Software failure is the norm, not the exception

After a review of 5,400 IT projects by McKinsey and the BT Centre for Major Program Management at the University of Oxford, they found that the average software projects had a 66% cost overrun and a 33% schedule overrun. They also found the average software project had a 17% benefits shortfall.

The development philosophies, disciplines, and solutions used by the majority of software developers do not deliver a project on time, on budget and to the standards expected. The reason for this is simple. The discipline required to manage a software development project needs to be part of the DNA of the organisation and the people in charge of the process.

Design is a discipline, not a profession

Organisations such as Redgum have such a DNA. They’ve built their own solutions. They’ve built software for clients from a clean sheet. They’ve taken on projects in crisis and brought them to a successful conclusion. They’ve managed countless iterations of projects of the same software solutions. They’ve demonstrated to clients when a solution is worth saving and when it’s more cost effective to start from scratch. All of this is only possible because of the discipline of the team.

Institutional memory, not institutional ignorance

You only need to listen to how the average software developer talks to clients to understand how the sector received its reputation. Instead of empowering clients, they use terms and jargon to keep their clients ignorant to their lack of discipline and business acumen.

Absorbing the learning’s that every project provides

Software developers such as Redgum have a continuous improvement process, where they record the memory of their collective learnings from projects. This drives internal process and systems such as Blueprint, which is designed to demystify the software development process and remove the ambiguity between parties of differing technical knowledge, with the aim of empowering everyone in the decision-making process and development team.

Informed clients make informed decisions

Redgum knows that ongoing clear communication and properly defined documentation lies at the heart of every successful software development project.

They also believe the more empowered their clients are with valuable insights, the more they are capable of making a decision that leads to exceptional outcomes.

Whatever your goal, the most predictable way of improving ROI on any software development project is with better scoping, planning and design.

Start by challenging your own beliefs

Most people who want to develop software have developed their business model from a single perspective. It’s either from wanting to solve a problem they have experienced themselves or an idea for what they perceive the problem to be.

When engaging Redgum’s leadership team at the start of a project, you gain the additional perspective of those with a much broader and deeper understanding of bringing software to market.

Who’s your target audience?

One example of a project where Redgum’s leadership has changed the business model was for a Veterinarian software solution, where the original brief was to combine a vet management with Skype and a calendar solution. It seemed logical to improve on an existing solution. The problem was that the initial approach required Vets to change from a solution they had already accepted, without any significant payoff.

Redgum reviewed the brief and came back with an alternative business model, where the Vet was the clients and the pet owner the customer. This shift in perspective allowed a business model where the Vet would be encouraged to use the solution if they wanted new customers. It also allowed for a business model where the Vet did not have to pay for the solution. As this solution now has value to Vets, user acceptance is no longer a hurdle.

The perspective Redgum brought to the project has improved participation levels, as well as improved the ROI.

Is your software idea the barrier or the bridge?

Software can either be the barrier or the bridge. It can either help people achieve their goals faster or slow them down. The right software will enable, not limit. The more complex the solution, the less likely it is to be adopted by end users. Simplicity should always be the aim.

When you bring Redgum to your team earlier in the scoping and planning process, you will benefit from Redgum’s experience with streamlining the user experience. You may have a preconceived idea of the best way your software can take a customer or end user from A to B. Redgum will probably challenge that view and provide you with an alternative perspective that will develop greater value to users, and possibly reduce development costs and time.

Spend a dollar, save $10

For every dollar you spend on correctly scoping, planning and designing your software, you can expect to save $10 on development costs. The average software development project has millions of lines of code. If you have not planned and designed your software project in enough detail, then you may end up paying for an enormous amount of code that will eventually be discarded.

If you have accurate scoping, planning and design for your software solution, you can also identify opportunities to use existing code libraries (such as the one Redgum has developed) to reduce the time and cost of development.

Use Redgum to improve your software ROI

By working with Redgum from day one, you have access to a leadership team who can develop your business model and challenged any entrenched perceptions of the ‘right’ approach.

You also benefit from Redgum’s Redprint project scoping, design, costing, and management solution, which will help you maintain control over your project throughout its lifecycle.

The other benefit of becoming a Redgum client is access to its coding libraries. These libraries have the potential of reducing development and testing costs, as well as reducing the time to market.

‘In one line’ why should I invest in custom software?’

In short, custom software can be the difference in providing a commoditised service offering a unique service at a better price.

‘Why is custom software development a better proposition?’

