AgileEngine

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and co-founder of a solution provider in the human services space. We provide human services programs with education and the foundations to do their job better. I specifically work with a software as a service (SaaS) platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed expert partners to help us with scalability, architecture choices, and infrastructure.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re very much a part of my team. They’re involved in every aspect of development: finding a product-market fit, designing architecture, then implementing, running, and maintaining it. We work hand-in-hand. 

They have a great deal of insight into different technologies and make recommendations in that area, and during the development process too. We also use them for UX, web work, QA, and security.

What is the team composition?

There are three people on the team. In the past, we’ve had up to seven.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

We were looking for expertise. We were already using some unique technologies. Their leader had written a book on Java and seemed like an interesting person. We initially hired them because of their very high level of technical expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

Over a hundred thousand dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2008 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They helped us deliver on time, which was a huge positive. Our invoices have been paid on time by our customers and it’s definitely helped us with ongoing renewals. Our attrition rate has reduced a lot.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

We work with them on project management so there is good communication and collaboration. We use Jira, Basecamp, Skype, GoToMeeting, and Smartsheet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re an interesting mix of people who understand product life-cycle management, agile, and all those things that we use in the startup world. They also have a hacker and system administrator mentality. They are the perfect combination so you can have discussions with the team on both aspects, at the meta level and the detail level, which is so difficult to find.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could use their authority a lot more than they do because we do consider them a part of our team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a good combination, so make them your partners involved in leadership.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the senior manager of a product group at a financial technology firm. The product is a loan accounting and risk analytics cloud platform that targets commercial banks and their loan portfolios.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed help with staff augmentation and product development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They augmented our development staff and helped us build the UI on the product side. They also worked on some server-side projects using Struts, XML, and JavaScript.

What is the team composition?

I’ve seen three people, but there were more.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I worked with Alex (Founder and CEO, AgileEngine) a few years ago in a satellite company. I suggested him to the co-founder of our company.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from 2009–2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

One of their developers was the best developer I’ve worked with. I was very impressed because was very smart. He started in the Ukraine office, and they brought him to the U.S. Alex is good in JavaScript, etc.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

We did the project management. They were very responsive and delivered the work quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s hard to grow a company to over 100 people. It’s impressive that they now have over 200 employees. Their overseas operations are advanced. The talent pool is pretty good and they have really good developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Before they brought their people to the U.S., they delivered good work, but we needed people on site. Once they brought people on site, the problem was solved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a good talent pool. As a client, do due diligence; don’t just settle for the people they offer but interview them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed to quickly develop mobile apps for iOS and Android, along with an administrative dashboard that would allow us to control users and devices, as well as deploy firmware. We needed a good provider to augment our team and allow us to hit the ground running on all fronts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the most complex things they helped us with was to develop a system for over-the-air updates to devices located all around the world. We're able to upload the firmware code on the backend and schedule when it will be deployed. The system has a lot of moving parts, so it required a collaboration between them and our engineers.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with three full-stack developers from their team. One of those focuses on the backend, the second one focuses on the mobile application, and the third one is a junior developer who does a bit of everything, primarily on the backend. All three developers are full-time and they operate as though they were members of our team.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

We found them after doing some online research. We were looking for a remote team that could augment our in-house team, specifically developers who would be easy to communicate with and who overlapped with our working hours.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in early 2017 and have an ongoing collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Like a number of crowdfunded products, ours has taken longer than expected to hit the market. Many of our metrics are still internal. They helped us achieve our set milestones for the integration and release of new features. We have stable iOS and Android apps, and we’ve integrated with a lot of third-party platforms while building a powerful backend.

Our success metrics revolved around getting the feature set developed and making sure that everything met the quality requirements. They delivered on all of these.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

Their developers participate in our daily standups and sprint planning along with everyone else in our company. They make sure that results are delivered to clients. They routinely check in with us, making sure that everything is going well.

