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Technologies have become an inseparable part of our lives and even businesses. They are able to increase business value, transform and automate key processes, grant competitive advantage and even provide new growth opportunities.
The investments in digital transformation and technologies keep growing and surprising us with the tremendous numbers. Just take a look at the statistics and infographics blow demonstrating how worldwide spending on software development increase steadily year by year:
Image source: Statista
Both experienced business owners and enthusiastic startuppers strive to build custom solutions and speed up their time to market. Because in the business world time equals money.
We know firsthand that many people who deal with the development process for the very first time tend to face many difficulties and obstacles related to software development speed and quality.
Many clients of software companies strive to get results fast, but they still do not know how to reduce the development time without affecting the project cost and code quality. Therefore in this post we’d like to share with you our professional insights and most effective strategies that will help you boost the development speed and get high quality software in the end. With that being said, let’s get started.
What can influence software development speed
Custom software development is a rather time consuming process. Based on our experience, we can say that in general it takes 3-6 month to build a fully-fledged product from scratch and release it.
But that’s possible only if you cooperate with a professional tech team, because there are a lot of different risks and obstacles that can be faced during a software development life cycle.
Forbes experts have explored common obstacles related to custom development, and named 12 main ones. We would not focus on all those issues in our post, we will rather explain factors that influence the speed of project creation.
#1 Project size and complexity
It is a well known factor that project complexity is able to influence not only the cost of the development but also its speed. The more complex your desired solution is, the more resources and time it will require. On top of that, it is often very difficult to spot and fix code mistakes and bugs in large and feature-rich projects.
Speaking about project complexity, we should mention that there are several levels of it. The main ones that are related to deadlines, project requirements, technologies, project roles, structure and system complexity.
#2 Many changes in project scope
Every project has its defined actual scope of work, so it seems like the development process should be seamless. However, we know firsthand that some stakeholders change their minds on the go and suddenly make the decision that they want to add or remove some project components, implement brand new features or address some new user expectations.
Unfortunately in most cases this eagerness to improve the project and make it more advanced than it is written in the requirements leads to extension of scope and shift in the deadlines. As a result, additional hours or even weeks are added and the cost of the development gets bigger.
#3 Team composition and developers skills
We always recommend startuppers and business owners to cooperate with cohesive tech teams that include not only developers, but also QA engineers, designers, an experienced business analyst and project manager.
The thing is that software development speed depends on the team experience, skills, and motivation. For example, the developers that worked on similar projects will deliver great results way faster, while the ones without certain industry expertise can make mistakes causing deadlines shifts and major project delays.
Also it is better to outsource project development to a cohesive team because in case one developer is ill or can’t continue his work for some reason, there is always another specialist that can replace him and proceed with coding. So you will avoid project downtimes and save your money and nerves.
Moreover, in development teams like Altamira most specialists work together for years, so you will not need to make any additional efforts to establish effective cooperation, communication or organize knowledge transfer between specialists.
#4 Communication between two teams
Sometimes business owners face delays during the development process when they use team extension services. Usually they have their own CTO, several software developers and project managers in their team, and hire some additional technicians to fill in the skills or experience gaps.
Both software development teams work on a project and can be managed either by a specialist from the product owner’s side or from the vendor’s side. In any case it is crucial to establish effective communication between all team members and make sure they all are on the same page.
Otherwise you may face extra payments for involuntary overtimes, ineffective onboarding, and low productivity level that can result in missed deadlines and low quality end projects. To avoid these unpleasant aftermaths we would recommend you to plan thoroughly all meetings, training sessions, daily calls, etc., and make sure your in-house and hired developers are equally involved in the development process.
#5 Compromised code quality
When you build software, high quality code means a lot. But only a team that prioritizes high standards and has realistic deadlines can deliver it. If project scope keeps changing, the deadlines become tighter, then you will likely observe how the quality of your project drops for the sake of fast delivery.
