Perfectial

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Sr product Manager for Mirantis. Mirantis provides enterprise grade Cloud Native Platform providing Container and Virtual Machine platforms built on Open Source technologies such as Kubernetes and openStack.

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

We needed a Big Data savvy partner to help design and implement a multi facited project which captures valuable product usage insights for internal consumption as well as the architecture required to support usage based billing.

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

They were required to submit a proposal with initial architectures from a SOW and use case based requirements. Constrains were that the system must be built purely with Open Source components and be horizontally scalable.

Perfectial proposed a data ingestion pipeline, feeding a data lake with processing via Spark to populate a reporting DB that supplied telemetry to a web portal front end. They were chosen based on their proposal, which fit our notion of how we wanted the solution to look, as well as competitive pricing.

Their expertise in this area was also a strong contributing factor to their selection.

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

They designed and developed the system, working with Mirantis Product experts based on the initial design from the proposal. Additional requirements were communicated with design reviews prior to the start of incremental implementation.

They also researched and selected the Azure cloud using Deltalake as the data lake and Azure's Kafka compatible ingestion layer and Spark offering, as well as the Time Series DB and web =server infrastructure,

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

Team of 6:

• Big Data Architect
• Spark developers
• DevOps engineer
• Web Portal developer
• QA Automation engineer
• Project Manager

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

The system is in production today, working well. Agile development continuously adds capability to the platform.

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

Very good, PM handles most Jira management, team dynamics, monthly team work summaries. Communication was via Slack, Google hangouts, email. All communications were done in timely manner. For example when a key team member decided to leave they immediately informed us with a transition plan to a new hire.

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

They are easy to work with, stemming from core competence in the projects main area, good project management, and perhaps above all - they are easy to work with. The personalities of all team members are friendly with a shared desire for success.

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

None

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of Product and Engineering at Klara. I manage a team of 40 including Product, Design, Engineering, DevOps/SRE. We are a SAAS service that aims to improve communication between a doctor and a patient.

We are founded in Berlin, but our target market is 100% US based. We are funded by Google Gradient, FristCressey Ventures and Firstmark

For what projects/services did your company hire Perfectial?

We originally hired a team of 5 people to take on our EHR integration challenges. The intent was to build a team that would focus exclusively on integrating with these health systems

What were your goals for this project?

We started the project with the intent to build a team for the long-term. My business goal was to establish a staff-aug partner to assist our staffing efforts and provide additional options and flexibility for us as a company for engineering talent.

On the technical side, the goals were to build out an integration roughly every 3 mo.

How did you select Perfectial?

I did a vendor selection process. I had worked with Perfectial before, but only a small project. I narrowed this down to 3 companies.

At this point it came down to who could provide the candidates fastest that would pass our interview screen. Perfectial won this.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was mostly backend work in Ruby. the engineers h ad to learn proprietary apis from EHR companies like Athena, Allscripts etc. They had to learn the FHIR standard.

They build an initial integration (Nextech) and then followed up with one pretty much every quarter thereafter....

Since then, we've introduced partner apis and other integrations to this team and expanded their scope. Our stack was Ruby/PostGres with React front end. All webbased

What was the team composition?

1 project manager 4 backend engineers. (2 Sr, 2 intermediate) we now are at 1 project manager 1 TL 5 Sr 3 Intermediate 2 QA

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

Today, this team is fully integrated into our business, and every day they play a key role in the Klara team.

They have subject matter expertise and component ownership over a critical piece of our software: 5+ successful EHR Integrations have been key to this team’s success and Klara’s success.

Each one has been a revenue driver for us. Additionally, during this time, we’ve only lost one engineer (who actually decided to return to our team during COVID). This team also supports requests from our most strategic and important customers.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team is fully integrated now. From a workflow perspective, they act like any engineer on our team and you wouldn't know they are part of Perfectial unless you asked them Early on, we had a separate track for them and a dedicated Product manager.

We had the Lviv team and the Berlin team and there was a clear separation with regard to meetings etc....We have evolved as trust was built, and the team has started making an impact in other areas.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Our project manager. She is totally totally awesome. Team cohesion. I think their team has a very positive attitude Support on business issues...like HIPAA compliance and security reviews

Are there any areas for improvement?

not really

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Fairfield Marketplace. We’re a startup in the FinTech domain that offers services such as non-performing loan management and debt collection.

