“Want to learn about software development costs? Here we will walk you through the different key cost factors that play a vital role in determining the cost.”

As an entrepreneur who wants to develop software, estimating software development costs is challenging.

For a business, a detailed understanding of software development costs is a must before starting, so that you don’t run into financial crises and can manage your finances effectively.

This blog is the right place if a similar challenge drives you, too.

There are several factors involved in determining the cost, rather than simply guessing the development cost.

Here we will walk through the different cost factors involved in determining the development cost.

So, let’s get started.

How to Estimate Software Development Costs?

The cost of developing the software varies from one project to another since two projects cannot share similar requirements. Let’s see what factors software development companies measure to determine the cost:

Type of Software Project

This is one of the foremost things that play an important role in determining the cost.

For example, if you’re going to build software from scratch that matches your business requirements and includes all the features that you want to build. Custom software development from scratch is required to spend a huge amount of money as everything starting from UI/UX design needs to be built from scratch.

If you want to make some modifications to your existing software to ensure its compatibility with the market trends. In this case, the cost of the development will be lower and the project development duration will also be lessened.

Another thing is that if you want to integrate third-party API or any other custom functionality into your software then the cost of the development will be much lower.

As discussed above, each software development project differs in terms of the work and team composition required.

Size of the Project

Another vital factor that affects the costs of software development is the size of the project. As a general rule, the complex project will require more budget to implement it.

As a general rule, the cost of software development can be categorized into the following 4 categories:

Small Size Projects

Kinds of software that require only minor changes or can be done within a matter of a week or two usually fall under this category.

The most common example of small-size projects is fixing the bugs in the existing project by applying some modifications in the UI/UX design of the software.

Mid-Size Projects

Here the level of the project complexity is intense. This type of project is driven by well-defined deliverables.

Mid-size projects may require time between 1 to 3 months to accomplish the task.

The best example of a mid-size project is designing the UI/UX from scratch or developing simple software with no advanced level of functionality.

Large-Size Projects?

As the name suggests, the large-size development process is more complex and requires the assistance of software developers who have in-depth knowledge.

Projects that require the implementation of multiple features, third-party APIs, creating a broad database, or keeping security & scalability in focus usually fall under this category. In addition to that, multi-platform software development projects are also considered large-size projects. The average timeframe to complete large-scale projects is somewhere between 6 months to 1 year.

Enterprise Size Projects

This is one of the most complex types of projects. The primary purpose of the enterprise software project is to bring automation to the business process and boost business efficiencies.

The implementation of the ERP software can be termed an enterprise-size project. This type of software typically requires time somewhere between 1 year to 2 years. The cost of developing such a type of software is highly expensive as it requires the development of multiple modules catering to varied business operations.

UI/UX Design

The importance of the user interface and user design is incomparable. Poor UI/UX design can lead to a loss of user interest, therefore a significant amount of investment needs to be made to create a highly visually appealing design.

Development

Software development can be categorized into two parts i.e frontend and backend. Both frontend and backend development should be taken care of precisely to make sure your software is capable of making an effect on your customers.

Depending on the severity of the project the cost of the development varies.

Testing and Quality Assurance

Once the development of the software is accomplished, how will you determine the quality of the software? Testing and quality assurance is the process of determining the quality of the software on multiple factors. It is a must to test every component of the software to make sure your software delivers the results that are much needed.

Other Factors that Affect the Cost of Software Development

Besides the above-mentioned factors, there are also some other factors that you should consider in order to make the right estimation of the development cost. Let’s see what those other factors are:

Software Development Company Location

This might come as a surprise to you. But in reality, the cost of software development is greatly influenced by the location of the developers.

For instance, if you opt to hire software developers from the USA, then you might have to pay around $100-$150 per hour.

In the case of a small project, where software development will take approximately 10 hours, you will need to pay developers on average $1000.

Meanwhile, if you opt for Indian software developers, then you have to pay around $25-$40 per hour. In other words, a similar project in which you will have to spend about $1000 can be completed between $250 and $400.

Therefore, in order to reduce the development cost, it is a strategic thought to pay attention to the developer’s location.

Experience of Software Developers

Depending on the experience, developers’ cost varies. The junior level of developers is a good source of lower costs, whereas the middle and senior levels of developers are more expensive. Therefore, by considering the level of proficiency required to complete your project, you need to choose software developers.

