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When Is the Best Time to Develop Custom Software?
As a custom software development business, we are approached by a broad range of customers looking to develop bespoke solutions. Some of these customers have established systems and processes and are looking to put them into custom software. While others simply have a concept and are looking to start with something that can help them scale and grow efficiently,
This begs the question: when is the best time to develop custom software? Let’s explore with MLTech Soft.
1. What is custom software?
Understanding a business requirement, designing and creating custom technology to answer it, and integrating it into the present process constitute custom software development. To achieve corporate goals and objectives, the most important of which is gradually creating and increasing income, it also eventually involves scaling and upgrading software.
As the name implies, it entails altering the software to suit the target market, organizational structure, and goals of a particular company. This suggests that the technology is tailored to the demands of the business and its target market, whether it's software for the backend marketing or sales team or a mobile app that users directly interact with.
2. When should you develop custom software?
Your business needs are unique
Each organization has a unique set of needs, operations, and challenges, including preferred security regulations. Tailored software allows for personalized solutions where you can easily add and improve current functionalities as the business evolves or scales.
You need to scale at a pace
Startups and big corporations alike have the common goal of scaling businesses for better revenue. Along the way, challenges may occur in the development processes that can affect further business growth.
With custom software development, you can plan and prepare to address foreseen challenges. Roadblocks can more easily be handled by integrating advanced tools to speed up processes, boosting revenue.
If you want your business to be primed for future growth, custom software development allows you to prepare for enhanced business processes as you scale further down the line.
You need better data security
Business operations continue to evolve, as are cyberattacks. Hackers can easily target off-the-shelf solutions since, by default, they know how they're made and how they work. Whereas with a custom solution, its modifications require hackers more time to study, and best of all, it’s not publicly accessible.
Additionally, since you can add security functionalities, you can incorporate encryption and other specialized security features to make it more secure.
3. Preparing for Custom Software Development
Whether it’s a web application, advanced software, or mobile app development, all software projects involve a general process that you should follow. Skip any step, and you might be in for some huge concerns moving forward. So consider each step carefully to ensure a smooth transition from each phase until the custom software gets integrated into your business system.
Problem Identification And Ideation
Prior to actually building the software, you need to identify and brainstorm your business's issues and requirements. This will guarantee that the software will indeed simplify your procedures and be tailored to provide the ideal solution to these issues. Productivity and efficiency will rise as a result. The management of employees, inventory tracking, and customer data will run more smoothly.
The plan for developing software product concepts will then be established by locating the issue. You will know which features and functions should be included in the software if you know what your company needs.
Detailed Study And Specification Outlining
With the problem now identified, it’s best to do deeper research on the possible ways it can be solved. By consulting software development experts, you’ll get options, weigh pros and cons, and decide on the best solution to go for. Included in the study is the discussion of the development team and your stakeholders, or those directly impacted by the software project.
Whether the team is in-house or nearshore, a thorough investigation should be conducted in order to create the most tailored-fit custom software for the organization. During the back and forth, you should also discuss the outlining of specifications to find out if all the functionalities needed are already included. It will also help gauge the budget, team member volume, and duration of the project.
Lastly, it’ll help cover technical corners that might later need attention when further expansion is necessary and help identify programming language skills needed for the project.
Design
After specifying all of the details of the custom software and agreeing on all of the arrangements, it's time to begin the design process. UI design is also necessary to ensure the software will be user-friendly. With a good user experience, you’ll gain loyal customers, draw in others, and increase revenue.
Development
This can be said to be the most crucial part of the process. In this stage, the design is actualized, and coding starts to build the bricks of the custom software.
How do you approach the actual project development? You can either do:
- Waterfall Project Management: a slower approach that involves relying on QA and completion of the preceding tasks.
- Agile Project Management: a modern and versatile approach that finishes projects faster.
- Scrum Project Management: This is a derivative of the previous approach that proceeds by putting together small teams that hold oversight on specific tasks.
- Kanban Project Management: another agile project management approach that is more focused on considering all the tasks and looking for ways to streamline the processes involved.
- Lean Project Management: Like Kanban, it focuses on streamlining processes. It’s customer-minded looking for ways to make the software more time-efficient and affordable for the users.
- Six Sigma Project Management: with this approach quality is the main focus. Its goal is to produce the best possible result.
Integration And Testing
With the project now built, it’s time to put it into action. Check whether it performs the way it should, works efficiently, and includes all the functionalities needed. This is also the time when beta testers are used to test out the quality of interaction. Additionally, here is where bugs are identified and fixed.
Release
After ensuring its quality and functionality, it’s time to release it to its target users. At this stage, the development team should already be confident about the stability, disability, and functionality of the custom software.
The release also involves training its users on how to properly use it and how to teach others how to use it. It can also involve an orientation on how to do minor bug fixes and what to do if the issue needs more expertise.
4. 3 Tips When Hiring A Custom Software Development Company
Cultural Alignment
Find a custom software development service that has the same values and work culture as yours. The collaboration for product development will be more effective, and blockers will be minimized.
Whatever culture your company has, it is always best to use a project management platform that provides you with a high level of overview for your projects in order to create an efficient working environment for both you and the development team.
Team Options
When choosing a team to work with, you can either opt for a technical co-founder, a separate development team, a nearshore or offshore development team, or hire a contractor or freelancer. Each has its pros and cons; you also have to research this ahead of time or consult with your CTO to know which one works best for you.
Non-Disclosure Agreement
Ensure that your application development idea doesn’t get stolen or replicated. Get the team to sign a non-disclosure agreement to ensure the security of your project.
5. Is custom software development costly?
While developing a custom application may appear expensive at first, especially for start-ups, it will be less expensive in the long run. With it, you can design a system that caters to specific business needs and also prepare for future developments.
You can more easily add, remove, or change functionalities to cater to any unplanned changes. With it in place, future operating costs will be kept to a minimum.
Conclusion
Always begin a custom software development project by determining your company's requirements. When this is done correctly, the project will be as tailored to your needs as it possibly can be. Additionally, doing so accelerates the process's subsequent phases.
In addition, whether you decide to employ an in-house team or outsource it to a nearshore or offshore development team, you can contact MLTech Soft. We provide you with a service for custom software development.
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