Try to focus on quality software development, do not skip testing, rewriting code parts if needed, or even removing some features from earlier releases to implement them later when the core feature set is all steady and ready.
Do not sacrifice project quality, just let your developers do a good job. When it comes to code, it is better to write a good one and spend a little bit more time on project creation, than quickly release a raw version full of bugs and issues that will require additional investments and resources to be fixed.
How to speed up software development process
Now when you are aware about all factors and risks of custom development, it is time to discuss how to properly accelerate software development speed.
Some of the strategies we are about to name we use when we work on projects of our clients. So we can surely say that those strategies and approaches are verified and effective for faster software development.
By following our tips you will be able to achieve better understanding with your team, set clear goals and feasible deadlines, and thus get really impressive results faster than you’ve expected.
Do not neglect thorough planning
We always tell all our clients that thorough preparation is the key to success. So before you get involved in the creation of a software development project, take your time doing planning.
In most cases planning would imply the discovery stage, because you may have too many ideas, assumptions, and theories about your future solution that can be contradictory or impossible to turn into reality. The discovery stage will help you structure all ideas, find out if they are technically feasible, and what should become your priority.
On the stage of proper planning it is important to produce the following deliverables that will be further used by your development team: project vision document, project specifications, estimation document, tech documentation, and last but not least project roadmap. Here is what we do during the planning stage:
Set clear end goals, requirements and roadmap
The success of the development process depends heavily on clear end goals. Your vision of the project can change, but the end goals should not. While the team will help you with defining project requirements and selecting third party integrations, you as a product owner should know for sure why you are building your project and for whom.
Sometimes the clients become so overwhelmed with the development that during the process they want to add more and more features, technologies, integrations, elements. And although project’s requirements and scope of work can be altered, this enthusiastic but chaotic approach will not help you to speed up software development.
On the contrary, you will face even more obstacles when you try to change the roadmap and prioritize features. You need a well defined scope of work so that in case of any minor or major changes you can get back and glance at it and plan your further sprints and steps. And only then step-by-step implement new options without increasing significantly the duration and cost of your project.
We have already dedicated a detailed post to the project roadmap and how to build it right. It explains Agile roadmap, covers main types of roadmaps and offers preparation tips. Check out that post right here.
Hire a cohesive and balanced team
This would be the most crucial suggestion in this whole list – choose your development team wisely. Don’t rush into signing any agreements with the first team you found on the internet, check out the websites of several vendors, check their portfolios and expertise, talk to the managers and see if it’s easy for you to communicate with them and if they share your values.
It is always better to choose a cohesive team like Altamira and save a lot of time. The thing is that the entire recruitment process will be on us. Our tech leads will select the right developers for your project based on required skills and tech stack. They know every team member and what he or she is capable of. So you definitely will get competent specialists.
On top of that, with a balanced team you can be sure they have well-established processes, communicate regularly, and can watch each other’s back in case anyone has an emergency or else. So the development speed of your entire project will not be influenced by internal factors and all risks will be minimized.
Extend your in-house team
One more great way to increase development speed is by extending your in-house team. You can come to the agency like ours and request certain team members of necessary seniority. They will go through several tech interviews with your tech leads, complete test tasks and then seamlessly integrate into your team.
Hiring additional team members helps with accelerating software development. In most cases big businesses and enterprises also hire additional development teams in order to:
Establish certain KPIs
We could not emphasize enough how crucial it is to measure progress and set different KPI metrics when you work on custom software. Performance reviews help not only to speed up software development, but also measure overall performance of a team or each separate member by checking the number of delivered features or user stories.
Based on the real data and the amount of code that can be written by the developers per working day it is easier to ensure the necessary speed, control project quality and extend your team if needed in case something goes slower than you’ve expected. KPIs give you more awareness and control over your project.
Use Agile methodology
Agile software development methodology has been proven to be the most efficient one. Agile methodology implies iterative development which makes it easy to implement new functionality and continuous delivery. Agile based development processes include:
And now we’d like to explain how Agile helps to boost the development speed. First of all, it allows you to release parts of the project in iterations and if there is an instant feedback that something is wrong, you can fix it really fast and proceed with further development.
