iRonin.IT

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of an early-stage startup that is focused on helping aspiring homeowners to save for their homes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT, and what were your goals?

We had a functioning web prototype that we were looking to redesign and develop into an MVP. We engaged with an external design agency for the design work and iRonin for the implementation of the new designs, development, and enhancement of certain features.

Our main objective is to develop a web-based MVP, optimised for mobile, that demonstrates the core value of our proposition. This involved:

• Implementing a newly conceived landing page, onboarding journey, and interactive dashboard
• Building upon existing algorithms and calculation models powering our platform
• Enhancing existing features
• Adding new features

SOLUTION

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

We researched various startup-friendly software development firms recommended to us and listed on review websites like Clutch, predominantly situated near and off-shore. iRonin was personally recommended to us by an experienced peer in the technology field.

We then spoke to a shortlisted set of firms, including iRonin. We were impressed by how well iRonin’s account and sales manager seemed to understand our business and needs as an early-stage startup. They went the extra mile to address our questions and concerns and promised to source an experienced backend engineer with knowledge of our existing tech stack.

Lastly, they produced a preliminary estimate for our project that seemed quite reasonable. We decided to move forward with them based on the above.

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

First, we discussed the objectives of the project, both from a user and business perspective. We walked them through the flow of our existing prototype so that the iRonin team would have a better appreciation of what had been built thus far. We decided to engage with iRonin while working with our design agency to conceptualise our new vision for the MVP.

The purpose was to obtain feedback on the new designs from an implementation standpoint and ensure that we had not missed out anything fundamental. While the design process was underway, iRonin assigned a backend engineer to the team to focus on some of the backend tasks that would not be affected by the design work. This included some refactoring of our existing work, and optimising third-party API integrations.

As soon as design work for key sections was completed, a front-end engineer was assigned to the team to review the new set of designs, outline the tasks involved and provide a more accurate estimate for front-end implementation. This began with our landing page, which was custom-built, followed by the platform itself.

Before committing to work on a new section or feature of the platform, iRonin would produce and discuss with us a proposal for that piece of work and seek our approval for it. They would only begin the next piece of work once we were satisfied with their proposal. They also regularly seek and incorporate the feedback they receive from us on their output at the appropriate stages.

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

Those involved in our project on a day-to-day basis are a project manager, a senior backend engineer, two senior front-end engineers, and one QA engineer. Initially, we had one front-end engineer but were later assigned an additional one due to an increase in the scope of our work. From time to time, we also liaise with an account manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Whilst our project is still ongoing, we are pleased with how the elements are shaping up: namely our landing page, aspects of our onboarding journey, and dashboard. We’ve received positive responses to our landing page thus far.

Recently, we have been able to see the effects of connection between backend and frontend in terms of how the underlying calculations are driving outputs based on inputs entered on the user interface. This seems to be working quite smoothly so far.

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

We have been in constant communication with the project manager and engineers via weekly calls and email updates. A project management tool set up by us is also being employed by us and the iRonin team to organise, manage and communicate daily tasks, statuses and deadlines.

The account manager has also made herself very accessible for questions and concerns related to our engagement. This direct and open form of communication and flexibility has allowed for a very fluid workflow.

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

iRonin makes genuine efforts to understand our business requirements and the ins and outs of our product in spite of the complexities and evolving nature of our business. We have seen a great degree of professionalism and have been impressed by their can-do attitude.

They have been extremely flexible in terms of being accessible, working around our timelines, managing resources, adapting to changing project priorities and requirements. Not only is the team technically sound and experienced, but they have also shown tenacity in finding solutions to the more challenging aspects of our product.

For example, after getting briefed by us on a particular feature they were less familiar with, they researched and analysed various approaches and eventually proposed the right solution. They quickly ramped up their learning to produce a quick prototype that demonstrated how the feature would work. This gave both them and us the confidence to proceed with implementing the full-fledged version.

Finally, we also appreciate getting their honest opinions on the features they believe are essential to include in our MVP and the ones that can be postponed.

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

When preparing proposal estimates, iRonin should consider all the technical elements that are necessary for the feature to function. In the case of one of our features, estimates were originally provided separately for backend and frontend implementation, without factoring in the work required to connect the two to produce a functioning solution.

Once the implementation of the front-end tasks began, we later found out that the designer had created the designs based on multiple frameworks. This led to additional work whereby the designs had to be ported by the front-end engineer to a single framework.

o avert this in the future, iRonin could potentially set some best practices and provide some rules of thumb prior to the design work getting underway.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work in engineering for a DDI software vendor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT, and what were your goals?

