Our Methodology
You've got to make money
You're in business to make money. We understand this and operate our business to ensure that yours is successful.
There are three competing aspects of any development; time, money and product features. Part of our work is to identify where your priorities lie with respect to those aspects and align our work practises with your priorities. This means that if these aspects ever come into conflict, we're able to deliver what's most important to you.
The software we produce does what it's meant to do. That doesn't mean that it does what we think it should, it means that it actually does what you need it to do. It works the way you want. It will actually make your work easier.
We achieve this through a software development process called the Agile Methodology. Which is just a fancy name for a business process that's focused on you; we communicate openly and often, we show you what we're doing, and we get you involved in using the product so we can get your feedback as soon as possible. The development is iterative, where we work from your feedback to bring the product closer to what you want with each iteration until it is complete.
We also use a completely automated testing and release process. This means we can achieve a very high quality working system. There won't be any last minute surprises because something was forgotten or overlooked during the final release.
Although we've minimized them, bugs are still present but when we find and fix a bug we write a new test and incorporate it into the automated testing. This ensures that the bug, once fixed, will never return.
When doing any significant work on an existing system our first step is to write a set of automated tests to ensure that as we work on the new features, none of the existing functionality is adversely affected.
All this leads to one thing, your business running smoothly, with as few interruptions as possible, and with as much value as possible from whatever software we're writing for you.
↑You want to be kept in the loop
We love talking with our clients, and it is an integral part of our business process. You will also be plugged in to our online project management system so you can take a look and see what's happening yourself. It's customizable so you can get as much or as little information as you want.
You'll get email alerts when some new piece of functionality is ready to take a look at, you'll be able to track the progress of your project, and you'll see the results of the test runs, bug fixes, documentation and developer notes.
One of the best uses of this information is for you to guide the schedule yourself. By being able to see the development plan, you can decide to change the schedule to better meet your business requirements. Or you might choose to skip a component because of a change in priorities and return to it later if the budget allows.
↑You can't afford to waste time or money
If your business is growing rapidly, then your software needs to be able to keep up. Conversely, if your business is relatively stable then you don't want to waste money on software that can accomodate large phases of growth.
We work with you to ensure that your software fits your particular needs and that you're not left with software that doesn't grow with you, or left with a bill for software that exceeds your needs.
If you are engaging us to update your existing software, whether it was written by us or someone else, our first step will be to ensure that there are a set of automated tests written so that as we proceed with development you can be assured that no existing features are lost. We can certify that your existing functionality has not been adversely affected. This gives you great peace of mind and ensures that your ongoing business is unaffected by new development work.
↑You don't have time to become an expert
You will be able to spend your own time on this project very efficiently because we speak your language. Our analysts will understand your business processes and will be able to quickly translate your requirements into a technical product which meets your needs.
We respect your level of knowledge of the technologies involved. We will meet you where you are, wherever that may be. If you want to have input into the technical decisions, you can, if all you want is the product that works the way you want, you can have that too.
All decisions or recommendations we make are made for rational technical reasons only. We have no agenda or cause we're trying to push, and we're always happy to receive your input or direction, and we will tell you if a choice compromises one of your other requirements.