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Why using a company for your software development?

by with No Comment Software development

Choosing the right type of development partner is very important. You can hire a freelancer or a development company to build your software.

The main benefit of hiring freelance developers is affordability. You can find freelancers who can develop your app at a low rate. But, there are some serious disadvantages to hiring freelancers.

Building an app isn’t just limited to writing a few hundred lines of code. Many things need to be looked into, such as design, UI, UX, Architecture, Documentation, Security, Performance, DevOps.

If you decide to hire freelancers, you’ll need to find freelancers for your project’s different aspects. You might also need to manage the team all by yourself. But you won’t receive high-quality work and on-time delivery. And sometimes it cost you more because sometimes your projects may fail and you need to redevelop them.

On the other hand, a local app development partner can provide you with a slew of benefits. The main advantages of working with a development agency include:

  • Quality assurance
  • Efficient project management
  • All-inclusive services
  • Schedule and discipline
  • Deep involvement
  • Ease of communication
  • Accountability
  • Better architecture
  • Better performance
  • Better security
  • Extendibility of the software in the future
  • Standard and clean codding that help your product extend more easily

As for the cost, freelancers generally cost less but take longer, and in the long-term usage of the software and growing your business, you will cost more and sometimes it puts your business at fail risk when the number of the users will grow. while the local development firm may cost more at first but produce higher quality and faster results and in the long term, you will save the money and you will put yourself on the safe side

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Outsourcing Vs. In-House: What’s The Best Approach?

by with No Comment Software development

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a digital agency, or an enterprise planning for digital transformation, you must have found yourself at this crossroads. A crossroad that leads you to either of the two- hiring an in-house development team or taking your operations global through outsourcing. 

Let?s review the Pros of In-House Development

They are the people working beside you in your establishment. No matter what the issue, you can just rush to them and get things sorted in real-time. Working under the same roof, they have a greater understanding of what you want in the software development project

If you have a good hiring team and good managers then an in-house team could Fit Your Corporate Culture more They know exactly what the company wants to deliver or solve through the product being developed. 

You could get Real-Time Inputs From Team In case there is a critical project or a task that needs some changes.

You could have Face-To-Face Communication. There are minimum chances of misunderstanding and the results come out to be more effective and as expected.

Let?s review the Cons of In-House Development

With close communication and better cultural fit, there come some unavoidable cons as well. You require the overhead cost of setting up the required space and IT equipment for employing the team. 

You have to pay Greater Cost. For companies that are running on a tighter budget, hiring and setting up a team of developers could cause a fund crunch. Hiring The cost of expanding the space, putting up the techs, installing hardware and software could burn a hole in the company?s pocket. You might also have to include other expenses of hiring like sick leaves, training, employee benefits, etc.

They will be Limited Skill & Tech Stack. they might just not be up to the mark when it comes to the latest techs. You employ them and in case a new tech comes up, you either need to train them or let your competitors make better use of the technology.

You will face Higher Developer Turnover. The market is looking out for talent and developers would seize any opportunity that comes knocking on their door. The employee turnover in the developer community is thus, pretty high. Companies might have to chip in extra funds to retain the developers whom they have trained.

Let?s review the Pros of Outsourced Development

You will save Cost From Employee Hiring & Retention. The biggest cost for in-house development comes while headhunting and then when trying to retain the talent they?ve found.

You could Reduced Stress On The Core Resources. Outsourcing cleans out the work from their hand so that they can focus on the core competencies and work towards bettering the company?s main offerings.

You could hire an outsource company when you have a need.  If you want to develop your product or you want to add a feature when you need it then you could make a contract. You can not just hire or fire in-house team as per the requirement or performance

You could Delivery your product Quicker to Market. You no longer have to spend manhours in finding the right developers and then training them for the required tech.

You will access to different skills and technology experts part-time or full-time. In the software development process, you need different skills in your team. Hiring all of them full-time in an in-house team model is too hard. But with the outsourcing model, you access to all of them when it is needed.