Our DDI solution is built with a robust DDI interface and we are working to build out our partner ecosystem. We had a need to integrate with The Foreman Project and had no resources available in-house.

SOLUTION

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

iRonin IT came highly recommended from members at The Foreman Project. They had knowledge & experience on the Foreman Project and had completed other projects like ours. We knew that they would be able to handle our request.

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

Our project was a single proxy service that required ruby expertise. The entire project was slated for a month of development & QA.

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

We had a team of three: Filip , Michal , Kumil . All were proficient and easy to work with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a need for the plugin to be ready for install in a time-frame of 1 month. They made good on their commitment

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

Due to the extreme difference in time zones, we utilized slack as a means of communication and tracking. Due to the small size in our project this was sufficient.

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

They over-communicated. When working across national boundaries, this is a must. They would let us know about project updates and obstacles they hit immediately. This allowed us to manage through them on weekly calls.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

VARIA is a modern real estate agency using technology to make the process of finding a home more efficient. I am the Co-founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT, and what were your goals?

The project was transferred from a previous software development company that we had a bad experience with. So the transfer of the project and continuing it with Ironin presented a challenge. Our goal was to successfully finish the development of the product so we can launch our product to market.

SOLUTION

How did you select iRonin.IT and what were the deciding factors?

We found Ironin on clutch. We found they had great reviews and after an interview process we felt like we can trust them to continue the project. they presented accurate estimates and are reasonably priced.

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

The project was a continuation from a previous development company. The technologies used are ruby on rails, react, gatsby, aws

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

3 people, sales, cto, developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are pleased with the results. The team delivered the project in the estimated range of hours.

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

We had clear communication. We communicated with the sales representative, and the CTO. we had weekly meetings to discuss the progress each week. as well as weekly reports

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

communication, work ethic, professionalism

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

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Bitt Inc. We are actively under contract with a bank to develop a digital currency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iRonin.IT?

We needed top-notch developers. We also needed them to be able to speak English well and to be interested in cutting-edge technologies, such as blockchain.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iRonin.IT worked across several languages including Elixir, Java, Python, Kotlin, JavaScript, and TypeScript. They did front- and backend development, backend programming database work, and DevOps among others. They were fully engaged in our systems from source code repositories and Google Cloud environments

What is the team composition?

We worked with three developers. We also worked with a DevOps teammate, who we let go after building up our DevOps staff.

How did you come to work with iRonin.IT?

I was advised to look at teams in Poland because of their general programming skill and education level, as well as their familiarity with English. After doing an internet search, I came across iRonin.IT.

How much have you invested with them?

I spend $30,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in early 2019, and we plan to launch the product at the end of September.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developers get along well with everyone else. They are excellent to work with. iRonin.IT was so good that they became more engaged in our day-to-day development processes. The quality of their work has been great, which I’ve been able to see through our unit tests and automated testing systems.

The code that iRonin.IT writes is consistently some of the best code that we get and it works well. They are conscientious developers, and it always shows up in the documentation that they provide. Their work habits and commitment to quality are very good.

How did iRonin.IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They are fantastic team players, and we consider them our own employees. They integrated into our Jira and Confluence ticketing systems. They’ve also integrated into our team and have enthusiastically embraced our coding standards and company protocols. 

They do a good job of communicating through Slack and email, and they’ve always made themselves available, even when it’s late at night for them since there’s a time difference. The team also communicates well in English. When they commit to a task, they do their best to get it done on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the developers we’ve been working with has been fantastic. Their manager has been available when there are any questions, and they’ve been responsive to questions or concerns. 

The whole company has been good, and their bills and hourly records have been clear and concise. The developers keep track of all of the tasks their working on, which makes billing easy. Everything from our relationship to the financials has been excellent. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions. iRonin.IT has been excellent, and I wish every other company was like this. They know the business and have been great to work with. They care, and I feel like they’re interested in my company’s success.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

All of the developers have been high-performing, so you need to have well-organized project leaders than can keep the developers well-fed with tasks and the information they need to do the development. Be responsive to them when they need clarification. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The company offers an advanced e-learning platform with AI functionalities and live webinars that can be organized through the platform at any time. The product is build upon an innovative approach for online education and LMS solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT?

We hired iRonin.IT for further application development and features enhancements. Our cooperation was short but we needed an additional developer and expertise to join our team and support us in reaching our business goals. We needed someone to join our team urgently and the iRonin.IT business team was able to provide the right kind of developer within a week.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to have an experienced developer with hands-on knowledge in Python development and help us with the following tasks: introducing important features enhancements implementing an URL shortener providing further development of the REST API for webinar management

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I’ve met Monika from iRonin.IT Sales Team during one of the startup events. We got a positive impression and she understood our needs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The platform offers a video streaming solution with advanced interfaces for live webinars and online courses. Various options added to the system allow organizers to share virtual meetings, real-time webinars and courses with participants in appropriate time slots.

