Our company highly values the client’s time, that’s why it is our top priority to complete our work in time while meeting the quality requirements
Web development, as well as many other IT directions, requires a lot of details and nuances to be discussed and fixed. While working with our local clients from 2005 till 2012 we gained a huge experience of face to face meetings, briefings, time consuming negotiations and long phone conversations. Eventually, we came to a conclusion that it DOESN’T work. Since then, for many years we have been applying a different approach to work with our clients. The new approach might seem a bit unusual, but after being used for over 10 years so far, it has proved to be really working. Let me introduce this approach to you.
Yes, we don’t support the phone calls
All communication is done through the text chat. It has drastically saved
our and clients’ time and it also ensures both parties observe all
conditions. Each member of either our or your team can refer to the
history of discussion of the relevant issue at any time. All he needs to
do to restore the communication thread is to just open the communication
history and reread it. No other person like a PM or your developer needs
to be disturbed in order to do that.
It allows storing all project details, all major and minor requirements, which
gives a possibility to quote, refer to or raise another question based on the
existing discussion. It allows saving both time and budget of the project.
For example, we can handle an argument between a QA specialist and a developer
simply by finding your explanation in the chat without having to bother you.
We can keep talking about the benefits of the history being saved. But the
main advantage for you is that such approach guarantees that if you wanted
the button to be red, it will be red, and you can have it all worked out ahead
of time. But now let’s discuss how to make work comfortable.
We use Slack for our work (Slack Connect)
The most important thing is that we are going to have two private channels with you: #mgm_ and #dev_
#mgm_project_name_abz – this private channel is intended to discuss organizational and financial issues
#dev_project_name_abz – this private channel where you can work with our guys and discuss any technical issues
All communication is done via these two private channels only. This way, all questions discussed regarding our mutual work are always at hand, so you don’t have to waste time on lots of channels. Moreover, the management is always present in both channels. It would be fair to say that the management is not just one click away from you, but most likely is already aware of the issues that might have appeared. As all workflow is discussed in #dev_ channel only, it makes it easy to monitor all activities.
The chats are usually used only for quick questions. For all the rest questions we use GD (Google Docs)
This is a well structured file where we store all project related data,
such as links, technical requirements, technology stack, issues, work
plan, project structure and functionality description and an SRC folder
containing all project related resources.
In fact, GD is storage of all relevant project technical documentation. It
is a huge advantage for further development and support of any project. And
there is no need to spend any extra time.
For example, you wish to add some new functionality or to change the existing
one. In the Questions section we discuss the features and figure out the details.
After that we describe the changes and add them to the structure and then submit
for your approval. Once approved, this task is added to the work plan or a
project backlog. This ensures regular update of technical documentation, its
relevance and availability to all participants of the project.
It has never been so easy to solve difficult issues. Chat and GD provide
you with a possibility to work with our team when it is convenient to you.
This is the major benefit. You are completely involved into project
development, and at the same time you are free to manage your time as you
wish.
How does it work? You came up with an idea while being stuck in a traffic jam.
All you need to do is just open a chat (<) and write about it there. By
the time you reach your destination, our guys will have made their comments
in the chat or will have asked the questions in the GD which they will let
you know about in the chat. So, now you are aware of the questions in GD and
once you have free time, you can reply them. You will be receiving notifications
to your email regarding all comments in GD, so that you will always be updated.
Both you and your team are fully involved into development process. You
are always aware of what is going on in your project each day and during
the day. It gives a possibility to be really agile and to do only those
things which are necessary at that particular moment.
If necessary, you can use task trackers like Jira, Trello, Favro, redmine etc,
where you or your team can easily place all current tasks or sprints and keep
backlog.
For our work we use redmine as a time tracker. The management keeps a close
eye on correspondence of time spent to time tracker. There are cloud cameras
installed in the offices to ensure there is always working atmosphere during
the working day.
Prior to starting our work on the task, we provide a rough estimate on this
task which is +/-20%. In case there are some issues arising in the course of
work, you will be informed about it right away. In order to make a decision
on proceeding further work or finding possible solutions to the issues arisen,
weekly or monthly, according to the contract, you will be receiving a detailed
response on all the tasks and the time tracker report coupled with the invoice.
The work team always consists of at least three people: a developer (frontend, backend or full stack), a Project Manager or a Lead Dev (hereinafter PM) and a QA. It is often the case that if a project is very dynamic there are involved two QAs or even more in order to ensure better performance and flexibility.
We use Laravel 11.0 for developing new projects and also support our older projects on legacy frameworks such as Laravel 5+, we use only headless Content Management Systems like Netlify or Gatsby – i.e. no Wordpress, Joomla, etc
