Dwarves Foundation

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Engineering of a food & beverages company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide keg rentals and IoT solutions for beverage supply chains.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Dwarves Foundation to accomplish?

• Improve infrastructure and deployment processes
• Enhance the web application
• Improve tracking logic for the IoT solution

SOLUTION

How did you find Dwarves Foundation?

Referral

Why did you select Dwarves Foundation over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Dwarves Foundation were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Konvoy Cloud is a web application with an extensive event processing backend to support our IoT solution. The DF team worked to improve the web application, backend tracking logic, and existing APIs. Additionally developer tooling was established to streamline our deployments and infrastructure management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The DF team joined at a point when the product was in a proof of concept phase a little after a year since the company's inception. They adopted the code base with minimal guidance and iteratively added new capabilities and features which have helped our operations and sales team function on a daily basis with less friction and increased automation.

In particular, Quang helped establish new deployment protocols using automated github actions to streamline the development process while refining and enhancing the tracking solution while moving the stack onto Kubernetes for better control over background services and tasks.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The DF team was always willing to jump into a problem and take direction. While tasks were often not completed on time this was largely due to factors outside of their control. There was a heavy division of backend and frontend contributors which also led to blockers in the development pipeline.

While there is much room for improvement I can easily see that the team would have been more successful with better guidance, integration into the broader product discussions, and more explicit requirements.

What was your primary form of communication with Dwarves Foundation?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The guys all have a great attitude and will jump into any task asked of them with a smile on their faces.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Dwarves Foundation could have done differently?

By the time I had joined (August 2022), there were a number of projects which had started on the wrong footing and weren't going to reach completion. I think the DF could have been more proactive in looking at the long-term architecture to help direct conversations around building the right thing. I can see how this would have been challenging however due to the nature of the engagement which was largely being told what to do.

I would recommend doing quarterly reviews of engagements and trying to provide feedback to a client from a holistic perspective to help correct course. Konvoy didn't have a single senior technologist before I joined and I think with better guidance some of these decisions could have been avoided.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am currently Heading Product and Engineering at Mudah.my. Mudah.my is the largest online Marketplace in Malaysia and it is a part of Carousell Group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dwarves Foundation?

We embarked on the journey to transform our tech to micro-services based architecture in 2020. We also decided to use GoLang for BE and React for FE. Dwarves supported us in this journey by adding right skill set and engineering resources to the team .

SOLUTION

How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors?

We wanted company who will have experience in Golang and React as well as they are based in the Asia Pacific Region. We found Dwarves as the right partner as they not only had the experience but also they were very flexible to our needs. They participate like a in house team.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

IT was for staff augmentation and we didn’t had enough expertise in Golang and React. 

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We had multiple parallel 3 project teams each consist of 4-6 members. Dwarves team members were part of all three project teams. They are still providing us the staff augmentation needs but numbers fluctuate based on the number of people we need for each projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

Most of the projects were finished on time.  

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

They did contribute in the daily or weekly scrum ceremonies in an engaging manner.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are dedicated towards work. Very professional 

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Potentially they can train their staff for better communication in English.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the head of product at an early-stage marketplace startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dwarves Foundation, and what were your goals?

We hired Dwarves as an external team to help us ideate ideas and build out the foundation for our MVP. Our goals were to get to market as fast as possible.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were connected by a mutual connection. Some of our deciding factors were we wanted a team that could be more than just a dev house but a partner to help us with the ideation process and prototyping. Dwarves fit the bill and provided us with resources that exceeded our expectations.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a lofty goal of building a double-sided marketplace. We had early drafts and an alpha in place, Dwarves was able to take our designs and ideations and implemented our vision. We used numerous different technologies in the process, from no-code tools like bubble, to a full app using react native, node.js, and more.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with a team of 5 people. Ranging from designers and developers. Whenever we needed extra hands, Dwarves could activate new team members within a week's notice.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to get to market faster and iterate 10x faster than prior to having the team. What took us months before, we were able to get down to weeks. This allowed us to test products in the market faster and use the feedback from customers to maximize our efforts.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The project management was wonderful. We had daily check-ins and weekly sprints. Dwarves Foundation did a wonderful job of managing our expectations, while also taking feedback. They were very helpful with tracking the end of the day and end of the week to give us insights on all things completed.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They were great with communication and flexibility. They were world-class in learning new technologies. For example, we were chatting in regards to new blockchain technology and they had mentioned that they were already learning and building projects on the technology, this shows their innovative approach to technology.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I can't think of any. They've gotten better and better with every project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Para, a platform where nurses can work extra shifts at local healthcare facilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dwarves Foundation, and what were your goals?

We partnered with Dwarves in order to build a web platform for hospitals to fill vacant shifts with nursing professionals. The goals were to build an institutive platform that was ease to use and maintain. Actions could be taken with a few clicks and statuses of pending actions and events easily identifiable and trackable.

SOLUTION

How did you select Dwarves Foundation and what were the deciding factors?

Selecting Dwarves involved time intensive process of sorting through all the noise when it comes to find the right software development partner. We were looking for a high quality team that specialized in golang and reactjs and further had the right experience. That had a reputation for clear communication, professionalism, and above all integrity.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The first step was updating the design to capture all the necessary functionality. Here Dwarves helped us design several new screens and modals that matched our current design with an update modern appeal. The deliverable was in Figma. Next was integrating the team into Jira. Here Dwarves was helpful in identifying details requirements and task allocation. Our platform has a REST based microservices based architecture predominately written in golang, reactjs, swift, and java. Once tasks were planned and allocated the next steps were to build feature by feature first in golang and then integrate with reactjs. Heavy knowledge of SQL was also necessary. Dwarves executed several features including user registration, job creation and review, reviewing medical professional profiles and time sheets. Further Dwarves pressure tested each feature by using a data seed app.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Dwarves provided two exceptional senior engineers, one backend and one frontend developer. Also part of the core team were a program and project manager. Early on the process Dwarves also provided a talented designer and her director.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to cut down development time by several months and tackle features that are pivotal to scaling our business with reduced complexity and overhead.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Dwarves communication skills are exceptional. There was always a clear persistent line of communication. We used Slack, Jira, Statushero, Google Meetings, and Confluence.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Integrity, integrity, integrity --- Dwarves is in a league of their own. Having worked with several different software development firms on past projects, to have a partner come in and with each action have the intention, care, and ownership that Dwarves has is just unheard of and remarkable. Hand and hand Dwarves is standout in delivering with the highest standards and seamlessly is a part of your team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing at all