What was the team composition?

During our cooperation iRonin.IT company provided 1 Senior Python Developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The iRonin.IT’s dedicated developer delivered all of the tasks on time and we’re satisfied with the outcomes. He implemented an URL shortener for our platform which was a crucial part of our cooperation.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had no issues while communicating with the developer. The communication was seamless thanks to daily conversations on Slack.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their commitment and flexibility were most impressive. We needed someone in a short period of time and they provided us with an experienced developer who met our expectations.

Are there any areas for improvement?

From our perspective it all went super! Especially considering the limitations of these trying/Pandemic times

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We offer plant-based solutions for women in menopause. Our company was founded in 2019 and started selling in February 2020.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT?

We needed a scalable web application that could integrate a headless CMS, a questionnaire as well as an eCommerce solution like Shopify. This would allow us to launch XbyX as a business.

What were your goals for this project?

The solution needed to be flexible and scalable. We needed a custom design as well as some custom features, like a Questionnaire that would have a complex logic to give women best individual advise.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We knew the iRonin founder through the founders kite club.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed the entire custom web app, which integrated the headless CMS as well as the questionnaire logic. They also implemented all of our custom frontend designs and made sure everything worked well on different devices.

What was the team composition?

We always had a reliable project manager, Weronika, who would be available for questions and always very responsive. On top, we had a lead developer and several other developers that joined the project when more capacity was needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The solution is working smoothly and we are getting very good customer feedback. The CMS structure is great in terms of performance and flexibility.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had a dedicated project manager. Working with her was very effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The iRonin team is very responsive and really tries to help you out with your requirements. They make great suggestions in terms of simplifying features or finding better ways to solve problems.

Are there any areas for improvement?

For a project with an original estimate (range of budget) there could have been better communication about when the budget would be exceeded. But we found better ways to avoid that for future projects with iRonin and they were very open to feedback and different pricing solutions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Operational Results, Inc. (ORI) specializes in Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), Operational Strategy and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) best practices. We offer a complete suite of business planning solutions including: assessments, consulting, education, implementation and technology

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT?

To augment our development team for all projects

What were your goals for this project?

To be able to continue feature enhancements on all our projects, create new apps, and support existing ones.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us by another company

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Ori is a project which main aim is to help visualize customer sales processes. This is mainly done by advanced charts and tables, on which we can show the entire cross-section of data, from categories to business segments to individual products.

The technological stack of the front focuses mainly on React, in which new functionalities are added. The older part of the application is written in AngularJs, and thanks to a custom solution there is a combination of both parts through a common connector.

• Backend app based mostly on services written in Ruby on Rails
• Metric application is made with Python & ElasticSearch
• General maintenance and bug-fixing for existing front-end application
• Simplification/optimization of database structure
• Change from multiple schema model to one table
• Migration scripts for existing data Working on project for new application for forecasting Using models like.
• ARIMA, exponential smoothing and regression Deploying flow using AWS lambda
• Backend new “multi-level bookmarks” functionality
• More reliable new backend API endpoints and completely new DB schema
• Functional tests written in Rspec

Working on new functionalities on Front-end part e.g.

• New multi hierarchy concept in scorecards app
• Functionality for resizing columns within fixed metric tables in report app
• Add reordering of columns in reports app
• New functionality for auto-looping across bookmarks
• Support custom date format for all dates on backend on a per interval basis
• Change the help emails report templates
• Implement new multidimensional bookmarks with changed permissions, sharing , and new folder views Add datepicker do
• Tasks App Fix small issues: With app routing Clear bugs on Sentry Chart axis errors New charts options, scaling to zeros etc.

And many more minor daily tasks..

What was the team composition?

iRonin’s team consists of 2 developers. A full-stack focused mostly on backend and one front-end expert.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We have been able to meet the demands of our clients and continue innovating on our product with a small team and small budget

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We communicated through Slack and Google Hangouts. We were always notified long in advance for holidays or time off. The time difference was sometimes inconvenient but the iRonin resources were mostly available during our business hours. The project managers are great to work with to help us find the right fit

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They found the resources that matched our needs and communicated well throughout the process.

Are there any areas for improvement?

no

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Managing Director and Founder of AlcandiaTravel GmbH - German-based company. We’ve created travel insurance compensation calculator - an application for estimating booking cancelations. We develop harmonized solutions for hundreds of isolated applications in the travel market to serve tour operators, travel agencies, and above all the customer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT?

