Waverley Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and CEO of phone.id. We enable app developers to authenticate users with their phone numbers, providing a frictionless login experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Waverley Software?

We hired Waverley Software to build a software component that could be seamlessly integrated within many different apps and business contexts. We knew this would require a well thought out architecture, which forced us to find a team with a deep understanding of operating systems. We also wanted our component to be intuitive for both developers and final users.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to create a product with a polished UX that could be implemented by developers with very few lines of code.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Waverley Software was recommended to me by a friend who had recently started working there. I reached out and was able to speak directly with their CEO. He has a very interesting tech background, and quickly understood our business needs. Soon after, I got the chance to see some of the projects they were working on, and they offered to provide a technical assessment of our project. Their team delivered value before we ever signed a contract.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

After gathering requirements, their developers built an iOS and Android version of an SDK for our component. They’ve provided support, maintenance, and updates since completing the initial product.

What was the team composition?

Waverley Software assigned us two developers and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We expect our product to change the way businesses authenticate users, and we’re excited by the work that Waverley Software has done.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We were able to communicate directly with their developers, and their project manager facilitated as needed. At one point, the Android developer on our project was replaced, and the transition was fluid. Their team was always prompt in their responses, typically reaching out via Slack or during our weekly sprint planning calls.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their developers are top-notch, and the support from their project manager was outstanding. I was very pleased with how quickly we were able to begin development. Also, the quality of their work was always very high.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t identify any areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was head of cloud services at Jibo. It was a robotics company that created a social robot as an internet of things (IoT) device.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Waverley Software?

As most of our engineering focus was on robotics, we needed support on mobile and cloud development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Waverley Software led the architecture and design of our online cloud component. They provided expertise on AWS and microservice architecture. Starting from some rough guidelines, they collaborated with our team to design an architecture that fit the project’s evolving needs.

Using Node.js, TypeScript, Docker, and MongoDB, they led Android and iOS development. They also provided automated testing, as well as QA testing and support.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 15 team members at the project’s peak.

How did you come to work with Waverley Software?

They were already on board before I joined the company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $1 million dollars a year. It went up and down at different times.

What is the status of this engagement?

I joined the company in November 2017. I believe they started working in January 2016, and the engagement took place over a four year period.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their architecture was extraordinarily stable and able to run cleanly. They delivered a solid product that was highly reliable with an excellent design. It’s foundational so that we could build other things on top of it. Also, the quality of their developers was excellent. They worked with us closely to find the right match for people joining our team. Everyone that we worked with was dedicated to the project. They brought technical expertise, flexibility, and intelligence to our problems.

How did Waverley Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a good job of adapting to what we needed. They had their own project management tools, but they fully integrated into our Jira and GitHub workflows. They worked hard to accommodate whatever we needed and be part of our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were really dedicated to the project. They were invested in our success as though they were full-time developers. The consistent quality of their talent was very good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Improving their communication is an ongoing challenge for any outsourcing company. They're good at it, but it's something that can always be improved.

Any advice for potential customers?

Don't outsource your product vision. Make sure that you have a clear vision of what you want to do. Only engage an outsourcer on a well-defined project. Giving clear specifications and definitions sets everybody up for success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the head of engineering at a consumer electronics company in the wearable space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Waverley Software?

We were looking for an offshore staff augmentation partner because we wanted to do more than we were able to with our current team size.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re helping us with mobile development, including iOS APIs, Swift, Core Data, and REST API implementations.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with two engineers.

How much have you invested with them?

I don't recall the exact amount but it’s very reasonable.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2018 and it’s an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen good month-over-month feature launches since the engagement began. In terms of KPIs, our application crash rate has maintained stability. They haven't caused any major regressions, and we've improved our overall cadence of external releases. Their work is professional and high-quality. The engineers are a pleasure to interact with.

How did Waverley Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re integrated into our project management systems and structures, which has been effective. In terms of working with an offshore company, we have to be very specific about the requirements to make sure that expectations are clear. Because they're not here in the office, we have to remember they don't always have the full context. If we’re specific about what we need and close the feedback loop, they do really good work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really appreciate the high attention to detail from their executive team. The CEO is really engaged and likes to check in regularly on the relationship to make sure feedback is moving. Their leadership cares a lot about our success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and founder of Oji Life Lab, a company that creates adult learning experiences focused on business and soft skills training. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Waverley Software?

