Railwaymen

What was the scope of their involvement?

Railwaymen developed our website from scratch. I provided them with specifications on the technical functions and features. We also had a third-party designer who created the look and feel of the site; this included the color scheme and landing page. Railwaymen fully implemented the design.

We worked in bi-weekly sprints, and they handled both front- and backend development. It was high-level work. After putting a task into Jira, they completed it, then I’d provide feedback at the end of each sprint.

What is the team composition?

There are two backend developers, one frontend developer, and two QA testers. I work directly with the developers, but my main point of contact is Bartosz (Project Manager). He answers any questions I have, and I answer questions he may have for me.

Directly interacting with the developers works well for me because I have a technical background. Normally, the project manager would do this, but we made this agreement in order to keep the budget reasonably tight.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

I looked on Clutch and received a shortlist of potential companies, all of which were based in Krakow, Poland. So, I traveled there and spent a few days visiting each company and speaking to their managers. Essentially, I wanted to observe their standard practices, get a general feel of their environment, and see how their company was organized.

After visiting about six companies, I decided to go with Railwaymen. Overall, I really liked their management and after viewing their portfolio, they seemed very capable of doing what I wanted. Also, they were very supportive of the project itself, which was important to me. More than just being willing to do it, they understood what I was trying to achieve and were keen on helping me obtain my objectives.

I liked their company and made sure they had the level of expertise the website required. Going over and visiting them allowed a lot of flexibility because I got to meet the people who’d be working on the project.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested £100,000 (approximately $120,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in April 2019, and it’s still ongoing. As of three weeks ago, the website is up and running. Now, we’re preparing for the next phase of development which will be based on user feedback.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Railwaymen went in immediately and got us sorted out before we even signed a contract. Our old platform was full of holes, and it crashed and broke all the time. The previous company provided almost no documentation, but Railwaymen worked through every issue. The platform runs on Ruby on Rails, and they did a lot of backend work to fix all the bad code. We’re currently working on web-responsive mobile development, and we’re moving more heavily into iOS development now.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with a developer at the beginning. Starting in April, we added a project manager as we moved them into iOS. We also have a designer working on the project.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

We found them through Clutch. When we first started, we considered two companies, but the company we chose underperformed, as I mentioned. Railwaymen contacted us just as we were considering a new partnership, and we decided to work with them instead.

How much have you invested with them?

Our total expense is somewhere between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and the work is ongoing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Railwaymen performed quite a bit of backend development for us, using Ruby on Rails. They also did frontend work on the platform. Their team handled a lot of the integration and project management tasks for the engagement. 

What is the team composition?

Three people from their team worked with us. 

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

After looking on Clutch, we found a number of potential companies with the proper skill set. We wanted the right size vendor that wasn’t too big or small as to stay in our budget. After interviewing each and considering recommendations, we chose Railwaymen. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between Feburary–April 2019.