on it. For that, we needed an all-rounder.”

The stakes were clear. Customers expected a tool that worked. A single bug left unresolved could disrupt entire construction schedules. Emmanuel was stepping into a product where failure was not an option.

The Context: BauWatch’s Ilips

In the construction logistics industry, precision is everything: when trucks arrive, how cranes are scheduled by the hour, how materials move from point A to B with limited storage, and how security is guaranteed. Every detail matters.

That precision is what BauWatch, Europe’s leading site security partner, is built on. Beyond deploying thousands of cameras across Europe with AI-driven monitoring and hundreds of technicians, BauWatch also develops tools that help projects run more smoothly.

Ilips was one of those tools— a logistics brain that managed deliveries, trucks, and cranes to keep complex projects on schedule. But now, it was fragile. So BauWatch placed it in the hands of one developer from Tunga: Emmanuel Weng.

Alone at the Helm

At first, Emmanuel thought he would just be fixing bugs. Within weeks, it was clear he was Ilips’ only developer, working directly with Marleen.

“I had to handle everything myself,” he recalls. He shadowed an external team briefly, got access to the systems, and then, suddenly, he was alone with one product owner, Marleen and a live product that came with high expectations.

As a Tunga developer working remotely with BauWatch, Emmanuel had to balance autonomy with precision, ensuring every release on Ilips met the standards of an enterprise product used across Europe’s most complex construction projects.

Relearning and Rebuilding 

Ilips legacy codebase reflected years of evolving needs and quick fixes, with documentation that had not always kept pace. Emmanuel had to dust off forgotten skills like jQuery, learn the system from scratch, and keep it alive at the same time.

Together, he and Marleen found a rhythm: daily standups, JIRA tickets, quick calls to unblock. “He adapted fast,” she says. “He figured out how to work with me, how much detail he needed, and how to keep things moving.” What started as a simple collaboration quickly evolved into a lean but effective partnership.

The “Small Fix” That Wasn’t So Small

One moment that defined Emmanuel’s year came disguised as a simple request. Customers wanted more flexibility when booking deliveries and cranes. On paper, it was a bug fix. In practice, it became a system-defining feature.

“I thought it would take two or three days,” Emmanuel remembers. “It ended up taking almost two months.”

Deliveries and crane bookings were tightly coupled. Separating them unraveled dependencies across the database and user flows. “There were five different scenarios,” he explains. “Booking cranes together. Booking them separately. Booking them at once but on different days… Each case had to work.”

At one point, he leaned on Tunga’s support network. “I had a dev buddy, Charles,” Emmanuel says. “I remember when we were supposed to have a one-hour debug. It turned into almost six hours. But it got me through.” 

Throughout the process, he kept Marleen in the loop at every step. “He was honest about challenges, and he kept moving forward,” she says. “That honesty built trust. And in the end, he delivered. Customers use it now, and they love it.” 

More Than Code

The partnership between BauWatch and Tunga was about mindset and soft skills, as much as technology.

“He’s easy to talk to,” Marleen says. “Even when we had miscommunications, we solved them quickly. We spoke as peers.”

For Emmanuel, ownership was key. “I treat every project like it’s my own product. That mindset kept me committed and helped me solve problems directly with Marleen.”

The Outcome

Over the course of a year, Emmanuel delivered:

1.  Booking flow giving customers flexibility with deliveries and cranes.
2.  Monthly calendar view that expanded planning beyond daily and weekly views.
3.  Bug fixes and UI updates that aligned Ilips with BauWatch’s rebrand.

“The risk was losing customers if issues weren’t fixed fast,” Marleen explains. “With Emmanuel, we avoided that. He kept the product reliable and improved it at the same time.”

Reflection

“Emmanuel kept Ilips reliable, shipped features customers noticed, and showed he’s a true all-rounder,” Marleen sums up. “He made a big difference.”

For Emmanuel, it was transformative. “I learned that even when it’s just you and a product owner, you can succeed if you communicate well and take ownership. That experience shaped me.”

Ilips was fragile when he joined. A year later, it was steadier, more flexible, and trusted by customers. For BauWatch, the product lived on. For Emmanuel, it was a leap in growth. For Tunga, it was proof of what happens when African developers are trusted with responsibility.

Are you a software developer in Africa ready to work on real products with international teams?
→ Join Tunga and take the next step in your career

Looking for vetted African developers who can deliver value across cultures, time zones, and technologies?
→ Work with Tunga and meet developers like Clement