We provide feedback on any opportunities for improvement, which they take to heart. They’re always seeking out ways to improve their processes, demonstrated through the great candidates they delivered. We recently flew in three of their members for a three-week period. We’re in a crucial period, so having them sit next to us is important.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with remote teams in the past. AgileEngine stands out for the quality of their talent. They have a phenomenal process for ensuring they onboard the best of the best, which they succeed in doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any critical comments.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Communication is critical with any remote development team. As with in-house resources, engineers need to be presented the big-picture into which their work will fit. AgileEngine really wanted to be involved and understand that, so giving them this opportunity is something every client should do. They bring in talented, curious people who appreciate a higher level of engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Farmers Edge is based out of Alberta, Canada. We cater to farmers, taking big data related to farms and putting it into a format that the grower can access and use to make decisions on crops, equipment, and insurance. I am the head of software quality assurance and project management for the company. I’m in charge of planning new features, implementing them, and making sure that they are QA tested and that they meet all our requirements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We have needed a QA team for multiple simultaneous projects. One of our those was unique because it had an unrealistic time frame from the beginning. The partner we were working with asked for a three-month deadline for supplementing some of the services they offered in another format. It was a daunting task, but we agreed to it.

All our teams and efforts were put towards that project. It was a good opportunity for our own company since the potential partnership would give us to more potential business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine has provided QA and development services. We reached out to them to quickly build a team of quality people. They needed to have enough experience with the software development lifecycle to anticipate our needs, despite not having traditional project components in place. We had bitten off a big chunk and agreed to deliver it in an unrealistic timeframe.

What is the team composition?

I’ve been in touch with a project manager from their side, who was responsible for the initial team setup. I tell them what I need, and they give us the resources we need to make it happen.

They found internal candidates after we outlined our QA and development needs. I interviewed each one and selected the candidates I thought would work best.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

We found them through word-of-mouth. Our head of backend development was aware of AgileEngine and had used them in the past. We had a kick-off meeting with Alex Kalinovsky [CEO and founder, AgileEngine], made an overview of our needs, and went from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with AgileEngine a year ago. We are currently reaching out to them in order to build a team for an upcoming project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Ticket following is the best metric we have. Using Jira, we have found that our velocity and sprint cadence have been higher and a bit more organized than normal. AgileEngine’s project manager has maintained that high volume and kept things under control. Some of the documentation she provided has been invaluable for our communication with upper management and the other development teams. The volume of tickets they’ve tested has definitely been above normal. Aside from that, we’ve appreciated their experience in working with other teams and integrating into the work environment.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

Some of the tasks we gave them were challenging, but they’ve handled everything well. I opened the door to project management communication on both sides. We coordinated our efforts with the understanding that we’d have to play it by ear, for lack of a better expression.

We didn’t have fully fleshed-out documentation, design specifications, or product requirements. Sometimes we had a paragraph where there should have been 12 pages, so we’d have to work through that and build requirements as we went. Even on the QA side, we identified proper test requirements as we went. It was an extremely difficult challenge, but they did a good job.

We are running a Jira instance in the cloud. They were invited into that process for development and QA. The team helped identify and review the stories and move tickets through our workflows. We also depended heavily on Confluence for our communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to the other third-parties that I’ve dealt with, AgileEngine’s quality of candidates has been high. If I ask them for a certain set of people, they intuitively understand what I’m looking for and actually find those qualities. Their level of experience on the project management side allows them to identify valuable skills in candidates.

AgileEngine is also flexible in terms of availability, especially when it comes to important releases. They’ve made their team available even late at night on their time zone.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The English level of certain candidates has been a challenge on the development side. There have also been a few gaps in sourcing developers, which have caused us to wait a month instead of two weeks for them to find a resource. I’ve been willing to wait if that means finding a quality person since low-quality developers can be an even bigger time sink.

I’ve been happy with them overall. They’ve been attentive when setting up meetings and ensuring that communication was completed within the proper timeframes. When there was frustration on AgileEngine’s end, we’ve tried to improve it.

We’re a growing company, having gone from 60 to 400 employees in the last year. This has caused a lot of process changes, but AgileEngine has adapted to us. They are aware of our limitations and have built bridges to address them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Know what you’re asking for when you go to them, and be as clear as possible about the candidates’ qualifications.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide data collection, reporting, and input software for the management of UXO [unexploded ordnance] and EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] projects. I’m the VP of Engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine LLC?

