What are the benefits of custom software? Custom software development can provide significant ROI with solutions that are integrated seamlessly with your existing software, customized to your needs and sustainable over time. With a custom software development partner, you can obtain an increased level of expertise and faster time to market. However, even with the right custom software development solutions partner, there are significant mistakes that organizations often make when starting out. These include the following:
1.) Starting Development Without Strategy Work First
This only happens if there is clear communication between you and your chosen custom software development partner.
The hallmark of a successful custom software development project is when you have software that is specifically tailored to your organization’s needs. But this only happens if there is clear communication between you and your chosen custom software development partner. One of the biggest mistakes in outsourcing software development is not starting the process by identifying:
- Business objectives of the organization
- Primary goals of the custom software platform
- Essential features you want to build
- Processes linked with software within the organization that need to be integrated or maintained
- Existing databases or code that must be maintained
- Personnel within the organization who should be closely involved with the software development process
Expert custom software development teams will take significant time to understand your company, growth plan, existing software and current software limitations. The plan should be formulated to provide a realistic timeframe, detailed step-by-step development details and regular benchmarks throughout the process. An ideal plan will allow seamless integration with the tools and workflows that must be maintained within your organization during the process.
Expert custom software development firms know to ask the client what they want the software to do for its end users and strategize with them, rather than making assumptions. While many clients wish to jump straight to development and launch, they must understand that proper strategy, thorough communication and adherence to the plan and process are integral to success.
2.) Not Getting Accurate Estimates
Another reason to clearly define the strategy and plan for custom software development is that it helps to generate more accurate time estimates for delivery. During the exploration process, the timeline must include expectations for exploration, strategy, planning, development, QA and revisions.
Even after estimates are given, some organizations may receive unreasonable expectations from their development partners. And some inexperienced custom software development teams may not manage expectations appropriately and may issue overly optimistic deadlines as a result.
Keep in mind that key members from your team will also be needed to communicate with your custom software development partner and elicit feedback at regular intervals. If communication is delayed, the delivery date may likely need to be pushed back as well. You will need to allocate this time internally and stay engaged throughout the process.
Summa’s agile approach takes into account an organization’s goals for custom software development and ranks them according to priority. Agile offers a myriad of other game-changing benefits as well: faster time to market, higher employee morale, better productivity and fewer defects. Agile custom software development allows us to develop a wide range of high-quality software solutions by understanding end users as well as the needs of companies we serve. It also creates an environment conducive to meeting deadlines.
3.) Scope Creep Happens
The goal is to get to a minimum viable product (MVP).
Software development is complicated and laden with issues such as late delivery, underestimated dependencies, massive growth in complexity and conflicting priorities. The list goes on.
The key is to work with an expert software development partner to prioritize business needs during the agile development process. The goal is to get to a minimum viable product (MVP). During each iteration, features can be reprioritized, but the goal is to get to an MVP as soon as possible. It is important to have a trusted custom software development partner, who will address detours and be flexible about the plan, but also fully communicate the detour’s implications on delivery and the time it will take to get to the MVP.
Bells and whistles can happen later. A mistake clients make in custom software development is wanting to build a solution that is too complex for the organization’s needs. At times, clients request additional features that are unnecessary.
Business organizations must remember the MVP and central goals of their custom software project. Expert custom software development firms understand that the strength of a custom software development project comes from having your organization’s initial requirements strategically planned and having expectations set and maintained throughout the process.
4.) Risks Are Not Managed Properly
Custom software development can be riddled with issues. Some of these are preventable if you choose a trusted, experienced custom software development partner, but sometimes bugs and glitches cannot be easily prevented.
The important thing to remember is for both you and your custom software development partner to sit down and create a risk management plan in order to help reduce damage or downtime in the event of a negative occurrence. Your partner should have a risk register and risk mitigation strategies. The risks should be reviewed periodically through the project.
Identifying potential problems early in the process is crucial. In general, bugs and glitches that occur later in the process tend to be more time-consuming and expensive to correct. A risk management plan developed early on in the process helps to stop the bleeding in a precise, measured fashion. The risk management plan is a factor that should be expected from your software development partner.
5.) Hiring a Delivery Partner Purely on the Basis of Cost
It's vital that you hire a custom software development firm based on value proposition.
When you’re outsourcing software development, it’s easy to fixate on getting the lowest hourly rate. However, high-quality custom software development firms often cost more because their work includes exploration, strategic planning, precise estimation methodology and experienced software developers. These factors help to ensure significant improvements in efficiencies and capabilities.
You get what you pay for, so it’s vital that you hire a custom software development firm based on value proposition. When your only focus is which systems the custom software development firm provides, you won’t get maximum value from your custom software. Key value propositions you should look for are project management, estimation, budget and business analysts.
If the team does not have the methodology to build complex systems for management and the technical talent to be able to deliver a complex software solution, you will not to be able to realize your business value with your custom software development project. Plain and simple.
In Summary
Custom software development can provide significant ROI with solutions that are do not take into account your business objectives, existing software solutions or what features will get you to an MVP. However, with the right custom software development solutions partner, you can have a team that is capable of combining management-level business knowledge and technical skill to deliver the right solution for you and your business.
