Atomic Object

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior product manager at 86 Repairs, a repair and maintenance management platform for the restaurant industry. We’re part software and part service. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We wanted to build a mobile app for our customers. We needed a team with expertise in mobile app development to accelerate the process. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started off with a couple of weeks of design, where we went on-site and met with some of our customers. We got to know the industry and the problem spaces a little better. At the end of that initial design research phase, we got together with the Atomic Object design team and came up with the MVP version of our mobile app. 

We started with a rough idea of what we wanted the features to be. We wanted our customers to be able to create service requests which is the primary way that they engage with us. We also wanted them to be able to view all of the requests in our system and be able to drill down to each individual request and get more specific information.

We had a lot of data but needed to represent it and show it to our end users in a mobile-friendly way. We specced out the screens, detailed the interactions that we wanted, and worked with Atomic Object's engineering team to build the first version of the app. 

We built it using Expo Go with a React Native framework, and Atomic Object used Figma and Miro. Our team handled most of the backend work of the API integration. 

What is the team composition? 

They had a delivery lead, and we worked closely with the UX designer.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

They were a referral for us; I talked to seven different agencies before deciding to move forward with Atomic Object. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $180,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between November 2022–February 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our success was being able to have a mobile app that we could launch to our customers by the end of the engagement. Since we finished our engagement with Atomic Object, the adoption of the app has been very strong.

I’m happy with the progress that we’ve made, and we give them a lot of credit for finding the right feature set and building something clean and functional that our end users find valuable.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was great and we had stand-ups or check-ins a couple of times a week. We communicated via phone calls, texting, and Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They brought a broad range of skills to the table. No matter what we threw at them, they had somebody who had the expertise we needed and was able to consult and give an informed opinion. Atomic Object became a part of our team really quickly, and they took a lot of pride and ownership in their work. 

It felt like we were working with people who cared about our business just as much as we do, which was really nice to see. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a couple of times when we had to go back and forth with the invoices to ensure the budget was trending on track. I had to watch that a little bit more than I would have liked, but we ended up delivering on time and everything went well in the end. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They really care about their craft and their work. They have a lot of good expertise to offer beyond the delivery of the product. Look to them as partners and subject matter experts, and you’ll get a lot of value out of your engagement. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of a company that does R&D on chemical processes for making high-value chemicals. We also develop custom tools to facilitate that work. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We hired Atomic Object to add some functionality to a software tool. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We added compliance features to use the software in a regulated environment for making drugs. Key technologies included Python and JavaScript. Atomic Object primarily helped with the development, but they also assisted with some design. 

We use the solution in the lab for data collection and control of scientific instruments. Atomic Object added a user authentication and audit trail functionality.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two full-time developers from Atomic Object, and other individuals went in and out as necessary. 

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

We spoke to multiple companies during our discovery process but ultimately decided to go with Atomic Object because they had the most attractive proposal. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between August–November 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to validate the software functions to meet the regulatory requirements and satisfy our quality obligations. The software unlocked new capabilities for our company, and the quality was very high. 

The project came together exactly the way that we hoped it would. We were able to take the new tools they built and develop other software features, which was a really important goal for us. 

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

We had daily stand-ups and managed sprints together. We used Jira for project management and communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were most impressed with their ability to develop something that we needed and to do it in an elegant way that allowed us to make it our own. Once the project with Atomic Object was over, we were able to take it over seamlessly. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing we can come up with. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure you have clear communication at the beginning of the project regarding your goals. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of production for Pixelberry Studios; we are in the video gaming industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

Our company was trying to do something quite unique in our space and create a user-generated content platform. We didn’t have a lot of expertise or competency in that area, so we set out for about 6–12 months to try and find third-party contractors and agencies who had achieved things they hadn’t before, and who had operationalized whatever key learnings came out of that research.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built our websites and backend and handled UX/UI design. They have a substantial operational menu of all the services they have, but they’re integrated into our project; everything that we conceptualize from an operational perspective across the platform is led by their organization.

If we want new functionalities or a piece of the platform added, they take over after the initial requirements are gathered and maintain everything up to the launch of that part of the platform. They do this across our platform today, and it is substantial.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

Our engineering group found Atomic Object.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them around January 2020, and it is an ongoing engagement. We have asked them to stay on for another year because we can’t internally hire the competencies that they instantly bring.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had 100% uptime since our initial beta launch of the platform, and it's been more than a year now. The platform has remained at 95% uptime since its launch, which is incredible, and they've never missed a milestone with our organization.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They are laser-focused on budget and timing, which is something I’ve never seen in 30 years of development. We use Slack and Zoom almost exclusively for communication, and Miro boards and Jira for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of their strengths is their leadership and the focus of their team members on that leadership. I’ve never had a team that is so well-led and so purpose-driven. Even when people leave their company, we can’t tell because the quality of their work stays the same. This speaks to the competence of the management and their ability to always understand customer challenges. 