Second of all, it lets you achieve technical excellence because you can take a look back and improve the project with each iteration. So not only are all the deadlines preserved, but also the quality is improved. And that is definitely a win-win.
Try to automate workflow
Automation means a lot when it comes to software development and its speed. That is why it is always better to automate repetitive tasks, resort to automated testing that uses repetitive scripts, and implement a CI/CD pipeline where all changes will be synchronized and saved several times per day.
One more crucial step is to switch to effective task management tools. Choose solutions like Trello, Jira and Confluence, Zapier, Slack to manage and track tasks and time spent on them, communicate with team members, check out workflow and many more. Those tools save a lot of time and keep all crucial information in one place where you can easily find and access it.
Reduce or avoid technical debt
Technical debt can be tricky because sometimes it implies a decision to sacrifice the quality of the solution, and choose to develop not so great one but way faster. Let’s say you have a well written plan of the development, but you choose that you need to refuse from creating certain project elements to build other functionality promptly. This decision will lead to technical debt and it will be accumulated with time.
It is totally okay to resort to this approach if you have a more or less clear plan of what to do with your project in the future, and how to get rid of your technical debt. But if you don’t, then it is better to avoid it.
Effective software development strategies of Altamira team
For more than 10 years in business the Altamira team has been offering high quality software development services. We worked on projects for different businesses and startups and gained extensive expertise that allows us to easily accelerate software development and reduce time to market.
Our team focuses on quality and immerses deeply into every business niche to deliver software that will satisfy all requirements of the product owner and needs of the target audience. Altamira can build a software from scratch, modernize your existing solution or spice it up with emerging trends, advanced technologies and incredible design.
Like any other reliable software development firm, we use most effective strategies to speed up project creation. Let’s take a closer look at them right away. The first and most important one is the Discovery stage. This is an important pre-development stage during which we explore the market, write technical documentation, estimate the project, and create its roadmap. By having all these deliverables at your hands you can proceed with the seamless development, as everything is thoroughly planned and described.
Our software development team also helps our clients to build MVP in 100 days. Thanks to our masterful software engineers and well organized processes we deliver solid basic MVP that can be further improved and turned into a final project. The main goal of MVP is to help clients enter the market fast and get real user feedback to see if the initial idea works or if anything in the project should be changed to solve the users problems in a more efficient and smart way.
One more thing that helps us achieve fast project start, frequent releases, project flexibility and better risks control is Agile software development approach. This is a key methodology that the Altamira team uses for years and manages to release even the most complex projects on time and within the set budget.
When it comes to quality assurance, we always use manual testing and automated testing to control code quality, test all functionality, integrations, and performance on many different crucial levels. If any issues are discovered, the developers quickly perform code reviews and code changes to fix everything. Testing automation helps to boost the development speed drastically since all the bugs and abnormalities are noticed timely.
By hiring Altamira team you can get high quality services of business analysts, project managers, award-winning designers, top coders and QAs. Since they’ve worked on many projects, they have some ready-made modules that also contribute to increasing project speed. Those modules can be customized and enriched with unique features to fit your particular business industry and meet immediate user expectations.
To conclude
All in all, custom software became a must-have for all modern businesses. In pursuit for competitive advantage, startuppers and business owners are eager to boost development speed as much as possible. However, the software development process is complex and you can’t just skip any stage or set stiff deadlines and expect everything to work itself out.
To speed up software development you need to follow certain proven strategies and cooperate only with experienced and reliable vendors. We hope that our post was useful for you and now that you know all the nuances, you will pick the right team that will guarantee a perfect speed/quality ratio.
If you still have any questions left, we would be happy to provide you with the answers and free consultation. Perhaps our team can even become a perfect fit for your project and help you build a versatile solution for your business at the desired speed and cost.
