06.26.188:15 am

Tweaking the Twig Tweak Module: A Simple Drupal Site Recipe

By: Vas Jaremchuk

Many years ago I worked for a printing company. While I was there, we implemented a workflow that allowed us to produce business cards within 15 minutes of the client submitting their request. Through that experience I learned the competitive advantage of providing a simple service in a short timeframe. At Speed & Function, we typically work on complex projects where completing the design, development, and QA phases can take months. However, a little known fact is that we can also tackle quick and simple tasks. There is a common assumption that Drupal is only for large multi-user projects with complex business logic and high page counts. It is also Read more
06.18.181:47 pm

Performance and Scalability — A Primer

By: Ruslan

Performance is how fast your application runs and it’s directly tied to scalability – the amount of users it can handle. The less resources your application uses, the higher number of users it can handle without additional investments (getting additional server, database, etc.). The most common performance problem of web applications is the web page loading speed. Time is a hot commodity for web users and if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load, they tend to skip it or are less likely to come back. The performance issue that affects many successful startups is the application downtime and data loses. Usually, startups don’t invest in performance upfront, Read more
04.05.1812:37 pm

Why Should I Care About Mobile App Development?

By: Sergi Alder

We’re living in the age of mobile technology. Everyone has a smartphone. Almost everyone uses tablets. Desktops and laptops are becoming less and less popular with these small, user-friendly devices. So what does that mean for software development? Well, it’s simple: mobile app development is growing a lot faster than browser-based software. But what is mobile app development? Well, let’s start by talking about what it’s not. It’s not the process of building an app for one kind of device. It’s bigger than that. People own all sorts of mobile devices and the app you build must be able to run on any kind of operating system on every kind Read more
03.26.181:14 pm

Pros and Cons of Staff Augmentation

By: Sergi Alder

Are you running a growing IT company? Maybe you’re managing a growing tech team. All at the same time, you’re developing long-term plans, acting as a liaison between departments and partners, and putting out daily fires… all within the constraints of deadlines and budgets. And on top of that, you have to manage your team. Ideally, your employees are busy with new projects, never being over- or under-worked. But let’s be realistic: it’s impossible to sustain consistent workflow. When you land a big new project with strict deadlines, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. So how do you possibly find talented engineers with experience to tackle your Read more
03.14.185:02 pm

How do I identify the right amount of money for my project in 2018?

By: Sergi Alder

Creating a business plan is a good first step towards answering the fundamental, and critical, question of how much money it will take to get the venture started. When launching a new product, the main expenses to budget for are product development and marketing. In this article, we will explore costs associated with product development. We’ll save marketing for a future post. Read more
02.06.182:17 pm

Learn CX, not just UX

By: Andrii Demko

User experience (UX) is an incredibly important aspect of product design. Any product, whether physical or not, must be comfortable and clear for your customer. The shift in focus on User Experience has allowed companies like Apple to create mass dependence on their products as their designers are always prototyping more user-friendly products. But we often forget that effective designers are looking through more than just the lens of users. In order to create a viable and profitable product, designers must also focus on Company Experience (CX), which requires them to put themselves in the shoes of of business analysts, sales professionals, developers, project managers, and others. In other words, Read more
12.04.173:30 pm

Success is a process not a Result

By: Vas Jaremchuk

Technology is the fastest growing industry today. With growth comes experience and with experience comes institutional knowledge. As a lifetime learner, I want to soak up as much insight from other experts in the field as possible. So, I attend conferences. Last month, I had the privilege to attend The Payoneer Forum which sought to answer the essential question: How can an IT agency with only a few immature freelancers create successful processes to become a leader in the market? Read more
11.20.175:46 pm

On evolutionary design

By: Nick

There are many versions of this image, trying to visualize evolutionary design, which is promoted in Agile methodology. This one may be the best. A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is defined on Wikipedia as follows: “In product development, the minimum viable product is the product with the highest return on investment versus risk. It is the sweet spot between products without the required features that fail immediately when shipped and the products with too many features that cut return and increase risk. The term was coined and defined by Frank Robinson,and popularised by Steve Blank, and Eric Ries. It may also involve carrying out market analysis beforehand.” In short, it is Read more
11.20.171:19 pm

Multi Language Module in Drupal 7

By: Vadim Jin

We live in a world of hundreds of languages. A world that’s seeking interconnectedness and communication across these barriers. Technology has allowed us to have colleagues, friends and family members throughout the world and has given businesses the ability to have employees, customers and partners who speak different native languages. With this in mind, we often have clients who need a website in multiple languages! So, developers need to use a multi-language solution. Within Drupal 7, and we use Internalization module to set up this solution. You can convert a site with the “Multi language installation” module to be represented in multiple languages. In doing so, it’s important to remember Read more