We needed a partner to help us build our software, including mobile and backend development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Waverley is building our software from scratch for both iOS and Android, using native technologies and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The software provides learning experiences through a variety of media types that are then analyzed in the backend so we can better understand how people are learning and improve upon it over time.

What is the team composition?

I'm in regular contact with Matt (Founder and CEO, Waverley Software), Sasha (Digital Marketing Manager, Waverley Software), and sometimes Nikita (Chief Software Architect, Waverley Software). There's also about three full-time developers and a some part-time time developers working on our software.

How did you come to work with Waverley Software?

I've known Matt for about 35 years and worked with him on smaller projects in the past. I knew he would bring a strong skill set to this project and that I could trust him.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent over $50,000 thus far, but still have a lot more development to do.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working with us full-time in March 2018 and we expect to launch this Fall.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've done a great job at hitting all of our milestones thus far—we're getting everything done at a steady pace. Their QA person has been testing each build as we go, so we're confident the launch will go smoothly.

How did Waverley Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been a pleasure to work with from the start. They're very clear and organized in communication. I can trust them to make things happen. We stay connected through many channels, including Asana, Basecamp, Skype, and Pivotal.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a team of highly skilled, top-notch engineers. They're also very dedicated to our project; they take a strong sense of ownership in it, which makes it feel like they're part of our own team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Engage their team as if they were your own to get the most out of their talents.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the COO of Zott, a startup technology company specializing in web-based content distribution and patient engagement for hospitalized children. Our platform offers safe and interactive, videos on demand, live television, video games, clinical content, and more.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Waverley Software?

We needed someone to be our lead web developer and technology partner. Waverley provided a full-service technology engagement for our project.

What were your goals for this project?

The ultimate goal was to build a web-based, content distribution, software as a service (SaaS) platform, hosted in the cloud. The system would be restricted to approved users/customers, optimized for all types of devices, and would leverage the latest technologies.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We decided to outsource our development work because we were a brand-new startup, and working with Waverley was a cost-effective and efficient way to get a product into the market quickly. Waverley was recommended to us by a trusted advisor and technology expert.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Waverley was involved since the beginning, from ideation, design, and writing code, to building the backend network architecture and implementation. They designed the UI and UX, did front- and backend development, created API’s, and did QA. They were responsible for multiple environments and were in charge of bug fixes, security, and documentation. They also ensured that the platform could integrate with a variety of content/media offerings.

What was the team composition?

We had a project manager, but we also worked with a senior software architect, front- and backend engineers, a UI designer, and a QA resource. They’ve stayed fairly consistent throughout the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The response from customers on our platform, and the feedback on the technology/design, have been overwhelmingly positive. The results of this engagement have exceeded our initial expectations.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project managers on both sides had a daily scrum call, managed the backlog with Agile: Pivotal, and helped develop the scope of each sprint. We communicated over Skype and used Slack and Basecamp for collaboration. The time difference with their team in Ukraine made project management complex, but they did an above-average job of being disciplined, structured, and organized throughout the project. There were no major language barrier problems, and rarely had issues understanding each other.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We’ve been incredibly impressed with Waverley on many levels. Their team is intelligent, driven, and innovative, and they take real ownership of their work. They’re passionate, professional, and put in late hours to get us high-quality deliverables. They were accommodating and flexible with our work schedule and the time difference. Finally, their ownership was directly involved and they’re fun to work with.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

There's very little that Waverley can improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was a senior engineering manager for Icontrol Networks during their partnership with Waverley Software. My company was acquired by Alarm.com in the final six months of our collaboration. We continued working together after that buy-out.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Waverley Software?

Icontrol Networks develops connected home solutions, notably software and communication platforms for security panels for different vendors. For this engagement, my specific department collaborated most closely with Waverley Software on embedded software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Waverley Software’s engineers developed complex embedded software and mobile apps. The team also provided staff augmentation for QA and testing. Their mobile app work mostly focused on Android. We usually assigned them tasks that maximized their expertise working with embedded Linux software development, real-time operating systems, and networking protocols.

What is the team composition?

Waverley Software assigned a team of 12 resources to our project. I worked directly with seven Ukraine-based embedded developers and two members of the testing team located in Vietnam. Using offshores engineers maximized our ROI based on the lower cost per resource.