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What is a Digital Transformation Strategy?

by with No Comment Business AutomationDigital Transformation

The question is how to put the critical elements of the Digital Transformation puzzle together. With puzzle elements such as changing the culture of IT, increasing awareness among stakeholders across the business, and bridging transformation to the company’s vision.

The digital transformation strategy consists of 6 different steps:

1. Ideate and Create a Compelling Digital Strategy

The first step is ideating, getting everyone involved, and finding out what Digital Transformation means for your company and what it can do for you.

At the heart of the Digital Transformation journey is to create value. When employees understand the meaning that Digital Transformation can bring in, they can quickly buy in and drive the change you need.

2. Aligning Digital Transformation with Business Goals

Once you have your digital strategy story in place, it is crucial to align it for a successful transformation. The approach is usually a top-down one.

As CEOs, you need to communicate the move and also outline the right outcomes. Digital Transformation cannot be driven out of IT only—you must completely align it with an organization’s vision, mission, goals, and values.

3. Document the Risks

There could be risks involved with Digital Transformation, and many companies are aware of this. Whenever you roll out a new internal application, there could be risks involved.

It is prudent that you discuss, analyze, and document the risks to track threats over a set period.

4. Run Pilot Tests

Once you’ve ideated your story, analyzed challenges and the technology, documented the risks, it’s time to run a pilot test with the technology.

Running proof-of-concept and pilot tests helps you identify impacts on your business and culture as you move forward with a solid plan. The tests will ensure that your stakeholders are ready for the Digital Transformation journey and your organization and employees know how to implement the project effectively.

5. Keep Analyzing the Impact

It is prudent that as a part of your digital transformation strategy, you keep analyzing the rollout. An excellent example is Artificial Intelligence (AI).

If an organization devised to use AI as a part of a sales process, they might see some gains, but with further analysis, they may realize the need to automate even more of the sales process.

Similarly, any Digital Transformation strategy will be most useful when you analyze further. The initiative will help you run your business smoothly.

6. Prepare for Culture Change

The most critical element is the cultural aspects of transformation. The biggest mistake will be to overlook the cultural change in a digital transformation journey. Give careful consideration to cultural facets of transformation, because at heart, it is a people challenge.

Preparing for culture change is a vital element in the Digital Transformation strategy. 

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What are the benefits of digital transformation

by with No Comment Business AutomationDigital Transformation

digital transformation is all about becoming a digital enterprise—an organization that uses technology to continuously evolve all aspects of its business models (what it offers, how it interacts with customers, and how it operates

Digital transformation can refer to anything from IT modernization (for example, cloud computing), to digital optimization, to the invention of new digital business models.” In general, it refers to the use of digital technology to materially evolve or create new business processes

What are Benefits of Digital Transformation

Increases productivity while reducing labor costs

Using technology to work more efficiently is one of the most impactful ways to transform your business.

More Data-based Insights

When you go digital, you can track metrics and analyze the data you capture during your digital process.

Using data-driven insights can help understand customers better and rethink business strategies, assisting with better decision-making.

Improves the customer experience

customers want a great experience through multiple touchpoints — mobile apps, social media, email, live chat, etc. Digital transformations are the driving force behind improved customer experiences.

Makes You More Competitive in Your Industry

Your competitors are looking into digital transformation regardless of whether or not you are. Choosing not to embrace digital transformation is essentially deciding that you don’t mind being left behind.

Eliminating Time-Consuming Manual Processes via Business Process Automation

By implementing digital technology, you can use software to perform the tasks that were previously being performed manually by staff. Business Process Automation is often seen as the stepping stone to a more holistic digital transformation, but it can also be one outcome.

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What is digital transformation?

by with No Comment Business AutomationDigital Transformation

A digital transformation will look different for every company and for each industry. However, broadly speaking, it describes the integration of digital technology into each area of the business. It results in core changes to how a business operates and delivers its products or services to customers by taking advantage of technological advancements. 

Within a company itself, it requires a cultural shift in how processes are completed. Employees have to become accustomed to experimenting regularly with their processes and even sometimes fail in their efforts to innovate. Businesses might find that they must sometimes step away from the old processes that they knew worked well, in favor of experimenting with innovative solutions that have not had the same extensive testing.

