All too often, clients feel that they have no control over the delivery times and quality of their software projects. They think their software supplier sets these criteria with almost no input from the client. However, this way of thinking leads to confusion throughout the entirety of the project. There is actually a number of ways that you can expedite the delivery and improve the quality you receive from your software supplier. You can get better quality and faster delivery from your software supplier by following these ten methods:
Creating clear project requirements for your software supplier to follow is the single most important thing you can do to ensure a high-quality product with a fast turn-around time. With a clear set of project requirements, your software supplier can accurately map out the entire project. This allows them to plan out how they want to develop your software with efficiency in mind. It also helps prevent them from having to rework pieces of code due to not knowing the entirety of the project.
A clear set of project requirements also helps you avoid unexpected costs due to change orders. This gives you clear expectations on both cost and time for the project to complete. Additionally, it prevents any unexpected interruptions for your software supplier allowing them to proceed at as fast of a pace as they can.
Including discrete milestones with the project directives you give your software supplier provides you with expectations on when you can review their progress. This helps you maintain quality control over the final result and gives you specific times when you can provide feedback on their progress.
By utilizing these milestones and making your expectations for each milestone clear, you avoid receiving an end-product that does not correlate with your project goals. While this can cause each step to take slightly longer, it prevents a long list of items that your supplier needs to fix at the end of the project. Overall, it makes the project go smoother and gives you an acceptable end-result faster.
Communicating with your software supplier regularly builds a collaborative relationship between the two of you. This makes your software supplier feel comfortable coming to you with any issues that may come up throughout the development process. When your software supplier comes to you with issues as soon as they arise, your team can solve them faster before they steamroll out of control.
Building this relationship carries over into the support phase of the project as well. Having a collaborative relationship during the support phase of the project helps you roll out updates and new features faster. You can easily create this type of relationship by simply regularly checking in on your software supplier asking if there’s anything you can do for them.
Scope creep is one of the most common reasons for delays in a project. While sometimes scope creep cannot be avoided, you should not rely on your software supplier to shift large aspects of the software during their development phase. This adds an uncontrollable cost to your project and always creates delays. Oftentimes additional features requested during scope creep could have been implemented much faster if it was brought up at the beginning of the project. So, try your best to avoid scope creep, but if it’s unavoidable bring it up to your supplier as soon as possible to minimize delays and costs.
The easiest way to expedite your project is to simply ask your software supplier for suggestions. While sometimes there’s nothing they can do, asking if there are any adjustments they can make to the project in order to expedite completion never hurts. Asking your supplier questions also helps you build a strong, collaborative relationship with them as it helps them understand that you appreciate their expertise.
Breaking down your project into small components can help expedite your project by giving more control over to your software supplier on how they approach the project. With a project broken down into small components, they can follow the development methodology that they’re most familiar and experienced with. It also allows them to tailor their method to your needs by following a different methodology based on your needs.
Sifting through multiple waves of feedback provided by multiple stakeholders quickly becomes a time-consuming task for your software supplier. Taking the initiative and bringing together all of your stakeholders so that you can provide one document with all feedback will save your supplier time. This allows them to spend time developing your project instead of figuring out which pieces of feedback are most important. It also shows a high level of professionalism to your supplier encouraging them to work with you in the future and give you better prices.
Making the time for regular meetings with your supplier provides them with a specific time to bring up any problems they face. By bringing up these problems as soon as they arise at a regular time helps them solve the problems based on your directives quickly. It also gives you an opportunity to review their progress at a regularly scheduled time to ensure their progress is to your satisfaction.
Regular meetings give you a time to bring up any changes or feedback in the project as well. As the project develops and you get closer to a final product, you’ll likely have feedback. Providing this feedback regularly instead of all at the end of the project helps prevent delays.
Ensuring you quickly respond to your supplier’s questions keeps them from waiting on information, particularly if they hit a roadblock. While responding to questions quickly is especially important during the development phase, it’s also important while your supplier is putting together a quote for your project. Responding quickly while your supplier puts together their quote shows your supplier that you have a high level of urgency. This translates into the level of urgency they put into the development phase of the project as well since they know just how important it is to you.
While all of these methods help your software supplier deliver a higher quality product at a faster pace, they can still only work as well as their expertise allows. Working with an experienced software supplier who understands your needs ensures they follow your exact project requirements on your required timeframe.
If your business regularly requires software development projects, partnering with a single supplier forces them to take more responsibility. This makes them approach the project in the same way they would approach it if it were an internal project. It also helps you build your relationship with your supplier over a longer period of time so that they can truly understand the needs of your business. They can use this information to offer helpful suggestions throughout all of your projects that you might not have otherwise thought of. This ensures each project you hand them runs smoothly and you receive a high-quality software at a fast pace every single time.
Adus-Technologies takes the time to understand your overall business and how each of your projects fits into your overall business goals. Through this understanding, we consistently hit our client’s project requirements within the timeframes that they need. We rely on repeat business by building a strong relationship with our clients to ensure each of our clients receives the attention they deserve.