We’ve treated them more like an out-staffing company than an outsourced one. Waverley Software’s employees were truly like members of our in-house team. We didn’t simply give them a subsystem to develop and wait for their release. Having Waverley Software work closely alongside our internal engineers resulted in a fruitful collaboration for our numerous projects.

How did you come to work with Waverley Software?

We selected Waverley Software based on a combination of their expertise, cost, and diligent work ethic.

How much have you invested with them?

On average, we spend $55,000–$60,000 annually per resource.

What is the status of this engagement?

Icontrol Networks began their partnership with Waverley Software in 2012, two years before I began my position these. I left the company in December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our partnership produced a significant impact on our business. The number of embedded developers on Waverley Software’s team was the same if not bigger than we had locally, in California. We never had problems with communication despite a substantial time zone difference. Waverley Software was willing to work at night just to have more overlapping hours with us.

Thanks to their excellent technical proficiency, Waverley Software produced high-quality deliverables for our company. They helped us foster the ability to bring four projects to market during my time with the company. We’ve successfully sold those systems to new customers already.

How did Waverley Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Since I managed their resources directly, they functioned exactly like members of our internal teams. We used Skype and WebEx Meetings to communicate. Waverley Software assigned us a part-time account manager for us, but we didn’t need project management from their side during this engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were mainly interested in their high-level proficiency working with embedded-systems, Linux. Waverley Software has an in-depth knowledge base around networking protocols.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything about our project went well, but they could always scale up a bit. When our requirements shifted, we often had to scale their team up and down. We didn’t want to add more permanent dedicated staff to our team since there was no guarantee we’d have similar needs for multiple years.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Head of Software for Shadow Robot Company. Our flagship product is the Shadow Dexterous Hand, an anthropomorphic robotic hand used mainly for research and development, with recent applications used to advance research into artificial intelligence. We have a variety of clients, including space agencies and universities from around the world who use our Hand for research and tasks that require the dexterity of human-like grasps.

We’ve also participated in different robotics projects organized by the European Union aimed at increasing general wellbeing and automate everyday life. We’re currently working on a new product called the Agile Grasper, which is comprehensive and cost-effective smart grasper that provides nine degrees of freedom.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Waverley Software?

Our software was becoming out-dated in terms of infrastructure. We didn’t want to continue using out-dated servers (used for integration and on-site meta servers for sharing content with clients) and we wanted to ensure our valuable data was kept secure. We needed to have a reliable backup of that data, so we decided to move our infrastructure to the Amazon Cloud which would allow us to have better accessibility and scalability to suit our needs.

We’ve participated in several projects which required increased computing power for continuous integration and software testing. We also have fewer projects during less busy periods and don’t need as many machines. To deal with this varying load, we needed a more flexible solution and we didn’t have the expertise of an in-house DevOps specialist at the time (we do now). This was one of the reasons we reached out to Waverley and they were professional and reliable.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the ability to register customer data related to any issues with our robotic hands. It’s a feature that allows us to upload files securely using user authentication. Most of the work was done using AWS, PowerShell for the channel script, and Node.js for the Lambda function. The configuration was done using the AWS Management Console.

Additionally, they implemented event trackers and created shell scripts for different purposes including uploading files to the private Amazon S3 bucket storage for later review. Technology-wise, they mainly administered the Amazon cloud and created special rules. They also produced comprehensive documentation on how we could manage similar operations.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people from their team during the active phase. We’ve interacted with different DevOps specialists over the half-year collaboration, but not with more than two people simultaneously.

We’re starting to involve Waverley on the UI/UX work for our robots, given that they’ve done good DevOps work. In this case, they will assign more team members for us to interact with.

How did you come to work with Waverley Software?

We didn’t know many companies in this field, so we posted an ad on LinkedIn, Facebook, and our website. We received several inquiries from companies looking to collaborate with us.

It was important for us to find a company that could provide high-quality results. Waverley seemed to have a nice and consistent solution based on a comparison of price and proposals. It was essential for us to form a continuous relationship with our vendor given that we had quite a few large tasks that needed to be accomplished, none of which could be done in a single month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2017. The current project is two-thirds complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Two-thirds of our infrastructure work is complete and the migration process will start once the project is 100% finished. We’ve hired an on-site DevOps person who will evaluate and take forward the results produced by Waverley.