It is only by adopting these best practices and fully integrating the employees into the mindset of digital innovation that brands can remain at the forefront of their industries and continue to serve customers with the care that they have come to expect.

What are the 4 main types of digital transformation?

Business process

The business process part of the transformation refers to how your company functions internally. It looks at how your people respond to the available technology and put it to use in their own work. It includes processes such as incorporating a greater amount of analytics collection and analysis into business decisions to help the company maximize its marketing investments or plan its research and development. It can also mean incorporating automation into internal processes.

Digital transformation in this area looks at ways to help the organization improve its functions. It might do this by decreasing the costs associated with certain processes, decreasing the time-to-market, or it might increase the quality of the product offered, for example. All of these ways would help to increase the value of the brand’s processes through digital technology.

Business model

Digital transformation of the business model requires a careful examination of how businesses within the sector are set up at their core. Transformation here has the potential to cause serious disruption in the industry and power success when done well. An excellent real-life example would be Netflix, which transitioned its movie-watching services away from mail-in DVDs to a streaming service that has had reverberations felt by all the major movie and television producers. 

These types of transformations often work hand-in-hand with the strategic parts of the business, using their eye for innovation and forward-thinking to look at the business potential beyond the established means within the industry.

Domain

Domain transformation refers to the growing capacity of brands undergoing a transformation to think about markets and potential beyond their traditional boundaries. Consider how Amazon, the online retailer, managed to launch Amazon Web Services, which now functions as one of the largest cloud computing and infrastructure services. In other words, they were able to step far beyond the former sector of retail and embrace an entirely new technological potential. Technology offers brands significantly more capabilities to step into new sectors. Many of these opportunities come from emerging technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

Cultural

The cultural component of the digital transformation requires buy-in from the people on the ground, doing the daily work involved in completing the digital transformation and then engaging with the technology. It can be a challenge for many organizations to make this transformation, as they have to educate their employees and help everyone see the potential for this technology to build the business and better engage the world around them.

Succeeding in building a technologically-focused organization, however, will empower the company to continue to grow. Technology, including its regular updates and innovation, requires a workforce that can easily adapt to changes and people who embrace a culture of continuous education. These traits within the organization will help the brand create positive customer experiences, as the company will be able to adapt its practices and incorporate technology to deliver a personalized experience the customer wants.

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Business Process Automation Methodology

by with No Comment Business AutomationDigital Transformation

The process to accommodate expansion in your business.

The generic method helps you with continuity. When you already have some semblance of automation in place, there might be no need to recreate the entire process. What is required in this case is to pick out areas you can extend and automate.

The generic method is a process analysis tool that is not specific to BPA. It usually involves a step-by-step process that assesses and improves upon what you have as your business process.

Here’s what needs to be done to use this method:

  • How- To evaluate the current practice within your organization
  • Why- For assessing how you can make your existing process better by identifying the gaps
  • Fix it- To work on improvements in errors or gaps
  • Track it- A follow-up process for monitoring the new process adopted
  • More- An open platform that gives room for additional input to ensure continuity

Combining BPA and BPM

A process that cannot be measured is bound to fail, and this is why it is a great approach to apply Lean and Six Sigma in your BPA process.

Assessing your process involves the use of five key tools, which are very similar to what is obtainable in the generic method but with a slight variation.

The five tools involve Defining, Measuring, Analyzing, Improving, and Controlling (DMAIC) all the processes used for your BPA.

Applying Lean and Six Sigma in your BPA process gives you room to improve, expand, and grow. It also helps you streamline your processes and cut downtime which would otherwise be wasted on repetitive tasks.

This will allow you and your team to focus on other productive issues and also ensure that your established processes have a proper flow that can be perfected over time.

The method you can use for your BPA, therefore, depends on where you are in your business. Remember, however, to always document the process irrespective of the method you use. This will help you with continuity and make transitions to bigger roles easier.

