Ways to cost your software development projects

The time will come when the following question will be asked: how much money do I need to develop our next software development project?

What we aim with this article is to teach you how we cost our project so you can keep it in mind and allocate your own budget for software development.

To estimate the cost of a software development project, you will need two things, first determine the size of the software you are going to develop, using a unit of measurement, then you will need to know how many units of this measure your team can develop at a certain cost.

There are as many ways to estimate the cost and timeline of a software project as there are development languages. Research has shown that if a project can be broken down into small chunks of work, and each chunk is estimated, the estimates tend to be more accurate.

Here we have five factors affecting the cost of your software development projects.

Involving Business Stakeholders in the Software Estimation Process

Involving stakeholders early in the software estimation process helps to define more accurately what is important in the software development life cycle. This helps both the business leaders and the technology team gain a shared understanding of the project. It also helps to hold everyone involved accountable to the initial estimate.

Asking Why Do Most Software Estimation Projects Fail

The answer is simple, poor requirements and weak leadership. The technology in itself is rarely the cause of project failure. Great technology and developers will fail without good requirements and leadership. Beware of this red flag: leadership that cannot explain the end goals or the business drivers behind software during estimating sessions with the project team. Developers can’t develop quality code when requirements are not clear.

Building the Right Team

There’s more to a team than just developers. They need a good supporting cast and good requirements that hold everyone accountable. In order for the project to provide business value, users need to be able to use the application effectively. This means that the project must have good business analysts to write good requirements, which drive efficient development. The user experience is more than just how it looks. Include a designer on the project who can provide both an effective interface that is pleasant but that also facilitates meaningful user flow.

Good Software Estimation Metrics Should Reveal Problems Sooner

If the estimate is based on the developer’s velocity, then it is easier to determine whether a team is developing at the expected pace. Metrics allow you to identify team members that are not producing as expected. Rarely do all teams or developers produce at exactly the same speed. Some will work faster, some more slowly. If they are too slow, you can begin to investigate where friction occurs, from requirements to design, architecture, scope creep or lacking technical skills. Comparing actual velocity to original estimates allows stakeholders to identify budget misalignment sooner and take corrective action when needed.

Breaking the Requirements Down to Increase Transparency in Software Estimation

Begin by breaking the requirements down far enough so that each requirement can be built in a short time by a single developer. Any requirement that cannot be broken down may not be understood well enough for accurate estimation (with some exceptions).

This process will help the stakeholders understand what it will take to develop the software. Demanding more details upfront may seem to add time to project estimation, but the transparency it creates usually shortens the software estimation, improves quality and shortens the approval time through better understanding amongst stakeholders.

Software Design

Software design is the process of conceptualizing the software requirements into software implementation. This is the initial phase within the software development life cycle shifting the concentration from the problem to the solution.

When conceptualizing the software, the design process establishes a plan that takes the user requirements as challenges and works to identify optimum solutions. The plan should determine the best possible design for implementing the intended solution.

 Software Architecture 

The software architecture of a system depicts the system’s organization or structure, and provides an explanation of how it behaves. A system represents the collection of components that accomplish a specific function or set of functions. In other words, the software architecture process provides a sturdy foundation on which software can be built.

A series of architecture decisions and trade-offs impact quality, performance, maintainability, and overall success of the system. Failing to consider common problems and long-term consequences can put your system at risk.

There are multiple high-level architecture patterns and principles commonly used in modern systems. These are often referred to as architectural styles. The architecture of a software system is rarely limited to a single architectural style. Instead, a combination of styles often make up the complete system.

And then, what is the difference between Software Design and Software Architecture?

Software design provides everything that software developers need to know to produce consistent software that implements the required functionality. This includes specifications of services, components, integrations, data models and algorithms.

Software architecture places big-picture constraints on the design to ensure that it aligns with the business and technology strategy of an organization. This includes considerations such as compliance, technology standards and operational efficiency. Architecture is intended to prevent designs from repeating known mistakes or being inconsistent with the rest of the organization.

How are they related?

Software architecture exposes the structure of a system while hiding the implementation details. Architecture also focuses on how the elements and components within a system interact with one other. Software design delves deeper into the implementation details of the system. Design concerns include the selection of data structures and algorithms, or the implementation details of individual components.

Architecture and design concerns often overlap. Rather than use hard and fast rules to distinguish between architecture and design, it makes sense to combine them. In some cases, decisions are clearly more architectural in nature. In other cases, decisions focus heavily on design and how it helps to realize that architecture.

