Vishal BhatiaIntroduction
A lot of companies are continuously on the lookout for any web and mobile development company that can build custom software for their businesses. However, there are challenges associated with developing custom software. A recent study shows that over 50% of organizations suffer at least one software failure within a year of its release.
Understanding the factors that contribute to the failure of custom software development is very important as this will help any custom software development company you hire to find ways to overcome these contributing factors. In this article, we’ll take a look at the challenges you might come across that will lead to failure of a custom software development project as well as ways to overcome them.
Lack of Skill and Expertise
The common mistake that most companies make is hiring a web development company in the USA that doesn’t have the required skill set for the custom software development process. Another error that often occurs is when companies place their in-house team of developers to work on custom software development when they don’t have the needed expertise to complete the project.
Custom software projects require a distinct skill set which is most times beyond the abilities of most web and mobile development companies and in-house development teams. Giving the project to your team (who don’t have the needed skills) to work on to save costs is not a good idea and this will undoubtedly have an adverse effect. This can lead to the failure of a custom software project
The best way to overcome the failure of your custom software project is to hire a custom software development company or team that has the right skills and expertise.
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Poor Communication
Proper communication is needed at all times to ensure the success of any software development project. Many software projects have failed because there was inadequate communication between the developer and the client. If you decide to select your in-house team or hire a web and mobile development company, it’s vital that you effectively communicate with them at every step of the process.
This way you can know whether the progress of your software project is moving in the right direction. It’s also essential that the team of developers working together on the project communicates well so they can develop a software project that will be successful.
Lack of Proper Planning and Vision
Because developing a custom software project is very time consuming, a clear vision and proper planning are vital. Custom software aims to offer value to a company and help the daily operations of employees and managers alike.
A recurring challenge is a fact that most companies have no idea what they want, or they indicate that they wish their custom software to have features that are useless to the core of the business. The worst way for any web and mobile development company to approach a custom software development project is with a vague goal. That will inevitably lead to a failed software project.
This is the reason why it’s vital to hire a custom software development company that can show you what the complete software for your business will look like. This way you can work with the developer to create a vision for what you want your software to be like.
Lack of Regular Project Updates
It’s essential that you regularly update your initial timelines and plans as not doing so will result in unpleasant surprises in the long run. Guessing and estimating the progress of your project is not the right way to go.
The best way to find out the progress status of your custom software project is by regularly communicating with the web development company in USA that you hired is via email, telephone calls, physical conversations and the most effective one, project status meetings. These meetings help you to know exactly where the progress of your project is; it will help you know the time of completion for the project.
Control of Cost
Estimating the total cost of developing a custom software project is a common mistake that most companies make. It’s vital that you work closely with your web development company in the USA to get a cost estimate from the start of the project. You also have to leave room for extra costs in case you need to include more features or speed up the timeline of the software development.
When companies make a rough estimate on their own, this always plays a role in what type of software developer they will hire. This is because they would now be hiring based on budget and not necessarily based on skill set. This practice will cause challenges to arise in the development process.
Impracticable Expectations
Most times when clients set unrealistic expectations on the software developers, project fail. Most clients offer developers impossible deadlines, low budgets and require a high-quality project which in reality isn’t possible.
It’s important to note that for a project to be successful, you need not put strict rules on the developer. Also, developers should not commit to an end date until they fully understand what their client wants. Setting unrealistic expectations on yourself also happens; to avoid this take your time during the end-date decision process.
Lack of Code Testing
It’s vital that code testing occurs at all the progress reviews. This is a common mistake that happens in most custom software development projects. A clean working source is also essential, to ensure that it’s available. Waiting until the end of the project to test the entire software at a single go will cause severe problems with regards to the code. Never put the testing on the back burner. This is a significant factor that will determine the success of your project. Failure to code test will lead to disastrous errors in the live environment for both the developers and the client.
