Delays from clients are inevitable in web project management. In the rapidly evolving world of offshore web development, sticking to deadlines is crucial to the success of any project. As the operator of Macronimous, an Indian offshore web development firm, since 2002, I have navigated the unique set of challenges that come with managing clients worldwide. No matter how realistic the schedule, unexpected delays on the client’s side can disrupt workflow and influence project timelines. Today, I want to share how we proficiently handle such delays, fostering a win-win scenario that not only maintains a positive rapport with our clients but also ensures on-time project completion.

• Implement Robust Communication Channels:

In my experience, transparent and open communication is at the heart of managing client expectations. I always make it a point to set clear project timelines, which include clients’ responsibilities such as providing content, feedback, and project assets. Emphasizing the importance of prompt collaboration and discussing possible delay-inducing bottlenecks right from the start paves the way for mutual understanding.

• Educate Clients About the Domino Effect of Timely Deliverables:

Over the years, I’ve found that many clients aren’t aware of the ripple effect that delayed deliverables can cause. We make sure to explain how any delays in providing content or feedback can disrupt the development cycle, leading to prolonged project timelines and escalating costs. This approach often instills a greater sense of responsibility and encourages collaboration.

• Divide Projects into Manageable Milestones:

To help our clients understand their role in the project’s progress, we divide the project into smaller, achievable milestones, clearly conveying the deliverables and deadlines for each phase. This focus on manageable milestones has consistently allowed us to maintain a steady workflow and lessen the impact of potential delays.

• Include Buffer Time in Project Timelines:

I’ve learned that incorporating buffer time in our project schedules from the outset helps us present a more realistic timeline to our clients. This buffer, while not always necessary, provides flexibility and helps us manage the impact of unforeseen delays from our clients. This will also help to cover minor scope creep in projects.

• Regularly Reiterate Clients’ Responsibilities:

A gentle reminder can often be the nudge that keeps clients on track. We send friendly email reminders or arrange brief check-ins to reemphasize the importance of adhering to agreed timelines. The key here is to avoid becoming demanding; instead, we always underscore the collaborative nature of the project and our shared goal of timely project completion.

• Extend a Helping Hand:

We understand that our clients may encounter challenges that contribute to delays. Over the years, we’ve extended assistance in areas they might be struggling with, such as content creation or gathering project assets. Offering such support has often helped our clients overcome obstacles and reduced the chances of delays.

• Adopt Agile Development and Flexible Workflows:

We’ve adopted agile development practices, which allow for flexibility and adaptability. Agile methodologies enable iterative development, allowing us to accommodate changes and delays more effectively. In my experience, embracing agile principles has been invaluable in adjusting project timelines and priorities based on evolving client needs and deliverables.

• Convey Impact of Delays and Reset Expectations:

When delays occur despite our best efforts, I believe in maintaining open communication with the client about the repercussions and adjusted timelines. We explain how the delay affects subsequent tasks, resource allocation, and project dependencies, always involving our clients in the decision-making process. This collaborative approach helps us find solutions and adjust expectations while preserving a positive working relationship.

Navigating client delays in offshore web development projects is a delicate balancing act between client satisfaction and project deadlines. Drawing from my experience at Macronimous, I can affirm that clear communication, client education, project segmentation into manageable milestones, and buffer time inclusion are critical to tackling these challenges.

A cooperative approach, combined with offering support when required, paves the way for a win-win situation, one that not only fosters client satisfaction but also ensures successful project completion. Through our journey since 2002, we have faced and overcome many instances of client-side delays, each one a learning opportunity. As we move forward, we remain committed to adapting, learning, and continually refining our approach to ensure our client’s satisfaction and the success of our projects.

The post Maneuvering Through Client Delays in web project management: A Mutual Benefit Strategy From My Experience in Offshore Web Development first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Macronimous is in the web development business and has been, since its inception, in the remote working space. By default, as with most businesses like ours, client-centric communication is our key strength – the ability to communicate well and transform client visions into Internet reality.

