What Software Developers Need to Know About Your Project

If you are looking to develop a bespoke software system, and are eager to get the ball rolling, we’ve got some insights that may help to pave the way. Here’s a list of top questions a software development company is likely to ask when you approach them about a new project.

Tell us about your business

Above all, getting to know propsective clients is a fundamental part of any software partnership. Forming a great working relationships enables us to produce a greater user experience and build a partnership where we look forward to catching up to talk some more.

By understanding what you do, why you do it and how you do it, we can begin to understand how your software fits within your organisation. And how we can help to bridge the gap between our teams and yours. 

What’s the problem?

Bespoke software developments are specifically designed to provide a solution to a business obstacle or two. 

Common problems that clients come to us for help with are a need for software or a business process to work better. To be more innovative; to optimise the latest technology; to achieve greater functionality; to stand out from competitors; to be more intuitive; to perform quicker and more efficiently. By identifying the problem from the get-go, we can help to design the optimum solution. 

Do you have software already in place?

If software is currently in use in your business, the software development company you have contacted would request a demo to gauge functionality and to identifty why the system isn't currently meeting your needs. If you have software in place, a software developer would ask you if you own the software, where's it hosted, and if you have access to source code.

If software doesn't exist, the software development team would ideally like to understand your business process that you are looking to build the software for. Any paperwork examples of process would be really useful. 

What are your current systems like?

For software developers to be able to design an effective software architecture, it’s so important for us to understand your current IT systems. Where you are now, compared to where you want to be. It may be that your legacy software is in need of a rebuild; or perhaps this is a brand-new software application that needs to work alongside your existing business systems. 

This kind of information will help the software development team to gauge the scale of the project, alongside your timescales. 

Do you have a software specification or requirements?

A software specification or requirements document is, quite simply, a description of the software system to be built. An outline of requirements from the perspective of both the organisation and user, while also identifying the required functionality.

It really does help software developers if you have some key objectives in place for how you want your software to benefit your business, and key performance indicators for how this will be measured. By being more informed of your organisational objectives, software developers can also begin to consider technology options as well as an implementation strategy.

If a software specification isn't currently in place, our team would be more than happy to help work with you to develop this. 

Do you have a timescale in mind?

Yesterday will be the date we hear the most. Chances are that when a problem has been identified with a business system, a project team and budget allocated to develop new software, there is an urgency for development to begin as soon as possible. 

While our team can work in rapid application development cycles, a carefully considered bespoke software development takes time. Apportioning sufficient time for writing a project specification, designing system architecture and testing can never be undervalued. 

At Clever Software Group we work in an agile development environment whereby we can help to set key milestones and to deliver working software as part of a phased implementation.

Do you have an allocated budget?

Discovering the budget you have is vital for a software development team to assess the scope of the project. The reason why this is important at this stage is so that we can advise on whether the budget is realistic for what you are trying to achieve. Without knowing this information, it would be difficult to come up with a credible solution to your business challenge.

With bespoke software development there can be many methods to embrak upon to create a solution. Our software development team can present a series of options to demonstrate how your software can be developed within your budget, considering timescales, a phased implementation, outlining different technologies, as well as routes to market.

Ask us anything

At Clever Software Group we can help you to transform your enterprise software to meet your current organisational objectives, while limiting process change.

Ask us anything about our capabilities, our experience, our team and hopefully we'll be what you're looking for to get your bespokse software development started. Let's get the conversation started.