Understanding the Role of a Software Development Company

Quick Summary: Best Software development company plays not one but many active and passive roles when we talk about any product development. This is not only related to the technical part or the technicality which is involved in building a product, but it covers major parts from the very initial phase of the product development i.e. ideation. A software development company starts to help right from the ideation stage. Every big product was once an idea. It is the software development team that beautifully crafts that idea first over the documentation and later to the Wireframing stage. And this is all much before the main technicality starts. In this blog you will learn all about how a Software development firm is a must for building a great and profitable product. 

What is a Software Development Company?

Before we start to understand the role, a very quick summing on what exactly is a software development company. It is not just a dozens or hundreds of technical people but a cluster of people in every department of the organisation which all together work for the single goal of building the best product for the world to make things easy for the users. In typical words, it is an organisation who hold the mastery of developing, modifying, scaling, deploying, testing and maintaining a software product. This process includes people in multiple departments like Designing, Development (core technical), deploying and testing.

What is the right time to hire a Software Development Company?

Now that we know well about what exactly a software development company is, we should get a step deep to know when it is the right time for a product owner to decide on hiring a software development company. 

This decision depends on many factors and conditions but to put a general perspective, for any product owner, the best time is when they are at the ideation stage. This allows the client to find the right team by looking at the matching experience and skills of the software development team. The team is qualified and trained to do the market competition study so that while planning the requirement specification for the product, their research will add the most important and in need feature so that their product can be really useful to the end users and also stay relevant for a long time.

The crucial role of a Software Development Company-

1. Build a highly competitive product- This is not new that each day a new product is coming to the market with more advanced features and technology. The only way you can top the race is building a product which is highly user friendly and solves the problem which other products cannot do. Market research and analysis is the most important step for achieving this. The better you do the research, higher are the chances to find the gap in the market which you can use to win in the market. This research will only help you understand your “unique value proposition”. Also to note that when doing this, try to run a soft run through your targeted audience so that you can get the real time idea of what is not working and how you can take the benefit of it. 
2. Maintainability and Scalability- This helps you not only win the race once but maintain the top position. By doing the first point, you will find the reach to the top spot but to maintain that position, it is very important that code documentation, module wise development, version control and many other technical aspects are kept under prime consideration.
3. On-time and on-budget accomplishment- Targeting and achieving on-time and on-budget project completion is critical not only for the success of the project but to make sure to hit the market as per the marketing plan. This can be achieved with many different methods. Some of the most important aspects are- Proper project planning, Setting up realistic deadlines, involving the whole team from the start of the project, discussing and setting up the goals as a team. Risk management to be considered once all other factor are planned so that if anything does not go as planned, this could save to maintain the overall delivery timeline. 

What are you missing when not hiring a Software Development company for your product development?

We at Brain Inventory have witnessed many product owners who have started on their own. Starting on your own can cause you some serious setbacks hence adding a proper team to the journey makes it worth investing the time and money. Here are some main factors which are majorly observed when a Software development company is not hired for the product development-

1. Higher cost in the long run- At the start, not hiring a software development team may seem cost-effective but the core reality is that it can cost much higher as you continue the development period. The prime reason for additional cost is because a poorly planned project will face issues when you start to go more deep into the development, when more and more modules are developed. Raw and poor quality of software require continuous maintenance and fixes, leading to increased expenses over time. Where the interesting part is that, this time adds up as a compounding. Initially it does not look that big but on a larger picture, you will end up with poor code. Additionally, a lack of expertise may lead to project delays and the need for expensive rework too.
2. Inefficient development process: A seasoned development team creates the project planning much before even a project set-up is begun. This does not only cover the main features but it also covers how each module will connect with each other, how to make the module as a stand-alone so that it is always easy to make it more scalable and easy to understand. Different types of project development methodology like Alige are followed so that the planning is robust and foolproof to avoid any kind of setbacks. 
3. Lack of expertise: In today’s time, it is most important to gain command of industry and niche so that when we start on any project, we know the in and out of that industry. This industry experience helps a lot on the real time development, to understand and make the amendments so that the platform is truly user friendly and equipped with all the necessary features.
4. Lower quality outcomes: Software development teams have experience in building robust and high-quality products. They are skilled in writing clean code, conducting proper testing, and ensuring software longevity. Without a dedicated team, the quality of your product may suffer, resulting in functional issues, security vulnerabilities, or poor user experience.