A collection of solid social collaboration solutions takes advantage of an organization’s network by bringing together the people, data, and processes needed for improved engagement and informed decision making.

Our clients often introduce us to new tools that we, mostly, adopt to go further up our learning curve as an organization. One example was Zoom which a client introduced to us in 2013 that we had some early reservations about, at the time. The rest is history.

We use an eclectic mix of communication tools for web teams:

• E-mails – Probably seen as the snail mail of today, e-mails continue to serve an important purpose among which are correspondence regarding initial requirements and pre-sales questions. This also helps keep records of client communication at all stages of the project which eliminates confusion and increases transparency. 

• Zoom, Google Meet – are quite similar in operation. Both have collaboration tools, share screen, breakout rooms, and support call-ins. The difference is with the overall price and the maximum number of participants that can join a meeting. These two conferencing tools are what our clients presently prefer, and they are, thus, the tools we work with. Like everyone, we at Macronimous started using them extensively, after the pandemic.

• Skype – This is seen as among the first VOIP systems to break traditional communication barriers. We use this to make quick calls before and during the project start. Skype also helps in the traditional area of phone calls; investing in a VOIP device with call recording is worthwhile. We have set up a Skype phone number in the USA; our local clients reach us while incurring no additional charges for international calls.

• Basecamp.com and Teamwork.com – We use web-based project management software as part of our box of remote team communication tools. They help ensure that everything is organized and our team continues to work seamlessly on multiple projects. They make both simple and complex projects easier to manage.

Basecamp is relatively old compared to Teamwork yet clients like it because of its simplicity. Teamwork is extensive, it has a bit of a learning curve.

• Trello – For our clients who like Kanban boards, Trello works well. Trello is simple and good for smaller web projects. Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable teams to organize and prioritize projects in a flexible way. It is easier to track – all on its dashboard – with easy-to-move cards-based navigation.

• Adobe XD – is a screen-based design tool that helps our developers effortlessly share interactive prototypes with team members and our clients. Our developers create all the screens in a web app flow letting our clients get a feel of the entire product.

The chances of client frustration are low as this process of visualizing the proposed product would reduce any scope creep or deviation. It saves us hundreds of hours per project by lessening the number of e-mail exchanges.

• Bugzilla – is a robust bug-tracking system that allows our teams of developers to keep track of outstanding bugs, enhancements, and other change requests in their products.

We are open, however, to adopting our client’s preference of any other web-based or locally installed equivalent bug tracking tool.

• Slack – is a collaboration hub that brings people, information, and tools together to get work done. It ranks among the most popular communication tools for remote web teams. We use Slack within our development team. However, not all our clients are ready to get onto Slack, so we adapt to their software of choice, where necessary.
• FreshBooks – is the application we use to invoice, record expenses, and track time. This is a simple but relatively expensive tool. Apart from Freshbooks, we are use Hiveage, which has many payment integrations other than PayPal.

There are many similar applications for payment receivables and payables operations. However, we work with FreshBooks as it is a standard for most of our clients.

Loom – this is a new and easy-to-use video messaging business tool that is gathering traction in this space. You can send a one-way video message the way you would send a text message using Loom. The video can include a recording of the screen for more technical/ visual topics along with voiceovers. It is free! We send our clients explainer videos, project flows, etc. via Loom and they provide feedback, similarly, thus saving hours of inputting text. For instance: to explain how to delete an image in a post in the WordPress block editor, we would create a video and send it to the client and then deal with the client’s feedback. When our communication with our clients has to be asynchronous without their presence for a screen share, Loom videos become visual documents.

When we work remotely on multiple projects that involve different stakeholders who are allocated their separate tasks, staying organized can be a challenge. However, we have created our effective working environment using a wide range of software that we optimize for our operations.

The post Communication tools that we use in Macronimous throughout the web development lifecycle first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Agile process

For any old-time conventional software developer, “Agile” is a term which never finds a place in their dictionary of software development. However, it was quite shocking to know that the meeting in 2001 would result in a tremendous change in software development around the word “agile”. Software Development, owing to the robustness that it has to provide, could never be thought of being developed in an ‘agile’ fashion. This is something that never enters into the mind of software developers and the teams.

