What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I would recommend this company, and I’d give them perfect marks for quality. Everything was as we required and expected, and they adhered to the schedule strictly. The final deliverables were provided on time, and they met the budget as well.
How did DIGIS perform from a project management standpoint?
We communicated by phone on occasion, but we mainly used Skype for communication. We also created a Slack channel. We had meetings with the project manager a couple of times per week and with the team once a week when they provided us with a presentation.
We had a Scrum-like process. We suggested using Jira, but they convinced us that Asana was more flexible. I’d never heard about it, but we started using it and I liked it. They created a board for us in Asana, where they assigned tickets. We started with Skype chats and Slack, and they convinced us slowly that it would be better to leave our feedback directly in the tickets.
They used another tool for time logging but only internally on their side. They extracted the data into a Google spreadsheet and sent it to us.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Everything was organized. We were able to discuss technical issues with all the developers assigned to us, and the quality and speed of work were impressive. They adhered to the project schedule. They are a loyal partner.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I would advise them to introduce more procedures, but that could reduce their flexibility. This is something we weren’t looking for in the beginning; we just wanted to find an agile team.
I only hope that they’ll continue to provide the same level of dedication to the customer after they’ve grown to twice or three times their current size. For now, they’re doing great.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Clients should be well prepared for the communication with the provider. We had an idea and plan in the beginning, but we would’ve probably saved some time if we described what we wanted in more detail. DIGIS helped us with this, but we should’ve tried to describe it better. We had some contradictory requirements coming from our side, but DIGIS had the right experience and helped us resolve this conflict within our team. I saw the system one way, and I eventually found that my partner had a different view. It’s better to be on the same page before hiring someone.
While all the initially desired features weren’t completed due to the solution’s complexity, stakeholders have started selling the product to consumers. The efficiency of DIGIS' workflow was aided by their responsive communication style.