Atomic Object is also incredible at helping us understand what we want to achieve. They lead us through countless exercises to quantify and qualify exactly what success means from a product perspective, and then ultimately, laser guide our focus to deliver to our senior management. They’ve been an integral partner of ours for about three years now.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be wonderful if they could grow their capacity slowly and keep their quality because they're amazing. They keep their company at a specific size within the scope of their management capacity and capability, and that is a constraint on any large company because you want to grow as fast as that team will take you. 

We’ve had to use other third-party vendors because we struggle to scale with them, and it’s not the same. Our internal teams can’t keep up with the capacity and quality of delivery, which is a sticking point. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Involve Atomic Object at the earliest conceptual stages of the project, and they will not let you down.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director for a consulting firm that works with Fortune 1000 companies to help leaders align on strategy and cascade that strategy to people within their organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We had a tool that was mainly used offline that we called a learning map. It put small groups of people together with visualization data for interactive dialogue. We hired Atomic Object to upgrade the software and build a version that replicated the effectiveness of the offline version so people could have that interactive dialogue anywhere in the world.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Atomic Object helped us with the first version, and once we knew it worked, they built the second version for us. The second version is a more robust platform with much more scalability for our global needs. 

The platform allows users to sign in and assigns various roles to the participants because it is self-guided facilitation. It contains different visuals and activities throughout the experience, allowing for questions and people to contribute their input. It has a lot of interactivity and functionality for collaboration, and the topics vary based on client needs. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with between 8–10 people. Depending on where we were in the flow of the project, we had different individuals coming in and out to work on it. There were programmers, project managers, and we worked with senior executives. 

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

They were a local agency, and we’d heard good things about them so we decided to work with them to build the original platform. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested more than $1 million in the second version. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We initially engaged with Atomic Object on the first project during the COVID-19 pandemic. We worked on the second platform between October 2021–October 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s too soon to give any real metrics, but we finished the project on time and were able to deliver the product when we said we were going to. We’ve had positive qualitative feedback from internal stakeholders, and they feel like we’ve been able to enhance our approach with this platform. We’re confident that the platform will be critical to our ongoing business success. 

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They provided excellent project management. They listened to our feedback and made changes to make the partnership more successful. We used Jira to communicate and track progress. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They took a lot of risk on our company in the initial stages of the process. Atomic Object put their professional reputation on the line to invest in the future success of our product, so we give them a lot of credit. We fully trusted them because of their willingness to dive in with us, and they continued to provide high-quality work for us throughout. 

They were incredibly flexible, transparent, and professional. We always knew where we stood with them, and they kept us in the loop and helped us make realistic project decisions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind in terms of improvement. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a higher education institute.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We wanted to migrate data from our previous curricular management and evaluation system to a new one called MedHub, so we needed help creating a custom software solution that could help us migrate data.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Atomic Object helped us create a custom tool for data migration to transfer our evaluations from our legacy system to the new MedHub platform. We started by providing Atomic Object with the documentation we had from both platforms — they already had experience working with MedHub, so we just helped them fill any possible gaps.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their development team and John (Managing Partner), who oversaw the whole project.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

MedHub recommended Atomic Object to us as a vendor because they had previously worked together.

How much money have you invested in this partnership?

We spent $10,000–$50,000 with them for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March 2020–June 2022. We had a by-the-hour agreement, where we used their services ad hoc to our needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The navigation and functionality of our processes improved, and the product itself met our expectations. In terms of metrics, we were able to transfer around 200,000 discrete evaluations.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Their ability to communicate and stick to schedules and budgets delivered a great project management experience. Regarding tools, we used email and Zoom — they were super responsive. Overall, we always knew where we were with the process and could reach out to John as needed to oversee our future plans.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were always transparent with the process and timely with communication. In addition, their team was honest about the limitations they encountered throughout the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn’t think there was anything they could improve on. It was a challenging process for us, but Atomic Object did a solid job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure to ask all of your questions and be clear with your requirements. In addition, be responsive and communicative to keep up with them and avoid causing delays.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the program director at Lighthouse, a nonprofit organization that works on homelessness and housing-related issues. We also work with people who are seeking housing opportunities or whatever their situation happens to be. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

Our organization owns a crowdfunding platform called HandUp, which helps people who are experiencing economic hardships. Atomic Object has worked with us as contracted software engineers to continue improving this platform.