They also delivered command-line tools that allow us to upload big files for bug tracking. We’ve performed verification tests on those tools and Waverley helped us create different scenarios for compromising security and making sure everything is in place. As a result, we have already made an Ubuntu Debian repository, which is a clone of the Robot Operating System (ROS) we have been using.

We will only be able to fully use the system after everything has been implemented.

How did Waverley Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Their management is seamless and their response time is quick. I never had the feeling of something being undermanaged. I didn’t have the time to create specifications for them at the start, but their engineers handled that for us. I had a call with them where we reviewed what needed to be done and they defined the scope of work in detail. It was a relief because it allowed me to spend significantly less time on the project and more time on my high priority tasks.

Furthermore, they’ve been able to find people for our UI/UX work quickly, which we greatly appreciate given that the UI work was supposed to start in January 2018 but was postponed to April due to external reasons. Waverly ensured that our project wasn't delayed any further by getting to work right away.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provided qualified engineers and I’ve enjoyed talking with them. They’re able to solve most of my difficulties. If they don’t know the solution, they’ll investigate it, which I really appreciate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve discussed the areas in which we could improve our collaboration and they produced a list of improvements that can be implemented going forward. Aside from that, I have no complaints.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re not allowed to talk about much. We’re a venture-backed startup, and we were founded a little over four years ago. We did some crowdfunding in early 2015 that broke a bunch of records on Indiegogo for the amount raised. Since then, it’s been VC-backed, and we publicly announced that we will be shipping the product this year.

Our product is a home robot. I ran the server and DevOps teams that managed the Waverley Software programmers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Waverley Software?

We had prototypes. We had the founder’s work at MIT, some 15 or 20 years of research in what a social, family-oriented robot might look like. I was the seventh employee, and at that point, we had some very rough prototypes and a bunch of ideas. It took a while to raise money and build the team, and now we’re well over 100 people.

Waverley wasn’t involved in the development of the robot itself but we knew the robot would need quite a bit of backend services to support its functionalities. That seemed to us to be something that was easy to encapsulate and outsource. We definitely made the right choice to offshore the server, if we had to outsource something. We could define that functionality, the API’s, and build them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dmitri Nolashenko acted in several roles over that time period. He was my architect, and he was also a project manager, and he recruited the Ukrainian team he brought on to complete those services. To this day, that core team is still in use. The team size has gone up and down, and it depends on whether or not we lump together server and mobile. Over time, they evolved into an integral part of the mobile app, which is used to set up and utilize the robot functionality. So, it fluctuated between the original three people to as many as a dozen or so. The mobile app runs on the two major mobile platforms.

The team was very stable, and the most key people have always been around. There were aspects of the team composition that were more need-oriented, in other words, some people came and went. One of the core competencies of Waverley that I’ve grown to really respect is their ability to tap into the incredible set of technical resources in Ukraine. More than once, they were able to recruit and pull in talent that they did not have initially, based on our needs. Those were typically short-duration projects, so they would often contract with those people.

All the Waverley staff function as members of our team, whether they’re contractors or full-time. We treat them as an extension of our team, and it’s really very different from any previous offshore relationship I’ve had. They participate at such a fundamental level, and they often bring people here. Many times, I went there because, at times, nothing short of a nice whiteboard session over three days is really going to do it. I interviewed everybody when I ran the team. In some cases, we did the recruiting while I was out there, which really helped. Had I not been able to, I would have trusted Dmitri’s judgment.

In all the cases where I was involved, I had shifted my schedule to work well with their schedule, so it wasn’t a logistical challenge to hold Skype interviews. More than once, I was out there during the time we were recruiting. Waverley has quite an effective HR staff that pulls from other local resources in Ukraine. They screen them quite heavily before they even bring them to me or to Dmitri. He is a very tough guy to get past in interviews, so if they got past Dmitri, a lot of times the interview with me was just a formality of me assessing their English communication and other things. Dmitri would reject more people than I would have, had I been the primary interviewer. I appreciate that in a technical lead. He knows exactly what he needs to be successful.

How did you come to work with Waverley Software?

