FAQ

In this section we tried to put together the most popular questions of our customers. If you can’t see your question among them, write to us and we will answer promptly. Even if you find your question, write anyway, we will be glad to discuss your tasks and provide you with a free consultation.

General questions about SMYT company

The company was founded by Dmitriy Dolbunov in 2009. Before starting this company Dmitriy Dolbunov had been working on many IT projects of different kinds and complexity for a long time. That is why the company set a goal of realizing complex and original challenging corporate and web projects. For the last 9 years our company has realized more than 50 projects for different spheres starting with business automation projects and ending up with large internet-portals.

SMYT is a relatively small company if to compare it with EPAM, Luxoft and other giants of software development. Due to our small size we can afford having really high-class specialists in software development and business analysis. Our team processes are described and verified to the tiny details, thanks to this we can always assess a task precisely and explain in details why this or that task has a corresponding labor input and, hence, cost.

On our site you can find a description of a small part of projects we have been doing recently and which we are proud of. In a simple clear way, we tried to explain our clients every project, its tasks, project scale, and results. You can download the information about each project in pdf format and show it to your colleagues. If you have a task and you would like to know about our experience of work in certain spheres, write to us and we will give a presentation of our expertise and show the examples of projects made by us.

The search of company employees is the most difficult task as selection quality determines the quality of the software development. For ex., to select a specialist of entry-level testing we need to study more than 400 applicants’ resumes. We use unique tests created by us and we change them from time to time as sometimes applicants may upload them in the Internet.

One of the features of our company which differs us from the rest is that we have a department which is looking for prospective employees and is now a separate HR business agency SMYT Talent Scout which selects applicants in IT sphere. It gives us a possibility to find specialists for important tasks faster than our competitors.

We can meet at your convenience.

Thanks to telecommunication technologies of the 21st century we can arrange a virtual conference. If you prefer personal meetings, we are ready to meet with you in your office or in our office on Vasilievsk Island or in any other place convenient for you.

Employees of our company speak enough English for a successful work on projects where the foreign language is necessary. As a rule, managers and analysts have upper-intermediate and higher levels of English. We can describe technical tasks, documentation, code comments and other things using English.

Reputation is the most valuable asset for our company which allows us to keep business stability despite work limits. We are ready to provide recommendations from our customers including large Western and Russian companies which prove our competence, honesty, responsibility and strict fulfilment of agreements.

The founder of the company keeps it in secret, but you can ask him personally!

Questions about working with SMYT

You can simply get in touch with us in any way convenient for you: by phone, email, skype, telegram, etc. It will be great, if you have any vision of your task, it is even better if you have a technical task or functional requirements in any format. Still, if you don’t have a technical task, we will help you to write it and we will consult you how to realize your project better.

From many outsourcing companies we differ by the fact that we do not just offer the implementation of the project taking into account the technology stack used by us and available specialists, but we start with the business analysis of the requirements of our customers with the subsequent selection of the most optimal solutions. Sometimes there are situations when before ordering from us the development of the project, we recommend to study existing solutions for compliance with the functional requirements of the customer, and only then we start to develop customized solution from scratch.

In fact, this is a completely typical situation, as most potential customers are not specialists in software development, but are highly specialized specialists in their industries. In this case we recommend to focus on the formation and detailed description of the functional and business requirements, as well as a maximum detailed overlay of the required software product in terms of business and users. We will help to pick up the technological stack and consult on advantages and disadvantages of various technologies for free.

All our clients can get up-to-date project information at any time. To simplify the interaction, we use a variety of software solutions that allow you to get information about the real status of your project development. At any time, we are ready to report on the current situation and plans about the implementation of the planned tasks, and this is one of the reasons why we do not have unexpected delays with the deadline.

The assessment of each task and the project as a whole begins with the precise determination of the functional requirements and boundaries of the project together with our customer. To do this, our analysts ask some hundred questions in some cases. After that the refined task in a formalized decomposed form goes to our developers. The developers assess the labor intensity of each individual element of the software product being developed. After that, the assessment is received by the head manager, whose task is to ensure that the evaluation of each individual project element has not been over- or underestimated, and that the experts understand the task accurately and fully. Only after that, our customers get an estimate of each individual task that needs to be implemented within a whole project. Thus, in most cases the accuracy of our estimates corresponds to the actual amount of work and is not underestimated or overstated.

Our experience shows that only accurate assessment of tasks allows to stick to the budget and time. Still there may be cases where, as a result of a combination of factors, the development can go beyond a certain budget and timeframe. In case it happens because of our fault, we take all the risks and finish the work on the project despite the financial unprofitability for us. In case the increase of budget and terms is connected with the increase of work volume on the part of our client, we try to divide the project into the most important parts, to define these most important parts, and to move the secondary elements of the project into the later stages.

We never abandon our customers after the completion of the project and are ready to provide technical support at various SLA levels. Of course, we give a guarantee on the developed code, and in case if any mistake is found, we promptly switch the necessary resources to it and prioritize its correction. In addition to the warranty service, we are ready to help with routine maintenance of the product, keeping in touch both with your IT specialists and the end users of the system any day and time.

Each project is in some way unique. It is impossible to have one approach to develop IT solutions. The choice of an approach depends primarily on the boundary conditions of work, which are determined by the requirements of our customers. The most important thing for us is to find the most effective way to implement your project.

We are ready to provide any level of service within the framework of pre-agreed SLA. We have a wide experience of round-the-clock support of systems for companies operating in all time zones of the Russian Federation.

The first thing we offer to our potential customers is the signing of NDA. It is important for us that our customers are legally protected transferring important confidential information to us. Compliance with NDA, as well as with all agreements, is one of the main principles that every employee of our company adheres to.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS AT SMYT

Over the years of software development, we have accumulated vast experience in using different methods. We understand pros and cons of each method perfectly. Before we start working on each project, we discuss the conditions of interaction and requirements with our customers in detail. The collected information helps us to understand the applicability of a particular method and gives an opportunity to choose the right approach to the development. It is ideal for some projects to use flexible (agile) methods, for others it is better to use a classic waterfall method. 50% of our work is done using flexible methods.

The code quality and the high culture of development are the cornerstones of our activities. From the very first days in the market of software products development we have tried to stand out with the high quality of our work. We control the quality of our products and development processes at various levels, starting with the task setting process and finishing with results delivery to our customers. We try to use specific metrics to assess the quality of work for each project that take into account both the specifics of a particular project and the requirements of our customers.

Without extra modesty, we can say that the quality of our work is at the level of 20% of the best developers. We make this conclusion on the basis of many years of experience and study of developed source code and systems of different companies.

Testing of our products is a necessary quality control process which cannot be discarded during the software development process. Depending on the reliability and security requirements, we use different types of testing, from automated functional tests to code analysis using specialized software products.

We use manual and automated testing, separation and duplication of subsystems, monitoring of subsystems of software and hardware components of systems, a system of data backup, and we have clear protocols and instructions in case of emergencies.

Depending on the needs of our customers, we can conduct both training of line personnel specializing in the software work and end users. The volume, scope and depth of training, including testing and certification, are usually discussed before the start of each project. We have experience in creating lessons and tests in automatic information systems for distant teaching of personnel, as well as training video lessons.

Depending on the requirements of our customers, we are ready to write a manual of different detail precision and for different user roles in a specific information system. If necessary, we can prepare video tutorials for your employees. Thus, mastering the basic functions of the system will be more exciting than reading of a dry text.