Dev-Better

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of a consulting and technology company. We build products for clients and I’m responsible for the design and the architecture of the products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dev-Better?

Dev-Better is my chief contractor for getting the coding work of the products done. I’ve hired them for different contracts, some of the products are my own and there are also products that I’ve assigned on behalf of clients. When I see a problem that I want to solve or have a digital solution to a problem, I go to Dev-Better and they help me implement the solution. This particular project was to build an online learning platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For our latest project, they did a significant amount of work. I did all the design and Dev-Better wrote all of the code for the project. From building the landing page to actually designing the application itself. Dev-Better built the backend content management system that I use to upload content. They also built the frontend that allows users to consume the content. They’ve designed everything end to end.

For Startship, they used Laravel and Angular as well as JavaScript libraries. They have also used Mean Stack and Ruby on Rails. When it comes to mobile development, they have iOS and Android developments.

What is the team dynamic?

The number of developers depends on the project and the phase. Usually, I interact with 2-4 developers. It depends on how much work I load them up with or how tight things are. I’ve also met with the leader face to face a few times.

How did you come to work with Dev-Better?

I’ve been working with Dev-Better for almost five years now. I discovered them back in 2012 on a profile on Upwork. I interviewed them and about 150 other companies and they were one of the top five. Since then, Alexey [Co-founder, Dev-Better] and I have become very good friends. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested about $50,000 but I think it’s going to be larger throughout the process just because I’m planning for another sprint with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was put into production December 2016 but the coding didn’t start until January 2017. The project was done May 2017, but Dev-Better still assists with bug fixes and we’re preparing for another round of revisions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of work is excellent. The code is well organized, well designed, and well thought throughout. Dev-Better also has excellent documentation. I’ve been working with them for five years and we’ve probably done 20-25 projects together. I’ve also received a lot of positive feedback within my network.

How did Dev-Better perform from a project management standpoint?

They're really good at communication and project management. They keep me updated every single day. If there's an issue they’re good about getting it to me early on so that we can we can have a conversation rather than put out a fire.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There’s a personal connection when you work with Dev-Better. They’re very honest, very transparent, and very communicative. That’s why I keep coming back to them and recommending them for my work.

The experience with Dev-Better has been overwhelmingly positive and I think trust is a big part of it. I’ve actually paid them in advance before and told them to just let me know what the budget ends up being. They have offered to refund the excess, which you don’t really find in a remote contract outsourced relationship very often.

Openness and honesty is a game changer when working with somebody overseas. Dev-Better is very frank and candid about what’s going on and if there’s an issue they get ahead of it and tell it to me a week in advance as opposed to the day before it’s supposed to be released. I know that when I give them a project it’s going to get done on the deadline. They won’t agree to a deadline unless they can do it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The spec’ing process could use improvement as it takes a few back and forths. Streamlining that would solve that but it’s hard to do that when they have to work with five different project management softwares for five different clients. It’s a minor issue that has not caused any significant delays. It’s just my least favorite part of a project process.