Custom software development allows organisations to build and sustain a competitive advantage. Off the shelf software does not. No matter how you adapt an off the shelf software solution, you end up shoehorning your business to fit the software. Custom software is the other way around. You design and build the software to reflect your current or ideal business model.

‘What’s the ROI for custom software development?’

The ROI on custom software is relatively easy to define and measure. The first benefit is increased productivity. Software that is developed specifically with your needs in mind allows your team to work faster and smarter.

Another benefit is a competitive advantage. If your competition has access to the same off-the-shelf software as you, it isn’t a competitive advantage. Custom software allows you to build and enhance your competitive edge. With custom software you always have the chance to continue to evolve your software to suit your changing and expanding business model, with minimal interruption to business.

Another advantage of custom software development comes with partnering with an advance development team such as Redgum. Once you have engaged Redgum, the sky’s the limit on what can be achieved. Redgum enables you to sustain a competitive advantage for a modest investment, ensuring minimal business interruption, allowing your business model to become more nimble and preventing software obsolesces.

In a financial sense, when using Redgum’s advanced development methodologies, you can begin to see a return and results much faster than is possible with other development models.

‘How do I know when I should be looking at a custom software development project?’

Do you have multiple software systems that need work together? Do the limitations of your existing software require your people to make time-consuming workarounds or repeat tasks? Do your people complain about your software? Is your customer-facing software frustrating customers? Are you controlling your software, or does your software vendor controlling you? These are just a few of the warning signs that you need to develop your own software.

‘Isn’t off the shelf a faster and cheaper option?’

This may have been true 20 years ago, but not today. The cost of implementing enterprise level software can be much more than 7 times the cost of the original software. Because the implementers of off the shelf software are working with predefined, inflexible ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions, it is often more expensive, time-consuming and limiting to ‘fit’ off-the-self business software than it is to build it from scratch.

Custom software development is cheaper, faster and more accessible than ever before

A custom software project can reach a commercialisation model in as little as 3 months, with as little as a $50,000 investment. A full roll out of custom software developed by Redgum has usually paid for itself and making a significant benefit to an organisations bottom line in 2 years. And let’s not forget, when you build your own software, you don’t pay ongoing licensing fees.

What is Open Source Software?

The simplest explanation of Open Source Software is; computer software with source code that has been made available with a license that allows copyright holders the rights to study, change and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.

How does OSS benefit Custom Software Development?

From an Entrepreneur’s perspective, this reduces the cost, while increasing the flexibility, freedom, security, and accountability of software development.

Open Source Software has been responsible for the ‘democratisation’ of software development, removing it from the hands of traditional software companies and making it practical for start-ups such as Atlassian to become overnight powerhouses.

The pros of OSS Custom Software Development

An OSS Custom Software Development project gives you admission to the ubiquitous school of innovation. It’s a fast-moving environment driven by the philosophy of ‘shared good’, where everyone is working to change society for the better.

This philosophy makes it relatively easy to hand a project over to a new development team, as everyone is talking a similar language and much of the source code and modules is in common use.

With OSS Custom Software Development, there is often no need to pay licence fees for the source code you used. If there are licence fees, they are much less than the traditional software model.

The Cons of OSS Custom Software Development

OSS Custom Software Development benefits the Entrepreneurial community; however, there are some downsides.

To start with, key changes to source code created by the development community may have an impact on your existing software, forcing you to make wholesale changes to your now redundant software.

Another potential issue is that because the community works independently, they may abandon a set of source code, leaving you without support or an upgrade path.

From an IP perspective, it is difficult to value or protect the source code of custom software developed in the Open Source Software environment, simply because it’s in common use and you don’t own it. This also means that it is not providing you with any competitive advantage. In fact, anyone can copy and improve anything you have created in this environment.

How can Entrepreneurs maximise the value of OSS Custom Software Development?

In the SAAS and Cloud-based era, Software presents opportunities that simply are not available to other businesses. For a start, you can build a worldwide business from day 1, accessing potential tens of millions of customers and clients worldwide. Software in this era presents the opportunity for an infinitely scalable business model, without the time and resource limitations of other business models. It’s why software company valuations work on multiples unseen in traditional business models. OSS Custom Software Development makes it practical to build such business models, from modest investments.

How does OSS Custom Software Development save time and money?

Non-critical code provides functionality and connectivity that is commonly in use and does not provide a competitive advantage. This is where OSS development comes in. It’s a way of connecting ‘Non-critical’ dots between commonly used features (where there is no competitive advantage), with the source code that creates your point of difference and competitive advantage.