What challenge were you trying to address with Perfectial?

We needed help with developing our platform. I also wanted a team that I’ve worked with before, particularly one that is flexible, scalable, and reliable.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perfectial developed the frontend of our platform using simple yet portable languages, such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and React for multi-platform adaption. They recently started working with me and other resources to build out services and the backend site. For those parts, we’re using Python and AWS services.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with a total of seven technical people and one project/account manager.

How did you come to work with Perfectial?

I first worked with Perfectial in 2010 when I was at a different company based in San Francisco. We had a decent-sized internal team, but we were overstretched in trying to build new functionalities and regulatory requirements on our roadmap. A former colleague introduced me to Perfectial. Our first project together involved multi-factor authentication. 

Perfectial was always clear on what they could and could not deliver, and they met every commitment that they agreed to. That’s one of the significant values of working with them. This platform will be my sixth or seventh project with Perfectial.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €150,000–€200,000 (approximately $166,000–$220,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in November 2018 and is ongoing.

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

We’ve measured Perfectial alongside our internal team in terms of the efficient and effectiveness of their development. Perfectial has performed well so far—they’re very good at delivering on our requirements. We’re currently in the pre-launch stage.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

As I said before, Perfectial is upfront about what they can and cannot do based on our requirements and expectations. They’re careful to outline potential gaps or risks. We keep in touch with our project manager regularly, who’s been very helpful in managing the whole process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’d name several things. First, the breadth of technology that Perfectial can work with is impressive. Running a startup, we don’t necessarily have a lot of time to manage multiple providers to cover our technology stack. Having a single vendor that flexibly offers resources to meet our requirements is incredibly valuable. 

Second, their ability to deliver on commitments stands out. Third and finally, because we’re relatively close to each other—we're both in Europe—it’s much easier for me to work with Perfectial than with other providers located elsewhere.

Are there any areas they could improve?

More communication on the project management side can be helpful. That said, when things haven’t gone exactly as I expected, Perfectial is quick to adjust their team or processes so they can still fulfill their commitments.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear, especially with the project manager or account manager, what your requirements are. In any remote collaboration, communicating your needs can be somewhat challenging. You need to interact more with a project manager so that they understand precisely what you expect.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m a project manager for a clothing company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Perfectial? 

We had a project last year to build a new company from scratch. We needed to hire an external resource to help us build an e-commerce website in order to drive retail.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Perfectial led development of everything technical involved with creating the website. In addition to the frontend, they developed all the backend-related data flows. The site handles shipping and payment capabilities, so they developed the data flow to both of those systems. They also helped us develop an analytics landscape and all the infrastructure necessary to enable data science. They created our data warehouse, defined the architecture of the data schema, and continue to maintain the data science environments. 

What is the team composition?

The size of the team varied depending on our needs. At the peak, we worked with a project lead, architects, engineers, and testers. In general, the team size was anywhere from 3–11 people. 

How did you come to work with Perfectial?

We started the project with a different company but were not happy with the deliverables. We switched to Perfectial because they were the strongest candidate based on recommendations. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $600,000–$800,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

Work started around October 2017. The first non e-commerce website launched in December 2017, then the full site launched in March 2018.

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

We’ve been really happy with them. Compared to other firms we worked with in the past, Perfectial had really stellar project management. The project manager kept things well-structured, and she was also quite technical and knowledgeable. She replied quickly and always came up with solid solutions when we came to her with requests. She also was good at estimating the time and cost for each task. We felt super comfortable having her as our project manager. 

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint? 

The project manager was the key component to both the project’s success and us being happy working with Perfectial. She was excellent at understanding the business requirements and translating them into technical requirements. She also was quite proactive at making decisions about what could or could not be done based on our requirements. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their flexibility was most impressive. Perfectial was able to tackle unexpected problems. They could cope with different situations and still always deliver good quality. We would often come up with questions or tasks that were urgent. We could count on them to help us brainstorm to find solutions, and then ramp up or down resources as needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes there was a slight misinterpretation because of the language barrier. The project manager was crucial to making the project work despite that challenge.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Make sure you have a good rapport with your assigned project manager. When working with any company from another country, try to work with them in person as much as possible. That definitely improves efficiency and minimizes the language barrier.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and executive director/CEO of BitGive. BitGive is the first Bitcoin 501(c)(3) nonprofit, giving it tax exemption status at the federal level in the United States. BitGive has built a positive philanthropic representative organization for the Bitcoin and blockchain industry, bridging the gap between an innovative technology and its practical applications for nonprofits and humanitarian work in the developing world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Perfectial?

