How long has No Magic, Inc. been in the business of offshore software development?  Since our founding in 1995.

How does No Magic, Inc. protect the client's intellectual property rights? Unlike many offshore firms, No Magic, Inc. is a U.S. corporation incorporated under the laws of the state of Wyoming. As such, your intellectual property rights are protected under U.S. law.

What are No Magic's strengths that differentiate it from its competitors? No Magic's primary strengths lie in management, technological expertise and process. 1. Management. No Magic, Inc. is the only outsourcing company that has software development managers supervising, on-site, the offshore operation. Our management teams, located on-site in our Development Centers, have extensive experience in warehousing, distribution, banking, finance and telecommunications systems, as well as embedded systems and industrial controls. As a result, No Magic, Inc. has attained the highest levels of U.S. engineering and project management standards.   2. Technological expertise. No Magic's technical core competencies lie in its staff's extensive JAVA/C++ knowledge. All new programmers take a three-month course in JAVA/C++, including Booch, Rumbaugh, and UML design methods and notations, software design patterns, specification writing and project management. No Magic's staff has advanced expertise in Java, HTML, VRML, Shockwave and other Internet technologies.  3. Commitment to a standard process. We write detailed functional and technical specification for all new OOD projects. Quality Control performs design reviews of the specifications and ensures that testing scenarios are established at the specification phase. Our clients receive extensive documentation in American English (or French, German, Polish, Russian, or other languages). Coding is done per the No Magic Style Guide (or the client's style guide); regular code reviews are held. Clients monitor their project status through voice meetings, via the Internet, with the project team leaders. Clients receive the names and IP addresses of all staff on their project. Weekly project variance reports are provided to the clients in Microsoft Project format.

What is the level of fluency in English, on a scale of 1-10, of No Magic's personnel (overall)? Of personnel who would be expected to interact with the client? The English proficiency of the project leaders and project managers - personnel who would be in contact with the client - is 9 to 10. The remainder of the team would rank 8-7 with very few (3% of staff) ranking below.

What is No Magic's lead time for initiating a 1-person project? A 5-person project? 20? 100? Small projects (under 5 man months) can be started by Purchase Order; for larger projects, we usually draft a contractual agreement. A one to three person project can start immediately upon receipt of Purchase Order. Usually, the same is true of five person projects; worst case: a five-person project begins with a one-week lead time. For a 20-person project, we would start with 5-6 programmers within a week, staffing up to 20 in 6-8 weeks. For a 100 person project, the lead time would be 12 -16 weeks; the ramp up period with an initial 5 could start within one week.

How does No Magic plan, monitor, and control work toward the deliverable? No Magic assigns group leaders (one for every 5-8 resources) and, for larger projects, a project manager for each project. For large projects, the project manager is the focal liaison, for smaller projects - the group leaders. The client liaison is given their IP addresses, e-mail addresses and names for any communication. Day to day issues are usually resolved with communication by the client's liaison and No Magic's group leaders/project managers. U.S. management is always available as backup, for problem resolution and as system consultants in the areas of warehousing, distribution, banking, finance, telecommunications, and industrial controls. At the outset of each project, each project manager prepares a project plan using MS Project and we establish mutually acceptable deliverables with our client. Our standard procedure is to issue "variance to plan" reports every other week and ship deliverables on schedule. We are flexible to client requests on project management and control.

During the course of a project, what information does No Magic provide to assure clients that the work is proceeding on time, on budget, and attains the level of quality specified in the agreed-to plan? Working with our client, we establish a project plan and deliverables. We prefer having a deliverable or a code review every other week; frequent deliverables and code reviews ensure that the project is tracking to plan. We report variances to the plan and resolve day-to-day issues in conversations over Skype or Net Meeting. Major points are documented using e-mail or the Secure Project Server™.

What assurance does No Magic provide of on-time delivery? We accomplish on-time delivery with our internal management process, which includes meeting deliverables on a week-to-week basis, periodic code reviews, "variance to plan" reporting, replanning, and monitoring of project progress. Following the No Magic Process, we have NEVER been one day late with a major delivery.

What assurance does No Magic provide of bug-free delivery? Our Quality Control Department reads all specifications to ensure that the functional verification tests are adequately described. The Programming department performs unit and systems tests, the results of which are independently verified by Quality Control. Then, Quality Control proceeds to test the system using their own test data. As quality records are compiled and bugs are fixed, Quality Control performs one more pass - regression testing.

What documentation does No Magic provide for work done? Our clients receive two types of extensive documentation: - The Functional Specification is usually written during the iterative process with clients, where requirements are narrowly defined. - The Technical Specification contains UML diagrams. We will write a User's Manual upon request. Most clients have, however, found the combination of Functional and Technical Specifications to be more than sufficient for use as a User's Manual and as software 'maintenance manuals'.

What is No Magic's process for error correction and problem resolution after delivery? No Magic stands behind its products, and will fix any problems that arise in our software.

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