The original VP of engineering had a previous relationship with Waverley Software. He’s known the founder since their shared days back at Apple some 25 years ago, and he’d used Waverley at previous jobs. He suggested to me that we look at offshoring, and when he first said that I had a very negative reaction. My experiences with offshoring in other parts of the world were pretty negative.

I agreed to interview an engineer from Waverley to form my own opinion, and that was a year before we ended up hiring them. During that interview, I decided these guys could do it. In fact, I liked the engineer so much, I had it set in my mind that he’s the guy I wanted as my first employee, and that’s pretty much how it went. We got our funding and started up the server team, and that particular individual, Dmitri was my first engineer.

When we first started looking for a partner, we didn’t have any major funding. So, we were looking at everything, including how to bootstrap this with minimum incoming capital. The reality was that I really had to look at offshore. The ration of value from a server programmer is probably something in the neighborhood of half to two-thirds of a UX salary. So, I could get three people for the price of two. Once I met Dmitri, I did stop looking because I was perfectly happy with that choice. A year later, Dmitri wasn’t available, but he wanted to work for us and I wanted him, so we negotiated that. Waverley had enough resources to make a trade. I was of the opinion that it was because of the strength of my ability to communicate with Dmitri. In my mind, that was the resource. Had he not been available, I might have been forced to look at other houses.

Over multiple tries, I’ve not had good experiences with outsourcing to other countries, which I somewhat attribute to the very nature of Ukrainian and Russian culture. They are very independent, very proud, very strong-willed, and those are factors that play well where it’s really "sink or swim". They don’t sit there and beg for reams of paperwork about the design. I could give them a whiteboard with my idea, give them a couple weeks, and they’d come back with a prototype in a way that we could iterate quickly to exactly what we needed. I’ve never experienced that with an offshore team before.

I don’t have experience with other Ukrainians, but I spent enough time out there to develop an opinion that it’s partially cultural and just the way they’re wired. I do think the management at Waverley – the CEO, Matt Brown, is an American based in California – definitely influences that and creates a culture of that type of success. They do a lot of business with companies of all sizes, and I think upper management teaches them how to work with different companies with different cultures.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together toward the end of 2015, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were trying to build something brand-new, and we very often completely changed our mind, which could be extremely frustrating. The guys at Waverley didn’t whine or anything because they understood. The way that everything was architected, it wasn’t a big deal to take a single micro-service and replace it with different functionality or a whole new micro-service.

I’m a pretty high-level thinker, not really a detail person. I went to Dmitri and his team saying I wasn’t going to set rules or coding standards. I wanted them to do it, but they said they already do. Their beliefs are very consistent with what are considered best practices today. Everything is done through continuous integration and delivery. Everything is code reviewed, and no code is ever approved without peer review. They established a process and a set of coding standards which was later used as models throughout the rest of the project because no other team had reached that phase yet.

They were completely up on modern practices, and they embraced them not with a totality that’s damaging. In my opinion, they selected the most important elements of the trends, like test-driven development, continuous integration, and they have really lived by those rules. They don’t make exceptions. They just do exactly what they should be doing to release code that is solid and to utilize all the best practices around the dev ops disciplines.

Everything is done through the modern tools, all the way down to checking code, testing it, then deployed to a test server and further tests run against it. That all just happens automatically when you do a check-in. That really impressed me. In 30 years in this business, I’ve never seen a team actually achieve that before. They essentially helped us set up and finalize our whole dev environment that has ended up sustaining us this whole time. They led by example, and they also left tools that became embraced by almost everyone over time. These guys are so good, and they have the capacity to always expand. I refer friends to Waverley all the time.

How did Waverley Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack, JIRA, and we have daily standups and sprint planning meetings. A lot of those things are standardized across our team, but they were pioneered by Waverley. These are all things they asked for when I asked them to come up with standards. We started that well over a year before the rest of the company mandated it to all teams.

What did you find most impressive about Waverley Software?

They have the ability to hire quickly even for special projects, which is unique to me. It’s even rare to find someone in the US who can do this. The project manager has an amazing ability to listen to what we need, and then go out and find that resource. She gets all the contracts and the HR stuff in place. In a specific example, we were looking to customize JIRA in some serious ways. This is a completely different skillset from anything else we were doing, it’s Java based and not JavaScript or C, and it’s kind of a dark art. We wanted a bunch of customizations made.