To learn it in a more practical way:

Software Design is a plan that gives enough detail for developers to implement consistent software.

Software Architecture is a plan that constrains software design to avoid known mistakes and achieve an organization’s business and technology strategy.

The level of software design is: implementation

The level of software architecture is: structure

One of the significant challenges faced by startups is choosing the best programming language to be used for your web development projects. This is because there are so many options available and settling for one can be quite challenging for a startup.

However, choosing the right programming framework is very important for startups that want to prevent issues with documenting, bug fixing, productivity and even debugging which can lead to loss of profit, poor performance and customer’s disappointment.

One programming language that has become a top choice for programmers due to the immense benefits it offers to startups when used for web development is Ruby on Rails. Ruby is a dynamic, and reflective programming languages that supports multiple programming models such as object-oriented, functional, and imperative.

Ruby-on-Rails Development Benefits

Here are some reasons why Ruby is a good choice for startups.

Cost-efficient:

Ruby is an open sourced licensed product that can be used and modified free of charge. Also, there are so many ready-made libraries (gems) that facilitate the developer’s work thereby reducing cost.

Security:

Ruby has one of the most secure frameworks that prevent cross-site scripting, SQL-injections and other threats. However, to achieve the best result, developers must follow a Secure Development Lifecycle because not all benefits of Ruby on Rails are available out-of-the-box.

Supports from experts:

Ruby provides support to its users in the form of an online tutorial, question sections and also provides fresh modules daily. Its community is one of the most engaged in the world of coding because it always keeps its framework elements updated and ensures the security of all released apps.

Quality architecture:

Ruby makes use of Restful architecture which allows the developer to build pure and simple APIs. Due to its expressive nature, this framework leaves the users with a fantastic impression.

Faster development process:

In terms of project development ruby is fast when compared to other frameworks. Speed is very important to startup and organizations that are on tight deadlines and limited resources.

Supports PaaS Services:

One of the significant reasons why Ruby on Rails Development is a great choice for startups is that it is supported by so many Platform as a Service (PaaS) services which make it easy for startups to push their apps to the cloud effortlessly.

A software methodology is an approach, a way of interpreting the reality or the discipline in question, which in this particular case would correspond to software engineering. In fact, the methodology for software development is considered as a structure used to plan and control the procedure of creating a specialized information system.

The world of development, for better or for worse, has evolved from a model in which all phases were carefully planned and structured into a model in which development must be as fast and efficient as possible. Take a look at some of the development methodologies that will allow you to know which would be the most appropriate for your business. Bear in mind that by being familiar with these popular approaches you can optimize the efficiency of your projects using a single approach or by combining some of them.

Extreme Programming Methodology (XP)

As an agile software engineering methodology, the extreme programming methodology is currently known as XP methodology (eXtreme Programming). This methodology is mainly used to avoid the development of functions that are not currently needed, but above all to handle complicated projects. However, their peculiar methods can take more time, as well as human resources compared to other approaches.

Prototype Methodology

It is a specialized development procedure that allows developers the possibility of being able to only sample the resolution in order to validate its functional essence with the clients, and make the changes that are fundamental before creating the authentic final solution. In fact, the best part of this methodology is that it tends to solve a set of diversification problems that occur with the cascade method.

Besides this, the great advantage of opting for this approach is that it gives a clearer idea of the software’s functional process, reduces the risk of failure in software functionality, and assists in the collection of requirements and in the general analysis.

Waterfall Model

If you have ever dabbled in the software development world, you have surely come across the cascade model at some point. Otherwise, it should be noted that in this model each stage represents a development unit with a small break in between. Therefore, each next stage begins as soon as the previous one has finished, and those breaks are used for confirmations on the client’s side.

Additionally, this is considered as the traditional method of explaining the software development process in software engineering, which is why it is currently seen as outdated. However, it is still applied to projects with clear goals and requirements that require up to 100 hours of development, especially considering that this approach allows businesses to get rid of unnecessary paperwork, regular meetings that consume a lot of time and delays in their business processes.

Spiral model

While the waterfall methodology offers an orderly structure for software development, the amount of time to reach the market make its serial steps inappropriate.

The next evolutionary step from the waterfall is where the different steps for multiple deliveries or transfers are made. The last evolution of the fall of the water is the spiral, taking advantage of the fact that the development projects work better when they are incremental and iterative.

