Client: Digital Agency
Location: Boston, MA
Technology: Drupal 8, PHP, AWS, Acquia Cloud, Web services
Remote Team: 3 Drupal Developers, 1 Tester, 1 Project Manager
Location of remote team: Eastern Europe
Why did you choose to utilize a remote development team?
The projects we consult and provide strategy on are wide & diverse – from the tech stack through to the individual project requirements – from simple web sites to more complex CMS implementations. We needed a skilled & versatile development arm to produce web products. In addition, in the agency universe, we periodically burst our efforts depending on client needs and we needed the flexibility to scale up or down.
How skilled is your remote team?
The remote Drupal team includes all levels of development – junior, mid, & senior and brings in a tech lead as necessary. The quality of both back end and front end development is top notch, and the different experience levels selected for each task are mindfully selected to ensure quality is met at the right level of need. In addition, the project managers have a solid handle on the products we create and know when to make appropriate product ownership decisions without me in the room.
How would you describe your relationship with the remote development provider?
Excellent. I consider our relationship as more of a partnership. We continually work together to address any process snags or issues as they arise.
As a tech agency, does utilizing a remote team pay off? How?
Yes. The risk of hiring and managing a development team is greatly reduced. There’s no need to constantly worry about things like resource utilization or making sure we have the right skills for the project. We focus on our end of the services we provide and the remote agency focuses on their services – together we complement one another.
What is your daily engagement with the remote developers like?
We have daily standups with project managers and developers. Developers are brought on an as needed basis if either party needs to communicate more or ask questions. We stay in contact via Slack and manage tasks with a couple project management tools. We have weekly management and account meetings to ensure things are going smoothly.
What kind of guidance or support did TeamFound provide?
TeamFound introduced and matched me to the agency we work with based on our needs for a full service production arm. Ron coached me on the initial phases – how to engage and communicate effectively with a remote team. Once the honeymoon is over, you enter a new phase and encounter new pain points – Ron was there to listen and provide managerial guidance. His insights are spot on and his ability to home in on the problems and solution sets are remarkable. He traverses well past the team operations, and has become an indispensable business coach.
Team Found 