Database Programming in Ruby on Rails, PHP, .NET, Flex

Our core competency lies in database design, database programming, and data-centric web applications and workflow applications. As much as possible we employ the agile web development methodology. This means that we'll break your application down into bite-sized chunks and deliver updates to you every couple of days. This will give you a chance to view our progress and try out your application as it is being built.

Design Website, Logo, Business Cards, Letterhead

We have professional and versatile designers with excellent turn-around time. They closely listen to your design specifications and will be sure to impress you everytime. We do both digital web design, logos, and design for printed matter such as business cards, letterhead, and even t-shirts or posters. Please see our portfolio page for design samples(coming soon).

Our process

Our workflow systematizes the software engineering process and thoroughly captures usage requirements and business rules, minimizes errors, development time, and glitches during deployment, and maximizes customer satisfaction.

gather specifications,
develop the project,
test,
deploy.

Specifications The initial meeting for a project should usually consists of going over written specifications on a Skype meeting call. We also use Yugma's free desktop sharing service so that the custom can present his/her visual mock-ups, power point slides, designs, or clickable prototype to aid in communication the project specifications. This initial communication of the project idea applies to both software programming and design projects. Communicating the spirit of the project is important and necessarily multimedia in nature. That's why we backup all written specifications with a Skype meeting, and all Skype meetings with a written document.

Deployment is a very important issue, because if it's not done properly your code that works beautifully in the development and testing environments may not work in the production environment. This can be a huge problem, because it can delay the delivery of the product by weeks or even months. For example, if the production environment has security restrictions and/or sensitive data, vendors like us are not permitted to access the productions server. Trying to troubleshoot a production environment without access can be nearly impossible. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to come up with a reliable deployment and troubleshooting plan early in the development process. We are happy to work with customers if they have special needs for their production environment. For example, if necessary, we can set up a new dedicated server that precisely mirrors the production environment without the sensitive data. We will deploy to this mirror machine, and the customer can simply follow the deployment recipe that we provide to their real production machine without incident. This kind of deployment plan will circumvent 99% of all such issues. Using automated deployment tools like Capistrano can further ease deployment. For example, we can write a script that deploys to the production environment in a fast, thorough, repeatable, error-free and fully automatic way.

Programming We encourage the best software engineering practices to date including version control software, the agile development methodology, automated testing, DRY code, rafactoring, and pair programming. We use version control software for managing, sharing, and backing up code and documentation. For our Ruby on Rails projects, we write executable automated regression tests, which notify you that all of your code is working properly. Sufficient test coverage, and running your regression tests after each time you change your code gives you the freedom to confidently refactor and improve your code by making it leaner, more modular, and writing less code without fearing that you'll be introducing errors into other parts of your codebase. We use standard Javascript libraries like Prototype and Scriptaculous, which increases cross-browser compatibility. We keep our code DRY by constant refactoring. Given the constraints imposed by the Pacific ocean and separate us geographically and temporally from our customers, we try to stay as agile as possible by shrinking project scope, implementing and delivering functionality that is as granular as is practical (usually on a page by page basis).

Communicating Progress is an important part of the development process. We primarily do this by slicing up the project into bite-sized deliverables so that the customer can not only hear how things are going but interact with the site as it is being built, page by page. In addition, we encourage direct and frequent communication with your dedicated development team. Feel free to have a virtual meeting everyday with your team if you see fit. The more frequent the communication the better. Mini-Skype meeting for 15-30 minutes per day with your programmer and business analyst to make sure he/she understands what tasks are important and to see how your project is doing.

Documentation Each project's business rules, design requirements, usage scenarios, browser requirements, and other functional requirements are documented in a formal, versioned specification document that is shared in our SVN repository.

Testing is probably the most important part of website development, because it ensures that the requirements have been met, the customer will get what he or she wants, and that we're delivering a product of quality. Testing is done on two levels: regression tests and manual tests. A regression test is code that checks your application to make sure it is working properly. This code is continuously running in the background checking to make sure the entire application works every time the programmer changes the application code, which ensures that all of your code is working all of the time before the code is even passed to the manual tester. As a result, your code quality increases by an order of magnitude, and errors go away forever after being fixed once, because the programmer is will always be notified if something goes wrong. This gives your programmer the confidence and freedom to improve the code without fear of breaking anything. The second level of testing, manual testing, is done by highly experienced, detail-oriented, and strict manual testers who thoroughly check everything from the correct implementation of business rules, ease-of-use, exotic input combinations, sensibility of error messages, consistency of application states, to more cosmetic features like punctuation, font alignment, etc.

Ways of Working Together

We're very open to different ways of doing business. If your idea doesn't fall into one of the following categories, please let us know. More likely than not, we would be willing to accommodate your style of doing business. For example, Maybe you would like to refer clients to us for a 10% referral fee. Or, maybe you have a business idea and would like a cheaper development rate for equity. Please talk to us.

Subcontracting If you're a programmer or designer in the consulting business, just refer to us your extra clients and we'll cut you a 10% check for the first two years we service that client. Or if you want to use us as a silent partner and manage the specification gathering process yourself, that works well for us too. See our pricing for subcontracting as a silent partner to the right.

Entrepreneurs or Small Companies Maybe you own a small business, or you're thinking about implementing an idea of your own web business, we're happy to work with you.

Medium Companies or VC-funded ventures We welcome start-ups who are able to identify parts of their project that can be easily outsourced. We can quickly source and train the top programmers in the Philippines for 1 or 2 year contracts.

Large Companies Large companies often need workflow applications for streamlining various business processes. We understand the communication, deployment, security, and approval issues involved in working with large corporations. We can create sleek and professional interfaces that provide your customers and VIPs with a rich user experience. Large corporations, banks, and hospitals from Europe are especially invited to seek our services. Please visit to our contact page and call us during regular Philippine business hours.