Agilites

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have a software-as-a-service product in the healthcare IT segment. It gives organizations a way to manage patients digitally using mobile devices. A clinician can work on one side of the console and see everything a patient is doing. I’m the vice president of client relations for the company. I head operations with active clients for our platform. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agilites?

Agilites has been handling a good portion of our product development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Agilites has been in charge of all aspects of our product, including native development for iOS and Android, .NET development for our admin web panel, and QA engineering for automated and manual testing. Agilites also handles product management.

They are connected to our development management system, where they have access to all our user stories and tasks. We provide specifications, design documents, and everything else needed. Agilites has also taken part in the preliminary review process from an engineering standpoint.

How did you come to work with Agilites?

We were looking for an outsourced solution and focused on a specific city in Ukraine, which we thought would have the best potential in terms of pricing and number of companies to choose from. Kharkiv, Ukraine is a sort of technology hub since it is a university city with more than 60 academic institutions. We went there and met six different companies, interviewed them, and went with Agilites.

How much have you invested with Agilites?

We have a continuous development effort, so it would be hard for me to say how much an individual project cost us. We are using 18–19 different engineers from Agilites, for which we are paying around $40,000 per month. After doing the math, you can see that our cost is quite low.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Agilites in April or May 2015. The work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Agilites’ management and leadership teams are very good. We had a good feeling about them from the start, which is why we picked them, but we couldn’t know for sure. I can now say that I’ve appreciated their attitudes and professionalism. We started by using a four- or five-person team and have expanded to almost 20. Agilites has been tasked with finding the right people for what we’re trying to do for a price that made sense. They’re attuned to our project and particular needs; most of the time, they’ve nailed it, bringing us people with good price ranges and skills.

Overall, I was surprised with the level of engineering. We had been working in Israel for a few years before. Engineers here have a very good reputation, but they’re very expensive—close to Silicon Valley levels. We were looking for a cheaper option but didn’t want to compromise the quality. To my surprise, we didn’t. Agilites has a strong team, and they’ve exceeded our expectations. We feel that they’re a true part of our team and can really back us up.

Agilites is very knowledgeable in terms of QA. I’ve learned that they originated in this area, so there is a lot of existing talent in the company. If there is any kind of need regarding technology or methodology, Agilites will have someone in the company who can help us. I would say that this area is their strongest. With Agilites, we have been able to successfully implement the automation that we were trying to do for a few years in Israel. We are currently fully automated, basically.

What did you find most impressive about Agilites?

Unlike most clients, we simply flew to the city and interviewed companies initially. We wanted to see them for ourselves since we had heard from our partners that some of the Ukrainian market can be a bit fishy. We knew that there was some potential but couldn’t know what would actually happen once we started working with Agilites. At the end of the day, everything they told us had to sound nice. One of the things we’ve seen in our two-year relationship with Agilites is that their two owners are honest business people; what we saw was what we got. They didn’t play games or make false promises. If Agilites’ team thought that something would not turn out right, they let us know. Beyond engineering, this is Agilites’ best asset. They are good, honest, and professional people.

Are there any areas Agilites could improve?

I would be happy if we were able to pay less, but Agilites has reasonable market prices, so I can’t complain. When we started, their English was not the best. Many of the discussions were in Russian. Over the last year, Agilites’ team worked hard on their English, so this has become a non-issue. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company develops software for HR automation. We have several products, including a combined learning management and talent management system and an eLearning authoring tool. We develop our solutions as an independent software vendor and implement solutions based on our products for various client companies. I am the vice president of product development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agilites?

We have been outsourcing software testing services for more than two years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Agilites has helped us with testing for our web tutor platform, working as a continuation of our team. We deliver various releases to Agilites for testing, they install our system on testing servers, develop specifications, and execute manual tests based on both predefined scripts and ad hoc requirements. Agilites records found defects in our bug tracking system and tracked those defects until their closure.

We have worked with two testers from Agilites' team. We also have contact with their managers, including the head of the software development and testing services team, and the director of the company, who mainly contacts us regarding financial issues and so on. Agilites' testers work with us as permanent team members. We haven't needed additional resources so far.

How did you come to work with Agilites?

Agilites contacted our company, offering their services, at a very good moment for us. We were planning to look for some external software testers, so we set up a pilot project. We were satisfied with Agilites' work and decided to continue working with them on a permanent basis.