To provide context, HandUp was originally developed in 2014 by a public benefit corporation. It was also nationally utilized by people who want to share their stories or provide support. Lighthouse joined HandUp’s userbase in 2015, and we were approached to take over the site in 2017. They said that it would operate better as a program within a nonprofit organization since it would be able to apply for grants and funding streams. When we took on HandUp, we realized that we needed to outsource the actual software engineering aspects of it. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

HandUp was initially built as a proof of concept (POC), and Atomic Object worked to stabilize it. They made the platform’s weak points more resilient and fixed the errors that appeared as the platform grew. 

At present, Atomic Object maintains and rolls out new features for HandUp; they also fix bugs as they happen. The team has also initiated automated processes to make the platform easier to use. Their resources are also working on making it more user-friendly.  

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with a few people from Atomic Object, including John and Jonah (Managing Partners). I also work with Kory (Software Consultant & Developer). 

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

When we acquired HandUp in 2017, we decided to seek software engineering assistance. That was when we found Atomic Object.  We liked them because we weren’t far away from their offices; they were incredibly accessible. On top of that, they were patient in explaining technical things to us. That was why we decided to hire them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $30,000–$40,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2018, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started working with Atomic Object, HandUp has raised over $4 million to support individuals and nonprofits in the homelessness space. We’ve also engaged over 120 organizations — they’ve all utilized HandUp to raise funds for their goals. These nonprofits have met over 10,000 goals and raised over $7 million in total. 

Most recently, the biggest success we’ve had with Atomic Object is related to the revamped donation process. We’ve been able to generate enough revenue through our transactions. This has helped us cover our technical costs, making the program more sustainable. In fact, we’re able to provide services such as our COVID-19 pandemic recovery and relief campaign. 

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Communicating with Atomic Object has been incredibly easy. They’ve been incredibly responsive whenever there’s a bug or crash that requires an urgent response. I mainly work with Kory, and we’re on Slack all the time as we work together. We also have a monthly sync meeting with the Atomic Object team to go over our goals. About once a year or so, I check in with John and Jonah to discuss the project’s progress and any plans we’re pursuing in the coming year. 

Overall, they’ve made themselves available to us in a number of ways, and we appreciate their accessibility. Their resources are also highly consumer-centric. They take their time to provide assistance, and that has been an important part of our work — they not only deliver good products; they also do it with a good team of people around them. 

In terms of tools, we use tools like GitHub, Pivotal, Zendesk, and Squarespace. We previously used a platform called Intercom, but it wasn’t the right fit for HandUp, so Atomic Object helped us to replace it with a different one. We now use Pivotal to track individual tasks and keep a running list of our big activities. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Atomic Object genuinely believes in our mission. They see the value of our work; although this is a small project when compared to their work with other organizations, they’re committed to it. They understand the key role they play in the success of our fundraising efforts to support people who are experiencing hardships and homelessness. 

On top of that, they make complex things easily understandable for anybody who doesn’t have a computer science or engineering background. They’ve been able to not only bring themselves up to speed but also help us understand what they’re able to do and provide. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. They’ve been great and responsive to our needs. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know that Atomic Object is incredibly accessible; they want to answer your questions. Their resources are creative when it comes to coming up with solutions to problems. Their work culture and ethics are also great; they treat their employees well and promote a good working environment. The team also preaches work-life balance.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a startup that serves K-12 education institutions, primarily public school districts, and charter schools. We have back-office software in the people management space, and our flagship product deals with tracking employee absences. It also matches and places substitutes in classrooms. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We hired them to help us build our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Atomic Object worked almost exclusively on the web UI of our flagship product using React, GraphQL, Apollo Client, and TypeScript. Their team developed the key features of our product, such as data and absence management. Our team had limited experience, so Atomic Object brought their React experience to the table. We also used some tools from their libraries to help us cogenerate a library for GraphQL. They also helped us find simplified ways of cogenerating interactions between Apollo Client and TypeScript. 

What is the team composition?

Two developers worked directly with my team on a day-to-day basis. Meanwhile, my main point of contact was the project manager, who managed our business relationship and billing schedule. 