In short, OSS development reduces your overall project costs and timelines, while ensuring that you only invest where you can build a competitive advantage.

How can Entrepreneurs use Custom Software Development to drive fundraising?

If you are looking for help to fund your new software business, you need to have a clear and realistic understanding of the resource and timeline requirements to build and commercialise your software. You can then design a fund-raising model, with achievable milestones.

Entrepreneurs also need the ability to outline a ‘minimum commercialisation’ version of their software, with a clear ongoing development path (with costings). This minimum commercialisation’ version of your software will allow you to invest less up front and start to build an income stream faster. This will help you gain investor credibility and confidence, which will have a direct impact on fundraising. The right Software Development team can provide such predictability.

What do ‘the right’ Custom Software developers look like?

The right kind of Custom Software development team will bring your software to market faster, and provide a clear ongoing development path.

Their experience will help you identify exactly how your ‘minimum commercialisation’ model should look. They will have a history of managing both new and legacy software projects.

They will help you focus resources where they deliver results. They will provide access to their own libraries of source code and modules, saving you time and money.

They will help you understand the opportunities and challenges of pricing and selling your software.

They will help you define opportunities to attract investors (e.g. proof of concept, 1st sale). They will help you understand where the IP is in your software, as well as insight on valuing and protecting your IP.

They will exploit development protocols and business processes that provide transparency and ensure you maintain control over your Custom Software Development project.

Most importantly, they will know how to listen and provide insights that enhance your software in ways you may have never imagined.

If you look at the definition of ‘Engineer’, it gives a clue as to what you need from your Software Engineers: ‘An engineer is a person who uses scientific knowledge to design, construct, and maintain engines and machines.’

The benefits of a relationship with a true software engineer

A great Software Engineer has the skills to understand your needs and translates them into an idea that you can use. A great software engineer will take you on a journey that will expand both your understanding of the possibilities of your software. They will open your eyes to the most efficient ways to deliver the outcomes you want and ways to exceed user expectations. They will even open your eyes to commercial opportunities you are yet to explore.

Increasing the efficiency of your software investment

Great Software Engineers are rooted in the ‘now’ but have an eye focussed on the future. They know you have immediate needs. However, they also know that what they do today forms the foundation for the future. Yes, they want to help you with your quick wins, but they know the actual value of their endeavours will increase with time.

Quick wins

Many organisations engage Software Engineers in response to a crisis. Others engage them late in the planning process. To maximise the value of the relationship with your Software Engineer, engage with them before a need becomes a crisis.

A great Software Engineer can help you with your quick wins, but if you engage them early enough, they can ensure the exponential growth of your quick wins.

Long term benefits

The best Software Engineers provide design solutions that allow you to have a clear, ongoing and incremental development schedule that ensures your business has a clear competitive advantage. They create a software architecture that is flexible enough to adapt to the ever-changing needs of your business and the needs of your customers. They demystify the development process and help you develop a greater understanding and appreciation of all a custom software development project demands. They allow you to foresee opportunities and plan for challenges that lay beyond the horizon.

Expanding your resources, while keeping costs down

Rather than cost you, a great software engineer will save you, especially if they operate as an external resource. Whereas a great Software Engineer can bring to bear all their knowledge and experience, an external provider can also provide additional resources. They can ensure an environment of inclusivity and transparency while providing the management skills and specialists to efficiently scope and build your software.

By engaging an external Software Engineer, you can achieve the outcomes you desire, without the headaches of attracting, developing and managing software development teams. Like an Architect, the right external Software Engineer will provide the vision that is underpinned by a thorough understanding of the limitations of time and budget.

Choosing well

Having the resource of an internal Software Engineer may seem the best way to ensure consistency and predictability, but it is not. Business owners will tell you that creating an environment where you can maintain greater control and accountability while outsourcing non-core costs and people management is a winning formula.

Choosing well is not just about choosing the right Software Engineer, it is also about the other resources and development processes they provide. Someone like Redgum provides a complete package, from Software Engineering to coders, sophisticated and transparent development and testing environments and project management skills.

The complete package

Redgum’s scientific approach to development and project evolution will allow you to extend the life of existing solutions, as well as reduce the time it takes to scope, build and launch your new software.

We also provide access to our libraries of own pre-build, market tested code, and the skill sets to identify and integrate existing software solutions (such as shopping cart and marketing automation tools), all with the aim of reducing the costs and the time it takes to bring your new software to market.