Rapid Application Development (RAD)

In order to provide quick results, it is an approach that is intended to provide excellent development processes with the help of other approaches, but is also designed to increase the viability of the entire software development procedure to highlight the participation of an active user.

Many small companies continue to work most of their processes as in the 80’s and the main reason is because software development is an unattainable dream for many of them. However, we believe that it is an unexplored field and that it has all the potential for growth.

The first thing you should know is that small and medium-sized companies tend to focus on the commercial sector and services, because their size and characteristics can’t be configured in the industrial sector that requires greater investment of resources. For example, large companies use various management programs in order to operate: from an ERP, through logistics software for the warehouse, a CRM for commercial management, resource management, security, human resources and many more. To make this simpler, they develop a single system that integrates all the functionalities or integrate one by one as they are required. In any case, the final result is a giant computer system that requires great maintenance, future adjustments and customization for your needs.

A medium or small company will never be able to cope with a system of these characteristics, such implantation costs will be unattainable. On the other hand, the vast majority don’t need such systems. It is not the same to organize the operations of 5,000 employees with 300 projects and daily revenue of several millions to getting 4 employees on board in the same project.

The great advantage of working with small companies is that they allow us to be much more agile in development, from the identification of their requirements, review and approval times are shorter, the learning curve is faster and the satisfaction of clients is higher when they see results that allow them to be more efficient with their business processes.

Here are some things we do that make software development for small businesses something you can actually aim at:

• We develop custom software according to your unique goals and processes. If the objective is to standardize processes, a solution-oriented approach should be taken and a thorough QA process needs to take place since a solution that is too complex could cause problems for the organization instead of helping it move forward.·
• We involve those in charge of the processes, especially in traditional or familiar settings. Change can be received with reluctance from company members, making it necessary to work with all the participants to make them feel the project is their own. This helps guarantee the achievement of the objectives set.·
• We use agile methodologies, which allow the client to see small advances, provide feedback, improve and visualize early victories that embody the changes the software will bring for the company.
• We choose a reliable development language that does not require too many changes and / or future updates, companies appreciate it and will surely want to work on similar projects in the future.

Due to the growing demand of software application development, architects and developers who can build large projects are more required each time. For that reason, here are some of the best software development best practices you can adopt.

If you’re a beginner, the best advice is to simply learn your language, frameworks, and tools top to bottom and gain more experience with a variety of different projects.

If you’re an experienced software developer, you should constantly try to find new ways to optimize your code for readability, performance, and maintainability. Then, you should practice making well-reasoned decisions about where to focus time and resources in your code—whether it’s testing, performance optimization, or other technical debt.

Area and software architecture:

Great programmers can take a complex problem, break it down into smaller pieces, solve each of those pieces, and then put everything back together to solve the initial problem. Software is just a tool for solving problems. Since it’s needed in almost all areas, develop in one that interests you. If you understand an area well and are passionate about it, you’ll be a much better, more motivated developer. You’ll also be exponentially more valuable and lucrative to companies hiring.

Code Simplicity:

Code simplicity is an idea that came from Max Kanat-Alexander, a software developer at Google Community Lead and Release Manager of the Bugzilla project. The idea is to reduce unnecessary complexity in software development.

Test from end to end:

Full integration testing ensures that all components are working together as expected and increases code coverage.

Choose the right process:

The success of the software development life cycle relies heavily on the method you will adopt. Common software development models and methods include the following: Waterfall model, prototyping model, spiral mode, agile software development. You need to choose the one that suits your project best, then adhere to it throughout.

Select a system architecture:

The system architecture is defined as a set of conventions, rules, and standards used in a computer system’s technical framework, as well as customer requirements and specifications that the system manufacturer follows in designing the system’s components.
The system architect should choose the architecture that is suitable for your project, taking into consideration the requirements and limitations and also identifying the threats and anti-patterns in the system.

Don’t forget, check your code again:

Everyone makes mistakes. An attitude which allows you to acknowledge imperfections is the first step to investing your time in a code review. Having a colleague read over your pull requests before merging is a good way to ensure final code quality. Code reviews help reduce bugs in the product – that’s the bottom line – so give up that idea of perfection.

When deciding to start either a web or app development project or both, there is always a discussion about whether running the project in house or outsourcing it. Each approach might have its benefits but this has always generated discussion in particular within the IT industry with questions like “should I outsource?” “What is the best way to outsource?” and “where can I find a reliable outsourcing partner” among many others.