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

Atomic Object was hired by the company that invested in our product. When I came onboard and merged with the business to rebuild the product, I inherited the team as part of the company’s investment in us. Meanwhile, I was highly impressed with their philosophy and approach. The team was truly mature; I enjoyed sitting down with them and talking shop, so we continued the engagement. 

How much have you invested with them?

During my involvement, we invested around $300,000. Prior to that, the company that found them spent well over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked with us from September 2019–January 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Atomic Object was instrumental in our timely launch; we built the entire UI and 90% of the backend in only around five months. They didn’t work on any standalone feature that could be measured quantitatively, however. 

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was mature and reasonable, though they didn’t truly have any project management responsibilities that specifically involved me. Their developers integrated easily with our team and our loose process. They were also highly flexible as they adapted to our fast implementation cycle. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The knowledge of their entire group was impressive. The Atomic Object team was able to draw knowledge from other developers and teams as they worked closely on Apollo Client and GraphQL. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Atomic Object was thorough but a little slow. I pushed for speedy implementation and decision-making because I saw that they had a slow, methodical approach to the project even before I came on board. The project wouldn’t have succeeded at our preferred scale if they continued at the rate that they were moving. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Atomic Object has a good methodology for discovering business requirements and designing deliverables. However, they’re not cheap; they’re going to be more expensive if you don’t know the software you want to build up front. As a result, you should bring much of your software knowledge and experience to the table. Although the team is open to adjusting to your needs, it's difficult for any software developer to build without understanding the deliverables.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a supervisor at an automobile OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). I manage two products in our ecosystem.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We were tasked with taking a research project and turning it into production software in a short amount of time. We realized that we didn’t have enough time to complete it in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a location and map-based project. The team brought in very experienced, high-quality developers that were able to look at the POC and our requirements and help build the required solution. They were involved in all of the planning, architecture, and development.

What is the team composition?

We worked with seven developers and two project managers.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

They were recommended as a good company with a high skill level. They had definite expertise in the technology we needed and the area we needed. The way they worked was also very good.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $1.5 million–$2 million range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and we wrapped up in June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They completed the new software feature successfully. They definitely met our requirements from a quality standpoint. The team also helped us meet our tight deadline. Their attitude and ability to share knowledge with our team was excellent. They’re very easy to work with.  

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

We had daily standups to talk with the team. We used Slack for communication, and we also had monthly check-ins with the account management team to make sure everything was going well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to learn things quickly stands out. They were able to ramp up quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a bit more turnover than I’d like to see on a team of our size. That being said, this project happened during COVID-19, so there were a lot of things changing at that time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If things aren’t going as you had hoped, don’t be afraid to ask for something different or new. We did just that on the project management side, and the team was very flexible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Healthy Minds Innovations is a nonprofit that provides products and services in the mental well-being space. Primarily, we’ve developed an app that provides training in terms of mental well-being skills. We’re also closely affiliated with the University of Wisconsin Center for Healthy Minds. 

I’m the VP of customer engagement. As such, I have plenty of conversations and contact with outside organizations that are looking for services, which are quite varied from research projects to straight-up customer relationships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Objects?

We were a small team of 27 people, and we had a fairly significant number of departures from teammates — we lost around 7–8 people. That included software developers and project managers who were involved in the app we were developing. In other words, we had a big gap in resources, hampering our ability to continue supporting the app and adding new features to it. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our engagement with Atomic Object had two main components. In the first one, one of their senior members guided us around managing our team as we lost senior managers. He also assisted us in our hiring process, helping define job descriptions and vet candidates to fill the gap in our team. Overall, he provided general consulting advice on how to keep our operations running smoothly while we rebuilt our team. We also wanted to restructure our organization, so they helped us think through optimal ways to organize our team in the area of software development. 

For the second component, Brian (Software Consultant & Developer) joined our team and worked alongside our existing staff. He ran through a series of sprints with us, which were typically a couple of weeks long and varied widely in nature. His tasks included fixing bugs, digging into new features, and solving problems. Sometimes, Brian worked alone. However, he was often involved in pair-programming with our members. Moreover, he worked full-time, so he was in all of our daily standups — he essentially served as an extension of our team to bring stability and his expertise to the table. 

One of our biggest projects with Atomic Object was developing a web portal that allowed customers to register accounts and sign in on a platform. It consisted of several sprints’ worth of work and involved connecting 2–3 data streams into a unified format. This way, the data could be assembled and organized. Plenty of work was needed to make this feature work, and Atomic Object helped us tackle this large project while they were on board. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Brian and one member of their leadership team, who advised us on how to structure our organization. 

