DEDICATED TEAM MODEL — Working with a Dedicated Team (Interview with Viorel Costea, Roweb-development | GoodFirms)

Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company?

Roweb is a custom software development company, started in 2004 with offices in 4 major cities: Bucharest, Pitesti, Craiova, and RâmnicuVâlcea.

With our 127+ IT professionals’ experience and the latest software development technologies, we focus on building Enterprise, Web, Mobile applications, and E-commerce solutions.

We work with companies from all over the world, and we understand the needs of and provide solutions for companies of all sizes ranging from start-ups to large enterprises.

We believe in long-term partnerships with our clients, and we take great pride in our long-term relationships with our clients, as we have clients with whom our partnership counts more de 10 years.

What was the idea behind starting this organization?

I started the company in 2004 with the business purpose of creating software that would solve the client’s problems. The idea behind this was a company that would offer competitive services, from a quality and price point of view, to build a portfolio of clients with whom to grow and develop ourselves and grow together with our businesses. We are dedicated to staying ahead of the rapid changes by working with the latest technologies so that our clients would benefit from our technology expansion.

Our mission is to continually keep up with the innovations in the technological world so that the developed software does well in the market.

We have an in-house team of software professionals who manage end-to-end product development projects, from business analysis, consultancy, and architecture, to post-implementation testing and maintenance.

We are always interested in building long-lasting teams. It is essential to save the project’s optimal cost, so we consider the different levels of tasks required by the project, their duration, and workload. For most projects, the best team configuration includes junior, middle, and senior developers.Our employer branding strategy implies hiring junior developers from the university, and we continuously invest in their professional growth.

What is your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?

We ensure flexibility, stable teams, transparency, and the latest technologies on the market for every project we handle.
We’re highly open in terms of engagement models, technical solutions, and delivery schedule to make sure we meet every need; We usually work with 3 engagement models- Dedicated Team, Time and Material, and Milestone Billing;

We have a high retention rate and the possibility of quickly creating mixed dedicated teams, including juniors, middle or senior developers, depending on the project’s needs; This helps us guarantee the team’s stability, which positively impacts the project’s lifecycle.

What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive?

We address a wide range of industries, such as Real Estate, HR and Recruiting, Financial Services, Transport and Logistics, Ecommerce, Tourism, Hospitality, Labour Protection Safety, Legal, Marketing, and Media Software. We believe in long-term partnerships with our clients, and we are very proud of our long-standing relationships with our clients; some of them count more than 11 years. Our clients are our partners.

Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing software.

No two projects are alike or take the same amount of time to build. We consider each of the following phases separately when planning and estimating a project:

• Requirements & Design
• Planning, Architecture & Development
• Software Testing

The size and complexity of the project are the most significant factors in overall duration;

How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front end and back end of software?

The effort for back-end versus front-end is variable; If the project requires a platform off-the-shelf, there is less time involved in the development; as the back-end is already implemented, the focus here is on customizing the front-end. For enterprise application development, for example, more time goes into the back-end.

What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right framework for developing software?

The first one would be the type of software we need to develop, the type of problem a framework solves.
Other criteria we consider:

• Popularity- the more well-known the framework is, the more it will exist in the industry; it will evolve with new ideas, new plugins, etc.
• Sustainability- It is essential for the maintenance phase and for upgrading the apps.
• Security- we choose frameworks capable of ensuring security functions as we believe in responsibility when developing the best software solutions.

Which languages & frameworks do you prefer to use in development of software?

We work with a diverse class of technologies, frameworks, languages, and we choose the right one depending on the type of the project.
PHP Frameworks:

What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of software?

There are several key factors we pay attention to the resources required for the development of the project, the estimation of the man effort, the cost of the licenses for the pre-built components that can be used. We need to be cost-effective, so we explore the best strategy to work on for every project. We consider either reusing the code or using different pre-built components, or creating dedicated mixed teams.

We have several strategies, depending on the project particularities. We also work with open source technologies, where the project supports it, so we cut the license costs.

What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)

Usually, it’s the dedicated team structure or time and material or pays per milestone, but we are also open to pay per feature, fixed cost.

Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?

We don’t necessarily have a minimum required budget, but we take projects that imply 2,3-month staff hour.

Originally published at https://www.goodfirms.co.