• What are the design methodologies used?
  
• What about the Quality Assurance procedures? What are the testing methodologies you believe in?
• What standard does your company follow concerning coding?
• What is the size of the Multimedia & ASP technical team?
• What is the method adapted to interact with the client technical team like email, teleconference, chat?
• Can we get any references from your American or European clients?
• How is the job designated when a new project starts? Please give us a small overview on the process of assigning the job to the team, in terms of the structural hierarchy.
• What does the company expect from us in terms of documents? What would be our i.e. client technical team's responsibility in the project lifecycle? How about the maintenance part of it?
• Do we have the flexibility to assign you jobs at any stage of the project?
• How do you monitor the time spent on a project?
• Do you estimate a job in terms of man hours or do you estimate it on a fixed contract say quarterly, yearly etc. Are they negotiable?
• How do you determine the project cost? How would we monitor our project?
• How do you ensure security and privacy of information?
  
  

1. What are the design methodologies used?
Ebot uses SADT (Structured Analysis & Design Techniques) modeling and most of the times whatever the client desires or requires.

2. What about the Quality Assurance procedures? What are the testing methodologies you believe in?
We create test plans & use cases during the design and implementation phases and use them. Most of the time it is simple MS excel spreadsheets that is reviewed and accepted by the clients.

3. What standard does your company follow concerning coding?
We have our own Coding Standard, which we follow for our internal projects/products. [Based on Code Complete]. For our clients we follow the same standard as followed/desired by the client.

4. What is the size of the Multimedia & ASP technical team?
On an average it is 7-8 people per team.

5. What is the method adapted to interact with the client technical team like email, teleconference, chat?
All of them – used in a manner most beneficial to the client. Our customers are based in different time zone[s]. For daily discussions/interactions – chat /mails. VoIP is used for voice-based discussions every week to discuss the project updates/concerns/developments.

6. Can we get any references from your American or European clients?
Sure.

7. How is the job designated when a new project starts? Please give us a small overview on the process of assigning the job to the team, in terms of the structural hierarchy.
There shall be a Technical manager who oversees the project plan and make sure that the deadlines are met. Then there shall be a project manager who is responsible for the client interactions and delivery of a quality product, the software engineers work as per the guidelines of the Project Manager.

8. What does the company expect from us in terms of documents? What would be our i.e. client technical team's responsibility in the project lifecycle? How about the maintenance part of it?
All depends on the type of relationship Ebot has with its clients. In some cases, the only job of the client is to do the final QA, and in some cases Ebot team works more like an extended team of theirs just geographically at a different place. As far as documents are concerned, Ebot is very strict in maintaining all the documents; be it requirement specifications, configuration specifications, quality assurance documents and product release documents etc. but we are adaptive according to the customer needs and wants & regulations.

9. Do we have the flexibility to assign you jobs at any stage of the project?
Ebot follows the project according to the schedule agreed upon. Based on client's requirements and the conditions agreed upon Ebot does take a flexible approach. For some clients Ebot directly interacts via the defect/project tracking system of the clients. The clients can assign priority to the features/issues they want us to respond to and we work accordingly. We are flexible enough to handle any kind of client request during/after the project.

10. How do you monitor the time spent on a project?
Timesheets (hours of work done) sent to the client as per stipulated time interval (weekly/monthly). We also have software to log the time spent and to enable remote monitoring by the client.

11. Do you estimate a job in terms of man hours or do you estimate it on a fixed contract say quarterly, yearly etc. Are they negotiable?
It is fixed, hourly, and monthly. It is negotiable.

12. How do you determine the project cost? How would we monitor our project?
We do get first the requirement specifications and configuration specifications and based on that we do a complete analysis of the software and estimate the approximate man days required to implement the same and of-course multiply by our standard rates. As far as estimation is considered we do use function point analysis and module analysis and we have our own tools and methods to arrive at the best possible effort estimation.
The important milestones are set for the project. We send the status reports on the ongoing work to keep the client abreast of the current developments/issues. The client can see the progress towards the milestones. For some of our clients we directly interact via the defect/project tracking system of the clients. The clients can assign priority to the features/issues they want us to respond to and we work accordingly.

13. How do you ensure security and privacy of information?
We have the latest firewalls & strict rules to make sure that data is not misused or leaked in anyway electronically. Of-course other than that we do have other standard means to make sure that we ensure utmost security for the information of our clients. All employees are made to sign and abide by the company’s IT policy which ensures security and privacy.
Apart from all the above, we also sign Non-Disclosure agreements (NDA) with our clients.