Today we’re going to talk about problems of project development middle and top management usually have to tackle. Let’s look at the risks developers and their clients are taking when dealing with each other. It doesn’t really matter if they are working in the same organization (in-house development) or are representing different companies (outsourcing or offshore development).
In my article Development lifecycle I have already discussed different stages of the system development lifecycle. They are:
· Prototyping / Proof of Concept,
· MVP / First release,
· Production / Continuous improvement,
· Support
Look at this picture and answer the following two questions:
· Which stage of development is the most risky for the client?
· Which stage is the riskiest for the developer?
Have you written your answers down? Well, now let’s check them.
Which stage of development is the most risky for the client?
Correct answer: Continuous improvements
At this stage the client has invested a lot of time and resources into the project, his employees have already started using the system. It means that now it will be very expensive to refuse to use this system.
Typical risks:
· Employees with special knowledge and skills
· Inflexible architecture
· Standard framework provides limited opportunities for system-level improvement
Which stage is the riskiest for the developer?
Correct answer: MVP
The contractor has mobilised a dev team to implement the project. Resources were spent to make the prototype according to the client’s requirements. These expenses are unlikely to be reimbursed, if the client terminates the project at this stage.
At the same time the client doesn’t risk anything, as they have invested a relatively small sum of money into project development and have not yet started using the new system. Time loss is also minimal.
How DWKit helps minimize risks both for developers and their clients
DWKit provides a well-developed, well-documented architecture. It’s a perfect solution for companies. Our clients get access to source code and can modify it.
As for developers, they can use DWKit drag&drop tools for fast prototyping. It allows them to go through Prototyping and MVC stages more quickly and efficiently.
