How should a custom software development company handle tricky issues?
Creating new software is always going to involve venturing into uncharted territory. But a qualified custom software development company will take appropriate steps to help you mitigate this risk. Here are a couple of areas to explore with the team that is building your custom business application.
How Will Beta-Testing Be Handled?
Emulated environments, modern dev/testing tools, and cloud computing make it possible for even a small development firm to test an app pretty thoroughly. But there is no substitute for testing with actual users. Without this real-world data, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise in rolling out a new application.
- For an internal app, a business should be able to designate beta-testers from its own organization to help with this phase of development. The software team should have experience working with and receiving feedback from business end users to incorporate into future releases to improve the software.
- For customer-facing apps or those that will be resold for public consumption, a much larger pool of testers may be required for quality assurance. This is particularly true for mobile apps when factors like geographic location, network strength, and battery life can all impact the function of an application. Your selected software firm should be prepared to explore crowdsourced testing and other methods if needed.
What Documentation Will Be Provided?
Custom software should never be a “black box.” It’s simply not enough to have an application that works. As the owner of the end product, you should have everything from the blueprint to the instruction manual. Remember, this is your intellectual property and has value beyond just what it is doing for your business on a day-to-day basis.
The agreement you reach with the custom software development company should include a description of the forms of documentation that will accompany the application. When you have documentation in-hand, the software you paid to develop can be appropriately supported by another development team in the future, if necessary. At Ayoka, we intend to be there for you over the long term. But we also believe that you should have the freedom and flexibility that comes with truly owning your software.
What questions do you have about the software development process? Call us today to explore the answers.