A different company had written our software when I first came onboard, and it wasn’t architected to meet our client’s product requirements. I reached out to AgileEngine to build a software team because I knew they had the skills to do it properly, as well as the depth to understand where we wanted to go. I knew they could give us proper feedback on how to achieve our goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Many of our clients are government entities or civilian contractors working for the government, so I can’t talk about specific requirements in the same way as I would if we were a commercial entity. One of the initial things we did was work on designing mobile applications, including iOS and Android devices, for our industry.

We relied on AgileEngine to create those apps for us, provide feedback, and be involved in the design based on the functional specifications we provided. They helped us figure out the standard or more efficient way to do things, eventually contributing to the product’s design, testing, implementation, and support. We also relied on their expertise for the Apple app-store review process.

The high standards we have locally are applied to AgileEngine as well, and I expect them to write functional specifications. They’re currently developing a POC [proof of concept] with different technology stacks we want to consider, specifically for some custom requirements we have involving mapping technologies. I’m able to use AgileEngine for research into future directions that we can then evaluate. They’re key in the development of our main products.

In the case of our mobile apps, we’ve delegated all of the development to their team at the moment. I’m confident in the team we have there, and I’m comfortable with the GitFlow process that ensures code quality and technology transfer among the team.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with startups, and have worked with AgileEngine for two different companies. In each case, the team size grew to meet our requirements. In my previous role, we had a team of eight people, including a team lead, two senior software engineers, and one mid-level software engineer. We had three QA engineers who could write automation code, and we also had a project manager/Scrum person for managing tasks.

For my current company, we’ve worked with four people from AgileEngine, including a very strong technical lead who is the foundation of our team there.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I liked their hiring process because they allowed us to interview multiple candidates before selecting one that was a good fit. Now I’ve since become so confident in our Team Lead that I ask him to narrow down the options to two candidates for myself and the U.S. team to interview. Because he knows the culture and region, he can give me a better sense of the caliber of education/schools on the candidate resumes, and I trust his instincts on the “fit” of candidates with our team. This helps streamline the hiring process.

What is the status of this engagement?

With the current company, we started working with them in April 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I can’t share exact metrics, but we’re continuing to use them because we’re satisfied.

Due to the stringent security requirements in my industry, their team is not always able to do everything they normally would in a commercial project. There are certain parts of the system they may not have access to, so they have to develop based on my description of how something works. They’re not allowed to see data, which poses some unique challenges. I’ve been working in engineering for a long time and haven’t found a team that could handle this limitation as well as AgileEngine.

We have tight deadlines and real-world situations of people waiting on things, so we have to get the work done right the first time and it has to meet our quality levels. I’ve had to take what AgileEngine does and integrate it with the parts they can’t access. I’ve found that, in terms of API integration—whether it’s React Native, React.js, C++, or JavaScript—that I’m consistently pleased with their clean design and code.

They have internal reviews before I even see the code, which is absolutely fine with me and has not affected meeting my aggressive deadlines. This approach increases the quality of their deliverables. AgileEngine has done a lot of learning as a team.

How did AgileEngine LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Like many engineering organizations, we use GitFlow for creating branches, pull requests, and code reviews. We rely heavily on Skype and Slack for communication. My team and I hear from them every single day. My philosophy is that people should ask questions concerning what we’ve asked them to do if they have them. Our time zones spread all over the U.S., but both I and AgileEngine have adjusted our times to obtain more overlap.

Their strong technical leads are the primary reason I’ve gone to them. The caliber of the strongest lead and their ability to meet deadlines and do what needs done sets the tone of the project. I think of them as part of our company. They are my technical team who just so happens to be located elsewhere.

We encourage collaboration and have a Skype group channel for our U.S. team to interact with them. There is full transparency, and everyone is in the loop. We also use GoogleDocs. Their abilities to expressive technical concepts in writing is very good. The communication skills and English proficiency of our technical leads are excellent and more honed because they’ve been doing this for longer, but I have never had a communication issue with any member of the team.