Hiring Model

There are different types of hiring options available to you i.e. in-house developers, freelancers, or offshore developers.

In-house developers refer to the developers who work in your office. In this way, you have to hire developers with the right skills and need to make a significant investment in setting up office space and making arrangements for software & hardware.

If hiring in-house developers seems expensive or not possible, then you can opt to work with freelancers. This is one of the most cost-effective ways of hiring developers where you have access to remote developers who will work on your project. However, this is always a matter of contradiction. While hiring freelance developers you have no control over the way they work and there is no assurance regarding on-time delivery.

If both in-house and freelance developers won’t work for you, then the best option available to you is to work with offshore developers. Offshore developers are very much similar to in-house developers. The only difference is that they work remotely and set you free from the cost of infrastructure setup and software & hardware.

Related Topic: What is the cost to build and host an eCommerce website?

Final Take

Costs associated with software development are one of the major concerns. The above-discussed factors are taken care of while estimating the costs of software development. These factors are mainly used by software development companies to estimate development costs.

You can successfully implement the project without breaking the bank by understanding the development cost and managing your budget accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can you reduce software development costs?

Why is software development expensive? If this is what concerns you, then follow the steps mentioned below:

• Be clear about your project requirement
• Keep the software functionality minimized
• Choose the developers wise not only location-wise but skill-wise also
• Opt for offshore developers rather than in-house developers

2. What are pre-development and post-development costs?

In software development, pre-development costs refer to the costs you have to bear before you start developing the actual software. An example of the pre-development cost involves market research, defining the target audience, validating ideas, and so on. Post-development costs are referred to as the cost you have to bear after the deployment of the product such as maintenance, upgradation cost, and so on.

The post A Comprehensive Guide on How to Estimate Software Development Costs appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

“We’ll learn the basics of LSD, how it differs from SDLC, and why it should be integrated into software projects to reduce the cost of software development!”

Lean Software Development It is a sure-shot way to boost team productivity. Lean software development (LSD) is based on an agile approach to optimize development time and resources and deliver according to the project’s needs. It brings Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) into existence. Teams share the bare minimum version of the software to market, allowing them to learn user likes and dislikes and iterate the feedback.

What is the software development lifecycle?

Software Development lifecycle involves going through the process to create a piece of software – Idea generation, discussion with all stakeholders, creating wireframes/mockups/prototypes, writing software design specification, software requirement specification, getting it verified, making any necessary changes, finalizing it and forwarding it to the developers, writing the code, making changes to the code based on iterations/feedbacks/suggessions, forwarding every iteration to unit test and then integrating it with other modules, integrating all modules to create a system, making the system go through regression – integration – smoke – system – alpha/beta tests – user acceptance tests. But Lean software development can skip unnecessary steps, and speed up the process of software development.

What is lean software development?

Lean Software Development (LSD) is an Agile Framework that optimizes the overall software development process. It is popularly known as the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) strategy as it focuses on fast deliverables. It removes unnecessary project stages and involves team power to focus on MVP development. But to get the most out of an LSD, it should be scalable. It involves swift action, so it often becomes team members pace with each other. Plus, the overall decision-making process can be difficult, so it is mandatory for the customers to clearly set their requirements to make the development process run smoothly.

How does the software development lifecycle differ from lean software development?

Making software is difficult, and the process/development methodology that each company follows differs from its counterparts. Their requirements vary, technologies in demand, client calls, meetings/schedules/time zones, cost of developers, and project timelines make it a unique process every time. But all that looks structured and well documented might still vary as we are all human. Now we know what is software development lifecycle (SDLC) is. But how does it differ from lean software development (LSD)? Can both be combined? Or do they work in parallel? Lean Software Development asks us to leave behind anything that does not add any value to the product. It emphasizes the quality of the overall software project (in the eyes of the end-user). It asks you to keep testing the product at every step, and on the whole, via various methods until you realize it is good to go. Create constant feedback loops. Focus on fast delivery, but also implement every small changes that come through the feedback lifecycle. Keep the big picture in mind, and don’t obsess over the details.

