What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
In the projects that we used Forte for, there was just no way that we were going to get those projects off the ground without Forte’s help. Because they gave us a managed services team rather than a couple of individuals, their ramp-up time was extremely small.
They were able to figure out what they were going after, intelligently suggest features and ideas that we hadn’t thought of and improve our product offerings overall. That was very much a credit to their team’s experience and ability to execute.
It was clear throughout our engagement with them that they cared more about building a great project at the end of the day than what their billable hours looked like, so there was never a case where we received a deliverable with gaps in its functionality or even a time when all of their work wasn’t perfectly documented for us to keep track of.
How did Forte Group perform from a project management standpoint?
One of the scrum masters that Forte sourced ended up managing multiple projects under me, and he was by far the best project manager I have ever had the chance to work with. Our team developed clear rules around how we wanted to work, how we wanted to operate, and how we wanted to communicate. He took all that feedback and made sure that we were accountable and responsible for those particular rules for the good of the overall projects.
They were great at stepping back and looking at the bigger picture of what our company needed to do to be successful and then presenting us with the pros and cons of developing one thing versus another in terms of how it would affect that larger picture of things.
What did you find most impressive about them?
In the team that I was provided originally, half of them hadn’t ever worked together before, a couple of them were software engineers who were filling QA roles instead, and yet they all came together to accomplish the goals that we set in front of them, regardless of how lofty those goals were.
They always did a good job of keeping me abreast of their higher-level conversations about how people were feeling about the progress of the project. At the same time, I could provide transparency around how I felt we were moving, and that allowed them to anticipate what was coming next in a much better way than they would ever have been able to otherwise. That level of transparency and camaraderie was absolutely invaluable to the project.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Our particular technology stack and architectural approach were often not the best fit for the goals that we were giving them to work towards. They really tried to position themselves as a partner at first in debating what the best approach to each project would be, but as time wore on, they became less eager to collaborate and tended to just ask what we needed and execute it.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
The people at Forte are incredibly knowledgeable and have a huge amount of combined experience. If you’re thinking about scoping a project, it’s extremely valuable to get to the root of the problem and find a practical approach to solving it. The earlier you get them involved, the faster they will be able to hit the ground running and the more momentum they will have to get up to speed.
Forte Group was very successful. Their team was highly effective. They were very passionate and always provided helpful insights.