With the increasingly competitive online environment, businesses have to find innovative ways to improve their operations and user experiences. For this, most businesses consider custom software. This involves designing unique software tailored for a specific business or its users to perform a certain function.
When considering the development of custom software, it is important to understand that time is needed to craft a quality, highly functional product. However, over time, more and more businesses are requesting shorter turnaround times to launch their new software. This is mostly because they want to avoid cost overruns or a potential loss of brand credibility.
Tips for getting a fast turnaround custom software development project
- Clearly defining requirementsВ
To minimize development time, it is essential for both developers and businesses to understand the development process and what it involves from start to finish. This can only be achieved if goals are clearly set and outcomes defined. This can also ensure that the right developers with precise skill sets are hired for the project.В
However, it’s important to keep in mind that for most projects, development time can increase with identifying requirements and sourcing the right staff. The budget for the project can increase too or conditions eased to stay within budget. For a quick-turnaround development project, businesses must allow dedicated time to define requirements.В
- Identifying setbacksВ
No development project is without some challenges and setbacks. These can greatly influence timelines. Therefore, it’s important to identify possible setbacks and find solutions to challenges before they arise. Listing all possible drawbacks with their solutions early on allows developers to focus on the next task instead of trying to overcome challenges.В
- Communicate with maximum transparencyВ
Communicating effectively both internally and externally is incredibly important to ensure all stakeholders are consistently updated and everyone is aware of updates and changes to projects. Part of effective communication is expectation management. Expectations require managing to ensure that all stakeholders have the same expectations and that these expectations are intentional and realistic. Having one central communication platform and regular meetings forms part of a strong communication structure. This avoids misunderstandings that can lead to lost time.В
- Get approval from all stakeholders
To ensure an actual, viable project, approval must be gained from all stakeholders involved during every step. The more stakeholders are engaged, the more risks are reduced and uncovered during the project too. This helps to avoid turnarounds at later stages that often lead to missing important deadlines.
- Get feedback as early as possible
Making changes to a software project because of user experience flaws and other shortcomings can take up a lot of time and set deadlines back. So, it’s crucial to get testers early on in the development process who can provide feedback. With this information, developers can make necessary adjustments while the development cycle goes on.В В В
- Stay closely involved with the project team at all times
Being removed from the project team can lead to workers feeling isolated and divided. Often this leads to smaller teams or individuals working in silos. Silos can turn into a major problem for workplace cohesion and engagement. They can quickly weaken trust in leadership and deaden motivation for employees. In turn, this can lead to duplication of effort, poor synergy, missed opportunities, and missed deadlines.В В
Should the budget of the project be increased?
An obvious solution to increasing turnarounds would be to raise the budget. Also, a higher budget won’t lower the software quality. But how much can it really solve in terms of time? A bigger budget might buy higher-skilled and more experienced developers and allow for overtime, but it may take even longer to source developers that ticks all these boxes. Instead of simply increasing the budget at random, it is wiser to leave some room in the budget for the unexpected. Reserve funds for unforeseen changes to orders, unexpected rework, and additional resources. This way, the likelihood of running out of funds and wasting valuable time is reduced.В
The bottom lineВ
The need for fast custom software development is continually on the rise. Most businesses are under constant pressure to reduce time-to-market and maintain their market share. But the development time for custom software development projects can vary largely depending on different requirements, including resources available, possible setbacks, and budget. To reduce turnaround times, businesses must be specific about goals, identify challenges, get feedback, and test products as early as possible. Only then does a quick turnaround custom software development project have the best chance to succeed.