We use Jira and Confluence, so things are well-specified. We also use prototyping tools like Zeplin, Sketch, proto.io, and Webflow in order to hone designs as much as possible to avoid having to rework things.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are the only outsourced team I’ve ever worked with that can meet my expectations regarding requirements. AgileEngine performs as well as my team members who come from elite schools for computer software. I wouldn’t be using them otherwise.

They’re very creative, which is a unique characteristic in our relationship that has worked well for us. They have good ideas, and we’ve set up an environment that allows the ideas in our company to come from anywhere. It all goes to helping us improve our products. AgileEngine is definitely a part of that process. They’ve contributed greatly to improvements and ideas for what we’re doing, and they’ve helped us question some of the choices we’ve made.

Their developers’ strong mathematical foundation also makes them stand out. This area can sometimes be a challenge when working with companies from other parts of the world, but it’s never been an issue with AgileEngine. They always take performance into consideration. I’m grateful for this because the last thing I want is slow, inefficient code. This eliminates the need for me to have to spend time re-iterating or making significant architecture changes because they’re done correctly in the first place.

In terms of communication and collaboration, AgileEngine is genuinely a part of our team. They’re interested in making us successful. They’re not just a contractor clocking time, and if I’m pushing for a release to the app stores, they offer to be available whenever we need to push the release on time.

I’ve introduced AgileEngine to three different companies, and I’m confident that I’ll continue to use them in the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only part I don’t like as much is the administrative side. They’ve recently hired someone for managing the SOW [statement of work] process, but I would like to have a company dashboard page on their side that shows my SOW and billing history. It would help me better plan my hiring budgets to see my current structure, but also salary ranges of types of individuals to aid in planning/budgeting.

Within that same construct, I would also want an automated way to provide bonuses. They’ve worked with me on this directly, but it would be nice to automate the process. This would also be nice for equipment purchases.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

My advice is to find a strong technical lead who you feel comfortable building your team around.  There needs to be one person whose advice we can rely on, who knows the landscape, and who can determine the qualifications and fit of a resource.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

AVITAS is an aviation consulting company that appraises commercial aircraft for banks, lenders, and lessors. Their online system provides aircraft and engine values, the values also appear in physical publications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine.

We needed a new development team to upgrade the system and extend its features.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They improved the system’s coding, functionality, and UI design using Tomcat, Java, and JSP [Java ServerPages]. Building extra functionality was the most complex part of the project.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with offsite-developers.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

The company we previously used – in affiliation with another developer – moved their focus to the public sector and introduced us AgileEngine.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in 2012 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Internal efficiencies resulting from the improvements, increase in our productivity and client positive feedback. Also, our subscriber base has increased.

There is minimal user feedback because our system is a very utilitarian tool in a niche industry. However, we view its repeated use in multi-million and billion-dollar deals to be indicative of its value. We are one of the leading appraisal companies in the industry due in-part to our system’s functionality and performance.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

The developers were awesome. I had initial reservations about remote working, but their diligence produced results that exceeded my expectations. We used Skype, emails, and specification documents to coordinate workloads with minimal issues. They displayed impressive initiative and follow-through.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Alex, the CEO, is a fantastic guy who is always willing to meet and share his experience and advice. He’s a giving and selfless individual with an approachable demeanor that makes for a great colleague. Alex provided technological solutions and ideas for any challenge, even if he was not managing that project. He is one of the most proactive and knowledgeable developers I’ve met.

On the whole, the team could not have performed better. They always bent over backwards to help and always delivered. No complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Alex and his colleagues’ expertise provide the best value. You will get the best solution from this team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the global IT director for a market research company celebrating 30 years of business. Our services include a variety mystery shopping-based audits, price controls, and compliance checks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were in need of an organization to take over maintenance and new feature development of an application developed by a prior vendor.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They oversee the system, which manages our business development process. We can generate leads, provide scope and pricing options to clients, and run our billing and financial reporting through it. It also interfaces with our front-of-house application, which collects associated data for our clients and contractors.