Sasha brought in people who got it done in weeks, and this is just one of many examples. As our project manager, she has an amazing ability to recruit talent and get them on board, and then she manages them. She’ll talk to us, then turn around and make sure they got the message, that they’re on-track, and that their JIRA tickets are updated, all of that. To me, that’s kind of unique. They’re able to tailor what they offer to our individual needs, and I don’t know I’d find it in another Ukrainian firm.

Are there any areas Waverley Software could improve?

One of their strengths is also sometimes frustrating. Their independence and their fierce drive can be difficult, especially when you’re trying to change in the middle of a sprint. They take the rules of Scrum and sprints pretty seriously. One of the implied contracts in Scrum is that you never change direction in the middle of a sprint. That’s just something that does not work for us. Quite often, they have to do it, they have to change. They’ll do it at Waverley, but they’ll do it under objection. So, if anything, they take their own rules very seriously, even when their customer is telling them something else. I also grew to respect that, and as their manager, I tried to seriously minimize when I asked them to break the sanctity of the two-week sprint session. I knew anytime I did, I was going to face a bit of a fight.

Do you have any tips or advice for potential clients?

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that, when you treat an offshore firm, or even an onshore contractor, as a black box or not a member of your team, you’re going to get results that reflect that. I really, truly believe that a lot of the success we had with Waverley is because we didn’t treat them as somebody else. We treated them as an extension of ourselves. For me, that translated into everything. Once I had the people, I really wanted to go to them. It isn’t practical to bring all of them to me. The effect that had on them morally, and just from a daily point of view about their excitement and enthusiasm, was definitely a reflection of the fact that they had a customer who cared enough about them to visit.

I really recommend that to people, and a lot of people look at me like I’m crazy. They don’t want to go to Bangalore or Ukraine. It makes all the difference in the world to actually know these people as people, go out to dinner with them, or go to a party with them. Especially for long-term engagements, I recommend clients to get to know them as members of your team. If you don’t, you’re going to be somewhat disappointed with the results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the software QA lead of NAS Devices. We provide storage devices, including USB and NAS hard drives. NAS devices have their own OS developed by the company and are focused on high-level technology like Thunderbolt and special designs. We have been bought by Seagate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Waverly Software?

We were working on a project for front-bay NAS devices for enterprise network storage and needed testing services. We developed an integrated Linux-based operating system on our side, which allows users to access the data through their computers and mobile devices, as a kind of personal cloud.

Our challenge was to build a team able to run QA testing for a lot of different products and software at the same time.

For a premium brand, the quality assurance is really important. We need to have the proper process set in place with the right trustable people.

We also needed high-level skills for the testers, with engineer mind, able to understand issues and help developers to fix them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Waverly Software was hired to test the functionalities of our operating system. During our three- to four-year collaboration, they have tested pretty much everything we’ve developed in terms of desktop, NAS, and USB storage solutions.

We have a dedicated four-person test team, a project manager, and a team leader. We have been working fine together, and we have the ability to add more people and change any resources who aren’t a good fit for the job.

Our work has remained the same in terms of complexity over time, but it has varied in terms of features. Waverly’s team likes changes, given that software testing can become boring.

How did you come to work with Waverly Software?

Waverley Software was already a subcontractor for the US office. We have grown our partnership and team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They always did what we expected. If we're still working with Waverly Software after four years, it’s because we are satisfied with what they are doing. The most important element is that they can think for themselves. I have worked with different companies from Ukraine and Vietnam and was not completely satisfied. Waverly Solutions can act like engineers and be part of the solution.They want to be a part of the project and have done their best to find the maximum number of bugs, and help us analyze our issues. They can help us understand where an issue lies, so that we can fix it quickly on our side.

How did Waverly Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Waverly Software’s team can work directly with the developers on our side, and they’re almost fully-integrated with Seagate. We chat via Skype daily and also have calls. We also use email and Basecamp, a Web reporting tool. There are development tools on our side for test results and bug-tracking.

There is not a big turnover. The guys stay in the team, which is quite important for us.

What did you find most impressive about Waverly Software?

They are serious, there are never delays, and we receive quick answers to our questions. Trust is the most important element in the QA world. If we need to check something, we need reassurance that there are no other issues than what is reported.