Lean software development principles

Feasibility Check

It starts by inspecting the ideas, and requirements, very much like the first stage of SDLC. It should align with the end user’s expectations.

Proof of Concept

This stage is to ensure that this idea will work at all. It also lets developers know about possible corrections in advance, saving time, money, and effort.

Making a prototype

Software Developers create a smaller version of the final product so that end users may have an idea about what it will look like, and how it will work? But a prototype is different from a minimum viable product. It cannot be released independently. But it definitely brings about some value to the table and fetches feedback from the clients.

Minimum Viable Product

An MVP stems from a prototype but a prototype is not sellable, while an MVP is sellable. MVP will let you reach the full version of the product with all the features that clients want.

Quicker Time To Market

Reduces the time to develop and shows the results as soon as possible even with an imperfect code.

Empowers the Team

As the development/designing/testing teams know the technical capabilities of the product being developed, they can effectively implement any changes that come through as a result of changing demands. They also upgrade the software to new versions maintain and deliver it quickly.

Integration

Installable, usable and integrable – LSD produces an integral system that is worthy and does not lose its utility over time.

Lean Development Methodology

When the software development lifecycle measures the standard business practices to build software applications dividing it into Requirements Gathering, Software Design, Software Development, Test and Integration, Deployment, Operationalization and Maintenance, the LSD omits some steps that are beyond the scope of the project development, and that can be snipped to maximize the efficiency at each stage. Software Development Companies adopt LSD to reduce overall company costs, speeds up software delivery, meet or exceed customers’ needs, and achieve their goals by identifying inefficiencies and fixing them to run smoothly.

A Quick Recap

If Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the way to calculate, measure, and improve the development process, lean software development (LSD) is the way to fine-tune every step, minimize discrepancies, optimize steps, deliver software faster, and meet customers’ needs.

Automated analysis software and CAST Application Intelligence Platform or AIP is an automated enterprise solution in Lean Development that verifies quality against architecture standards to make everything run correctly after deploying applications.

• It prevents and eliminates wasteful steps (unnecessary code, bureaucratic processes, quality issues)
• Enhances, amplifies, and scales learning throughout the project development
• Decides as late as possible (Projects once released cannot be reverted. Therefore, learn as much as possible, and incorporate functionality to prevent rework.
• Delivers quickly and learns from the results.
• Ensures proactive communication
• Examines the process from start to finish, right from initiation to release.

LSD can be implemented in any IT environment to improve programming practices. It makes it possible to fetch the information from the source and eliminate any intermediaries that do not address customers’ needs. It works best with Agile Methodology as it facilitates fast results. Smaller iterations offer an opportunity to communicate, discuss, and decide upon the next steps. It helps adapt to unforeseen circumstances.

The post Ways to Go About Lean Software Development appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

On the top of that India is considered among the few nations to outsource value-driven software development services to the world at cheapest price. These are the nations like Ukraine, Bulgaria, Czech Republic that are providing software outsourcing solutions, but they are not able to deliver enough value in an equation of cost and quality that India is capable of.

Well, this is probably because India has enough resources and better conditions that favor offshore software development facilities to deliver. Also, as they have developed the capacity to offer solutions that are value-oriented, timely and affordable over the period of time, they have that ability to deliver solutions better.

Key Facts and Figures about Indian software outsourcing:

> India is known to have widest talent pool in the domain of software development. It has the largest number of technology professionals compared to any other land in comparison. Also, the supporting skillset and peripheral facility are in abundance in the country which makes it a place that houses the most resourceful and prolific IT resources in the world.

> Indians are the most aggressive at adapting to changes. Though they lag behind while it comes to inventing new technologies, but they have professionals to learn and work on latest technologies as they come. This makes Indian professionals the most sought-after and they find place among the top software professionals, offering outsourcing services to the world.

> Indian government is also supporting the idea of software outsourcing and this shows in the way it promotes and supports IT companies and the industry at large. In 2017, around 110 billion U.S. dollars were spent by the government and associations on building networks and infrastructures to offer them better strength and opportunities.

> India is known to be a powerful combination of skills, manpower, cost-effectiveness, and intellect. This makes it offer the most resourceful options for offshore software development allowing businesses the solution at best equation of quality and cost. This makes India the top provider among other similar markets in terms of maturity, capability, reliability and other factors that are integral to the notion of software development outsourcing solutions.

