8 Key Things We Learned in 15+ Years of Custom Software Development

Any company’s success largely depends on customer satisfaction with the products it provides. While working in IT, we have created software solutions for customers from different countries, for different business areas, and for tackling a wide variety of tasks.

Our team has always been focused on making our customers happy. We have learned a great deal and understood many things while working on different projects.

We have been developing custom software for over 15 years. Please read about a few vital things we have learned along the way.

1. Successful Product stems from a Multi-team Sport

Even if only one software engineer is assigned to work on your project, other people can connect to it at some points in the process either on the outsourcing company’s or the customer’s side. Various expertise is required to solve some specific tasks at all development stages.

Keep in mind that project completion takes more than just the software engineer’s services alone when it comes to quality control (QA). In this respect, a professional QA engineer will do this job way better. Besides, if the project is complex and extensive, you will always need someone who has the expertise to see the greater picture. That is why we can involve necessary specialists at some points of various development stages while working on the customer’s project.

A proper technology partner should feel like your internal team’s extension. The developers focus on your goals and needs, share your ideas with you, and offer optimal solutions.

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2. Focus on 20% That Brings 80% of Results

The larger the project, the more approximate its estimate will be at the start, and the higher the probability is that many things will change while you work on it. Mind that we all work with limited resources, and you will understand how important it is to use them properly.

Focusing and attention concentration are our most valuable and scarce resources. That is why we often recommend our customers start with an MVP and build up the necessary functionality gradually to get what they need with minimal investment of time and money.

3. Discovery Phase is Important

The previous point organically leads us to the next one — the importance of the Discovery Phase at the project evaluation phase. We define this work as follows:

“The discovery phase in software development is the initial stage where the development team and stakeholders gather information, define goals, and identify requirements.”

The parties concerned do some research, discuss features, and collect essential data to comprehend the opportunities and challenges that await ahead. Based on the results obtained, a development strategy is formed.

Several more hours or days spent on the project during the discovery phase can save many weeks of the developer’s work.

4. Use Short Iterations and Start Small

An iterative approach to software development adds flexibility, allows you to make the necessary changes, and reveals possible issues quickly. However, the main thing is the capability of adapting to changing conditions and needs throughout the entire project life cycle.

Another important rule is to commence with a small core of work, and we have already written about it above by mentioning the MVP concept. If you have drafted a good project roadmap, you can gradually add new functionality, meticulously working through each development stage.

5. The Value of Communication

It is always better to communicate more than less. To achieve the best results, each project needs an individual approach. Consequently, you will always need to clarify things, answer or ask questions, inform on statuses, and discuss progress and issues within the development process.

Regular feedback makes customers confident that the work on the project is advancing as planned and that the developers or other specialists are not lost in the things they do.

6. Think First, Code Later

Technical debt is among the risks arising because of ignoring this principle. It can significantly harm the project in the future, affect its scalability, impair performance, and raise the product support cost. That is why it is vital to make sure you have no troubles with the written code before starting further development.

Moreover, non-technical problems may often become the most significant challenges. So, it would be the best policy to halt and think if the problem lies in the code or the process. This approach will let you find the ultimate solution.

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7. Quality Should Not Be an Option

One may create a product with multiple helpful features but get negative feedback from the target audience due to plenty of bugs, shortcomings, poor UX, and a whole host of other issues. Hence, since the competition in the software development industry is keen, product quality should be a top priority at all times.

8. A Good Team Scales Your Capabilities Exponentially

No matter how talented an assigned specialist is, cool projects are almost always the creations of teams. The environment with people around ready to discuss specific things widens your horizons, simplifies problem-solving, and makes it easier to find a non-standard approach to performing any tasks given.

An experienced offshore dedicated team provides customers with the same experience as the specialists in their own employ. As we know it, the effect of such cooperation is often exponential, not linear.

Takeaways

Each project has its own peculiarities and subtleties to take into account. The uncertainty factor and the possibility of something going wrong is always present. However, over many years of our work in custom software development, we have mastered the skill of organizing work and processes for our customers to get the best results and aid their needs. The 8 principles we have described above more than helped us in this.

We hope you can take something useful for you from the things written about in this article. If you have any other experiences you would like to share with us, please write about them in the comments.

Thanks for reading!