Software development executed with
transparency and simplicity.

Trust is the building block of successful engagements.

What is Devblock?

We are a software development agency who holds ourselves to the highest standards.

  • Our team is comprised of engineers and project managers with extensive commercial experience building world-class web and mobile applications.

  • Our project management system allows 100% transparency into our work and ease of communication throughout the life of your project on our EMS (Engagement Management System).

  • Our aim is to integrate clients, developers, and assets into a unified engagement ecosystem, which will make development truly efficient, transparent, and reliable.

Engagement Model

Resourcing

Accountable

  • Candidates have to pass tests relevant to their roles
  • Our team members do cross-training across technologies and projects for continuity
  • We only hire engineers with professional work experience
  • Candidates are interviewed by a panel and interviewers make independent judgments
  • We hire to have some excess capacity so that we hire for quality, not urgency

Transparent

  • We share the resumes of assigned team members
  • Our training programs for new technology are centered around internal projects with visibility to code for all employees
  • We provide stats about number of job applicants, interviews, and hires
  • An easy communication channel is always available via Basecamp for staying in touch with engineers, testers and project managers

Verifiable

  • We provide references to previous clients
  • We expose code written by our team members for sample projects
  • Client can ask hiring manager why they hired a team member, and perhaps hiring manager provides 1-pager of why we hired the person

Discovery

Accountable

  • We provide alternatives to implementing custom components, by leveraging our knowledge of existing solutions and services available; act as advisors
  • Process: technical vetting after scope doc, to confirm requirements are feasible and fit in budget

Transparent

  • We list features included and features excluded, for clarity, and provide alternatives so that the client can be informed and prioritize to maximize their investment; partnering about prioritization
  • Share technical assessment doc with client

Verifiable

  • We deliver project functional specifications to the client and have a review and approval process before development begins
  • Provide an option to bring 3rd party pm/scoper to review and assess scope doc feasibility (contractors, network, or client can provide)

Development Process

Accountable

  • A QA process ensures code is considered “done” only after passing peer code review, and independent verification test by QC
  • Each developers’ work is put into private ledger and their reputation is visible to management and their peers

Transparent

  • Client access to dashboard showing hours spent by each person per day, on each task (via jiraqueries)
  • Publishing test cases and test pass results
  • Publishing code review results

Verifiable

  • Weekly one-on-one meetings between tech leads and engineers and testers, to review challenges and areas for improvement, and results shared with client
  • Option to bring in third party to do code inspection report (contractor, advisors, client provided)

Management & Communication

Accountable

  • Devblock’s Program Manager is your primary contact and available to represent the development team as needed with third parties, product management discussion, …
  • PGM results and outcome go up on private ledger for reputation

Transparent

  • Daily status reports from dev team members to their PM are visible to the client
  • Daily status reports from project manager to client, highlighting any critical items, and progress against project target
  • Day-of escalation of issues that may impact project schedule or budget if discovered

Verifiable

  • Weekly and monthly status reports reflecting back the value provided over that period, and archived / available

Success Outcomes

Accountable

  • PMs, developers, and company are all aligned - each person’s reputation score is based on success of the project as a whole

Transparent

  • Test plans and test cases shared
  • Release notes and deployment plans shared out
  • Work units are viewable in a ledger, visible across our company, so that developers care about their reputation
  • Code review scores are visible on the ledge of work units
  • Payments tied to success outcomes - invoices include monthly success report

Verifiable

  • At start of engagement, success metrics are established and after engagement, a retrospective meeting is held to measure against original criteria
  • Our work in progress is all visible in a testing environment we provide, not hidden until the end of the engagement
  • We bring in 3nd party code reviewer / auditor that looks at code and audits for quality and accuracy against requirements

OUR CLIENTS

TESTIMONIALS

LINKIT

DevBlock is our dev arm. They are very smart and talented. I know that they are expert, reliable and stand by their offering. They are so full of integrity; that just doesn't exist elsewhere.

Name Surname Karen Winter - VP @LINKIT

PIRQ

We couldn't be more pleased with DevBlock as an effective team for distributed development and consider them a trusted partner to our success.

Name Surname Bill Chi - CTO @ PIRQ

The Active Network

DevBlock made our vision reality. Their expertise in mobile and sport is a winning combination that makes our iPhone application a success.

Name Surname Dan Joseph - Sr. Director of Technology @The Active Network