We were building the v1.0 of GiveTrack™, our cryptocurrency and blockchain-based donation platform, and we needed a solid third-party QA and penetration test team.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a well-functioning and polished product for the user experience (QA tests) and a solid penetration-tested platform, especially given the use of cryptocurrencies and processing payments.

How did you select this vendor?

Perfectial was recommended to us from a trusted advisor, and, after speaking with the team about our needs and timeline, we were happy to get started.

Describe the project in detail.

GiveTrack™ is our flagship project, a revolutionary donation platform for nonprofits to provide transparency and accountability to donors by sharing financial information and direct project results in real time. 

GiveTrack™ builds on Bitcoin and blockchain technology. It’s a customized platform for nonprofits that is data-centered and user-friendly, providing a comprehensive user interface. The future of philanthropy is real-time tracking of funds and driving more outcomes on the ground.

To ensure our platform’s security, we hired Perfectial to QA our product and perform a series of penetration tests. It was a short turn-around time before the launch, and their team took the challenge on with ease.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a team of penetration test engineers, a QA specialist, and a project manager.

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

We were able to QA and penetration test the platform’s high priority areas within our tight timeline and were confident going into our launch. Following the launch, we were able to continue with the remainder of the testing needed to have a thorough effort.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We really enjoyed working with Perfectial. The team was very organized and communicated very well and regularly. We were also able to bridge a big time difference, being on the West Coast in the US while they were in Lviv. We used Slack and Jira for daily communications and task management, and email for more management and executive-level communications.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Perfectial was very professional, clear in their communications, and organized. They followed through on their commitments and worked seamlessly with our team. They have a clean process and do high-quality work. It was a pleasure to work with them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our communications around future work beyond the initial contract did suffer from some misunderstandings, but we also had our role in this due to not knowing exactly what our needs would be post-launch.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm part of the product team at a data marketplace. We're building a platform that will allow businesses and ultimately individuals to work with, share, sell, and buy data. Our marketplace is open to virtually anyone. Users who publish data have fine-grain control over who can see it, who is involved within the platform itself, and who cannot access it. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Perfectial?

We hired Perfectial to help us start building our platform from scratch and develop the prioritized features on our roadmap.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perfectial focused on frontend development because we had strong backend capabilities in-house. They programmed the code in JavaScript. Our platform contains four main components. For the initial marketplace, the team helped us develop core features like the registration, login, profile creation. They also built out the capability to ingest data onto the platform. From there, we developed MVP versions of various other pieces. 

What is the team composition? 

The number of people we worked with from Perfectial waxed and waned over time depending on our budget and development needs. They allocated 10 resources at one stage. Towards the end, we worked with a team of five. A project manager served as our main point of contact throughout the process. 

How did you come to work with Perfectial?

One of our co-founder's contacts recommended Perfectial. They described the team as a particularly reliable and responsive outsourced development option. Our engagement worked out quite well, so we continued working together for quite some time. 

How much have you invested with them?

The cost varied over time depending on the team size. On average, we spent about €20,000 (approximately $23,000 USD) per month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Perfectial from August 2017–September 2018. 

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

Week upon week, Perfectial produced the promised deliverables we needed to achieve as we built certain features. We could roll back into the seventh-month view and see all the work we accomplished on a monthly basis. The team’s success lay in the impressive number of features we managed to build together successfully. They resolved all the issues we experienced and met our deadlines on time. 

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. They maintained good communication at all times both towards us and within their internal team. Since we're based in different countries, corresponding could be difficult at times. Overall project management was well-coordinated. The team thoroughly understood our priorities and what needed to be done. We were well-matched. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perfectial's method of working was quite reliable. They were responsive, available, committed to our project, and always willing to go the extra mile. Rather than treating us like just another client, we felt that their team fully contributed to our project. They considered aspects beyond our exact requirements. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Perhaps they could form a better approach to working with startups. They used generic pricing and packaging that could be stretched across the average stencil of a company. I think it would benefit them to take on a more case-by-case mentality. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, not particularly. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a startup software as a service [SaaS] company for prescription management.

What challenge were you trying to address with Perfectial?

