Frequently Asked Questions concerning the way we work with our customers Q: How do you prepare agreements? I mean negotiating, signing them and sending to each other. A: Usually it is enough to do it in the Web: we negotiate an agreement, exchanging its MS Word copies by e-mail; after the parties reach an agreement, they sign it, just placing their JPG signs directly into the Word document; the parties exchange the signed agreements by e-mail. That's all. However, documents could be signed by hand, and they could be faxed and/or sent either by DHL, or UPS, or EMS or FedEx. Q: Please describe your non-disclosure policy to me. A: As you wish. No limitations from our side. We are ready to sign an NDA you offer. Q: How do you deal with confidentiality issues regarding custom software development? A: We are ready to handle them any way you would prefer. Actually, after the project is finished we might ask the customer's permission for placing the short description of the project onto our web site. In addition we might ask about a reference to place it with other references. No problem if the customer says 'No'. In this case we do not place any info about the customer onto our site. Anyway, without a special permission of the customer we never ever give any information about him to anybody. Q: What are the contract types you accept and what is your payment logistics? A: We work both with fixed-price and time-and-materials contracts. The particulars of the given project suggest which of them to choose. Sometimes we use the two-phase model, which allows us to do and get paid for first-phase initial work that helps define the project better and then to follow that up with a more accurate, second-phase fixed-price, or time-and-materials agreement. Usual payment logistics is as follows: For short projects: » 50% in advance; » 50% upon delivery. For mid-range projects: » 40% as advance; » 40% upon delivery; » 20% after customer tests application and approves it is OK (usually he has 1-to-2 weeks for it). For long-term projects: » equal monthly payments. However, we are open to any other reasonable proposals. For example, - little advance payment and then equal payments each week. In this case you can see our current results constantly, and once a week you decide whether our work is still worth paying. Q: I feel that I cannot accurately describe my needs for the project by typing. You should call me at my business at 555-555-5555, so we can discuss the requirements. A: As to our experience we got after working with numerous customers, requirements for a project could exist only in a hardcopy. Any other way of describing a task is fraught with very serious misunderstandings and faults. So, in what regards project requirements, we use phone communications only for clarifying some minor, insignificant issues. Q: What are your days/hours of operation? A: Usually they are all working days (5 days a week), 8 hours a day, 173 hours a month. Developers' local time is Moscow Standard Time (MSK), that is: » 3 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT); » 8 hours ahead of the U.S. Eastern Standard Time (EST). Such time difference makes our work for the overseas customers very efficient as long as activity becomes really round-the-clock: » (1) our programmers work till approximately 7.00 PM MSK (11.00 AM EST); » (2) then it is turn for our customer to review all the current results, prepare answers to all the questions, test a beta application, etc.; » (3) so, when programmers return to work their next day (that is the customer's night), they have all the up-to-date info from the customer. For the customers' convenience our project managers as well as top managers usually are available for on-line communication till 1.00 AM MSK (5.00 PM EST). Q: In what means do you usually communicate with your customer? A: Either way you would prefer: » e-mail; » IM (MSN . Yahoo, ICQ, AIM); » VoIP (Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Gizmo) » phone; » at the specially built Web site of your project; » personally during business trips if needed. Q: While you are developing our application, will there be a way for us to see it as it's coming along? We would like to make sure early on that everything is being done properly. A: Sure, you will have an ability to see the current results as the project is coming along. That is because usually we base our development process on the spiral model thus having an ability of taking into account last time feedbacks and changes received from a customer. For heavier projects we build special project conducting Web site (made according to the Rational Software standards). For lighter ones we are simply working in close touch with the customer, exchanging info via e-mail and IM, and providing all the intermediate alpha and beta versions of the application to get feedback from the customer ASAP. Q: It is very important to us that all code related to our projects be written in an orderly and commented manner, so that we can understand what is going on as well. At the completion of the said project, do you turn all source code and database over to the client (me)? A: As for commenting of code - sure we do it, as we have a set of strict internal corporate standards for software development. Those standards cover all the design-programming-testing-delivery process, and they contain the obligatory requirement of commenting the code. Yes, certainly by your request we will send you all the source code and database as soon as they are ready. Thus, upon completion you will obtain well structured and commented code and database ready for future maintenance. Q: What type of support and the term of that support are offered with your development? A: We offer free full support during some reasonable time after delivery (this time depends on the duration of the project: less for the shorter projects). "Full support" means full informational support + all the tunings and fixes that might seem to be needed to actually match your initial requirements. So, yet it is still support, not enhancements development.