AgileEngine

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of engineering at iControl Data Solutions, a payment reconciliation organization that handles the payment discrepancies between suppliers and distributors. We manage whatever disconnects that may exist between our clients on both sides of the financial transaction. I run the company’s engineering department that builds the software that handles this workflow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed senior-level talent that we could onboard quickly into our complex solution to expand our services and make them higher quality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine does performance optimization to ensure our software is functioning as well as possible. They work on the features that do the financial reconciliation between supplier and retailer invoices and find any discrepancies. Their work also includes UI improvements, such as minimizing data transfers and enhancing store procedures for data retrieval. Beyond that, they also make the interface look better and more user-friendly so that clients have a better experience engaging with it.

What is the team composition? 

We interact with three people: a senior software developer and two QA specialists.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I’d worked with them before and had a great experience, so we hired them again. We considered a few other companies, but AgileEngine had the best cost advantages.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $85,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began this project in July 2018, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before hiring AgileEngine, the reconciliation feature of our software was unstable and slow, receiving numerous complaints from our clients. Now, the feature is running a lot faster and is much more user-friendly; they’ve even expanded its capabilities to offer more functions. Because of them, our clients went from unhappy to happy to even happier as the software improved.

The quality assurance team also does a great job, ensuring a high-quality product that works exactly as we want it to. They identify any problems or concerns before our clients even know that there’s an issue.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

We have regular follow-up calls to make sure everything is going as expected and that goals are being met. They deliver on what we ask efficiently and professionally. We use Jira to track our workflow and project progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work hard to make sure they mesh well with our internal team. They care about our success and not just about getting paid to do what we ask. Unlike other firms, they want to bring value to our company, which makes me excited and happy to work with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re open to changes and are proactive in improving our offerings.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be open about the issues you’re having and listen to their advice. They have high-quality engineers and managers that know how to help you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of TxQuick, a cryptocurrency exchange.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

I needed a talented team of developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped with the design, back- and frontend development, and some analysis. They used React for the frontend, and for the backend, Spring, Java, Mongo, AWS, Kubernetes, etc.

We put together job profiles that were necessary, and they oversaw the team composition. They pre-screened everybody—I was really impressed with their ability to screen talent based on my requirements. We’re finalizing things and will be going live soon.

What is the team composition?

I worked with the client manager early in the project. We had a project manager, a business analyst, a QA person, a tech lead, several developers from junior to senior, and some very good architectural designers.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

As a startup, we didn’t have a lot of finances available. AgileEngine were willing to work with a startup in a flexible way, which is why I chose them over others.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $450,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a very positive experience. We have about 400 classes that we’ve written in Java in a couple of months and that doesn’t include the frontend or any of the database. That’s a good metric. The quality of the code is very high. I haven’t had to give them a lot of direction. I tell them the architectural direction, and they make it happen.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m very happy with their project management. They kept me informed with status reports, using Slack, Zoom, Jira, and Confluence.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They feel like an extension of my company, which is what I wanted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had some trouble getting started at first. We had to get contracts in place and get the team up. I’d definitely hire them again for anything I needed in the future, as they’ve been a great partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I went to Kiev for a month and did a lot of the specification work, getting to know them and planning everything. It’s a good idea to do that. It made a big difference for both sides.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of engineering for an IT services company. Our main product is a business process management (BPM) platform for rapid development of case management web applications. We primarily service the public sector. I manage the engineering side and the development team that produces new features and pushes out the releases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We wanted to expand the platform with more features to accommodate our growing customer base. We needed a vendor we could trust to deliver these new capabilities independently and complement our domestic staff.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine supplements resources for our existing scrum teams in the US. As the owner of the product roadmap, I work with our in-house leadership to conceive new platform features and allocate those assignments to the various scrum teams. AgileEgine focuses on architecture and quality for our quarterly feature releases.