I needed a firm that could bring my software idea to life. They needed to be familiar with developing SaaS that's secure, cloud-based, and able to be used by numerous stakeholders. Also, a lot of healthcare platforms are boring, and I wanted a company that could design a consumerism feel that was user-friendly for patients, healthcare professionals, pharmacy fulfillment companies, etc.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before hiring Perfectial, I had wireframes build for the various pages and components of the software. I shared those with Perfectial to clearly explain the functionality of our software and how it will modernize and update prescription management in the U.S. Four stakeholders will have their own portal into the software, so we had to build out the components for each one of them and figure out how to interlink them all together.

Everyone will be able to log in and have access to manage a prescription, all the way to delivery. Patients and physicians will have profiles that are interoperable with an electronic health record and they’ll be able to communicate and process the entire prescription through our software system.

Besides the software, Perfectial also built our website. Perfectial was also instrumental in helping me develop the appropriate documents and diagrams for my patent.

What is the team composition?

We had a consistent team of seven people: a project manager, two backend and two frontend engineers, a UX/UI designer, and a quality assurance engineer.

How did you come to work with Perfectial?

I did a lot of research into SaaS development and found five different firms, but Perfectial rose to the top. I actually switched to a different company, and they met my needs, but I eventually returned to Perfectial because they were proactive and kept me informed on what stage the project was in.

The process we went through before even signing a contract was what really convinced me they’d be a great partner. They brought all the right people to our interviews, so they were able to clearly articulate what they could do for me and back it up with examples of their past work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $40,000–$70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in January and built the prototype by August. We’re still in the early stages of development, and now we’re testing the product with customers to get their feedback. We’ll continue to work with Perfectial to make iterative changes before we go live.

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

Everyone who’s tested the software loves it. We still need to change some of the functions, but Perfectial has done a great job. The prescription process is highly fragmented and complex, and Perfectial has been instrumental in making sure we have a product that streamlines the process and is developed for specific stakeholders in mind.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

I worked with them on a weekly basis for about five months to get the product to where it is today.

We use JIRA and a couple of other software systems to manage communication, but we mainly use email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m not very knowledgeable in the technology field, and Perfectial was great at helping me understand some of the more intricate aspects of this work. They can help someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience in software to understand the process and how things will be developed and accomplished.

I also appreciate that I’ve had the same team throughout this entire process. They’ve all helped me translate my ideas and feedback into meaningful output as it relates to the software. Perfectial has a comprehensive and effective workflow, which makes them a great partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any issues with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We offer information data services for financial services, private equity, hedge funds, and corporate business development departments. We provide sourcing information. Most of our clients are looking to invest in or buy companies that are strategically important to them. We provide a platform that allows them to cut through data on companies, mostly private companies that are venture-capital backed. We started in 2014, and I’m the co-founder and CTO. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Perfectial?

We started with another outsource resource, but we grew into needing more than one person. We didn’t want to hire one person at a time and then try to cobble together a team. It made sense to go with an organization that could scale with us. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They basically work on the whole platform. I think we started with a team lead and one full-time engineer, and now we’re at seven or eight people. We added resources as our budget allowed. Perfectial has a lot of people on staff, so we were able to plug in additional people as the project grew.

How did you come to work with Perfectial?

I had a prior positive experience with Perfectial. I’ve worked with outsourcing groups from a lot of places, so I’m reasonably familiar with the process. I thought Perfectial had the right balance of talent, price, and communication skills. We didn’t put it out to bid; I knew what the prices are these days, so I went with the group with whom I was comfortable.

How much have you invested with Perfectial?

We’ve invested about $700,000 to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

I don’t remember the exact start date. It may have been December of 2014 or the first quarter of 2015. This has been one ongoing project since the beginning. 

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

We got to the point where they were generating their own ideas. As they’re building the platform, they make suggestions to improve it. That’s been awesome. The first engineer we started with is still with us, and she’s a trusted leader of the team. We have a high level of trust and communication.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

They start work about midnight or 1:00 am our time, but I’m up until 3:00–4:00 am, so we have a high level of communication. It’s been a lot of fun. We use Jira, and that’s been pretty good. I haven’t managed that very heavily until recently, as the team has grown. It was very much unstructured. We would talk about feature sets through emails, and they would manage themselves to get the work done.