But, yes, this happened, and we have seen the benefits in our company.

In case, you are new to Web Development and especially ‘Agile web development’ here are some basics, before we move on to explaining how we do it. The definition as mentioned in the Agile Alliance is “Agile web Development or Agile software development is an umbrella term for a set of methods and practices based on the values and principles expressed in the Agile Manifesto.

We at Macronimous were swift to figure out the key advantages of Agile web Development and began to implement the same.

To begin with, our Agile Development Team follows the 12 principles as mentioned in the Agile Manifesto. The outworking of the 12 Agile principles by the Agile Team in Macronimous are as follows:

1. Customer Satisfaction: Customers are important for us and there is nothing that gets a higher priority than Customer Satisfaction. We believe and have experienced that continuous delivery of software keeps our customers highly satisfied. This does not begin after months of Sign Up, but asap, as short as a week and sometimes even lesser than that.

2. Software Modification: The pace at which the changes occur in the software industry is mind-boggling, which is not a reality for this industry alone. Hence, our customers from different industries have swiftly changing specifications and end up requesting changes in the software that we tailor-make. The agile development gives the customer a welcome note at the mention of requirement changes, even during later stages of development, unlike the traditional methodology. The highlight is the customer gets a software which is at par with their industry need.

3. Continuous Delivery: We have observed through the years that most businesses are an amalgamation of different processes. If there is a way to develop a couple of processes and then release it to the customer, they get to see the foretaste of what the entire software will look like. The advantage is an immediate and quick feedback. Not only this, this would give a method for tracking the progress.

4. Continuous Client Involvement: Collaboration of client and developers in a continuous manner is very much in the spirit of Agile. The immediate response to such a thought from the developers are, “they(the clients) are a disruption”. Quite not so! In fact, the reverse is true. The absence of continuous involvement from the client is quite disruptive as we have seen over the years that once the entire application is developed, the client comes in and expresses their expectation as a little different. No amounts of the requirements document and sign-ups have quite fixed this gap. This can be completely excluded by way of having a constant feedback through client involvement in the project continuously.

5. Optimized Use of Resources: Who builds the software matters the most. Who is your architect? Who is your coder? How well is the project implemented? These are all the questions that need a serious consideration. Not always experienced people are effective people. One of the blunders that we have observed in the outsource business is companies approaching us for resources having ‘n’ years of experience. Though we try to convey that we have a more efficient person with less than ‘n’ years of experience, too often they turn a deaf ear, and we end up providing what they ask. Since Agile uses flat hierarchy (no hierarchy) it is quite easy to handpick the right person to do the right job.

We haven’t finished yet! There are 7 more advantages that we know of which we will blog in the upcoming months.

In conclusion, our experience is that embracing the agile methodology helps us to deliver outstanding software applications swiftly.

Why not try implementing a couple of the above-mentioned in your team or company. We would be happy to share more details. Else, if you have already implemented, why not share your experience in the below comments section. We would love to hear from you.

The post 5 Proven Advantages of Agile web Development first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

The 3 steps for your business to the mobile bandwagon:

1. Consult with the Core Business Team

The statistics though mind-boggling and lucrative, to be truly successful and to see ROI, you need to tread with care in the field of Mobile apps. Since we are developing mobile apps since 2009, what we have identified is, not all Mobile Apps are successful. When we drill deep into the reason, for most of the cases, we find that not all the Mobile Apps aligned with the core business functionality – causing more woes, including loss of money, than before. Hence the very first step to see your business move into the Mobile Bandwagon is to identify your core business functionality. Towards this, call for a meeting with the key people who understand and know your business thoroughly and begin charting out a Mobile Strategy for your business.