To create a web based calculator for trip cancellation fees

What were your goals for this project?

Goal 1: Create the Rails app with the DB Schema and the ActiveAdmin Backend. Goal 2: Create the Frontend Calculator in React Goal 3: Apply custom design to the calculator

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

iRonin was selected based on recommendation

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Project is a calculator to determine fees if clients cannot make it to a trip of any reason. We read the terms and conditions of travel operators and feed the database with that information. One of our requirements was the ability to import our dataset files (of that time). The app has the ability to create the fees “inline” without jumping between conditions back and forth all the time. The calculator can be used through an iframe from any external page.

The app can display additional info, based on the provided parameters. iRonin provided Rails app development services, introduced ActiveAdmin Backend with provided DB Structure. The app is AJAX-powered. Frontend calculator was developed with React.js. Hosted on Heroku.

What was the team composition?

1 lead developer and 1 full-stack developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project helped to immediately calculate cancellation fees in case an all expense tour should be cancelled. Based on cancellation fees, that were inserted in a database, the calculator provided customers a "one-click"-experience to determine whether or not a cancellation made sense, compared to selling the trip on a second-hand marketplace. The calculator was easy to use, even large travel insurances started to use to better advise their customers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We provided list of tasks to be done. The iRonin’s team has created tickets/issues for each of the tasks in their internal system. When the task was implemented, the developers were providing us with a preview and link to staging server - I had the ability to provide feedback along the way. I was able to contact the developers directly and I was constantly up-to-date with the progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed with the overall quality of the provided solution & code. There were no bugs involved! Also their team’s agility and responsiveness to feedback.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No further improvements, communication through slack etc was very hands-on and easy

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Woospeak is a french learning center operating worldwide. I’m a CEO of Woospeak - training organization specialized in B2B language training and IT courses. We offer specialized tailor-made distance courses for corporations and SMEs. Woospeak provides services from more than 400 teachers all over the world to meet clients’ needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT?

Woospeak hired iRonin.IT for ERP system enhancement, including e-learning web application development and maintenance, hence the work is still ongoing. Moreover, the iRonin team had to take care of UX and UI design improvements at some point. The full scope of work includes key features of the app, Sales empowering features, messaging and communication features, web interface development for clients and students (end-users) and redesign, among others

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals: new features development and existing features improvements; user experience and usability improvements, that makes the app and site more user-friendly as well as easy to use; responsive web design and boosting mobile-friendliness of the web app; web application performance improvements; codebase maintenance and update of related frameworks and libraries, e.g. Rails version updates; the new structure of the web app and pages breakdown to improve SEO.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose iRonin mainly for their flexibility and competitive price. We started this collaboration with some apprehension but we were quickly satisfied to see how they were taking care of our project. We value iRonin’s professionalism, technical expertise, and the quality of their work.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project was a web application for various parties involved in the e-learning process, including corporate training managers, students and teachers. The app supports tasks and workflows for modern remote trainings. The service provided by iRonin: Improving Manager view with features and improvements, like additional filters for different pages, database for teacher documents and CVs, soft delete option or templates for Sales team amongst the others, improve our invoicing system, electronical signature and administrative automation. Working on a redesign that includes easier access to documents, improved interactions with the data related to students and trainings, a more usable dashboard for students, a user-friendly calendar, a new e-learning center with easy navigation, and a new dashboard for training managers. Interface improvements, building a new menu, improving its usability and introducing responsive web design for mobile users. Creating a booking functionality from scratch. Improving dashboard feature speed. Improving server’s performance. Upgrading Ruby, Rails and Metabase versions. Modifying notification messages and their flow to make user experience better. Creating a few additional public pages, added new CPF form, finished german translations and improved SEO. The deadlines were short, however iRonin’s developers delivered on time.

What was the team composition?

iRonin during our ongoing cooperation provided 2 full-stack developers and 1 UX/UI designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Big accounts companies were pleased with some innovative functionalities. We bring them a high and reactive organisation through our app. It permits to maintain our existing customers and also to obtain more. It permits to increase in sales / number of new customers. Good feedbacks from users after applying changes / improvements

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management and communication processes were highly satisfying. We have a direct contact with all of involved remote developers and designers during this collaboration. Additionally, there is a project manager on iRonin’s side who makes sure that all requirements are understood and met in the efficient and timely manner.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

iRonin’s remote IT experts offer a high quality development - they go an extra mile to understand our needs before coding. Developers’ flexibility allows us to work without any major obstacles and delays in the delivery process. iRonin’s experts have the maturity and professional experience required in this project. They're able to work under pressure and always react quickly and methodically. The CEO - Cyprian is professional, mature and try to find solutions for any issue that may occur. They track the tasks and their time spent on the project in an internal project management software.