We’ve been working on a full modernization of the UI. We’re updating the style, images, and colors to make the UX more modern and competitive in the industry. AgileEgine uses JavaScript frameworks and CSS.

What is the team composition?

The team size fluctuates according to our needs. At any given point, we work with 3–8 resources from AgileEngine. The current team includes a technical lead, developers, and software testers.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I started at the company after it had hired AgileEngine. Since that time, AgileEngine has worked with our professional services division in addition to our product division.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2011 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AgileEngine meets our expectations and matches the quality of work that our domestic team produces. They have strong and quality people on their team.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

AgileEngine’s fast work has helped us improve the platform significantly. The technical lead motivates his team to work, stay on schedule, and commit to quality. The team feels like part of our company because they understand our expectations and work hard to meet them according to our preferred workflows. I lean on them the same as any of our domestic teams. We communicate via Slack, Jira, and Confluence.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team is dedicated and committed. They have an outstanding work ethic and always seem to be online. We have a 7-hour time difference, but the team responds whenever we message them. They also have detailed knowledge of the platform’s technical stacks. Even though the platform uses several complicated frameworks, the team is always willing to take on any task we put in front of them. The team has a positive attitude about work, no matter how short-notice our requests are. They get us out of a lot of jams.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We don’t like that they work crazy hours; we don’t want to burn them out. AgileEngine should be more candid about how long tasks will take. Working beyond normal ours does add risk to the partnership. They should feel comfortable about being reasonable and practical with deadlines because we don’t want to be too risky with deliveries.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers need to strike the right balance with product management. They need to provide AgileEngine with support and guidance, but also give them room to operate independently. Customers will need to put the right people in place to articulate those expectations and management parameters. Likewise, communication is key for offshore partnerships because the lack of in-person communication makes this balance harder to achieve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an executive VP at a valuation solutions company.  We provide technology and data services to different institutions in the home mortgage industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were looking for a vendor to help us develop a mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled a few different projects for us, but the main one was a mobile inspection application. In our industry, we have to support the evaluation process of a bank or lenders, by providing a lot of information and photos that capture property. The application AgileEngine built for us is compatible with iOS and Android and meets all of our requirements. They also provided feedback to help us see potential issues and deliver better solutions.

In addition, they worked on some web projects for us, incorporating data and analytics from our proprietary APIs into web interfaces for valuation service providers.

What is the team composition?

We've been working with a small core team of four or five, including a project manager and front-/backend developers.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

As we were exploring the use of offshore providers, their name came up frequently. Their reputation was impressive, so we decided to give them a chance.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The proof of concept was so successful that there are real-life product offerings out there in the marketplace. AgileEngine was able to put together a competent team very quickly. The speed of their development work was also impressive. They're very efficient, which we greatly appreciate.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very organized and communicate with us regularly. We use Slack, GitHub, and email to communicate and we haven’t had any issues. Their English is very strong.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re invested in what they’re doing. They took ownership of our project, as if what we were developing was their idea. They've become a real partner to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. We've been very pleased with the relationship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Since they're an offshore team, make sure your requirements are clearly written out. Their English is very good, but it's their second language, so use crisp language, be concise, and use bullet points as much as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of engineering at Relativity, a litigation software company in the e-discovery space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We worked with AgileEngine to build out our engineering team and to continue working on product development together.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine helped create an email threading analytics program, incorporating capabilities for 10 different languages. They designed and developed the platform in cooperation with our internal development team, and they continue to make iterations as needed. They're also working alongside our team on an analytics engine for the cloud.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager and two teams of developers and QA staff totaling about 13 people.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

