We provide a variety of services, and one of our strongest points is our willingness to do whatever it takes to solve a problem; you'll never hear us say "that's not our job." But these are some of the things that clients ask for most:

• Software process consulting
• Software design and construction
• Second opinions
• Troubleshooting and optimization

Software Process Consulting

Is your project running behind? Is delivered code hopelessly buggy? Aren't sure what your developers have been doing all these months?

If so, you're likely suffering not from bad employees but bad development processes. We can find the source of the trouble and recommend simple, light-weight solutions to get you back on track. We're also glad to coach your team until until the new processes take root.

Software Design and Construction

Much of our work is the design and construction of software. We have a broad range of experience, from building systems for financial traders to designing community-driven web sites; for examples, see our selected projects section. For more information on our style of work, see our about us pages, especially the sections on our philosophy and our methods.

At Scissor, we try to use the right tool for the job. For most work, we prefer to use technology that is reliable, maintainable, and scalable; thus, we’re very fond of Java, and Java’s fellow travelers, Servlets, JSP, and XML, often with a good SQL DBMS for data storage. But that’s not always appropriate; for quick solutions or for glue, we’re very fond of Perl and its large library of modules. And when something requires maximum performance, we prefer straight C.

Similarly, we tend to use Linux for our server platforms; it’s reliable, widely used, and you can’t beat the price. But where circumstances justify, we’re comfortable using Solaris servers, Windows boxes, or more esoteric solutions.

But if your technologies aren’t on this list, don’t despair; we won’t force you to change it all over just to talk with us. Over the years we have worked on a lot of stuff; drop us a line and we’ll be glad to tell you whether we can help you.

Second Opinions

Few people would have major surgery without a second opinion. But vast sums of money are wasted every year on technology projects that are over-ambitious, poorly designed, or badly executed. Do you want to make sure that your vendor is giving you good advice and doing good work? We’re glad to give you a critical evaluation of their efforts, giving you the straight scoop on what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong.

Troubleshooting and Optimization

Is your site slow? Is your critical application frequently down? We can help you get a handle on the problem. We tackle the problem at many levels simultaneously, from high-level service quality monitoring to reviewing source code to examining the grubby details of your network traffic. Once we find the problems, we’ll give you concrete suggestions for quick fixes to take the pressure off, plus advice on how to really fix the problem. And if you like, we'll even do the work ourselves.