Software Success Strategies: 4 Software Development Best Practices

Software Success Strategies: 4 Software Development Best Practices

Each day, new ISVs are born from a great vision. Yet, behind every successful ISV is one ore more ISV that fails. There are many reasons why a startup or long-time ISV can fail, but challenges with development can greatly hinder success because the time and financial investment is so significant. In our 15 years of experience in working with ISVs, we have identified four key trends that tend to govern how an ISV overcomes challenges with development. 1) Create a Product Roadmap A product roadmap matches short-term and long-term goals with specific technology solutions. This is your vision not only for where your solution is today, but where your solution will be in next six months, year or three years. It includes gathering initial requirements and planning for those requirements over a short and long period of time. That s the framework. Benefits of a Product Roadmap a) A roadmap helps your team reach a consensus about a set of needs and the technologies required to satisfy those needs. b) A roadmap provides a mechanism to help forecast technology developments. c) A roadmap provides a framework to help plan and coordinate technology developments. Product Roadmap and the Software Life Cycle In your product roadmap, it s critical to consider the entire software life cycle. Prioritize requirements and understand what resources you need to get your solution off the ground and set up for longterm success. This is an ongoing effort. Your roadmap should include elements of the software development life cycle, including: a) Requirements and Analysis b) Design and Development c) Quality Assurance (unit, system, integration, UAT) d) Build and Deployment e) Release Management f) Configuration Management What is an ISV? Who falls under that umbrella? Years ago, the concept of an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) was fairly straightforward ISVs created and sold software to run on systems such as Microsoft and Apple. Now, with cloud computing and mobile technologies, platforms to create software have expanded while demand for applications, especially those for niche industries, has increased dramatically. And, open source technologies often have cost advantages. As more ISVs enter the market, they look less like the traditional ISV. In fact, some ISVs don t realize they are in the software industry at all. Many ISVs sell hardware and/or services that require software to enable core functionalities. These ISVs turn to partners such as AppShark to independently develop a software solution that will play an integral role in their hardware or service offering. They can in turn sell this solution to companies with similar needs. The fundamental link between all types of ISVs is that they own and sell software independently.

2) Hire or Partner with the Right People This is a no brainer for any business, but in the software development process, many of the people you need to build a successful solution must have strong technical expertise and experience in the software development life cycle. You will need great people on your side to fill these roles: business analyst, technical director, project manager, lead developer, developer, quality assurance, a user interface designer, and sales and support teams. However, don t assume you need to hire one person to fill each of these roles, or keep your resources internal in the development process. Small ISVs can especially benefit from hiring individuals who can fill dynamic roles, i.e., they have experience and expertise in many of the roles above. ISVs of any size also can benefit from partnering with other development companies who can lend support as necessary. They will support some of the needs identified in the requirements that you don t have expertise or resources to fulfill. Using external resources can be more efficient if you don t need or have funding to fill a full-time role. They can also make your solution better if they are particularly skilled in a certain function required in your solution. Customer Success Story: TEAM Software Omaha-based TEAM Software is a leading provider of software solutions and associated services for the building service and security industries. Recognizing the need to offer mobile solutions to their clients, they turned to AppShark to help build a mobile application that would compliment their web-based employee self-service portal, ehub. TEAM was founded in 1989 after a Chief Financial Officer at a local building services and security contractor firm was looking for an industry-specific management system to streamline tasks such as accounting. He couldn t find one, so he designed one himself and began selling it to other contracting companies in the industry. Over the years, the system has expanded to include services such as scheduling, payroll and other personnel management functions. Keys to Success: Niche industry experience enabled them to understand real challenges their customers and prospects faced. They also continue to deliver solutions their customers need, such as identifying that many of their customer s users are mobile employees, and needed access to their employee portal from a smartphone or tablet. Click Here to Request a Free POC from AppShark

3) Implement a Development Model that Will Monetize Your Solution and Maximize Your Profit The ultimate goal is to monetize your solution, and at the same time, control development costs so you can maximize profit. The development model you choose will usually dictate your long-term pricing and strategy. When you look at a development model, if you are in an agile format, you are able to break out development into bite size, manageable pieces. You can budget for a certain period of time. If you build an application for broad use, with a lot of requirements, that investment is not wrong, but you need more capitalization to make that happen. Pricing Model When talking about monetization, it is important to establish a pricing model that is consistent with your business goals and gives you a solid competitive position. A critical finance area ISV s need to consider is how their development costs align with the revenue cash collection. For example, if you have a capital-intense development strategy, and a SaaS-based solution that generates cash over time, you need sufficient capital on hand for the required upfront development. That may not matter greatly if you are well funded or funded by another division of the company. If you are a startup, and not that well funded, this could put the business at risk. Also: Make sure pricing makes sense for the industry. The more value you give to your customers by giving them a high ROI, the more valuable your solution is. In addition, if you can build a process on top of your technology that makes something 45% more efficient that s huge. If you have to build an application more than Customer Success Story: Information Data Technologies (IDT) IDT is a prime example of the new variation of an ISV. IDT is a national manager of rural utilities usage data, not a traditional software publisher. Recognizing their customers wanted real-time web access to their water usage data, IDT decided to build a solution that could record this information in the field, and then make it available on the Web. Thus, AppShark was asked to develop a Web application that supported key water management functions. The data is gathered and transmitted using an IDT proprietary modem, passed to a satellite network, and uploaded onto the.net platform that AppShark built and maintains in SaaS model. Key to Success: IDT formed a long-term partnership with AppShark to enable them to manage and support their software development life cycle. They used an agile development model that fostered greater innovation and cost savings. once, chances are you should build one solution that can be sold many times over as long as you can effectively monetize it. Additional Considerations Gain constant validation from your partner customers on possible new requirements in the software life cycle. Are these requirements necessary? What is their priority? Ask your steering committee if they make sense. Promote innovation but make sure those requirements will add value to your roadmap. Understand that the development cycle is a never-ending process but that s what you want.

4. Leverage support and sales Your support and sales people are the ones talking to your end users. Hopefully you re getting feedback like, Hey, if I had this feature, it would make all the difference. Where we have seen very successful ISVs grow into other technologies, or create a new feature in their system, is through awareness and communication between sales, support and the development teams. Have an innovation management system. Capture requirements so the development team can confirm they want to build that as part of the solution. Constantly listening is a huge endeavor but there are golden nuggets in that feedback. The day you stop innovating is the day you take a backwards step. Successful ISVs push towards evolution. The day you stop innovating is the day you take a backwards step. Successful ISVs push towards evolution. Customer Success Story: Vendorin Vendorin is a Midwest startup established in 2007 to help buyer-side organizations and their suppliers transition to electronic payments. To move their idea from vision to production, and to enable the success of their business, Vendorin turned to AppShark to build a highly innovative Web application. Key to success: Vendorin recognized what tasks and responsibilities would be more efficient and more effective to outsource. They have an ongoing, dedicated team of developers, QAs, support techs and other professionals from AppShark that handle ongoing management and support of the application, as well as developers who handle new release cycles and innovation. Click Here to Request a Free POC from AppShark