When Do I Need Custom Software Development?

Understanding when you need a custom software solution vs an off-the-shelf approach can be a challenge. Not every business solution ends with off-the-shelf software sometimes the right step is a customized approach. When that situation occurs for your organization, you need a partner who can support you from the initial stages all the way through to life-cycle management.

Our Technology Consulting Services determine if a custom solution is the best option by capturing high-level requirements (functional and non-functional). This allows us to understand what functionality is needed and the level of effort.

The features are defined, then implementation follows an Agile Software Development approach:

The Agile Scrum Approach to building custom software

The Scrum approach does not aim to define everything at the beginning of the process; instead, the team works in short iterations (also called sprints) and refines the plan as the team makes progress. With over 20 certified Scrum masters, our approach is flexible and transparent and allows us to develop custom-software solutions while continually improving the product, delivering high-quality, high-performing and highly-secure enterprise software. We work as a team to raise the bar and hold each other accountable so that our customers benefit from the consistency and quality in every one of our deliverables.

Product Planning

In a Scrum project, the team will spend most of its time developing a product in a series of sprints and first create a high-level plan for the project. This plan is a roadmap to guide more detailed decisions that the team will make during the entire project.

Sprint Planning

A product release contains one to many Sprint Iterations; a Sprint Iteration is a time-boxed allotment of engineering that is usually two to three weeks long, which produces an increment of the product that the team could ship.

Execution

The focus during iteration execution is delivering high quality, working, tested system. During this time developers are coding features while QA is conducting testing activities. Typical iteration execution includes regular delivery of software through frequent builds and deployments.

Product Release

During this phase of the SDLC final user acceptance testing, regression testing, user training, and documentation is completed. The software is deployed via an automated process to ensure a smooth and uneventful release.

Lifecycle Management

Lifecycle management begins with the first step in the development process. We build a pipeline with multiple stages that increase in quality as the software progresses through that pipeline. As each feature is complete and sprint finished, the current state of software is a candidate for release. This continuous integration approach means that code is built, tested and released frequently ensuring quick delivery of the value. As the first major release comes to a close, we are planning what features are next in the backlog in addition to obtaining feedback from users to help build out the roadmap.

• Technology Survey/Audit - understanding what technologies are in place, their current use, and how to propel optimization.
• Software Selection - assisting business to understand their must-have requirements, the nice to have requirements, and reviewing off-the-shelf options to determine the best fit. This process moves beyond the flashy software demo into the reality of how the software will work for the business.
• Build vs. Buy - in many cases buying an already available software solution will work. However, there are times where the business requirements suggest a custom-made solution is exactly what the business needs, rather than bend both the business and the software to where they "kind of" work.
• Product Design - working with new business ideas (for startups or existing businesses) to design how the new product will work while establishing the understanding for full development and lifecycle support.