The main factor for us was their ability to understand our software from an end-user perspective. Our product is quite large and difficult to understand regarding settings and configurations. There are many ways in which it can be set up, so understanding the diversity of those options is critical for the testing engineers working for us. They wouldn't be able to do their work efficiently otherwise. Agilites' team demonstrated that they could understand our software product, and effectively find defects within it.

Another skill we were looking for was the ability to specify test cases independently for our team. We didn't have the internal resources to provide test designs for remote testers to execute. Agilites demonstrated that they could do it. We've had several test specifications and checklists developed by their engineers so far. They are being used in our testing process and updated on a regular basis.

How much have you invested with Agilites?

I am not ready to disclose financial arrangements.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Agilites in 2014. It's an ongoing collaboration. We don't have any plans to change our relationship with Agilites.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don't utilize formal metrics for evaluating Agilites' performance. As a general example, two years ago, one smoke test used to take our testing engineers two days to execute. Now, it takes Agilites' team less than one day to execute a smoke test. This tells us that they can do the work quickly and understand our system well. The more we work with Agilites, the better their performance becomes. These informal considerations are things which make us happy. Agilites has demonstrated a twofold performance increase over the last two years.

How did Agilites perform from a project management standpoint?

Agilites has a team lead who is a hands-on person in charge of test specs, while also executing them, and providing reports to us. He manages the work of another team member. We are quite comfortable with this arrangement. Our team lead acts as a single point of contact; she is quite organized, accurate, and clear in her communications. These are the main things we need from Agilites regarding project management.

Their work is a part of the software engineering process itself and not an actual project, so we don't have strict start and endpoints, but rather a continuous process of passing updated releases and bug fixes to Agilites' team. It's not a relationship which requires a dedicated project manager from the partner's side.

What did you find most impressive about Agilites?

It may not be unique, but we've liked the fact that Agilites can work as a continuation of our team. We treat them like our team members, sharing our corporate email, and working with the same servers and bug tracking systems. It's more convenient for us, and even though Agilites is located in a different country, it hasn't been an obstacle in our work.

Are there any areas Agilites could improve?

We have provided Agilites with feedback and improvement recommendations over the last two years. They were always flexible and ready to change their working style, making it more convenient for us. At this moment, there are no outstanding questions or improvement requests for Agilites' team.

Do you have any recommendations for others considering working with Agilites?

I do not have any specific recommendations, but I can definitely recommend other companies that are interested in outsourcing the software testing function to work with Agilites.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company develops cloud-based engineering applications used in manufacturing and other areas. Our main product gives users the ability to simulate different physical processes. I am the QA team leader of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agilites?

We had a one-time short project for crowd-testing our platform. We had applied a lot of major user interface changes into the website, so we required manual testing as well as usability analysis. The old interface had been developed using old technologies, as well as poor architecture decisions. It was an internal decision to update the framework and the architecture of the application, leading to a number of changes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Agilites provided manual testing for our web interface as well as usability and security testing. We received a report detailing all identified issues and improvement suggestions. We required a great number of people for a short term. Agilites assigned around 13 people to our project for around one week.

How did you come to work with Agilites?

We chose Agilites based on the information on their website as well as their rate. Our first call went quite well, so we made a decision. We didn't look at any other candidates for this particular project, but we do use other external partners.

How much have you invested with Agilites?

The cost of Agilites' work was €600 [$630] or even less.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Agilites in December 2016. The project was completed successfully a couple of months ago. We plan to use Agilites again for similar services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The collaboration with Agilites was quite positive, starting with our first call. Their communication was good, which reassured us that Agilites would be able to complete the job. During the project execution, we were assigned a contact person who was typically online. We received the results we were hoping for and the cost was quite reasonable from our point of view, even lower than market prices. From a technical point of view, it was a simple task so we didn't have any issues.

How did Agilites perform from a project management standpoint?

The organization part was done at a good level. Our contact person from Agilites managed all the activities of their team. We used Skype for calls and chat.

What did you find most impressive about Agilites?

The task was quite simple, but I appreciated the maintained responsibility from Agilites' team. When working on a freelance basis, we are never sure if the other side will do the job properly. Agilites never gave us the impression that we might have an issue.

Are there any areas Agilites could improve?

No, everything was done well.