They were already working with the company we acquired years ago, so we decided to continue the relationship after seeing the quality of their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since April 2013. The email threading project wrapped up in early 2018, but the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AgileEngine's team executes projects extremely well, in line with cost, quality, and timeline estimates. They've exceeded expectations by completing everything on or in advance of deadlines.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very flexible and receptive to client needs, adapting to our in-house two-week sprints and processes. Their project manager is very in sync with our engineering team, staying in close contact throughout each project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've been very impressed by their level of communication, especially considering their distant location. We haven't experienced any language barrier issues or holdups in responsiveness. Their lean approach also lends itself well to higher rates of productivity that make their services more affordable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It doesn't happen often, but they could tighten up their processes when team members are taken on or off our account.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Build the team that works best for the company. AgileEngine is extremely adaptable both in terms of the resources provided and the processes or tools used to complete projects for the client. Also, don't underestimate their capabilities by not expanding the technology stack given to them, as they've been able to quickly adapt to new technologies for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CIO at The Medical Team. We provide direct care to individuals in their homes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were looking for a vendor to develop various web and mobile solutions that would help us better manage our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us build a patient management system and a number of other applications, ranging from standard web development to mobile development for iOS and Android. For the web-based applications, they primarily used JavaScript and .NET on the backend. They were able to meet our needs with every platform and every functional area.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three of their team members, including a team lead, a senior developer, and a mid-level developer.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

They were referred to me by the CTO of another company who had worked with them previously.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid them about $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2011 and our latest project was completed in October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've had a significant impact on how we do business. We're still using all the systems they've built for us.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job. They organized development boards to ensure the projects were kept on track. They also consolidated all the relevant issues and new features in one repository. We mostly used Skype and Jira to stay in touch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're based offshore, but their language skills are excellent, so we never had any issues with communication. Also, they were very responsive and willing to shift their hours to align with our work schedule here, in the U.S.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Everything was great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Map out your projects at the beginning and leverage various communication tools, such as Slack, Jira, and Skype.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of engineering at Logi Analytics. We’re a software vendor in the big data market. People will use our products to create software that they can sell themselves. We often play the part of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were working with four offshore teams to build our platform technology, but we weren’t pleased with their price or quality. AgileEngine allowed us to consolidate all our offshore development in Ukraine.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have several teams working on different aspects of our platform technology. There’s a GUI and frontend team, a server-side team with expert capabilities in modern database technologies, and a QA team. They’ve also contributed process improvement ideas, suggested optimized team assignments, and collaborated on recruiting.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with three teams of 20 people total. We work through development and QA team leads, but I’ve also spoken with their senior sales and account leads regarding ongoing growth.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

The relationship predates my arrival. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Regarding software quality, they use tools that even we don’t to ensure it’s as high as possible. They balance making internal improvements with delivering on time, which means they’re always getting better. Their accuracy has consistently increased throughout the engagement, and they place enormous value on automated testing and repeatable work.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They work hand in hand with our internal engineering team, passing responsibility for executing and problem-solving back and forth as we switch shifts. Relative to our time, they work the night shift, so someone is on Slack 24/7. I discourage email, as things tend to get buried, but we use Jira for tickets and Trello for creating ideas and initiatives. They’ve been really responsive and taken our concerns and changes to heart.

In general, I work through the team leads and form close relationships with them. This has been important because they like structure and process. Though we don’t use them this way, they wouldn’t have a problem executing a completely independent project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As vendors go, they’re fairly high on my list. I would use them again with any company I went to. They’re transparent regarding costs and hiring challenges, so they pushed us to use the most current technologies. Few developers want to work with obscure or old tools, so AgileEngine’s best clients are the ones who have modern tooling. Without that attractiveness, it would be hard for them to compete.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we began, their estimation process was built around never missing a deadline. Therefore, their time estimate was much longer than we wanted. Never missing a deadline is good in theory, but it wasn’t what we were looking for. I'd rather be aggressive and hit the mark 80% of the time. Their estimates improved drastically once they wrapped their heads around that idea.

