Development Methodologies
Vazkor Technologies' Philosophy
There are numerous official custom software "methodologies". While I was a project manager at American Express many years, a certain large consulting company, that we’ll call Company X, used an official methodology that we’ll call Method 99. Any project using Method 99 took a long time. It encapsulated every detail of how the developers would interact with the business managers, and it used A LOT of documentation. I’m talking about 1000s of pages. While I'm sure that Company X could provide stylish charts that justified the ROI, they nevertheless made a pretty penny on the consulting fees.
Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
Large projects do require documentation. Specifications are a must, and the more detail the better. Small projects require very little documentation, and depending on the situation, specifications can simply be a couple of paragraphs in the contract if the desired software is a single report, or a simple tool.
Some potential clients aren't sure of what features they need exactly. We categorize these clients in the need suggestions category. We welcome these sort of clients because Vazkor Technologies provides software architecting services as well as software development services. In other words, once we understand your business and its needs, we can design the software as well as build it.
Custom Solution for Every Business
However, writing specifications takes time, and should not be confused with the detail you would find in a proposal. A custom software company cannot create a large set of specifications for free, prior to the signing of a contract. Fully flushed-out specifications are a valuable asset for a client company, because this company can then use those specifications to shop the project around. With larger projects, the best solution is often to set aside some budget for creating the project's specifications. If the client chooses to go forward with the project, then cost of the specifications gets rolled into the total cost. If the client does not go forward with the project, then the company pays for the specifications and takes ownership of them.
Generally speaking, Vazkor Technologies is a service company. Yes, we provide custom software, and consider ourselves exclusively a custom software company, but after the initial project flat-rate, we are more comfortable simply billing by the hour. You will always entirely own the rights to your software, exclusively, and can use other developers at any time you wish, so you do not need to feel that you will be tied to us forever. However, I think you come to the same conclusion as almost all of our clients. We are one of the best values for custom software development in the market.
There are basically two categories of development. Initial project development, from design to construction, to QA, to release.
During this period the client is shown the software at pre-determined milestones, and on larger projects, payments are tied to these milestones. The other type of development is ongoing services. This development includes quick adhoc reports or tools, tweaks and fixes, and general IT support. Ongoing service involves a lot of phone or face to face time with the client.
Think of Vazkor Technologies as an employee of your office for this sort of service. During the initial project development, you will be interacting with either a software architect, a project manager, or a programmer. Generally a project involves a software architect, project manager, and a programmer, or a project manager and a programmer. The client interacts with the project manager, but some meetings involve the programmer directly and for small requests often the programmer can receive them directly. However, there is no set-in-stone way of conducting a project. The client needs to feel comfortable and has a lot of say on how the project is run, if he or she wishes to participate in those sort of decisions.