How to Prepare for Your First Custom Software Project

Custom Software is Right for You – Now What?

After months of evaluating your options, you’ve decided that a custom software build is right for you. Way to go! Now the real question is – what comes next? Once you’ve committed to a product built specifically for your unique business needs, you want to know what to expect. This is especially true if it’s your first custom software project! The first time around can be daunting – there’s a lot on the line and you want to be sure your employees, clients, and the software live happily ever after.

Unfortunately, 75% of business professionals believe that their software project is doomed from the start. That means it’s very likely that you’re already skeptical about your end product before your development team has even typed the first line of code. We know it’s scary, and we know that you might make mistakes on your first time around. The good news is, there are some steps you can take to avoid those mistakes and ensure a successful build and launch.

How Business Stakeholders Can Prepare for the Custom Software Build

So, you’re ready to invest in technology to better your business. Awesome! Unfortunately, you can’t just sit back and sign the checks if you want to be happy with the results. There are some interesting challenges that come with a first build, especially if you are new to the tech space. You can help to alleviate a lot of potential issues by being prepared.

Solidify Your Goals

Be sure that you and every involved member of your organization are on the same page. People often worry that the business and the delivery team will be out of sync, but it can be just as detrimental if all business representatives have their own agendas. Therefore, it’s important to communicate the problems you want to solve and the specific goals in mind up front. It’s also a good idea to discuss what you don’t want to focus on. For instance, if you’re working on a backend system for a specific team of employees, you may find it beneficial to focus attention and resources on getting as much functionality as possible for those roles, instead of bringing in your full user interface design team. When it comes to your software solution, it is necessary to design and develop your goals to fit your needs.

Stick to the Schedule

A good development team will need you to be involved throughout the process to ensure that your vision has been translated correctly and prevent rework as your ideas evolve. Custom software requires a time investment as well as a monetary one, so you’ll want to evaluate your schedule and communicate availability with your technical team. Determine the resources you can dedicate, including employees and time. Then, commit to a meeting schedule. even if you all just decide it’s best to reconvene the next time. You don’t want to be the reason that your developers are sitting around, being paid your money to twiddle their thumbs, as they wait on decisions.

Consider Multiple Releases

The great thing about custom software development is that it provides a wide range of possibilities and allows you to dream big. However, that’s not always great for project management. You should consider which features and functionality you really need to meet your initial goals. Think about what we call the ‘minimum loveable product’ – what can you create that users will love from the onset, even if it’s missing some things you really wish it had. You can include some of those wants in a future release. This approach also gives you a serious advantage. Once you’ve created your MLP, you actually get to use it! You may be surprised by how quickly it becomes obvious that what you thought you wanted is not what you really need. Now, you can confidently build out the rest of your product knowing that it will be a perfect fit.

Clear the Red Tape

Especially in large organizations, there may be a lot of hoops to jump through when it comes to preparing a new project for takeoff. Take the time beforehand to consider what these might be. Does your legal department require weeks of back and forth to secure a solid contract? Does HR need to run background checks for new team members in order to comply with security regulations? Have you recently changed your vendor management process? Have you included everyone in your organization that may be impacted by your new product? Any of these situations could potentially result in major setbacks to your deliverables and timeline. No one knows the ins and outs of your organization like you do, so ask the right questions and set expectations to prepare for the onset of this new project.

Think in Screens

Even if you’re not very familiar with building technology, odds are that you’ve used it. Thinking in terms of screens will help you understand and convey your vision to your tech team. It will also help you avoid missing important features. Take some time to sketch a few screens – no tech needed, just a paper and pencil! Focus less on the look and feel and more on the things you want to see there. Do you think you’ll need a home page? What actions might users want to take there? Where might they need to go next? Let your technology partner worry about the specifics, but you’ll really help propel things along if you’ve already thought these questions through.

How In-House IT Teams Can Prepare for the Custom Software Build

Just like business professionals, IT professionals often find themselves skeptical about the success of a project, no matter their level of experience. But don’t worry! Whether you’re one person or a whole team, there are some steps you can take to be prepared, too.

Assign Roles

You may or may not be working alongside your development team, depending on the scope of your project and the breadth of your resources. Whether or not you are, it’s important to establish those roles at the onset. How will each member of the team be working together? Who is responsible for what deliverables? This is especially necessary if your project will involve additional external teams, like UX/UI designers or data analysts. Create clarity around these roles and the expectations related to them to minimize grey area when it comes to collaboration.

Onboard External Team

There’s a strong potential of setbacks and increased timelines if you haven’t factored in onboarding at the start of a project. Depending on factors like security and complexity, you may find that you need a good amount of time to get access to your internal network and other necessities for external teams. It’s a good idea to plan for additional onboarding time, even if it must be done in parallel to your product definition. Take care that you aren’t behind before you’ve even started.

Align Methodologies

Agile is hot right now when it comes to software development, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the right approach for your build. Then, just because your build is Agile doesn’t mean that everyone involved has the same understanding of what that means or looks like in practice. Both internal and external IT teams need to be on the same page when it comes to the build process. Take the time to lay out a communication plan, compare approaches, and develop a shared language to ensure success among mixed company.

Try New Tools

We aspire to be lifelong learners so that we can continue to grow and improve in such a fast-paced industry. In order to do that effectively, it’s necessary to keep an open mind. It’s likely that your external software development team will have some new things you can learn right away. For instance, we’ve developed proprietary tools to track daily work and anticipate issues before they impact our project. Find out what your new counterparts do differently and get familiar before you get started. Your internal team probably has loads of things to share as well. Be upfront about preferred tools and ways of working to find the right balance for your project team.

Review the Plan

You’re the expert on technology within your organization. That means that your opinions and critical evaluation of the plan for this latest project are invaluable. Of course, you want to establish trust with your software partner, but it’s a good idea to remain involved, especially at the beginning. Review the plans, budgets, proposed architecture, and technology solutions from the start. Realizing that your systems won’t support the proposed solution when you’ve already started delivering it is never good. If you’re working agilely, the plan will evolve over time. If you’re familiar with it from the start, you’re in a better position to catch anything that might trip up your team down the road. Reviewing the plan is a vital part in the development process of your custom software.

Invent Software to Invent Revenue

As you’ve probably figured out by now, there’s a lot that goes into building your own custom software. It’s certainly an investment, but a great one that will pay dividends in the future. Whether you want software that enables you to turn your product into a service, or you need something to leverage all the data available to your organization, custom software is a great way to differentiate your company and make a big splash in your industry.

The process may seem overwhelming at first, but there are things you can do to reduce the risk and be better prepared before you get started. From CEO to software developer, your first custom software build is often the most difficult. Take these steps to get ready before you start and find a partner that you can trust to guide you toward success.

Did you find these tips helpful? What did you wish you’d done to prepare for your first software build?