Eliminate Business Crises with Software Development

As an enterprise, the efficiency, quality, utility, and engagements rendered by the proprietary software you develop are the most critical parameters to measure your business's worth and success. High-quality, intuitive, and feature-rich software drives engagements helping you evade multiple crisis situations. 

However, software development can prove to be quite an uphill task if not carried out with precision and alignment to industry best practices and a sharp focus on all the development and approval process variables.  

Consider the following situation. Your enterprise has a brilliant idea for software that could revolutionize your market niche. You are keen on developing it, but you are faced with roadblocks that could send you right back to square one. The solution? Knowing your enemy. 

From my experience in the software development sphere and my time in strategy and marketing, I have learned a thing or two about software development that could keep you in the loop of the biggest roadblocks in software development and how to eliminate them. 

So without further ado, let's get to it. 

1. Communication Disruptions 

Software development demands a dedicated team working together with a singular focus on addressing customer requirements. Each team member needs to know the project's coding strategy, objective, and goals. Otherwise, the fallout from communication disruptions can negatively affect the project manager's standing and the team's output. An ideal project manager will ensure that each colleague knows all the project's aspects and requirements through a lucid flow of multi-directional communication, thus expanding collaboration and profitability.  

2. Integration Issues  

Customer opinions on feature sets are an imperative of all software development initiatives. However, it can prove very taxing to incorporate all the end user's desired features and functionalities.  Therefore, the software you are developing should be in synergy with the tools your audience is comfortable with. You need to discover approaches to make your product viable by utilizing application program interfaces (APIs) or collaborating with other tech brands/ software development service providers for an optimal end-product. To ensure that the software you have developed conforms with the constraints of the systems it is supposed to run on, here is a quick look at 7 actionable points you should consider. 

• Understand end-user requirements. 

• Create a company-wide framework to support the platform structure of the app developed. 

• Stay in the loop and be ready to acquire and implement the latest technological advances. 

• Ensure optimal integration with consistent testing and evaluation 

• Consider R&D, prototyping, and testing as imperatives 

3. Feature Overload  

Another massive roadblock to successful software development is the desire to cram the software being developed fully with every feature that has gained popularity. On the surface, this might seem attractive, but does one really need an application that converts text to voice and can also double up as an FM radio app? To beat the craving of putting too much into one app, decision-makers need to be specific and search for sub-niches where each added feature translates into added value. 

Feature Creep is a typical snag I've seen developers go up against. The best method to battle this issue is to reliably and altogether lead customer development interviews to approve each feature and ensure it seriously targets the issue you set out to address.  

4. Unrealistic or Mismanaged Timelines  

Unrealistic timelines are one of the most abhorred roadblocks in software development. For the perfect start to a software development project, management should carefully consider whether the timelines they are about to set are realistic. 

The ideal approach would be to add a little stretch/cushion time to the timelines so that the team can factor in bug removals, last-minute feature additions, or UI/UX changes. As an enterprise, you need to ask your development team their approximation of the time required and then adjust it to the management's expectations.  

5. No focus on 'Why.'  

The most well-known roadblock to software development is building the wrong thing. Businesses need to comprehend what a customer is requesting and "why" they're requesting this explicitly. The driver of a truck may request superior tires to gain more speed. The "why" is clear in such a situation, and it should be the same in a software development environment. Businesses need to decide the "why" in order to offer only the very best software solutions to their customers.  

6. Security-Related Release Delays  

Designers are usually focused on getting good, working code (software) out the door as fast as possible. Customarily, security is treated as a bit of hindsight. This mistake can truly harm your capacity to release code and your reputation if you are developing software for a client. Therefore, it is the duty of project managers and developers to have security incorporated into the development lifecycle and integrated into their go-to-market systems, including any security certifications, confirmations, and industry requirements.  

7. Undefined Target Audience  

You may think that the software you just developed is as hip and happening as K-Pop, but your audience might have a completely different view. If you haven't built your software with comprehensive data assets on your target audience, then you may burn through a great deal of time and cash marketing it to customers who have no value or use for it. It's critical to factor in your target audience prior to launching your new software. Do exhaustive audience and market research to understand buying habits, triggers, and even locations with high potential customer activity.  

8. Misalignment Between Enterprise goals and User Needs  

Many development teams make the mistake of blindly following enterprise objectives without taking user needs (which are equally important) into consideration. An ideal environment would be one where development professionals have a sit-down with marketing and research departments to formulate a strategy that facilitates the development of software that is aligned bot to user needs as well as the business objectives the enterprise wishes to achieve. A suggested practice could be letting the market dictate which features are most desirable. 

9. Underestimating Quality Assurance  

To ensure customer fulfillment, the significance of QA ought to never be thought little of and underestimated. To acquire high-performing and secure products, code quality must be looked into and tested consistently throughout the development stages. Software Outsourcing solution organizations can positively alleviate this interaction by deploying expert testers who can lead an integrated approach to test and subsequently enhance your venture's quality.  

10. Miscalculating Demand  

Success has two sides. One of the most unanticipated roadblocks to delivering software or acquiring software development services is not being ready for an exceptionally successful launch. Organizations usually make the mistake of underestimating traffic and end up with a blown engine. Building frameworks that can rapidly scale on request is basic in staying away from this roadblock and guaranteeing your site/software doesn't crash on release. 

11. Insufficient Project Infrastructure 

Another common roadblock to software development is an unestablished project environment further weakened by insufficient infrastructural support. To ensure effective development, pre-production, as well as iterative testing environments and teams, need to be made available throughout the SDLC inclusive of actual development, testing, and subsequent UAT (user acceptance testing). Ensure that as an enterprise, you have either invested in a solid IT infrastructure upfront or have outsourced your project to a development partner that fulfills all infrastructural requirements for enterprise-grade software development.  

12. Ignoring Market Trends 

Each software development project comes with its own set of technology requirements. A software could be aimed at being mobile-first, Desktop-first or even mobile-only. Keeping a close tab on market trends can help enterprises in deciding which platform would help their product gain the most acceptance among users. Often development projects fail or hang in coding limbo given that the enterprise is not fitted out with the right human resources to create the desired solution. To avoid this roadblock, as an enterprise, you must ensure that your resources are constantly upskilling and are keeping up-to-date with market trends. 

13. Disparate Design influences  

At the design stage, there are numerous and unfortunately disparate design influences offered by stakeholders, the development company, and other internal and external factors such as the misnomer of a “success formula” which begins to dictate the aesthetic and functionality of the software. With so much input coming in, Developers on both the front-end and the back-end are left confused as to what should be integrated and what should be left out. More often than not developers choose to include all design suggestions into the software resulting in a product that lacks consistency.    

In summation 

Agile software development is challenging and yet highly rewarding. Software development from the ground up isn't an easy undertaking. Resources, temporal and financial, as well as a deep knowledge of the ins and outs of information technology, are pre-requisites of successful software development. 

Most software development projects will come across the roadblocks mentioned above, and it is the onus of the project manager and the development team to overcome these obstacles by leveraging skillsets such as communication, domain knowledge, and a clear understanding of the target audience to ensure that all roadblocks to software development are eliminated.