At this point, we don’t have any major problems. We have at least two calls every week with their people and put out small fires before they can grow. They’ve made their team more diverse, which allows them to create solutions that connect with more people. We wouldn’t be expanding the way we are if there were problems.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The only way to have a real partnership is for everyone to put their cards on the table and talk about their business and needs. Communicate what you want, and they’ll let you know if they can’t do it. Treat them like your own employees. That’s how you build a long-term relationship with a vendor.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO at Centriq Technology, and we are a consumer-facing, early-stage startup with a web and mobile presence. We supply a product that allows consumers to keep track of all things in their home that have an on-switch, and we provide assistance in ordering replacement parts, finding manuals, or connecting with service or maintenance professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We wanted to increase our team size for our mobile product development team. We have an immediate need to publish features quickly, and the mobile development team lead and I were the only two people writing code at the time we engaged with AgileEngine. We weren’t getting the production we wanted because there were only two of us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have two project tracks with AgileEngine. We have a single-person QA staff, who works with our project management team and performs manual tests and writes extensive test automation for both our mobile and web projects. And we’ve previously had two, but right now we have one, mobile developers with React Native experience working with us on building features for the mobile app.

In both cases, the main challenge we sent their way was working with our stack, which is all ClojureScript, which is not something they had a lot of experience with. It’s a niche language, but it works well for us. Our platform is largely on AWS, but some things look weird because there isn’t a natural place to put Appium, for example, so our QA guy had to build that from scratch—a place that would let him run Appium Python tests in this ClojureScript environment. And he was able to do that.

What is the team composition?

We were assigned one project manager. We were able to interview a number of their developers to find the right fit depending on the tasks. And we had a QA manager.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

Our CEO referred them to us, but I don’t recall how he came to know them. I took a call with AgileEngine, and the initial conversation with them convinced me that they were worth pursuing as partners. They were comfortable setting up a 30-day trial—we’d pay for what we used over 30 days, no harm, no foul. And that gave us confidence in them. We had great communication with their engineers and account manager.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017, and we have ongoing projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re completing tasks at exactly the same level of our full-time developing employees, who are more directly experienced with our platform.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage projects and deliverables through a combination of Trello, Slack, and video calls. They’ve adapted really well to our project management software, as well as the ClojureScript language we’re working with. We haven’t had any difficulties. They are good in standups, and they’re proactive about finishing a task, making sure of the next priority, and delivering it. They have become stakeholders in the quality of our deliverables.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their developers are bright and eager to challenge themselves. We told them we were working with a rare software language, and they said they had team members who were willing to jump in and learn something new. They’ve proven that they can adapt very quickly. I foresee having them with us for a long time. As our scale improves and our development budget increases, I will certainly be talking to AgileEngine first.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It sometimes takes a while to get the right developer in front of us during the interview process.

That's not a fair criticism of them, though, because the things we're asking for are so rarified and unique that I wouldn't expect them to have a huge stable of those kinds of people.

Any advice for potential customers?

They’re thinking of you as a long-term collaborator, not as a source or hourly income, so don’t be afraid to set expectations or request things to change. They want the relationship to be positive for both sides and effective in the long-term.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and co-founder of ClickDishes Inc. We provide mobile ordering solutions for quick service restaurants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We struggled to hire developers skilled enough to build onto the system that we had pre-built by an external development company. As a result, we decided to outsource the work to AgileEngine.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our existing system was okay to get started with, but we had two major issues with it in production and needed to change how it worked. AgileEngine initially allocated one senior developer to redesign the backend so it could be more maintainable. They built our microservice architecture and put it up on Amazon with a way to track and log information. They accomplished this using Node.js and Amazon Web Services. An additional developer joined the project to design the new UI dashboard for both our clients and our internal administrative purposes.

What is the team composition?