You might be asking yourself “what do I have to know about outsourcing, apart from the benefits I will be getting from it?” but a better question to be asked before defining the benefits of web and software developing outsourcing is “Do I have the knowledge, the experience and resources to manage such a project?” If the answer is no, you are better of sticking to your strengths and leaving the rest to a qualified expert. This way you are more likely to save time and money.

Let’s See Some Pro’s and Con’s

Outsourcing with third party companies will mean reliability and quality but it might not mean it is going to be the cheapest option. However, you are more likely to save in the long term since, if the project is correctly executed, you are likely to save on future updates and support time due to better and more experienced hands having built it.  Everything relies in what you really want and how you are going to achieve it.

Working with a company means having a dedicated team of professionals working towards meeting your goals. Your only responsibility will be to communicate clearly and assertively with the company.

Cost

Nearshore software development outsourcing is always cheaper in the long run as mentioned above. Besides, if you think about it, hiring a team, managing it, getting the right resources and equipment will mean more time and money you have to spend on a project. If you hire a nearshore outsourcing company, you might save resources while having a reliable team that guarantees the right approach and best practices with their services.

Time Saving

It helps you save your precious time allowing you to focus on what you do best. The time you were going to put into hiring and management an in-house development team might be used in more pressing matters. Plus, if you hire a company it means they are more committed to deliver a project on time and know more about the time spent in each task that’s going to be developed.

Quality

By outsourcing with a company you get the benefits of the latest tools and technologies, which in the long run will benefit the sustainability of your website and good performance of your system.

If you have any request please contact us, someone from our team would happy to answer any question you may have.

Software developers are often responsible for many tasks such as developing, testing, designing, writing, debugging and more. To determine what exactly are the skills required for website development we need to identify the software development skills a company looks for in a developer.

• Companies are often looking for people that feel comfortable with every stage of a development project, so the first requirements would be integral knowledge and openness to learning.
• A great ability extracting and analyzing massive data sets.
• Strategic thinking around new devices and technologies.

JavaScript Skills

The main reason why JavaScript is so important now is because you can see it everywhere, from games we play to apps and it is compatible with pretty much any platform and/or device. It is a well-known powerful tool that companies like LinkedIn, Netflix, PayPal and Uber use.

Adaptability

Considering what companies are looking for today and what they looked for in the past, we are seeing an evolution. Companies now prefer to stay current than focus in the wrong technology as this industry is in constant evolution.

Big Data

Apps developed these days generate a lot more data than before and this data is used in real time for decision making. Therefore, it is importante to feel comfortable manipulating data and presenting it the best way possible for users to analyze the data and make decisions.

Master the full stack

Innumerable firms are looking for full stack web developers that feel comfortable moving from one technology to another and also working in both the frontend and backend of the system. This way, it is easier to assign this developer to different projects and also to troubleshoot issues that come up along the way.

Collaboration and Communication

The cooperation and use of open source programming languages are two main factors when entering the IT community or being a part of it. Collaboration is becoming more and more relevant since paid frameworks and tools are not being used as much. This allows for different developers to benefit while easing up their processes.

Agile Methodologies

Agile software development should also be part of the coder’s resume in order to tackle ongoing development. For this, they should have the ability to break down big projects into smaller tasks that will be assigned to sprints. At the end of each sprint, a retrospective is carried out to analyze what went well and what didn’t go so well in order to adjust the process for the next sprint.

There are other skills that might be advantageous when creating software.

• Logical and structured thinking
• Detail orientation

Kambda makes sure that each person on its team has the right skillset to manage, develop, design and construct custom web application or websites.

This question is one of the most frequent queries within customers, sadly it doesn’t have a determined answer. Web development languages are chosen according to the requirements each client has, meaning all technologies used in each project are thought for each task or feature that is desired.

There are many languages you can use to program your web app or desktop app and there are sets of tools required to program and create the right environment for a project. Having said that, here’s a list of the most used web development languages according to our experience.

JavaScript Development

Simple, lightweight and it can be used directly with any browser.

JavaScript is a cross-platform, object-oriented scripting language used to make webpages interactive. It is used to enhance web pages and to provide a satisfactory user friendly experience.  It’s a language that relies mostly within HTML documents and provides interactivity that HTML by itself could never create. It is very fast as it runs itself on the client side, which means it doesn’t even need a plugin and this in turn reduces load time for high traffic sites.

