Area 13 · Development and websites

Custom software development

Custom software is needed where a packaged product runs into the specifics of your work: an unusual accounting scheme, regulatory requirements or the need to connect services never designed to talk to each other. We study the task first, and sometimes the honest answer is different: adjusting what you already have works out better.

7
services in this area
2 weeks
requirements analysis before the quote
Register
platforms from the register
Yours
the code stays with you

How we price and how you pay

The type of agreement depends on how firmly the requirements are fixed. Committing to a fixed price with an unclear scope is a reliable way to fall out halfway.

Risk: changes come expensive A fixed price Suits a detailed brief that nobody plans to change
Risk: the scope has to be watched Time and materials Suits when the requirements become clear as the work goes
Risk: the team sits idle without work A team of your own Suits a work plan drawn up for many months ahead
Almost no risk Analysis as a separate stage Suits when the idea is clear but there are no documents yet

The source code and the rights to it become your property. It is fixed in the contract: on completion you are free to develop the product yourself or bring in another contractor. We hand over the repository, the documentation and the deployment procedure.

How the work is organised

Every fortnight we demonstrate a working part. That way any gap with your expectations shows up almost immediately rather than on handover day.

01

Requirements analysis

We study how you work and record the user journeys and constraints. The output is a requirements document and a costing. It is paid for separately and creates no obligations.

02

A trial version

We build a deliberately modest working version covering the main user journey. Often that is where part of the wish list falls away without discussion.

03

Working in iterations

Two-week iterations with a demo and sign-off. The order of work can be reshuffled between iterations without redrafting the contract.

04

Handover and support

Documentation, the deployment procedure, training for your specialists. Then comes the warranty period and changes as new needs arise.

Questions and answers

Quite often that is exactly right, and we say so plainly. An off-the-shelf product with configuration is almost always cheaper and faster to roll out. Custom software makes sense when your way of working really is unusual, or when the packaged option forces you to rebuild the organisation around it - and that rebuild costs more than it looks.

We do not quote a fixed price for undefined work: such estimates miss by multiples. Instead we offer a short study lasting about ten days. It is paid for separately, and at the end you hold the requirements and the costing, which you can take to any contractor.

At least two people work on the project at all times, the source code is kept by you or in a shared repository, and the reasoning behind decisions is documented. Losing a developer slows things by a couple of weeks but does not stop the project or force anything to be rewritten.

We will, but first we review it. We assess the quality of the source, whether there are automated tests and documentation. Sometimes the honest answer is that building anew costs less than repairing, and we put that conclusion in writing too.

Describe the task in your own words

Готовых требований не нужно: опишите, какая часть работы доставляет неудобства и что должно стать иначе. Предложим подходящую форму сотрудничества и оценим трудоёмкость исследования.