FAQ
Responses to Common Inquiries
Table of Contents
Project Methodology FAQ
Project Methodology
What is your approach to project management?
Our approach is tailored to the specific project at hand. We adopt a strategy that involves a PM and a technical lead. We conduct daily meetings, weekly or bi-weekly sprints to drive progress and meet deliverables. We take charge of requirements gathering, monitoring budget and timeline constraints, and accommodating changing priorities as directed by the client.
Who are the key players in your process?
The key players in our process include PM, technical lead, and developers/QA engineers. Additionally, we periodically collect feedback from the head of delivery or head of business development. In cases where technical expertise is required, we may also engage other subject matter experts or involve our CTO.
Who manages the assignment of tasks and roles for a project?
The assignment of tasks and roles for a project is typically managed by both PM and technical lead. The specific allocation of tasks and roles may vary depending on the project's requirements and the nature of individual tasks.
Which role on the team will be responsible for requirements management and analysis?
In the team, the responsibility for requirements management and analysis can be shared among multiple roles, including PM, technical lead, and a System Analyst.
What frameworks/tools do you use to manage projects?
Our preferred project management tools include Jira, Confluence, and GitHub (or Bitbucket) for task tracking, collaboration, and version control. However, we understand that each project may have unique requirements, and we are flexible in adapting to different tools based on the project's needs.
Are you comfortable being a part of a project management and delivery mechanism that is tailored to clients's needs?
We understand that every client and project is unique, and we are open to adapting our processes to align with their specific requirements. Additionally, we bring our expertise and insights to the table and are always ready to contribute ideas to improve the project.
What is your preferred frequency of sync-ups with your customers?
Our preferred frequency of sync-ups with customers varies depending on the project, client, and the stage of the project. Typically, we aim to have regular sync-up meetings on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. However, during critical project phases or when approaching major releases, we may increase the frequency to daily sync-ups.
Based on your experience, what do you see as essential for the success of your teams during the life of a project? Both short-term and long-term projects.
We consider two key factors essential for the success of our teams during both short-term and long-term projects. Firstly, understanding and meeting the client's expectations and ensuring a positive client experience is crucial. Secondly, effective communication plays a vital role in project success.
What is your change management process?
In our change management process, PM takes responsibility for managing incoming change requests. The PM acts as a filter, evaluating the impact and feasibility of proposed changes and considering factors such as timeline, budget, and resources.
Do you have PMs with Product Management experience?
Yes, many of our PMs have experience in Product Management as well. They have found themselves in dual roles or have transitioned from Product Management to Project Management throughout their careers.
What documentation do you require and maintain for successful delivery?
For successful delivery, we maintain various types of documentation depending on the project's scale, complexity, and duration. At a minimum, we require weekly reports that include the breakdown of hours and tasks assigned to each team member. In some cases, for more extensive projects, we go beyond written documentation. We may provide additional resources like video explanations or walkthroughs from our team or technical leads.
What frequency do you use to update the clients on the status of the projects?
As a general practice, we provide project updates to clients at least once a week. However, we recognize that the frequency of updates may vary based on project needs and client preferences. For more time-sensitive or complex projects, we are flexible in increasing the frequency of sync-ups.
What communication tools do you prefer to use to communicate with your customers?
Some commonly used communication tools that we are familiar with include Jira, Slack, Skype, and email. We are more than willing to accommodate and integrate with the tools and platforms that our clients are comfortable with.
What KPIs, analytics, and plans for project support and ongoing improvement do you provide?
We provide a range of KPIs, analytics, and plans to support project progress and ongoing improvement. These include weekly tasks status report, burndown/burnup charts, time spent vs. estimate, Jira dashboards. We also provide weekly reports that may include other relevant information, such as task estimations, actual vs. planned progress, project risks, and mitigation plans.
How do you handle issues during development cycles? Conflicts, quality issues, bottlenecks, etc.
We have a structured approach to handling issues during development cycles, including conflicts, quality issues, and bottlenecks. Our main tool for addressing these issues is scheduled and incident-triggered retrospectives.
How do you manage estimations for tasks and feature builds?
We have a systematic approach to managing estimations for tasks and feature builds. In case of point based estimates, estimation process is a regular routine that we use to plan iterations and measure team's velocity. When it comes to estimating complete scope, features and releases, we prefer to proceed gradually - provide rough estimate for the overall effort needed and detailed estimates/breakdown for the next feature to be developed.
How are UX/UI concepts reviewed in the workflow?
If the project budget permits, we always allocate a dedicated designer who actively participates in the project. They control the quality of the design solutions, review implementation of the design ideas, prepare solutions for A/B testing, analyze the testing results and, if necessary, suggest improvements to product's design.
Team Makeup FAQ
Team Makeup
Do you currently have qualified team members for our technology needs? Or do you need to hire? If you need to hire, how do you plan to ramp up the new hires concurrently with our ramp up timeline?