Node.js Programing

Node.js is a lean, fast, cross-platform useful for both servers and desktop applications.

Is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript run-time environment that executes JavaScript code outside the browser. Node.js uses non-blocking, event-driven I/O to remain lightweight and efficient in the face of data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices. This environment allows us to test our web or desktop apps providing a smoother handling and launch.

PHP Web Development

It’s a quick and easy server side scripting language for web development and general use.

PHP stands for “Hypertext Preprocessor” and is known as a server-side language since it runs only on the hosting server and the end user cannot “see” the PHP script. It provides a fast loading speed and its code processing is faster than similar technologies like ASP. It is one of the most flexible technologies out there in the market and it may be used with many frameworks and automation tools.

Python Development

Thousands of third-party libraries make Python a popular and versatile language

Python is a general-purpose, object-oriented and high-level programming language that supports modules and packages, which encourages program modularity and code reuse.  It has a greater extension of libraries, it’s dynamic and is also extensively found in other languages like C, C++, it poses a unit testing framework and its scalable multi-protocol.

Ruby on Rails Programming

Ruby on Rails minimizes website development time in about 30-40% due to the lean code base, modular design and its capacity to be used with plugin solutions.

Often shortened to Rails or RoR, Ruby on Rails is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language. It is intended to be used with Agile development methodologies for rapid development. Since it is agile and it has libraries of already made plugins, it helps save time while its consistency creates efficiency through standardization. It holds great quality and promotes bug free development.

These are our top languages, applications, platforms and favorite tools to program and develop web applications. So if you are looking for great quality and sustainability, feel free to reach out to us for an assessment.

We want to give you a specific idea of some of the issues with software development and coding. An error is an error no matter how big or small it is, both large and minor issues can take ages to resolve if you don’t know what is the nature of the problem, its implications and the cause to process it better, faster and more accurately.

Let’s begin by first defining what is an issue or bug.

As defined in technopedia “A software bug is a problem causing a program to crash or produce invalid output. The problem is caused by insufficient or erroneous logic. A bug can be an error, mistake, defect or fault, which may cause failure or deviation from expected results. Most bugs are due to human errors in source code or its design.” 

So the best mechanism to debug is to really understand or know the best ways to get to the root of the problem. Recognizing defects isn’t always as straightforward as it could have seemed to be, but studying how testers identify defects can help define what they are and the quickest way to solve the problem.

How to identify a software development error

• Read requirement specifications to determine if the project meet requirements
• Check for inconsistency or consistency
• The “Goldilocks” Heuristic
• Look for anything that threatens the quality of the product

After doing this you should have identified the problem and its location. Now, let’s review the types of software development bugs so you can have a bigger picture of what you are looking to resolve when debugging.

We are going to explain some of the most common errors in software development:

Functionality Errors:

Functionality is how the software is envisioned to behave. Your Software has a functionality error if something that you expect it to do is hard, awkward, confusing…

Communication Errors:

Communication bugs refers to things the user should know in order to use the software but which haven’t been presented to him like menus, instructions, hidden features and so on.

Missing Command errors:

A type of error that happens when an expected command is missing. It is usually caused when a user tries to perform an action that is also intended by the developers, but for which he has no access. Like when a user wants to close a prompt notification but there is no command to do this.

Syntactic Error:

Syntactic errors are misspelled words or grammatically incorrect sentences and are very evident while testing software GUI. Please note that we are NOT referring to syntax errors in code. The compiler will warn the developer about any syntax errors that occur in the code.

Error handling Errors:

Any inaccuracies that occur while the user is interacting with the software needs to be controlled in a clear and meaningful manner. If not, it is called an Error Handling Error.

Calculation Errors:

These errors occur due to any of the following reasons:

• Bad logic
• Incorrect formulae
• Data type mismatch
• Coding errors
• Function call issues

Control flow errors:

The control flow of a software designates what it will be done next and on what conditions, if this is not working properly the error is defined as a control flow error.

Now that we know which are the most common mistakes, we can take a quick look at the best practices to solve any potential issue.

• Make sure you are following the real requirements of the project, miscommunication might lead to mistakes or bugs.
• Always make sure to train the users or testers on unique software features that might seem bugs to regular eyes.
• Make sure that your developers are correctly reading the requirements. This is a mistake some people don’t think happens often, but unfortunately it is one of the most common mistakes.

We hope by now you have a better understanding in how to get to the nature of a bug and all the types of mistakes most commonly made during the developing process.