Are there any areas for improvement?

To speak french :) All our collaboration is in English and that's indeed perfect for us

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Back in the agency days, we would pay $3,000 for every referral hire we could get. We were really desperate for talent. We had a lot of turnover with people going to other companies like Adobe. Referrals were a really tough challenge, especially for our field of information technology.

I had been talking to a few friends and decided to create a solution for matching so we could make this whole process easier and really help employees who wanted to make a bonus but didn’t know who to refer. We started EmployeeReferrals.

I went through a lot of contractors both outsourced and local, hiring people and letting them go until I found the few that I ended up keeping. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iRonin?

I and one other person were trying to get our website going. After a couple of months, we asked for a lot of help to get the features ready for the market. I brought iRonin to work on EmployeeReferrals’s platform/website after it had been already built. I and my colleague person are still working on it today. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Integrations are really the key for us because everybody wants to get accurate data. They want to make sure that their systems are syncing. That’s the core of what we asked iRonin to help us with. We give them complete control over the integrations and depend on them to make sure that when we launch a new company and need something set up, they’re going to get it done quickly.

When working with iRonin, our code quality improved. They used a lot of best practices for design patterns. They made some of the repeatable activities we had to do more scalable as far as launching new companies. It was very easy for us to implement and deploy because of the structure they set up. It’s been really helpful for us, especially knowing and having so much experience with other contractors. We’re happy to have found ones that produce high-quality code with good test coverage. It really took the burden off me for some of that design work.

We now deliver the requirements but do not put together the team. We’ve changed how we do things. Before, I used to do a lot of project management, but now we’ve requested a project manager on their end. We do stand-up meetings with their project manager. He delegates to the developers there and makes sure that everything gets done.

How did you come to work with iRonin?

We found them initially on Upwork. With contractors, I like to give them all a task so that I’m testing a lot of them in parallel. I keep the ones that work out. I’m sure that we had 5 or 6 in parallel that we were testing at the same time, and we decided to keep iRonin.

When I initially hired iRonin, we had a contractor that I’d found and worked with for a long time after going through 10 other different contractors who weren’t from iRonin. When iRonin suggested we get another developer, we did; we got such consistent results from them that I let a lot of the other contractors go. I gave them free reign to keep scaling their team. We could keep giving them responsibilities, and they met our expectations.

How much have you invested with iRonin?

On average, we spend about $400,000–$500,000 yearly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them at the beginning of 2012. We’re still working with them now since they’re still adding new features to the platform. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen our turn rate go down significantly, decreasing at least by half since we’ve had iRonin stabilize our system in all the odds and ends that we need. That is really important to us.

With a lot of other contractors and agencies that we have worked with, few do test-driven development or release code with tests. Just based on their types of deadlines, they get done what they can get done. But, iRonin consistently releases tests to ensure everything is good quality.

Also, they have a lot of suggestions for refactoring and optimization. If they notice that something is performing poorly from another developer, they will go out of their way to improve the overall code base instead of only handling the things that they are directly responsible for, which is something that not a lot of other contractors do.

How did iRonin perform from a project management standpoint?

They do their tasks in a standard Scrum sprint. We used Trello, a Kanban-style project management, and HipChat for communication. We’re online chatting all the time and do video standups weekly where we talk face-to-face with our project manager over there.

We initially wanted control over each developer, but I think we found a happy compromise just having a project manager in the standup meetings. We wanted more control over the tasks but found that having video calls and including the project manager in the standup meetings alleviated that need. He’s in a group with everyone else we work with, so he feels like a part of our decision-making process. We only interact with him and try not to interrupt anyone else.

What did you find most impressive about iRonin?

There were times that we had deadlines and needed to get things done. They were more than accommodating at giving us extra resources and making sure that we still hit the budget we’d set, even though they gave us additional resources. They did that a few times, and it was a lifesaver. They absorbed the cost of those resources. We’ve been sheltered from training costs as well. They would handle all the training when they brought new people on, along with anything that they needed to do to get a new developer up to speed.

Are there any areas iRonin could improve?

A lot of concerns that you have when working with overseas people involve delays. That’s the only thing that I can think of. For the most part, they try to work in parallel with our time zones. There were occasions that we needed an answer on something late in the afternoon, and they were gone. That’s one of the typical problems when working with outsourced contractors.