Are there any areas Waverly Software could improve?

There have been some mistakes, and the worst thing to do in QA is to report that something is working fine when, in fact, it isn’t. When this happened in the past, Waverly Software apologized and changed processes on their side, in order for the problem to not reproduce.

Waverly Software is the most efficient QA team we’ve found, but there are still performance issues we’ve identified. This is also my responsibility, and I put pressure on them to work faster.

Kharkiv is not the most convenient place: no direct flight and issues with Ukraine customs in shipments. But the guys are really flexible and can travel to do hand-carry without complaining.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: Our company is a smart buildings innovator delivering energy management solutions to commercial customers across the United States and Canada. Our customers represent a variety of verticals ranging from restaurant groups to retailers. I am a member of the product management team overseeing development of our mobile app.

Respondent 2: We help our customers assess their energy loads, and determine how much each piece of equipment is consuming through our web-based platform. I am the senior data analyst of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Waverly Software?

Respondent 1: The project was initiated in 2014 in response to customer requests for a mobile solution. The project was expanded in 2016 to deliver additional capabilities to a growing customer base. Our initial and ongoing goal has been to improve customer satisfaction with our suite of software offerings.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Respondent 1: The Waverley team built the first iteration of the app for us in 2014. The project took roughly 6 months to complete. 

Respondent 2: The app has similar functions to our web platform, but is has a different look. Our customers responded well to the app, and we had requests to expand its functionality.

Respondent 1: The project duration for the second phase of development (2016) was 7 months, though there were periodic breaks in development as our team developed additional features for Waverley to incorporate into the app. For both rounds of development, we developed [internally] the concept for the app features, provided rudimentary UI mockups and API data. Waverley ultimately refined and enhanced the UI mockups, and wrote the code to incorporate the APIs as requested – often performing additional modifications to further enhance the app, and provided QA and troubleshooting services before releasing the app.

Respondent 2: We worked with the same project manager for both projects. For the second phase, we worked with lead iOS and Android developers, as well as with a designed in charge of UI mockups, and a QA team.

How did you come to work with Waverley Software?

Respondent 1: Waverley Software was introduced to us through an executive-level recommendation.

Respondent 2: There were other companies in consideration at the time, but I don’t have much information around this.

What is the status of this engagement?

Respondent 2: We started working with Waverley Software in 2014. Waverley Software has been a pleasure to work with, which is why we’ve continued to go back to them. We plan to have another round of development soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Respondent 2: Our apps are live in app stores. We have seen a growth in our user base, but we haven’t tracked this metric extensively. We have looked at the features being used within the app, and our login numbers, which have all been positive.

How did Waverley Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Respondent 1: We were so impressed by the service Waverley provided. Their responsiveness to our questions and requests was rapid and comprehensive. The project manager was transparent regarding costs when we requested additional scope, and they collaborated with us to get the most out of our budget.

Respondent 2: My team has been heavily involved in the project, and they’ve been very impressed by Waverley Software. They’re using Basecamp, which was a useful way for us to stay connected. Waverley Software created a number of different boards, based on the topics we needed to cover. We tracked bugs through Pivotal Tracker. That was also a centralized platform which we could use, and it gave us a manageable list of bugs. These tools helped keep everyone aligned on the same issues.

The team composition was stable throughout. We didn’t see any unexpected turnover on Waverly Software’s side.

What did you find most impressive about Waverley Software?

Respondent 1: The Waverley team worked to understand our business comprehensively so that they could interpret our requirements with little guidance, and propose small improvements as they identified them.

Respondent 2: What made Waverley Software stand out was the autonomous way in which they worked. They learned about our business and goal, in terms of what we wanted to deliver to the customer.

We worked through a time difference, and Waverley Software’s team in Ukraine started many hours ahead of us each morning. They could answer their own questions and have something ready for us to review by the time we got to the office. They were also transparent to us when it came to changes which would lead to additional scope and cost. Waverley Software worked with us, compromising on what could be tweaked in our scope.

Are there any areas Waverley Software could improve?

Respondent 2: We had a more positive experience with the iOS development, as opposed to Android, but that was fantastic as well. We simply worked more closely with Waverley Software’s team lead for iOS. They’re wonderful overall, and I don’t have many criticisms.