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How to Know If Your Business Needs Automation

by with No Comment Business AutomationDigital Transformation

It uses technology to not only “automate” business processes, but also optimize the workflows for improved efficiency.

How to Know If Your Business Needs Automation?

Few key elements that can help you find out if your business needs automation. You can think of developing a custom BPA software if your business has processes that are:

  • Repetitive
  • Involve a series of predictable steps
  • Consistent across the organization
  • Needs to be error-free 

Business Process Automation facilitates businesses to

  • Execute recurring tasks
  • Cut costs
  • Make processes error-proof and transparent,
  • Increase productivity and
  • Streamline operations

Is Business Process Automation Suitable for Small and Medium Businesses Too?

Well, it’s a common misconception that Business Process Automation is useful only in cases of complex business tasks. Every business can benefit from Business Process Automation. Business Process Automation is about making every work process better – even simple tasks like mass emailing or sending notifications, for that matter.

Depending on the work process to be optimized, Business Process Automation can either be wholly stand-alone or be part of a larger initiative. 

Let’s take a look at different approaches for Business Process Automation that you can apply:

  • Business Process Improvement (BPI) – It’s about automating to improve the lackluster processes.  
  • Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) – BPR works just like BPI, with the critical difference being that it focuses on tearing down and rebuilding business processes from scratch. At times re-designing happens because of new technologies.
  • Business Process Management (BPM) – BPM is about continuous improvement – unlike BPI or BPR, which are more of one-time initiatives. BPM is something a company does systematically. Accordingly, BPA will streamline and automate outdated processes.

Based on the approach you choose to apply, you can use any of the following types of automation:

  • Basic automation – You can create a central server to store all the essential business info. With all the critical data in one place, you’ll be able to improve the speed of work and its system.
  • Process automation – it can help your business achieve consistency and build effective task management. This type of BPA is achieved by using custom software or purchasing off-the-shelf business tools.
  • Artificial intelligence automation – You can use a bot (a piece of software designed for a specific function), in this case, that is trained using machine learning to perform high-volume, repeatable tasks. They are used for data entry, form checking, or rekeying the interface between a system and the user into something streamlined and easy to use.

Let us now understand why you must invest in a custom Business Process Automation platform. 

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What is business process automation?

by with No Comment Business AutomationDigital Transformation

What Is Business Process Automation (BPA)?
Business Process Automation is a tech-based process of automating activities run within your organization, with the aim of simplifying, reducing running costs, increasing efficiency, and improving service delivery, just to name a few benefits.

It involves a thorough or comprehensive study of how businesses operate, identifies areas that can be improved, and creates viable solutions that will transform the business in question.

The Elements of BPA

  1. Knowing The User – The kind of BPA you choose to adopt must capture the needs of the end-users. All the stakeholders must be comfortable and satisfied with the automated process. There is no point in adopting a method that will totally change the way things are done just because you want to automate. Rather, it should enhance and improve on the set methods in use.
  2. Planning – Creating a visual map or blueprint before automating is key. Document and write down the flow of the process in question so that at a glance, you will be able to pinpoint areas where automation would be more beneficial.
  3. Keep It Simple – The specific techniques, methods, and tools used to enhance the processes involved in automation should be kept to a minimum. Yes, it can be exciting when you start but don’t get carried away. Automate only processes that really take well to it.
  4. Documentation – In the beginning, you will have everything running smoothly and have no issues. But sooner or later, when you run into problems, you will need to troubleshoot, and if you have been documenting with notes and logs, then it becomes easier to address problems in detail as needed.
  5. Testing – Before you actually start using or running your automation, you should have it tested in real-time. This will give you the opportunity to detect any bugs or missed steps and put them in order before you begin fully.
  6. Training – Getting the users trained is a must. One good way to do this is to use the “Train the trainer” approach. What is required here is to train the team leader and allow them to pass on what they learn to other team members. This leaves everyone involved well-grounded in its usage and they can also refer to team leaders for guidance when challenges arise.
    These six elements are key to the performance of your BPA, but there’s more. There are certain principles that should also be adopted which we’ll look at in the next section.