What is the team dynamic?

We work primarily with two Ukraine-based developers: a tech lead and a middle developer, both with a broad knowledge base. We didn't have any problems with language or time zones. They worked just a little earlier than our east coast hours. If anything needed extra time, they would stay on that day to complete the task

Communication for the project was mostly through Skype, and we used Jira for ticket tracking.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

After ending our contract with the original development company, we contracted with a new vendor that after a year did not meet our expectations for quality and efficiency. The lead developer of the original company moved onto AgileEngine, so we reconnected to maintain that continuity.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested somewhere in the $200,000–$300,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2016. We’re in continual development of new features, as well as ongoing support and maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’ve gotten us back on track. We’ve been able to move our business forward and ease some of our internal processes through automation. The improved information tracking system gives the management team a much better picture of our global role. It’s a convenient system for our users of all abilities—from our expert global finance manager to our local entry-level staff.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re outsource developers, but they really embed themselves in our company. They know our business processes, and really feel like a part of our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They make sure they do the best job possible, and are very dedicated to us and to our growth.

Advice for potential customers?

They’re based in Europe, but go meet with your developers if at all possible. It will help you learn their personalities and communicate better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

OpenRise Advisory provides growth consultation to early-stage startups through different approaches, including strategic enablement for the CXO [chief experience officer] suite, and sales and marketing optimization focused on either organic or inorganic growth. The organic growth is done through business-process transformation, while the inorganic is done through mergers and acquisitions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

I was a part of an early-stage software-as-a-service startup funded by a private equity company. AgileEngine was one of the preferred providers we used for experiencing hyper-growth. As I started advising other companies (especially in the technology sector), they’ve been a preferred provider of top-quality work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the projects AgileEngine was contracted for was for the support of a CFO and CRO [chief risk officer] with a reporting and analytics suite. The team took some of the highest-level math, including gradient-descent algorithms and multilinear equations, and figured out a way to codify the system’s output into a readable and accessible report package.

The complexities associated with this were managing the development shop with our current technology development work, then integrating communication paths and jargon associated with it through an iterative process of sprint development.

The project involved Python and JavaScript. I’m unsure if they used any JSON Graph or other technologies.

I’ve leveraged AgileEngine for design work on another project, where they helped facilitate a web page for a cybersecurity company I was working with. I’ve leveraged that same team for a cybersecurity application development project. Users would get a test-drive of the functionalities through the web page.

What is the team dynamic?

I prefer communicating with the lead developer who acts as project manager and helps facilitate the translation of technical progress into sprint milestone deliveries. I’ve typically had a senior developer, and they sometimes manage several seniors and many junior people. We communicate every day during active projects using video teleconference, email, and phone. I currently communicate with them around once a month. I have visited their office in Tysons Corner, Virginia 4 times.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

The first thing that drew me to them was that they were a younger company eager to deliver and do what it took to succeed. I found it great to have a founder/owner/operator position because it gave me white-glove service delivery, and, if I had any issues, I would be given quick access to the decisionmaker, who focused on having their business represented well. Constructive criticism is always welcomed from their founder, Alex.

In terms of choosing them from other options, the price point couldn’t be beaten. They leverage offshore offices in Ukraine, and I’ve read many news briefings on the country’s capabilities in the space. They have a great work ethic, and their developers are within the top 3% in the world.

AgileEngine also has a lower attrition rate and an ability to execute. I’ve not had a failure in a project yet, and I feel that their client base has not had any attrition either. This tells me that their clients are happy with what they’re getting, and if they aren’t, they can express their concerns.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with AgileEngine around 2010–2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The optimization of cost versus ROI comes from the fact that we’re using experienced developers coming from overseas. We get U.S.-quality work at an offshore price, and the ROI is typically 3 times of what we would typically get from a local development shop.

