Curiosum

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at Oxygen Gaming Corp

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Develop white-label software for tournaments and skill-based contests.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Curiosum to accomplish?

• Audit Existing Codebase
• Refactor Code
• Develop new features

SOLUTION

How did you find Curiosum?

Online Search

Why did you select Curiosum over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Curiosum were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Curiosum helped us with platform stabilization, performance improvements, and preparing for further development. The stabilization aspect was mostly related to test coverage and productivity of writing tests moving forward. Once this aspect was settled, we were assured that refactoring and changes to the platform are verified against the test suite.
Once we hit the coverage goal, we set options in the Continuous Integration process to disallow merging new code changes if the test coverage falls below a specific percentage level. For performance improvements, they identified he most commonly used endpoints in the application (with the data we have gathered recently) and chose a couple of them. 
Then, we will analyze and improve the performance of the code, removing useless data preloading, SQL calls, etc. In this step, they went through through all LiveView pages to remove double data fetching.

In summary, here's what they did:
1. Verification of Grafana logs to identify the most used application endpoints.
2. Speeding up those endpoints to make sure that the most critical parts of the
application are working fine, performance-wise.
3. Removing double data fetching from live views.
4. Speeding up the test suite (it’s very slow right now) to prepare for a productive
test writing environment.

5. Removing ensure_assoc functions in favor of build ex_machina helper in test
factories, also to have a productive test writing environment.
6. Writing tests, with the goal to cover the most critical parts of the application
and try to get closer to 80% of total coverage.
7. Defining contexts of application and creating those, with delegations to
current ones.
8. Refactoring (including various activities). This is the longest part, which can take months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Faster performance, 
• fewer bugs, 
• ability to handle larger loads.

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

Curiosum was fast and efficient, and they always made themselves available even in challenging times.

What was your primary form of communication with Curiosum?

Virtual Meeting

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

Quality developers. When using outside developers there's always a hesitation. I'd put Curiousum develpers up against any developer we had internally or I've seen from top startups.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of an app and web platform agency geared towards mid and large sized companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our customer requested a mobile and web application for planning and tracking deliveries. The drivers of the company use the mobile application, and the planning department uses the planning web application.

SOLUTION

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

We've spoken to several Elixir/Phoenix development houses, but the great communication, forward thinking and critical thinking of Curiosum made it an easy choice.

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

We requested Curiosum to carry out the main development of the web application and backend, as a joint effort. The application interfaces with an ERP, serves as the API for the mobile application and provides the planning interface. We requested it to be built in Phoenix, with use of LiveView to make collaboration easy for the planning department.

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

The two founders and a developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the great succes stories we heard back from the customer was once when the main planner overslept, but could quickly set up a planning while using the tool.

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

Project management was a joint effort, we had daily standups, ticket management in Jira and a slack channel to have ad hoc communications.

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

Curiosum was able to go far beyond just a normal team of developers, but actively question our own ideas and find issues in solutions we proposed. They thought along side with us, being a great sparring partner.

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

We had some minor issues with availability, but these were initially resolved by extra work from the founders (thanks folks!) and later a developer was hired who was able to participate full time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead developer at Stakester. We’re an entertainment platform where users can play school-based games against each other for money and prizes. We have a mobile app that links users together from around the world to play skill-based games. It’s also available for consoles and PC devices. Additionally, we have mobile game tournaments running daily.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Curiosum?

We had an MVP product with an Elixir backend and a React Native frontend. We engaged with Curiosum because we were under tight time constraints to get the product into a more workable state. We had a small in-house team but wanted to augment it with other developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We work closely with Curiosum. They do software development as an outsourced team. We initially approached them with our product and asked them for their review to guide us in what we needed from a development team. Usually, we don’t use them as an outsourcing team; we’ve integrated them into ours.

We’re developing a mobile app with a server-based backend. The app is available for iOS and Android. They provide React Native and Elixir developers who work alongside us, scoping out new features and developing, testing, and deploying them to our production environments.

From the beginning of the project, we had contact with two of the senior people at Curiosum. They worked on our product to understand what it is and how it works. After that, they brought on other developers to join our team. They mainly collaborate on the development side, but when we get the designs from the design team, they often lend their expertise and give feedback to ensure it’s doable.

What is the team composition?

We have contact with the two senior members of the company. On the development side, we currently have one frontend developer and two backend developers working long-term.

How did you come to work with Curiosum?

We searched online and found them. They were one of the companies we interviewed as Elixir developers for our backend, a niche programming language.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2021. We plan to use them for as long as we’re running. As new features come in, we’ll continually engage with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been super impressed with the quality of their work and are extremely happy with them. We love working with them; they do brilliant work. They’ve made the code more efficient so we can have many more people on the app simultaneously without costing us more servers. Thanks to that, we’ve supported an increase of about 10 times the number of concurrent users.

Moreover, users like the application. We’ve had a couple of bugs, but users seem happy to report those things because they’re usually minor issues. Curiosum picks them up and fixes them quickly. Overall, their team has helped us in every imaginable way.

