Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.
R1: After a five-month delay, we were left with a product we couldn’t use to generate revenue. We almost lost our investors and had to spend approximately $60,000 more ending contracts with other parties and paying rent and employees. The entire website was in their hands, and they would only share their code if we made the final payment.
Respondent 2: 10–20% of the cost was for QA, but we had to test everything ourselves. It was nearly impossible to document every bug, but we made a list of 600 and gave it to them to fix. They told us the problems were resolved many times, but they were still there when we tested them. We were wasting so much time that we decided to pay them just to end the engagement.
How was project management handled?
R1: The largest problem was that they said they would deliver in eight weeks at most, but still hadn't delivered anything after seven months. We were happy in the beginning, as they kept us updated and gave us documentation over email. Unfortunately, they told us we couldn’t see the site yet, as it was in a staging and not a real-time environment.
When the deadline came closer, they started giving excuses. After a 5- to 6-week delay, we began to think they weren't being honest with us. We told them if they didn’t deliver in one more week, we’d lose a significant amount of money, and they assured us it wouldn't be a problem.
This turned into a five-month delay. If they’d kept us in the loop and said we were looking at a five-month delay, we could’ve ended the engagement then. They simply weren’t honest. As the project grew worse, they started to say they wouldn't deliver to our fixed-price because they’d be doing it at a loss. That’s when we knew it wasn’t going to get better.
Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?
R1: People could go to them for simple, basic websites.
In what specific areas can they improve?
R1: We had a 350-page wireframe document that we showed to other companies, and almost all of them said they’d never seen such detailed documentation. This is the reason we’re having such a great time with our current provider. They’re able to just read documents and ask us questions. This is the biggest way Daffodil could have performed better.
Even though we had weekly meetings with their entire team, we still only spoke with the project manager, although the developers would step in occasionally if we had a technical question.
What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?
R1: I can’t say anything except “don’t go to Daffodil.” It might be harsh, but we invested too much time in documentation and project management. If someone has to rely on Daffodil’s professionalism and expertise to manage projects, I’d recommend going elsewhere.
It was hard for us, and this is the first time my co-founder and I have been eager to leave a review. We haven't been treated this way before, and we want to let other people know they should watch out for Daffodil.
Daffodil has developed software that serves as the client’s main product offering and has successfully endowed it with rich functionality. The team has delivered functions such as complex query logic via an appealing user interface. They’ve delivered work that sets them above comparable developers.