AgileEngine has worked with very large brands, but they can also focus at a small-to-medium-enterprise level.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job of managing expectations and availability for web-based conferencing. They’ve tried to set things up in the morning, which is usually when clients want to meet, in order to set up the goals of the day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The coachability of the team is impressive. They’re eager to learn and can cross different industry verticals quickly, as well as demonstrate expertise as they learn the jargon or business problem at hand. Secondarily, their creative attributes allow them to provide subject-matter expertise on more elegant design paths at 1/3 of the normal price point.

They’ve retained talent in order to evolve from within and also to develop the culture they’re looking to position for. I’ve talked to some angel investors in San Francisco who have heard about AgileEngine. They asked us why we don’t hire internal developers, and I told them that the ROI makes it worth it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would want to have more U.S.-based marketing resources from their side to spar with an account manager. I’ve loved the price point and quality of delivery, but having someone closer to my background, whom I could relate to better, would facilitate additional sales for AgileEngine.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Communication is the number one factor. If something is not working for the client, or if they feel they’re not getting the level of service they anticipated or requested, they’re one phone call away from the CEO. Clients should feel free to voice their opinions and help address the challenge.

Sometimes when people contract with developers, it’s a matter of just assuming they’re doing what is expected of them. However, it’s good to remain engaged in order to not mismanage the communication of those expectations. AgileEngine did a great job of outlining the range from a cost, hourly, and timing perspective. If that didn’t work for us, we could pay more in order to scale up the number of resources. The scalability in what they provide is great, and they can bring multiple options if they are asked.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of XA Systems, a small technology integration firm providing professional services to both the commercial market and Federal Government. We provide speciality IT services such as consulting, process engineering, and technology alignment to businesses. We also provide support personnel who manage the IT operational environments for customers on a daily basis.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine LLC?

We’ve been in operation for just about 17 years. During this time, we’ve developed a couple other smaller tools and some in-house products that we needed to satisfy XA Systems business requirements. We previously worked with independent contract developers and small firms that could help us meet some of those requirements, because we didn’t have the skill internally at our company.

Over time, we learned a lot about both our customer problems and challenges. We came up with design specifications for an automation software product that would collect analytics from our customers in a wide range of different areas. At that time, we consistently saw a requirement was missing in the marketplace. We were lacking strong developmental expertise, and also some technology performance products that were current in the market. We hired AgileEngine to help build that tool successfully.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine went through a full review of our goals and objectives, including design specifications we’d built. They had a very clear understanding of what we wanted to produce, what the final software would look like, and how it would operate. We had several meetings to ensure that we all understood the end goal, and after that, they started coding and built prototypes of the software demonstrating functionality, UI, and navigation. The coding was in Java, and some of the architectural elements were based on Apache Tomcat. We then continued to push them into more complex phases of development in order to deliver the solution.

What is the team dynamic?

In the beginning, we were meeting remotely 2-3 times per week, but it has since narrowed down to maybe once per week. We mostly use Skype and a Google platform. We’ve had regular communication throughout the process, and we’ve established a relationship with the team supporting our efforts. We feel as if we know them personally even though we’ve never shaken hands, which is amazing.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine LLC?

I’ve been in touch with my personal contacts to find a reasonably priced, expert company to outsource this work to. One of my contacts from a large national company had hired AgileEngine to do some development work, and they were pleased with the overall experience. They made the recommendation to contact AgileEngine.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent around $300,000-$400,000 over the past couple of years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with AgileEngine around October-November 2015, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We had expectations that were well documented early on in our technical design, and we’ve met those targets in the expected timeframes. We’ve had the opportunity to go back and tweak things because we have a product we can display to our final customer. Sometimes these changes were large, but they were still completed in a short amount of time. A lot of iterative development took place, and we were very satisfied with the results along the way.

How did AgileEngine LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

After having a mix of experiences in the past, AgileEngine has been our most consistent, productive, and results-driven relationship. We’ve definitely hit a homerun with them working with both their onshore and offshore offices. We’ve found consistency in their skill levels, which is hard to match in the marketplace. They blend in and have a variety of expertise that’s within our budget, and they never sacrifice the quality or end result we’re seeking. They’ve been able to accomplish this with both the European resources they’ve assigned to us and the US resources that are local to our business establishment.

