When it comes to a project for creating custom software, there are many options. We commonly get asked: “we just need a couple of software developers to help us with this new custom software development project – can you help?”. We also get some other variations such as we “we want to build this amazing app and heard that you are the team to speak to…”
But do you want:
- Near zero defect software?
- No hidden costs for the development team (oversight, equipment, HR, training, management, tooling)?
- Production ready software every 2 weeks?
- Mature, proven and trusted development processes?
- Internal Knowledge sharing?
If so, continue reading…
Custom software development can be difficult for many reasons – it may be because you don’t have the skillsets in the desired technology platform (e.g. Android development skills). Or it may be because you are not just building a simple application and you are looking to build a software platform (like Netflix), and this requires integrating multiple technologies for the project to be successful.
Complex software projects, especially, have a reputation of running over budget and/or taking longer than expected, and often mistakes are made when not using specialized expertise.
Typical mistakes in custom software development projects include:
- A misunderstanding in requirements
- Under-estimated effort in software build
- Incorrect choice of technology
- A poorly constructed development team
- Application failing under load
- Downtime when releasing new features
- Not being able to make development changes timeously
- System bugs and failure due to missed dependencies with 3rd parties
And the list goes on… and each mistake leads to cost over-runs, and not to mention a lower perception of quality in the eyes of your customer who is experiencing your custom software solution.
By utilising a fully managed service, you can remove many of the common delivery issues and risks associated with building a custom software solution. At Global Kinetic, a managed development service composes of a dedicated development team AND access to dedicated specialists who provide guidance and oversight to the dedicated team on technology, advanced practices and governance on code quality. We call this our “delivery engagement model”.
In a typical team, permanent team members would include the software engineers skilled in the chosen technology stack, quality automation engineer(s), business analyst and an agile project manager. Depending on the requirements and size of the project, additional specialists can be included in the team on a part-time basis to ensure project success.
These specialists can include any of the following:
- Solution architect – a highly experienced software engineer who understands how to build cross-technology software platforms
- Tech/platform lead – a specialist in their field of technology or practice
- Design/UX specialist – a designer who builds compelling graphic assets and styles for the software project
- Development manager – an experienced development lead who helps and advises the team on implementation of development best practices
By implementing a well-rounded team, many of the common issues and risks can be avoided or mitigated. In addition, when you use a managed service, you get the benefits of a team who’s done it before and understands what it takes to build software quickly and sustainably through that organization’s experience. With a managed service, there is also responsibility on the vendor to help ensure that a business outcome is achieved, and not just a developer providing lines of development code.
At Global Kinetic, we have over 15 years’ experience in developing enterprise software, and were early innovators in the use of agile and scrum techniques in building software – and continue to improve and refine our development services.
So, with Global Kinetic you get:
- Near zero defect software
- No hidden costs for the development team (oversight, equipment, HR, training, management, tooling)
- Production ready software every 2 weeks
- Development processes that have continually improved over 15+ years and 180+ projects
- Internal Knowledge sharing
For more information on how we provide a managed service, pop us a message at hello@globalkinetic.com and ask us about “Managed Teams”.