2. Consult with the Sales & Marketing Team

Once you have successfully identified your core business functionality, the next step would be to find the current feel of your customers and the pulse in the market. This is critical because they are the final users and your success in ROI would lie in identifying this correctly. This answer lies in your sales and marketing team, who are knowledgeable about the following

• What is the current Marketing pitch used
• What Ticks the sales and the accompanying nuances
• Who are your competitors
• A SWOT analysis

Why do you need to do these exercises with your team? Read on…

3. Consult an expert Mobile App Dev Team

Now, you have done your homework. You are ready to approach the Mobile App industry experts. A good Mobile App development team will elicit details from you, which the core business team and the Sales and marketing team have given even before they agreed to the development for you. This is a good yardstick for you to keep while deciding whom you can trust this work with.

Such an app development team will be able to bring in the apt Mobile App features as they understand your core business and along with it use appropriate UI and UX  features, as they understand your customers and the competitors and the industry standards. Having taken all the pain at your side, a bad job at the end can completely spoil your efforts. Hence, this is an extremely critical step which will help your business to become successful and giving entry into the Mobile Bandwagon, even disrupting the industry.

In Conclusion:

Remember – Mobile Apps do not guarantee earnings unless enough planning and care taken. Added to it, the right App Developer (I do not mind pointing us as one of them :-))  is the key to seeing this get fleshed out.

Want more advice on how to do this. Talk to us. We are glad to help.

The post How your business can enter into mobile app bandwagon? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Amazon VPC for E-commerce

Top 3 reasons to host your E-commerce website on AWS VPC

Amazon Web Services Virtual Private Cloud (AWS VPC) allows us to launch cloud resources into a virtual network that we define. This virtual network similar to a traditional network gives the benefits of using the highly scalable cloud infrastructure of AWS. While there are many advantages of using AWS VPC to host your e-commerce website including Magento, Prestashop, and WordPress over other virtual networking solutions the top three reasons to use for your business is listed below.

1. PCI DSS Compliance

AWS VPC has been validated by an authorized independent Qualified Security Assessor (QSA). This enables merchants to establish a secure cardholder environment. Amazon VPC supports the storage, processing, and transmission of credit card data by a merchant or service provider. AWS VPC has also been validated to be compliant with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). This would also mean that you, as a merchant can rely on the PCI compliance validation for the technology infrastructure provided by Amazon and can obtain and manage their own compliance and certification. This not only simplifies moving your cardholder environment to AWS VPC but also makes it easier to manage your PCI audits and responses to incidents. This is very helpful when you accept credit cards on your Prestashop website.

2. VPC Security

Amazon provides three features that can be used to increase and monitor security for the VPC.

1. Security groups – A virtual firewall that is connected to the instances launched within the VPC to control the inbound and outbound traffic.
2. Network Access control lists (ACL) – A virtual firewall associated with the subnets. This controls the inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level
3. Flow logs – A feature to capture information flowing in and out of network interfaces defined within the VPC.

AWS VPC security can be used to protect your WordPress, Magento, Prestashop and other open source installations.

3. VPN Connections

AWS VPC allows VPN connections from your in-house data center. This allows you to extend your corporate network into the cloud. You can also use the VPC connected over the VPN as a disaster recovery site and have all the benefits at the fraction of the cost. An IPsec VPN connection between your AWS VPC and your corporate network also allows you to host scalable applications in the cloud that are connected to other applications in your corporate network and secure all the communications between the cloud and your corporate network. Some of the connectivity options are:

1. AWS Hardware VPN – IPsec hardware VPN connection between your VPC and the remote network
2. AWS Direct Connect – A dedicated private connection between your VPC and the remote network
3. AWS VPN CloudHub – Multiple AWS hardware VPN connections through your VPC

If you have already hosted your E-Commerce store in Amazon VPC, please share your experience in the comment section.

Need assistance in hosting your E-Commerce site with Amazon VPC? We at Macronimous.com can help you. Write us to enquiry@macronimous.com

The post Top 3 reasons to host your E-commerce website on AWS VPC first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Here comes PhoneGap, an open source mobile development framework to ease the process. PhoneGap takes advantage of the WebKit rendering instance, a common characteristic of all the latest gadgets like iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, etc. In addition, the developer need not learn new codes nor is he expected to have a thorough knowledge of the device SDK, but be capable of using web standards. Simply put, PhoneGap allows you to create web apps using JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3. And it’s exciting because it harmonizes with the device API and allows you to package the web app like a native app, getting access to the phone’s unique hardware/ services.