More recently, we’ve gotten into using Jira because the team has grown a lot, and the informal approach is a little harder. That has gone well too. I get to throw stuff in there, putting in as much detail as I can. I talk with them daily, and then we have a weekly, longer meeting. That’s an opportunity for me to voice priorities. They always have a big log of work they can be doing—little bugs and tweaks that they’re more than encouraged to look at when they have downtime. We also use Skype for communication and Bitbucket for code management.

What did you find most impressive about Perfectial?

They do very well with ambiguity, which I like. I don’t want to tell them how every detail has to look and act. I like to tell them what we have to get onto a page, and they figure out the best way to do it. More often than not, they do a great job at that. I like having that flexibility.

Are there any areas Perfectial could improve?

I don’t think there’s any area for them to improve. I think they’re doing a fantastic job. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a 3D body measurement company. We provide technology for measuring the human body for a wide variety of applications in health, fitness, apparel and medical uses. I’m the CTO; I translate the desired technical directions from the CEO to the development team and I manage the daily operations in the development team as well.

What challenge were you trying to address with Perfectial?

We were looking to create a professional user interface on our system. We had a user interface we developed in-house, but we needed a professional upgrade of the existing one.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We do all the backend IT stuff and they do the frontend aesthetics, UX/UI stuff. The first product was a Windows tablet application. That hardware was withdrawn from the market but we liked the style of it, so we had them apply the same branding and user interface on two different Windows desktop application projects. We are currently working with them on reworking that initial tablet app into an iOS app. That brings it to four total projects that they’ve worked on.

The size of the project team fluctuated a lot, but the peak might have been four. But it’s mostly one or two people from their team. Part of the advantage of working with Perfectial is that they have access to a variety of skills, so when we need a particular thing they can pull that needed specialist into the mix. our primary contact is their project manager, but there are instances where their developer will come into the conversation.

How did you come to work with Perfectial?

We had gotten some quotes for some companies in the U.S, but our management wasn’t happy with the aesthetic proposals. I searched the web for a few different options, one of which was Perfectial. We were looking for a cool but professional Apple-like aesthetic, and they had several examples that met our criteria.

How much have you invested with Perfectial?

We’re probably in the $250,000 range by now.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in early 2015.

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

We’ve continued with them because we like their work, and some of the success factors are that they’re responsive, they’re technical skill level is good, the aesthetic skills among their artists are excellent and my staff enjoys working with them. I frequently hear from my team that they’re easy to work with. The two products that are in the market that have their content in it were existing products, and the change in the user interface was very positively received and well accepted by our user base. The new branding effort resonated well and it improved the quality of our brand as it’s seen by the outside world. And the cost is reasonable. I don’t want to say they’re inexpensive because they’re not, but they’re reasonable.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

I have outside contractors and individual contributors, but they’re really the only outside agency I’ve worked with.

What did you find most impressive about Perfectial?

Their developers are all in Eastern Europe, so their differentiating factor is that they have the quality level of a San Francisco agency at half the price. The reason we picked them was not for the price: the quality of their UI work was judged superior to other options. But the price difference made it possible to work with an international agency, whereas if their price had been the same as a Silicon Valley firm, it would have been very difficult.

Are there any areas Perfectial could improve?

When we ask them to do something, they always say yes. We ask them for a pretty broad range of things, including very technical things like a WiFi data transfer solution. They ultimately solved everything, but they didn’t have the expertise from the beginning. They had to go develop it. Which was okay. They really did tell me that at the beginning, but that may have been the one weak thing. They’d solve the problem, but it might take six weeks instead of one. I’m struggling to find something that could be improved, though: they really did pull together the correct solution.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an innovative software vendor that focuses on the machine intelligence space. Our mission is to enable you to quickly create intelligent business applications and to rapidly discover knowledge hidden in your big and high dimensional data.

For reference, machine intelligence is a branch of AI [artificial intelligence]. We focus on large, complex amounts of data that humans have difficulty manipulating. It is related to how you can make sense of the data and how can you understand the nuances contained within. My position in the company is leading both product management and engineering. I am responsible for defining what areas of the market we are going to penetrate, which products we are going to build, and then building them.

What challenge were you trying to address with Perfectial?

As part of our company strategy, we have been focusing on enriching our platform so that it can cater to apps being built on top of it. As part of the process, we felt that we not only wanted to go faster but we could also use external support.

