DA-14 Corp.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a startup in the education sector. I’m the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14 Software Development?

Our developers are remote, so we were looking for good developers that we could hire for the long run.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As a company, it’s pretty limited. DA-14 Software Development puts their developers on Upwork where their reputation is evaluated as their individuals earn projects, complete them, get credits, and are reviewed. DA-14 is pretty much invisible in the process. But unlike most agencies I have worked with, they try to be a lot more visible to help customers find human resources.

We have started using DA-14 more like an agency where we turn to them to provide us with good developers. They provide us with JavaScript content developers who develop websites. In our case, it’s a rich, single page application. We try to invest a lot in the people for the long run. We turn to DA-14, as we would turn to a normal agency when we need that bandwidth of personnel.

How did you come to work with DA-14 Software Development?

When we were looking for people on Upwork, we found one of their developer’s profiles. We ran an interview and then offered a contract.

How much have you invested with DA-14 Software Development?

We paid them $25 per hour equaling a total of $50,000 over a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them January 2016. We have worked with one of their developers full-time since February 2016 and now with two developers since December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We evaluate the developers individually and discuss with them regularly to adjust how we are working. We are looking for people who are highly autonomous, and DA-14 has been really good at trying to understand our needs and suggest the right people. They work in difficult conditions and still have been very good at listening, keeping up with the trends, and suggesting directions for finding easier ways to recruit people. They really try to align their strategy with the needs of their customers.

How did DA-14 Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

They don’t really do that for us because we do most of the project management. We manage their people as if they are a part of our own organization.

What did you most impressive about DA-14 Software Development?

We don’t usually work with agencies because we haven’t had good experiences, but they are a small agency that has been able to provide us with really good freelancers. With DA-14, we can hire people and develop our culture on our own terms. I feel very much that the developers are our own, although they are working first for DA-14 and then for us.

Are there any areas DA-14 Software Development could improve?

They could have done a better job at communicating changes in their organization. Sometimes, they have problems that they communicate too late. It was sometimes difficult to know who was talking to whom. They were still willing to help, but I think they were not proactive enough.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders of Fixington, which is an online booking service for tradesmen such as plumbers, electricians, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT?

We hired DA-14 to build our booking service and marketing website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Most of the project focused on developing our website. We have an iOS app for tradesmen, which they use as a calendar and an invoicing tool. All the data that is stored in the app is backed up, which supports a web front-end. On the web version, the tradesmen can log in and see the jobs they have scheduled and send out invoices. There’s also a consumer front-end for householders to make bookings, which go into the calendar of the tradesmen that they’re booking.

How did you come to work with DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT?

We hunted on the internet for outsource development agencies we could use, and we selected DA-14 from a shortlist of companies. We did simple interviews with candidate companies to ask them about their experience, what kind of projects they’ve worked on, and how they work with clients. We chose DA-14 at the end of that process.

How much have you invested with DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT?

We invest roughly $5,000 a month with DA-14.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around September 2015, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT perform from a project management standpoint?

There are three guys from DA-14 who work on this project: a backend developer, a front-end developer, and a software tester. They’re really good, and we’re happy with them. We use Trello to manage and reorganize the priorities of a backlog of tasks.

What did you find most impressive about DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT?

We’re happy with the way we work with them. They’re proactive, and their quality of code is good.

Are there any areas DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT could improve?

I’m not aware of anything they could improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and the chief executive officer of a startup company. We are developing cloud-based enterprise software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14?

As a startup company, we needed to find developers and manage risks.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DA-14 provided a way for us to have a reliable team. They have developed parts of our product based on our specifications, including front-end technologies. The team is doing work based on our specifications, schedule, and management. We are using DA-14's resources directly.

How did you come to work with DA-14?

I have worked with different agencies in the past. DA-14 was found through our social network. They had knowledge in the particular technology we were looking for, so we hired DA-14.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with DA-14 in November 2015. We plan to have a long-term relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

DA-14 has delivered everything we've planned to do.

How did DA-14 perform from a project management standpoint?

DA-14 is a part of our team and there are no set projects. We manage them directly, without any project management on their side.

What did you find most impressive about DA-14?

DA-14 is a responsible and knowledgeable group. We've been able to form good, solid relationships and we have trust in their work. The management and follow-ups on DA-14's side have been good.

Are there any areas DA-14 could improve?

If there was something in particular, I would tell DA-14 about it directly. DA-14 has the typical language barrier issue. People in our team can speak Russian, so it is not a problem. Native English-speaking clients may experience a problem without special management assistance. I have to admit that language skills have improved since DA-14 invested in language training.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a marketplace and social network for all things geek-related. We are a combination of Instagram and Etsy, in that we feature a bunch of photos and videos, give users the ability to follow each other and chat, but also to buy and sell. We service the iOS, Android, and web markets.

I am the product manager of the company. I balance issues of UI/UX [user interface/user experience] design and business requirements, and also manage our development teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14?

As a startup, we're always looking to raise more money for staff. DA-14 has allowed us to get our project off of the ground at a reasonable price, working with limited funds.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DA-14 started our web application development from scratch. We were adamant about using a new technology called Angular Universal. It's a method of developing an Angular application which allows the individual page information to be rendered by servers, rather than by the browser. This is important for us, especially as a social network. It allows users to easily copy-and-paste links from our site to Facebook and Twitter, with those sites generating dynamic images for those particular pages.

One thing that I've admired DA-14 for is that even though Angular Universal wasn't fully developed yet, they were willing to take on the project. DA-14 has helped us perform much of our initial research, overcoming certain problems we hit. We've had many conversations with the actual developers of both Angular 2 and Angular Universal, in order to have them work on specific features which were necessary for our application in particular. That was the initial kick-off between our groups; it was challenging, but DA-14 got it to work and did a great job.

Our web app is using the just-in-time compilation, rendering the user-requested pages in-browser. We're working with DA-14 on moving from this to an ahead-of-time compilation, which will compile the page on the server-side, making requests faster. DA-14 has made research in this field for us, and we expect to have a 50% speed improvement on our app once the work is finished. We've also used DA-14 for backend development for a period.

How did you come to work with DA-14?

Prior to this company, I've worked for several development firms. On top of that, I had been in contact with many more web developers and freelancers during the screening stage. I chose DA-14 because they were always quick to provide detailed, thought-out responses.

In addition to this, we had an early-on Skype call with DA-14's chief executive officer and other members of their team. I had a chance to talk to the developers and have them think on the spot. A few of them impressed me, which gave me the confidence to continue moving forward.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with DA-14 in September 2016. It's ongoing work; we're currently within our fourth phase of development. The previous three have been completed on-time, on budget, and with really good quality.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did DA-14 perform from a project management standpoint?

DA-14 was awesome in this respect. I've been working with the same project manager for the past 3 months. She's taken a lot of initiative, is easy to communicate with, has good English skills, and she provides great documentation. There have been very few instances of something being left unmentioned.

I've worked with another remote development agency with its own project manager. I haven't seen as much of a willingness to cooperate on their part as with DA-14. We've often been able to work out middle grounds for our specs.

What did you find most impressive about DA-14?

One area where DA-14 is superior to other companies is their quality assurance [QA] testing. We've been very happy with the value provided by DA-14's team. Their documentation is strong, and they adhere to our workflows well, compared to a couple of other companies we've worked with which didn't provide good results. Good QA has allowed me to focus on other aspects of the business.

Are there any areas DA-14 could improve?

We're no longer using DA-14 for backend development, but when we were, there were a few instances of code not being clearly tested, at least not with the level of attention we required.