7 Notable Principles of BPA

Developing a good Business Process automation is based on certain principles, which will ensure that you have a well-laid out blueprint suitable for your business.

1: Training Of Developers

If you plan to outsource the development of your automation software to developers, you need to ensure that the developers understand the different tasks that need to be automated within your organization. This will help them develop the right codes and scripts to capture the processes.

2: Develop A List Of Tasks

Ensure that you make a list of all the tasks that need to be automated. This will help you capture sensitive steps required to develop proper automated processes. Doing this will not only cut down on errors associated with humans but also enhance your progress.

3: Keep It Simple

If something sounds difficult, then it probably is. Do not over-complicate your processes in a bid to automate them. Break down the tasks into manageable bits to make it easier to automate. Analyze your existing process and redesign complex parts to accommodate automation.

4: Be Consistent

It is important to maintain consistency. You cannot start automation and then stop halfway. You need to use the automation process setup regularly and maintain the same procedure.

5: Proper Integration

BPA needs to blend in nicely with the entire system within your organization, especially when it comes to integration via APIs. You can integrate your automation at different levels of the process, as long as you maintain the desired output.

6: Training

As you automate you should carry your staff or team members along by providing the necessary training required to help them transition into the new process. This can be arranged prior to the automation process to streamline moving to a new way of getting things done.

7: Keep Evolving

Setting up your BPA process is not a one-time thing. As your business grows and evolves, you’ll need to revisit existing processes to improve efficiency and maintain a healthy competitive edge. This means that your BPA process should be able to accommodate these new changes in your business.
Following through with these principles will ensure that you stay on track.

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What is Secure Software Development Life Cycle

by with No Comment SecuritySoftware development

Security is an important part of any application that encompasses critical functionality.
Security applies at every phase of the software development life cycle (SDLC) and needs to be at the forefront of your developers’ minds as they implement your software’s requirements.
It requires a mindset that is focused on secure delivery, raising issues in the requirements and development phases as they are discovered.


Let’s review 5 phases of the Secure Software Development Life Cycle
Phase 1: Requirements
In this early phase, requirements for new features are collected from various stakeholders. It’s important to identify any security considerations for functional requirements being gathered for the new release.


Phase 2: Design
This phase translates in-scope requirements into a plan of what this should look like in the actual application. Here, functional requirements typically describe what should happen, while security requirements usually focus on what shouldn’t.


Phase 3: Development
When it’s time to actually implement the design and make it a reality, concerns usually shift to making sure the code well-written from the security perspective. There are usually established secure coding guidelines as well as code reviews that double-check that these guidelines have been followed correctly. These code reviews can be either manual or automated using technologies such as static application security testing (SAST).
That said, modern application developers can’t be concerned only with the code they write, because the vast majority of modern applications aren’t written from scratch. Instead, developers rely on existing functionality, usually provided by free open source components to deliver new features and therefore value to the organization as quickly as possible.

Phase 4: Verification
The Verification phase is where applications go through a thorough testing cycle to ensure they meet the original design & requirements. This is also a great place to introduce automated security testing using a variety of technologies. The application is not deployed unless these tests pass. This phase often includes automated tools like CI/CD pipelines to control verification and release.


Phase 5: Maintenance and Evolution
The story doesn’t end once the application is released. In fact, vulnerabilities that slipped through the cracks may be found in the application long after it’s been released. These vulnerabilities may be in the code developers wrote, but are increasingly found in the underlying open-source components that comprise an application.


What are the benefits of Secure Software Development?
– Higher security. continuous monitoring for vulnerabilities results in better application quality and mitigation of business risks.
– Cost reduction. early attention to flaws significantly reduces the effort required to detect and fix them.
– Regulatory compliance. encourages a conscientious attitude toward security-related laws and regulations. Ignoring – – them may result in fines and penalties, even if no sensitive data is lost.
– Development teams get continuous training in secure coding practices.
– Security approaches become more consistent across teams.
– Customers trust you more because they see that special attention is paid to their security.
– Internal security improves when SDL is applied to in-house software tools.

