KATEOS - Pétanque+

Context

Organizing a pétanque tournament requires managing a large amount of information: players, clubs, teams, courts, tournament formats, draws and the progression of the different matches. When these operations are handled manually, on paper or through several separate files, preparation can quickly become time-consuming and repetitive. Some operations also involve business rules that make purely random selection insufficient. Pétanque+ was therefore designed to bring these operations together into a single tool intended for direct use by tournament organizers.

The problem

The main objective was to reduce the amount of manual work required to organize a tournament while retaining enough flexibility to support different formats. Organizers needed to maintain a database of players and clubs, prepare a tournament, create teams and organize the different matches from a single application. Automatic team creation presented a particularly interesting challenge: simply assigning players randomly was not sufficient. The application needed to take each player's profile — pointer, middle or shooter — into account in order to create teams that were as balanced as possible. Match draws also needed to be generated quickly, including opponents and allocated courts, and then presented or printed for participants.

What I designed

I started by modelling how a tournament operates and the different data required to manage it. I designed an application allowing organizers to create or import a database of players and clubs, assign a playing profile to each player and prepare different tournament formats. I then developed the team-building mechanisms. Teams can be created manually, while the application can also generate them automatically by taking player profiles into account to achieve a balanced distribution. The software also handles match draw generation, opponent assignment, court allocation and PDF exports so that matches can easily be displayed or printed for participants. Beyond the core business functionality, I developed the components required to distribute the product, including a trial period, licence management and a website where the application can be presented and downloaded. The objective was to transform a succession of manual operations into a coherent workflow within a single tool.

My role

Business requirement analysis and modelling, functional and technical design, application architecture, C# / .NET development, data management and persistence, design of team-building and match-draw algorithms, PDF generation, user-interface design and licence-management development. I handled the project end to end: business workflow definition, design, development, testing, distribution and commercialization of the software. I also designed and developed the website used to present the product, provide the trial version and distribute the application.

Outcome

Pétanque+ brings the main operations required to organize a tournament into a single application: player and club management, tournament preparation, team creation, match draws, court allocation and document generation. Automation replaces several repetitive or complex manual operations with processes handled directly by the software, while still allowing organizers to intervene manually when required. The project has moved beyond the prototype stage: Pétanque+ is distributed through its own website, offers a complete 30-day trial period and has generated its first commercial licence sales. It therefore represents a complete project spanning business-process analysis, product design, software development, distribution and commercialization.

In detail

Pétanque+ is a personal project that I designed and developed end to end based on practical needs encountered when organizing pétanque tournaments.

The project goes beyond application development: I also implemented its licensing system, distribution process and the website used to present and download the software.

Pétanque+ is now a commercial product used by real tournament organizers.