So, let’s get started!

PhoneGap for iOS

• Get xCode and PhoneGap installed.
• Once done you will find a number of folders relevant to various OS. Click on the iOS folder as we are creating for iOS. This will install PhoneGap features into Xcode…
• Run Xcode and create a new Xcode project. Opt for the folder “PhoneGap based application.” This would allow Xcode to create parts required to develop an iOS application. Compile these assets in an iOS folder on your computer.
• Thereafter name the demo project and decide on options like the application name, screen mode, app icon, etc.
• Subsequently, launch Xcode in the project navigator and open file named “www.” This contains all parts related to PhoneGap.
• Click on indexfile.html. Here you can modify codes as required.
• Now run the demo app on any preferred simulator (iOS versions). Once the demo app is successfully run you are all set to create real-time apps of your choice for iOS using PhoneGap framework.

PhoneGap for Android

• Install eclipse and Android SDK.
• Download ADT plug-in and restart eclipse.
• Launch PhoneGap for Android and run Eclipse.
• Create a new project in Eclipse and name the project. Select the appropriate Android version.
• Check “create activity” and go to Android project folder. Build folders like www, libs, and res and drag in assets including Cordova 1.5.0.jar, Cordova 1.5.0.js, and XML to the appropriate location such that it has all parts and pieces required for the demo PhoneGap app development.
• Finally, create index.html file and put in the required HTML codes. Choose the respective emulator and check for the output.

All said, it takes a little while to get around the framework, plus the run time for any PhoneGap app is quite high in comparison to a native app. However, developers could easily bridge the gap for it is a great tool to build effective and innovative mobile applications.

Update: Apache Cordova is a mobile application development framework created by Nitobi. Adobe Systems purchased Nitobi in 2011, rebranded it as PhoneGap, and later released an open-source version of the software called Apache Cordova. Wikipedia

The post Getting started with PhoneGap development – What do you need? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Ethical practices have no boundaries, and the more ethical you are, the more benefits you acquire. Being an ethical SEO company, will not only fetch new clients but also make new clients as long-term clients.  The major advantage with long-term clients is they will help the SEO firm to expertise more about the business, and it makes the SEO Company to even go for the domain based SEO service.

Candy to Google Engineers

Most of the businesses outsource their Internet marketing objectives to specialized SEO companies because of the reason that the Internet marketing is as tough as conventional marketing. So, it is extremely important to partner Internet marketing companies with strong testimonials and more importantly, with companies that are ethical.

SEO companies should be considered, as a marketing partner of your business and the SEO firm should carry out the expectations of the business methodically.

Business owners should be wary of certain aspects other than the factors said in part 1 before partnering with an Internet marketing firm.

1. Check the effectiveness of the portfolio:

Many SEO companies claim to have achieved top rankings for ‘x’ number of keywords, but the fact that is to be looked for is the competitiveness of keywords. Long tail keywords are generally less competitive, and neither are they going to generate traffic to the site. There are many tools, which shows you the competitiveness of keywords and use them to analyze the competency level and the expertise level of the SEO Company. It is highly important for business owners who are in competitive business to check this because there are tons of SEO companies who are projecting these in such a way that people are easily carried away.

2. Review the Testimonials:

There is a general adage:-

“A good word of mouth is bag of Gold”

Business owners should beware of companies providing fake testimonials and it is not only vital to check the effectiveness of the portfolio but should make sure they are true.  The one best thing what you can do is to actually call the company referred in the testimonial and request for a feedback. There is no bigger testimonial required than a good word of mouth for an SEO firm and in that case any company and business.