A senior developer acts as AgileEngine’s team lead and there’s also an intermediate developer.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

We were already looking for a consultancy firm and one of their marketing emails appeared in my inbox. They were already experienced in the technologies our platform uses and they offered a price that was highly competitive for top-tier developers.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $60,000 at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017 and the engagement is ongoing. The new backend architecture will soon be released to our production systems. The frontend development only started a month ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project consists of two developers working for us on-demand, so it’s hard to evaluate definitive metrics. The amount of code they’ve been able to produce is insane considering the size of their team. We’ve learned a lot from their senior developer about how to structure our system and actually release it on Amazon.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They mainly provide developers, so we haven’t had to utilize them for intricate project management. Their team lead is capable of delegating work and managing the other developer while maintaining communication with us. We provide the mock-ups and wireframes and they take it from there. We stay involved to an extent, but micromanaging them isn’t necessary. However, we do use Jira and Confluence as our primary project management tools. We also utilize GitHub to review our code.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of companies claim to have expert-level developers, but AgileEngine actually does. Also, I get the opportunity to work through the code with them and I appreciate the hands-on experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They know what they're doing and it’s apparent that they’ve been in the industry a long time. The only difficulties we've had throughout our experience with them stems from our decisions to pivot direction. However, they remained compliant even in the face of significant project shifts.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend paying the extra money to contract on of their senior developers because they’re a wealth of knowledge. However, they also have a swarm of intermediate developers that can help deliver well-defined projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

R1: I’m the co-founder and COO of a company that provides safety and risk management software for transportation fleets.

R2: I’m the Head of Product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

R1: We were short on development capabilities and power – we only had one co-founder who was our technical lead, and he was overwhelmed – so we were in a time crunch to hire and onboard new developers. We thought outsourcing to a nearshore firm would be the best short-term solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

R1: We thought they were going to be a stopgap, but the team was really performing well, so we’ve kept them on for quite some time now. They’re helping build out our enterprise platform, which is a web-based app, and updating it with modern-day technology. Specifically, they’re making it flexible, open to API connectivity, and introducing mobile responsiveness.

R2: As we’ve started getting more work from the front- and backend, they've sent specific developers to help us take wireframes, comps, and mockups, and turn them into actual working products. They also sent us a QA person, so any user story that we put out goes through development and then gets put through our cycles and tests, before it’s sent for User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

What is the team composition?

R2: We worked with five people, two front- and backend developers each, and a QA resource.

How did you come to work with Agile Engine?

R1: We looked at two or three different development shops to figure out where their developers were coming from, how much they would cost, what kind of engagements they were used to, and what they offered, services wise. We happened to be down in Washington DC, so we stopped by Agile’s headquarters to meet them face-to-face. We talked for a few hours to understand how they work, who they’d worked with before, and what types of projects they excelled at. We then asked them for two or three current and former customers of theirs, as references, and we heard nothing but good things from those people.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

R2: The best measure would be the velocity and the increase in our ability to actually measure velocity. We’ve been able to finally get estimates from them that are pretty darn accurate. We’ve been able to take stories that were just bleeding over from the sprint, and now hold each other accountable to those estimates.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

R2: I handle most of the project management directly actually. They do have a project manager I touch base with every two to three weeks, but that's not specific to the work they're doing on the project for us. He’s more of an engagement manager, between them and us.

We do use Slack and Jira though. All of our user stories and our Agile boards are sitting in Jira, and that's reviewed daily on a stand-up using Google Hangouts. If we need to have a larger story investigation, we'll extend that, the story estimation and elaboration time of the stand-up. All communication, other than face-to-face, is done through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

R2: Sometimes you have to fight to get the truth with offshore contractors, but these guys are extremely direct, which I like. If development of a specific feature will take too long, they'll provide other options and come to the table with multiple things for us to look at and choose from.

Are there any areas they could improve?

R2: Allowing some of the junior developers to take on additional work, and not being so hierarchical, would benefit them. I think some of the junior developers are talented enough to take on bigger stories and bigger features correctly.

Any advice for potential customers?

R2: We onboarded slowly, so it took additional time for them to find the right developers. I would tell people to onboard more than one developer at a time, and to look at bringing on QA at the same time, if you're going to use them.