Devathon

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

The basic requirements were developed well. The quality of coding was good, as well as the speed of delivery. We had an external party do a code audit to validate the quality. We found that it was good, but there was some room for improvement. That's partly due to us because you get what you ask for. We cut some corners on the documentation because of limitations and budget. We're happy with the deliverables, the project management, and the choices made.

How did Devathon perform from a project management standpoint?

Working with them was a good experience, but there needs to be an experienced project manager or functional architect to really guarantee the quality of the deliverables.

We used Trello and Sprint Learning to manage the progress. When we would reach out they were always excellent, quick, and spoke good English. The whole experience from the very start of the project was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I used to work for larger companies and with offshore teams in India. I found working with offshore agencies difficult in the past, but what I found impressive with Devathon was that they had a really good understanding of e-commerce. They were able to grasp the idea of what we wanted to build.

In addition, they were able to scope the project and bring it forward. They added improvements because of their experience. The project management and skills were really good, and I was really impressed. It was the best experience I've had with offshore teams, and probably developers as a whole.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Once the first release was live and the project manager was less involved, the quality was okay, but not as good. That put more pressure on us to make sure that we defined what needed to be built.

Having better QA and tools in place to check progress is something they can improve on internally as well. Our current developer has a whole array of tools in place which makes it a lot of easier.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have a clear scope project, use them. If you need an e-commerce specialist working with you, I would definitely recommend using them. If you're looking for more of a long-term relationship, you need to pay attention to how the day-to-day operations work. There is room for improvement, but it was also down to us, because the project was limited and we cut corners. In the end, one of us should have said no earlier.

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

Our partners absolutely loved Devathon’s work. We had tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of entrants through the project, so it did really well.

How did Devathon perform from a project management standpoint?

Devathon did really well from a project management standpoint. I think there were a few slip ups with timing on both sides. We weren’t clear on our deadlines and how we wanted something to work. When you're working with someone who’s not in the same office as you, it’s a little harder to make all of that work. As far as reliability, Devathon always gets the work done. There was no pushback, and the quality of the final product was amazing.

We would jump on calls every now and then to talk about how the project was going and what the progress update was. Email was the second way we communicated, and then the third way was Trello boards where we listed tasks and then sort of moved projects along by marking what was up for review and what was finished. We did a lot of communicating that way too.

What did you find most impressive about Devathon?

I think Tarun leads almost everything at Devathon. He’s a great guy and he’s straightforward with what he thinks they can and cannot do. I think the best thing about them was their lack of pushback. I’m sure if we had asked for something completely outrageous, Tarun would have said something because he’s a straightforward guy, but they always figured out creative solutions to whatever we were trying to do.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Devathon?

I would recommend that future clients make sure that Devathon is clear about deadlines, what they think the actual deadline is going to be for them, how much work is going to be involved, and being thorough on the QA process as well. We definitely refined our process over the four projects we worked on together. We watched each other grow over time; there were a ton of improvements on both sides. It wasn’t a real issue for us in the end, but I know that when we first started, we had a few little hiccups, but both our sides picked it up and we evolved together.