We currently have a highly skilled and experienced team that covers a wide range of technology needs. We have qualified team members in technologies such as .NET, Node.js, PHP, Java, Angular, React, Azure, AWS, SDET, and QA engineering. Our team consists of Middle+ to Senior level developers and specialists who are proficient in these technologies.
What is the average length that a team member has been with the company?
Our team members have been with the company for more than 12 months, and we are pleased to share that over 90% of those who joined us more than 12 months ago continue to contribute their expertise and skills to our organization.
What is your recruiting strategy for new team members?
We have a strategic approach to recruiting new team members that ensures we attract highly skilled specialists at the Middle+ and Senior levels. Our recruitment process focuses on evaluating both theoretical knowledge and practical experience, ensuring a well-rounded assessment of candidates' capabilities. To assess candidates' technical proficiency, we conduct thorough evaluations that include lifecoding sessions. In addition to technical skills, we also prioritize evaluating candidates' soft skills.
How quickly can you scale your team to meet deadlines, delays or time crunches?
We have a flexible approach to scaling our team to meet deadlines, delays, or time crunches. For 1-2 people, we can typically allocate available specialists from our existing team within 1-2 days to meet the immediate demand.
If we need to scale the team by 3-4 people, it may take us up to 2 weeks. This timeframe allows us to assess the specific requirements and begin the search for specialists with the required skill set.
For larger teams, typically more than 4 people, we estimate a scaling timeframe of 3-6 weeks. This allows us to facilitate onboarding process effectively.
Do you have security agreements with your team members?
Yes, we have an NDA with our employees.
Are you willing to provide resumes of candidates that you think will be a great fit for our team?
We always provide a CV of every developer to our clients. And we pay really much attention to soft skills - there must be a perfect match between the customer and provider!
Infrastructure, Security and IP FAQ
Infrastructure, Security and IP
What infrastructure does your company have on site and off site? Do you use any cloud services to manage your assets?
Our company leverages cloud infrastructure hosting for our entire IT infrastructure, both on site and off site. We have opted for cloud services as they offer numerous advantages, including cost-effectiveness, scalability, and outsourcing of administrative operations.
What is your backup strategy and your retention strategy?
We prioritize data security and reliability by following industry best practices for backup and retention. We perform daily backups of our systems. In addition to daily backups, we maintain monthly backups that span a period of six months. Furthermore, in special cases where more frequent backups are necessary, such as during critical system updates or upgrades, we implement hourly.
Do you have restricted access to servers/offices/laptops?
Absolutely, we have strict access policies in place to ensure the security of our servers, offices, and laptops. Only authorized personnel are granted access to these resources, and access is granted on a need-to-know basis.
Do you have a business continuity plan in case of a disaster/outage?
Yes, we have a comprehensive business continuity plan in place to address potential disasters or outages. While we rely on our hosting infrastructure provider for the overall disaster recovery and backup mechanisms, we take additional measures to ensure the continuity of our critical systems.
Sensitive subsystems and key components are redundantly deployed across multiple infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) providers.
Have you ever experienced a data breach either internally or with a customer? How was it handled?
While we have not encountered any data breaches, we remain vigilant and proactive in continuously enhancing our security measures to stay ahead of evolving threats.
Are you good with signing an NDA?
Yes, we are accustomed to signing NDAs to protect the confidentiality of our clients' sensitive information and intellectual property. We understand the importance of maintaining strict confidentiality and are committed to upholding the terms of any NDA that aligns with industry standards.
Do you have a confidential clause in your Master Services Agreement?
Yes, our MSA includes a confidentiality clause to ensure the protection of confidential information shared during the course of our business relationship.
How do you manage intellectual property rights with your team members? Who owns the source code of work performed?
To ensure proper management of intellectual property rights, we have specific clauses in our agreements with team members that outline the ownership and transfer of source code. These clauses clarify that the client retains full ownership of the source code developed during the project.
How do you handle databases supplied by customers? Databases that contain customer data, logs, access controls etc.
As a general rule, we do not have direct access to customer data. Instead, our systems are designed with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and Continuous Deployment (CD) practices. This approach guarantees data confidentiality and allows customers to maintain full control over their databases.
Development, DevOps and QA FAQ
Development, DevOps and QA
Can you describe your development process from conception to deployment? How do you handle testing, version control, and bug tracking?
Our company offers a comprehensive application development process that encompasses various stages. This includes initial steps like requirements gathering and detailed analytics, as well as optional design services. Our team also specialises in UX/UI design, development, provides DevOps support, conducts thorough testing, and more.
Our development process adheres to stringent guidelines. This involves a well-defined git flow coupled with PR/MR that undergoes meticulous review by our technical lead. Additionally, we implement essential configurations like EsLint and Husky. Every line of code is rigorously tested through unit, module, and E2E testing. We maintain a dedicated part-time or full-time Quality Assurance expert responsible for manual testing. All new features undergo deployment in a pre-production or staging environment. Upon client request, we can also incorporate advanced technologies like blue-green deployments and canary releases.