We anticipated having a language barrier with AgileEngine, but we’ve had no challenges with speaking to them through any medium. They communicate as if they are native speakers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

AgileEngine joined our team as an outsourced company and integrated themselves to truly share the vision we had. There was never any conflict, and they worked with us in unison to get us the results we wanted. Their customer service was high throughout the process, and their team was satisfied when we were satisfied.

Are there any areas they could improve?

AgileEngine could benefit from having more UI experts up front. When it came to UI development, the cosmetic aspect of the frontend was not the strongest. They took instructions from us and gave us what we asked for, but we ended up going to an alternate firm to address the product’s UI. As far as coding and functionality go, AgileEngine can’t be beat. We’ve given them very complicated scenarios, and they’ve always delivered.

The only advice I would give to someone considering work with AgileEngine is to treat it as a project. They will give you options for the number of resources to apply, and they make good recommendations. We didn’t always accept every recommendation, but learned throughout the process that we should’ve trusted their judgement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the director of consumer engineering for LivingSocial at the time of working with AgileEngine.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

The company was looking for a way of improving its A/B testing in order to allow for tests to be executed across consumer web and native mobile applications. We had some goals around response time and the ability to handle certain loads and concurrency. We hadn’t worked with any other companies for A/B testing in particular, but we did have some other engagements with outside consulting agencies, which didn’t result in a happy outcome, in general.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine worked with our internal team of developers to determine requirements. They performed most of the development work for a new A/B testing engine.

The interface was developed as a standard API endpoint and the backend was a Scala application. The technology was chosen in order to meet the requirements of response time and handle the concurrence of different loads. In retrospect, I think it was a solid choice but it did add some obstacles.

While we did have Scala in our stack, we were mostly a Ruby on Rails shop, so there was less familiarity with the code base on our end. This is something which could have been averted through stricter requirements, but AgileEngine was able to deliver a strong solution which met the specifications while overcoming some communication difficulties and meeting the terms dictated to them.

We also dictated some of the expectations around what the interface would look like. Throughout the process, we talked about those requirements and adjusted as necessary.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

Alex Kalinovsky, their CEO, reached out to our VP of engineering at the time, who was exploring the idea of potentially doing some work. I believe they had met previously and Alex followed up. At least a part of their team was based in the Washington DC area, so it made sense to use them. Most of the developers were based in Ukraine, but they were able to adjust their schedules.

How much have you invested with AgileEngine?

The cost of their work was in the mid-5-figure range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with AgileEngine in the middle of 2014; I left the company in March 2015. We had an on-and-off engagement over the course of several months. The work was delayed in part by some communication issues and the shifting ownership of the project. Overall, we ended up satisfied with the results.

The engagement ended around April or May 2015 and I doubt that the product is still in use. The company has either integrated or shut down anything that didn’t meet their requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

AgileEngine ended up delivering a solid solution. The process was somewhat marked by the changing of their contacts over the course of the engagement.

I left around the time that the engine was being implemented, so I didn’t really see the outcome in terms of its impact on our business or a measurable return on investment.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication dropped a couple of times but I don’t think it was AgileEngine’s fault. They persevered through that and were able to deliver a solid solution.

There were no real communication barriers and they did their best to minimize the time zone difference. They were able to adjust their schedule and worked relatively late at night on their time, so I had no issues on that front. The primary tools for communication on a day-to-day basis were JIRA and email. We also had stand-ups via Google Hangouts.

What did you find most impressive about AgileEngine?

One thing which separates them from the rest is Alex’s leadership, his willingness to go above and beyond, and his eagerness to deliver top-quality results to customers. He really stands out compared to other contractors I’ve worked with.

Are there any areas AgileEngine could improve?

They could have made it clearer that the shifting leadership on our side would be a problem and be more explicit on how that would impact the delivery of the project.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with AgileEngine?

Just as with any other contracting engagement, make sure that there’s a clearly designated owner of the project, a single point of contact, and regular check-ins to make sure everything’s on track. This is not particularly applicable to AgileEngine but to contracting engagements in general.