3. Effective Communication:

Effective communication plays a key role in the success of an Internet marketing campaign,, and co-ordination between the business owner and the SEO firm is vital to reach the targeted audience. Business owners should be careful in selecting the SEO firm, andd they should make sure the SEO firm can be contacted anytime by any means in the case of urgent needs. The other fact is that the business owners are ones who are aware of the latest happenings in the line of the businesses and updating the changes to the SEO firm is another factor to the key to success. Also, the SEO Company should be ready to make the changes accordingly in their Internet marketing strategy.

If there is a lack of communication between the SEO firm and Business,ness, then the website is the  “blind man in Amazon!!! “

4. Reporting and Reports

Reports and reporting, on the other hand, strengthens the relationship between the business owner and the SEO firm and this also helps the business owners to assess the performance of the SEO firm. Partner with SEO firms who can provide customized reports based on the requirements of the clients and are also capable of analyzing the performance of the website should be able to provide suitable recommendations periodically.

5. Technical support:

SEO not only involves on-page and off-page optimization processes, it also involves certain design and development changes to be done in websites. An SEO company, which can help in development as well as in internet marketing, would be an ideal choice for business owners because there is room for flexibility. Search engines nowadays provide importance to loading speed, and it is extremely important that your business website is hosted in good servers.

About us: “Macronimous Web solutions, an offshore search engine optimization company, is always proud to offer white-hat SEO service for its clients. As we follow white-hat SEO technique, we are esteemed to call ourselves as a professional SEO firm. Macronimous considers the business of the clients as their own business and foresees the SEO process. This makes Macronimous very special because it acts as a marketing team to the company indirectly. Macronimous has a team of SEO experts who are working hard to create a benchmark in ethical SEO. Clients can contact Macronimous web solutions for any SEO related aspects and the team are ever ready to serve the client needs. Macronimous updates the clients with the latest changes in search engines periodically and gives suitable solutions with varying time.  Macronimous web solutions always feel proud to be a part of client’s intellectual business partner.”

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We have analyzed the importance of time difference management and how useful it proves to be for an organization that has an offshore team employed.

The post Time Zone Difference – A blessing for the Offshore outsouricng first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Web collaboration tools normally consist of a list web based applications which are capable of making people work together via internet. Such set of tools will simplify the communication and information exchange. For example a project team in different locations can work together with Web collaborative tools. Such tools normally consist of shared access to project files, share calendars, schedules and plans. They can have online discussions, share whiteboards and documents.

See my favorite tools below, But I recommend you to evaluate them before you start using them.

1. BaseCamp: Basecamp is a web based project management and collaboration tool, designed for small businesses, lawyers, publishers, manufacturers, and offshore web developers and outsourcing agencies. It has a very clean and interactive web based interface. It presents the clients and projects on one screen, you can make lists, add items, assign responsibility, upload files, categorize, sort and track versions. Message boards keep your communication centralized with no shooting emails back and forth. You can start practicing it with their 30-day free trial.

2. dotproject: This is a opensource application, written by several users, and it has the following features.

• User Management
• Email based trouble Ticket System, (Integrated voxel.net’s ticketsmith)
• Client/Company Management
• Project listings
• Hierarchical Task List
• File Repository
• Contact List
• Calendar
• Discussion Forum
• Resource Based Permissions

3. Twiki: Twiki, a flexible, powerful, and easy to use enterprise wiki, enterprise collaboration platform and knowledge management system. It is a Structured Wiki, typically used to run a project development space, a document management system, a knowledge base, or any other groupware tool, on an intranet or on the internet. Web content can be created collaboratively by using just a browser. Twiki also has several plugins such as, Actiontracker, Calender, Chart etc.

4. GoPlan: GoPlan! has number of collaborative features like Track project progress through task management, calendaring, note sharing and issue tracking. Additionally, real-time in-browser chat lets you converse with team members. Goplan also has developer API which allows you to integrate our system to the rest of your infrastructure.

There are number of free, paid script, and paid hosted solutions  available, finding the one for your team and making your client to use it would be a bit challenging initially. But once when you start using it, you will make everyone in your team proud of you.

When you plan to outsource to India, or planning to work with a remote development team like us, these tools make make our colloboration easier on information, project details and file sharing.

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