This structured approach ensures the delivery of high-quality work with exceptional reliability.
Platform Familiarity: "Have you worked with platforms (marketplaces, p2p etc) before? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?"
We have successfully deployed numerous SaaS platforms where users engage in benefit exchanges. These platforms include services for apartment rentals, connecting with specialised professionals, selling educational materials, and various others.
What is the lifecycle of a typical build/sprint/feature that you advocate for?
The typical lifecycle of a build, sprint, or feature that we advocate for follows a structured process: Communication -> Specification -> Programming -> QA -> Delivery. We establish regular checkpoints and milestones to monitor progress, address any challenges, and make necessary adjustments.
Have you had CI/CD experience? What tools and services have you used to deploy CI/CD? How do you manage database changes for every cycle?
Yes, we have extensive experience with CI/CD methodologies and have successfully implemented them in numerous projects. We have worked with GitHub Actions, GitLab, AWS CodePipelines/CodeBuild/CodeDeploy, Jenkins, TeamCity, FluxCD, and more. Regarding managing database changes within each cycle, we have worked with EntityFramework Migrations, Liquibase, Flyway, and more.
How does your testing get adjusted to the business workflows?
We engage in thorough discussions to gain a deep understanding of the client's specific business workflows and requirements. By actively involving our customers in the testing process and incorporating their feedback, we ensure that our testing efforts are precisely tailored to their business workflows.
What is your approach to test automation, tools and metrics used?
We prioritize test automation as an integral part of our testing strategy. We believe that automation helps improve the efficiency and effectiveness of testing processes. By leveraging test automation tools like Selenium, Selenide, and JMeter, and tracking relevant metrics, we strive to deliver efficient, high-quality testing solutions that enhance the overall software development process.
What levels of QA testing do you provide?
We offer a range of QA testing services to cater to different project needs: unit testing, module testing, integration testing, system testing, acceptance testing.
Do you have a QA team dedicated for all quality tasks?
Yes, we have a dedicated QA team that is responsible for handling all quality-related tasks. Our QA team consists of 10 skilled and experienced QA experts who specialize in various testing techniques and methodologies.
How are bugs handled when identified in the QA process?
The specific handling of bugs may vary depending on the project, but generally we have a well-defined workflow of 6 steps: detection and reporting, bug prioritization, assignment, fixing and verification, regression testing, closure and documentation.
Do your estimations include the time for a QA lifecycle?
Yes, our estimations typically include the time for the QA lifecycle. We always recommend our customers to do QA since the experts will check different cases which could be lost during general check.
Who on the team is responsible for Pull Requests?
It may be assigned to a specific individual, such as the tech lead or a designated lead developer. Alternatively, Pull Requests can be reviewed by multiple team members.
How do you measure throughput while ensuring quality metrics?
Here are some common metrics we use in this context: amount of completed task, amount of defects, test coverage, customer satisfaction, system uptime monitoring.
What Quality metrics do you track?
There are several key indicators that we often track to assess the quality: defect density, code coverage, customer satisfaction, response time, mean time to failure, mean time to repair, release stability.
Can you break down the project into milestones? What would be the deliverables at each stage?
We adhere to an AGILE methodology. In the initial phase of the project, we meticulously outline all the functionality into epics, break down epics into features, and then conduct thorough requirement descriptions and research. Each sprint, we present a demo to the client, showcasing the newly developed increment of functionality.
Other FAQ
Other
How would you differentiate yourself from your competitors?
We do AI tools and services indeed make magic, and you can possess this power without being a magician. We’ll integrate your software with existing AI platforms to achieve automation, personalization, and performance levels like never before.
Why do you believe you would be the right strategic partner for us?
To drive exceptional results for your project, we rely on our previous experience of more than 1,000 successfully completed projects within 11 industries.
To be flexible in scaling up and down with your needs, we keep our bench level at 15% of the overall headcount.
To achieve a stable, solid fit between your projects and our staff, we use a proprietary vetting technique and simulations.
To maintain a high level of quality at all times, we adhere to mature PM processes, only hire middle- and upper-skill level engineers, and use mandatory weekly code reviews.
To keep you 100% aware of workload and payments, we prepare granular reports with each task clearly detailed, and provide you personal access to the engineers from your project.
Do you have an AI/ML team onsite or contracting company you work closely with to provide these services?
We have an in-house AI/ML team comprising skilled professionals who specialize in various AI/ML technologies and methodologies. In addition to our internal team, we also have strategic partnerships and collaborations with external contracting companies and experts in the AI/ML field.
After Development Support
All inquiries in this category are contingent on your specific requirements. Typically, we execute a project and subsequently allocate a select number of employees on a part-time basis, as needed. This allows us to implement new features and address any bug fixes efficiently.
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