There were two main goals in engaging with Perfectial. The first was to build and execute an app for us. The other goal was to make sure that the platform we are building can be used by somebody independently and external to our company. They would also need to successfully be able to build an app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the criteria that I have always used to engage external entities is to have a fully self-defined objective. In this case, it’s an app and not a feature or particular area. They are doing everything that pertains to building and developing an app—implementing the user interface, testing, creating a continuous integration environment, and documenting relevant data. We came up with a design and UX, including the wireframes.

Our average team size was eight, with some engineers assigned on a full-time basis. We had a dedicated project manager from Perfectial. We were assigned resources depending on the situation. One of the engineering leaders in my organization was the technical liaison from a day-to-day perspective. I also had a principal engineer that was responsible for our workflow perspective, and a design team to give guidance on questions related to the UX. I only participated in the sprint reviews and demos.

How did you come to work with Perfectial?

A colleague of mine went through an online search that included reference checking, asking questions, and review boards. We were looking for a certain set of skills. We needed developers with Python, Scrum, and Agile experience. We also needed the ability to execute fast and be collaborative. Eventually, we narrowed it down to Perfectial.

How much have you invested with Perfectial?

We’ve paid $200,000 for this particular engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

It began in early October 2016 and it is ongoing. We’re just finishing building one of our apps.

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

We have had a functional build at the end of every sprint, with well-known features being added according to plan. We also had a well-known set of issues that were very clearly managed. I’ve had quite a lot of experience dealing with external entities, extended parties, and partners. There are a few things that really caught my attention. They are very good communicators, which is absolutely a must, especially if you’re not in the same building, let alone in different time zones. If they’re facing an issue in a design area, they will have a very well-written JIRA ticket with concise information. It’s very natural and straightforward to understand what they want and to then respond. I’ve had situations with other suppliers where it would take 3-days to finally understand exactly what we needed to work on. The clarity of communication and their use of tools is amazing. They use very good processes and are very much on top of it. That’s why we keep working with them and will continue to work with them. The more budget I have, the more work I can award to them.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

Their discipline is amazing. Speaking of discipline, they are truly agile when it comes to development. They really understand the way to go about it, breaking down stories into small, realistic user points. They understand the velocity to the point where if somebody gets sick or goes on a leave, they understand that if we had 60 points, for example, we’re only going to do 56. They’re usually right within 5%. Projects are dynamic. If you have very disciplined short stories, you’re at the top of your game. You understand how to manage the developmental organization and the project itself. If you communicate effectively, you can very quickly correct the course and adjust. We use Google Hangouts to communicate. Although not everything was right, it was very quick to see when things were not going right and very easy to adjust. That’s a basic principle of being Agile. You want visibility and the ability to react to it.

What did you most impressive about Perfectial?

They're fairly unique in their pragmatic use of Scrum and Agile techniques to run a project. Combine that with their communication skills and discipline of documenting succinctly, being clear, and having a very open and wide channel, and it’s really good to work with them. The real pleasurable thing is that they are genuinely nice people. They’re not abrasive or aggressive. It’s an open dialogue with them and they’ll always say what’s going on. If something is going to be blocking them, they take it in stride. They don’t get upset or bent out of shape. They are very much part of our team.

Are there any areas Perfectial could improve?

There were times when they would spend a large amount of energy making sure that we have a good definition. Sometimes, they would be lost. For example, in UX, we could see that sometimes there was a flaw. They wouldn’t be upset about it. They would go back and fix it. It would’ve been great if they had done it from the get-go, but it was a very small thing in a big way.

As we have been successful with them, we want them to be more a part of our extended staff and use our tools. Otherwise, it becomes a little more challenging when they’re developing an app and I find a bug or I want to do something specific, but they’re on a separate system than ours. We haven’t quite figured out how to make the integration better. They’re open to going either way, but there’s no one easy solution.

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

There are two critical things. One is if you want to give something to anybody that’s outside of your office, make it as self-contained and well-defined a mission as possible. That makes it easier to build a team and to know when you’re successful. That also reduces the number of interdependencies. It’s really hard to say, “I’ll do development and you do testing,” or “I’ll do this part of the workflow and you do that part of the workflow,” because there’s too much dependency there. The second thing is having a good technical lead on your side to be a touch point. There’s going to be issues and challenges, so you don’t want five people exchanging emails. All you do is lose time.