How did Curiosum perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re absolutely fantastic. We have a product owner on our team as our scrum master. He plans out all the sprints that we run. Since they’re integrated into our team, they come to our backlog refinement and sprint planning meetings. We put a certain amount of work into each sprint over two weeks, and they work through those tickets. We’ve never had any problems with their speed of work. If anything, they finish the tickets early, so we’re very happy with them.

We have joint Slack channels; we use Slack every day to talk to them. If we have small queries, they quickly call up other team members to have a chat with them. Also, we have daily stand-ups in the morning. Everyone talks about what they did the day before, what they’ll do today, and if there are any blockers for them. Overall, all the work is done on Jira; we use it as our planning software.

What did you find most impressive about them?

To be honest, they stand out for so many reasons. We appreciate the quality of their work, and their speed of work and openness to work are excellent. We enjoy the fact that they work with us long-term and not in a project-based way. Also, they’re happy to work with our product management style and provide ideas. If they see that we’re doing something that isn’t the best way possible, they let us know and provide their expertise. Moreover, they understand our business needs, including the budget. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don't think there’s something. We absolutely love working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should call them and have an open and honest discussion about what you’re looking for. Spend some time with them to explore your product and how they can best help you achieve your goals. They’re more than willing to have those conversations, sit down with you, and see what’s suitable for your company.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Senior Delivery Manager at CSHARK, a Software House from Poland that is focusing on Tailored Software Projects and IT Outsourcing

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The project was related to FinTech smart insurance solutions. We hired Curiosum to supplement our tech stack with Elixir Development Services.

SOLUTION

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

We decided to cooperate with Curiosum based on a series of interviews. The deciding factors were: Project experience, Elixir tech stack experience, price and availability.

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

The precise scope is under NDA. The project was delivered in Agile/SCRUM, we worked on an MVP of a greenfield solution. Curiosum was responsible for Elixir scope development related to payments.

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

2 persons were involved in the project from Curiosum. They role were Regular and Senior Developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Curiosum was responsible for creating a concept and delivering the Elixir payments module for the solution.

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

Curiosum is very flexible about the tools. We used MS Teams for communication, JIRA for Project Management. Communication was always on spot, we worked in AGILE/SCRUM Methodology.

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

Their expertise with Elixir and open-mindedness about technology in general. There were no tech blockers with any task, everything was reported precisely. Curiosum is very engaged in the projects, always trying to deliver more than expected. The quality of the code was very good, everything was structured and self-explanatory (or very well explained during meetings)

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

I was satisfied with everything they delivered. Nothing to be improved directly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Next-generation Enterprise Software Product CTO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Design/build/development and deployment of a new product. Ensure their development processes aligned with our agile approach. We had tight deadlines that had to be met.

SOLUTION

How did you select Curiosum and what were the deciding factors?

We needed our project delivered on time without neglecting the quality of the outcome. The key factors for choosing Curiosum was their honest and clear guidance for the overall project and the confidence that the best-in class engineers would be hands-on to deliver.

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

End-to-end development of our new project. Delivered in a highly collaborative agile manner. Elixir/Phoenix and Elm were the primary technologies. They have a very UX design focus on the frontend.

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

A team of three software engineers supported by management team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project exceeded all our expectations. Recommendations and guidance by Curiosum were never taken lightly and helped us deliver and go-live with our project ahead of target.

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

They sure know how to deliver effectively projects. The choice of project management and communication tools helped enormously to keep everybody inline.

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

We were under tight deadlines and their responsive communication significantly helped project progress.

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

None. We demanded a lot with this initial engagement. It would be difficult to improve on successful delivery.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Software as a Services for the Utility Industry

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Curiosum?

Consulting in the move to a technology stack i.e. Elixir

SOLUTION

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

Articles and tutorials posted by the vendor

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

Bi-weekly sessions with development team to assist in the transition over from a micro-services node.js environment to a monolith Elixir environment

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

Two

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team which had no prior knowledge in the technical stack succeeded in developing a complete platform in the new technology stack

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their workflow was extremely effective and comprehensive.

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

Honesty, integrity, well use of time, availability, civility and in depth knowledge of the subject matter

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

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an executive of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to develop a web app for an elderly living concept.

SOLUTION

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

We found them on the internet had an interview and got convinced they were the company for us to do it.

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

I am not a technical guy so this is not my best part to describe.

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

2 senior developers and 2 medium developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Perfect!

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

Good and clear communication!

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

The quality of getting to the result is impressive.

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

Not that I can think off right now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a cofounder of Digiforma, a major Edtech SaaS product in France.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for people with a deep knowledge of both Elixir/Phoenix and React to help with our full technical stack.

SOLUTION

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

Curiosum provides service on both Elixir and React, and their knowledge of Elixir/Phoenix is very solid.

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

Curiosum has been involved in many parts of our software. Some new components, some rewrites.

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

We have worked with 4 developers from Curiosum so far.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work has been integrated into many components of our system with a lot of success.

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

We appreciate that they are at the same time flexible and they do provide insights on how to make things better. We have adopted some tools after their advices.

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

They can work on highly technical matters as well as User eXperience problems with the same agility.

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

Curiosum has been helping us on our SaaS product for more than a year now, so we are constantly adjusting the way we work with them on this ongoing collaboration.