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Software Development Life Cycle

by with No Comment Software development

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a process used by the software industry to design, develop and test high-quality software. The SDLC aims to produce high-quality software that meets or exceeds customer expectations, reaches completion within times and cost estimates.
SDLC is a process followed for a software project, within a software organization. It consists of a detailed plan describing how to develop, maintain, replace and alter or enhance specific software. The life cycle defines a methodology for improving the quality of software and the overall development process.

A typical Software Development Life Cycle consists of the following stages:

Stage 1: Planning and Requirement Analysis
Requirement analysis is the most important and fundamental stage in SDLC. It is performed by the senior members of the team with inputs from the customer, the sales department, market surveys, and domain experts in the industry. This information is then used to plan the basic project approach and to conduct product feasibility studies in the economical, operational, and technical areas.
Planning for the quality assurance requirements and identification of the risks associated with the project is also done in the planning stage. The outcome of the technical feasibility study is to define the various technical approaches that can be followed to implement the project successfully with minimum risks.


Stage 2: Defining Requirements
Once the requirement analysis is done the next step is to clearly define and document the product requirements and get them approved by the customer or the market analysts. This is done through an SRS (Software Requirement Specification) document which consists of all the product requirements to be designed and developed during the project life cycle.


Stage 3: Designing the Product Architecture
SRS is the reference for product architects to come out with the best architecture for the product to be developed. Based on the requirements specified in SRS, usually, more than one design approach for the product architecture is proposed and documented in a Design Document Specification.
This Design Document Specification is reviewed by all the important stakeholders and based on various parameters as risk assessment, product robustness, design modularity, budget, and time constraints, the best design approach is selected for the product.


The Design Document Specification could consist of:
Architecture – Specifies programming language, industry practices, overall design, and use of any templates or boilerplate
User Interface – Defines the ways customers interact with the software, and how the software responds to input
Platforms – Defines the platforms on which the software will run, such as Apple, Android, Windows version, Linux, or even gaming consoles
Programming – Not just the programming language, but including methods of solving problems and performing tasks in the application
Communications – Defines the methods that the application can communicate with other assets, such as a central server or other instances of the application
Security – Defines the measures taken to secure the application, and may include SSL traffic encryption, password protection, and secure storage of user credentials
Prototyping – it is like one of the early versions of software in the Iterative software development model. It demonstrates a basic idea of how the application looks and works. This “hands-on” design can be shown to stakeholders. Use feedback o improve the application. It’s less expensive to change the Prototype phase than to rewrite code to make a change in the Development phase.


Stage 4: Building or Developing the Product
In this stage of SDLC, the actual development starts, and the product is built. The programming code is generated as per DDS during this stage. If the design is performed in a detailed and organized manner, code generation can be accomplished without much hassle.
Developers must follow the coding guidelines defined by their organization and programming tools like compilers, interpreters, debuggers, etc. are used to generate the code. Different high-level programming languages such as C, C++, Pascal, Java, and PHP are used for coding. The programming language is chosen with respect to the type of software being developed.


Stage 5: Testing the Product
This stage is usually a subset of all the stages as in the modern SDLC models, the testing activities are mostly involved in all the stages of SDLC. However, this stage refers to the testing only stage of the product where product defects are reported, tracked, fixed and retested, until the product reaches the quality standards defined in the SRS.


Stage 6: Deployment in the Market
Once the product is tested and ready to be deployed it is released formally in the appropriate market. Sometimes product deployment happens in stages as per the business strategy of that organization. The product may first be released in a limited segment and tested in the real business environment (User acceptance testing).
Then based on the feedback, the product may be released as it is or with suggested enhancements in the targeting market segment.


Stage 7: Operations and Maintenance
At this point, the development cycle is almost finished. The application is done and being used in the field. The Operation and Maintenance phase is still important, though. In this phase, users discover bugs that weren’t found during testing. These errors need to be resolved, which can spawn new development cycles.
In addition to bug fixes, models like Iterative development plan additional features in future releases. For each new release, a new Development Cycle can be launched.

SDLC shows you what’s happening, and exactly where your development process can improve.