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

I became familiar with Atomic Object through my previous employer. We built a software team, and the first person we hired introduced us to Atomic Object. Over the years, we worked on a number of projects. When I joined my current company, I continued our working relationship and recommended them as a great resource. Our team also looked around for other options, but we ultimately decided that Atomic Object was the best provider for us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with them ran from January–June 2021 or around 5–6 months. However, I’m sure we’ll have other opportunities to work with them. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having Atomic Object as part of our team helped us shift from doing simple maintenance — where we merely maintained our app and fixed bugs — to making actual progress on a long list of features that we wanted to add. Rather than being stationary in terms of development, we dug into a to-do list and knocked things off one by one. For instance, the web portal project was a fairly extensive piece of work, and they helped us complete that during their time with us. 

Overall, they were highly talented. Although they were more expensive than other firms, they provided more than enough value for our money. As a nonprofit, we didn’t have deep pockets and a lot of revenue. Upon reflection, we felt that Atomic Object was well worth our investment

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Atomic Object’s project management was exceptional. We used our own tool to track our workload, and they integrated with that smoothly. Every Monday morning, they’d provide us with a summary of our work together, including the time spent working, billing reports, and budget updates. 

As a result, we knew exactly where we stood in terms of how much of our budget was left, how much had been used, and how much time we had left for each of the people they provided us. Overall, they had great communication, and we always knew where things were, especially in terms of budget. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by a few things about Atomic Object. On a high level, we admired the way they were organized as a group. They structured their organization in a way that looked after their people, ensuring that team members did great work as they tackled meaningful and valuable projects. 

Overall, everyone on their team was an outstanding contributor. As a result, we had a great deal of confidence and faith in their ability to jump in and help us out whenever we needed their assistance. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The process of assigning people to our team was a little nerve-wracking. They were obviously juggling a number of commitments each week, so there were uncertainties around who was doing what. Though the Atomic Object team was good at communicating, we couldn’t plan our engagement until the assignments were finalized and we knew who was joining us the following week. 

We couldn’t do much about this. However, projecting assignments a bit further into the future with more visibility into potential options would be nice. That being said, once we put everything into writing, our engagement went smoothly. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an engineering lead for a global automotive and aerospace supplier. I manage a small team of developers that provide internal applications and tools for other engineers in the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Atomic Object, and what were your goals?

We have a critical legacy application that is used by lots of engineers internally. It was written in C++ and suffers from problems with usability, deployment of updates, and inability to easily add new features. We hired Atomic Object to help us convert this tool into a browser based web application.

SOLUTION

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

We had hired Atomic Object several years prior to work on a database design and to temporarily augment our staff for a new product we were developing. They had provided quality personnel and expertise at that time, so we did not hesitate to want to hire them again.

We gave them our requirements and they sent back a project proposal that was thorough and within our budget.

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

Atomic Object was hired to provide a ready made tech stack and to train our developers in the practice of web development. They worked well with our developers and were able to successfully integrate into our existing DevOps infrastructure.

The teach stack consisted of git, Node, npm with Yarn , React, Redux, Redis caching, Apollo GraphQL, Docker on Linux, and Visual Studio Code.

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

There were a total of 5 consultants. A lead architect and system designer, a lead UI/UX designer, two web developers, and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We accomplished the main goals of the engagement, which were to design a web based user interface to the existing tool, and to train our developers on how to continue to develop that tool after the engagement was over. We worked in two weeks sprints and successfully maintained project velocity and merged PR's on time according to our project plan.

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

Atomic provided a project manager that oversaw the team on the Atomic side and interfaced with our project manager at a high level. They used Pivotal Tracker. We had daily standups, end of week reviews, and sprint planning sessions every Monday. We also constantly communicated using tools like Discord.

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

We were impressed with the quality of the codebase and the expertise of the developers that worked on our project. They were thorough, professional, and up to date on the latest trends and technologies. We also appreciated their approach to user interface design, called Human Centric Design.

Their designer met with our internal customers to get direct input on what they wanted to see in the redesign effort. This was invaluable, as it provided a direct window into the usability problems of our customers. So far the feedback on the new design is extremely positive.

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

Budget constraints on our end forced us to have to remove a dedicated tester from the project in order to extend the time available to the software devs. As a result, there are a few places where unit tests are missing or need to be improved, but so far we have not found any serious bugs or design flaws that a full time tester would have caught.