> Another major study that indicates the progress of India as a software offshoring giant is the forecast done by Statista that reveals that the country is going to produce over 5.75 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, through software outsourcing services and this is going to further grow bigger in the years to follow. And this is going to get possible with the large number of start-ups and offshore development units and ranging competent skills the country boasts to have.

> Yet another fact that makes India lead the wagon of outsourcing in the space of software and automation is that it is quick at adopting new ideas, practices and technologies and keeping up with latest trends. If we talk about the latest skillset and competencies, it has covered it all from AI, IoT, Blockchain, Progressive web and Cloud, making it one of the most sought-after markets for contemporary solutions.

Comparing India with other Asia/Pacific countries

If you compare India with its neighboring countries or those which are a part of the Asia/Pacific region, you can depict and explain the standing of the country better. Referring to which, we have the countries like Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Philippines, China, and Malaysia that operate quite similarly in the offshore software development space. These countries have similar exposure to the world market and are acquainted with required resources and environment needed for software development. But, there are some major points that make India rule them out when it comes to delivering solutions. Here’s how India leads the pack.

Labor Pool: India has an extensive pool of development professionals, which makes India tick faster and better when it comes to offer large and intricate solutions in time. It also helps the country to offer solutions in a ranging cost/value bracket that suits varying business needs and preferences.

Maturity: India is a land of wide-spread people and cultures who have a reputation to learn and imbibe diversely. They come from different knowledge pools and have great potential to adopt the new. This transmits into their ability and maturity to grasp and create more and better. Indian software developers are known for working on newest of technologies and most advanced solutions that are hard to train and apply.

Cost: The cost factor is the most decisive and competent of all and Indian developers are quite good at delivering economic solutions. This is because of the economies of scale Indian firms are able to achieve by working on optimized approaches and cost-effective models. This allows India to gain edge over other countries in comparison.

Reaching the right software development company in India

As you look around for some company to help you develop your software and allow a solution to your requirement, you would find a lot options to work with. Here, while you keep cost and quality at the top of everything, you need to follow a process of selection to reach the right outsourcing partner for your software development needs.

As you start with it, you need to first choose the company on the basis of the rank and order of offerings, performance and identity by looking at their relative position (based on quality and range of delivery along with the value created and offered) on different research charts and rating platforms. This will allow you to do the first set of filtrations and get your major choices and preferences skimmed out.

Moving further, you should check the shortlisted software development companies on the basis of their credibility and reliability. You can do this by checking out client reviews and testimonials for these companies. Once you have shortlisted it to lesser number based on the first two criteria, check them on the types of clients and solutions they have served and the process they have followed to deliver the solution. This should bring you to the last few suitable options, from which you can choose the development partner by interviewing them on relevance and communication front and by checking their eligibility for the project picking details.

Conclusion

These facts clearly define why India is leader in software outsourcing business and how Indian software development companies are best to go with when you are looking to enter into an offshore engagement for your software or web development project.

Here, everything is sorted if you have the clarity in mind related to your project goals and dispositions. Following that, all in the end you need to do is finding the best match out of all available options. Which you can easily do by differentiating between the companies based on your requirements and preferences of cost, quality, time and policies.

The post Why India is the World Leader in the Software Outsourcing Business appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

From the other viewpoint, software development is a briskly sprouting industry, due to this demand and present gaps in the market. The rivalry is high, therefore there are many software development companies trying to create their innovative solutions to get the prominent share in the market.

However, a majority of the software efforts are wasted. Studies have revealed that more than 805 of the software development projects flop because of incorrect functionality, resource and budget constraints, poor execution, and wrong foresight.

Keeping this scenario in mind, here is the list of 8 best practices for successful software development projects.

1. Employee the Right Resources

There are two types of resources:

> Capital Intensive: This includes finance, machinery tools, and equipment

> Labor Intensive: This includes your workforce

The first thing to ensure your project’s success is to recruit talent with best-suited skills and experience. Allocating the right task to the relevant resource is also very important. For this, you have to invest in tools that improve and grow team productivity.

2. Select the Appropriate Development Process

Some of the proven ways of attaining success encompass; iterative spiral approach, agile methodology, and waterfall model. Choosing the best-suited tool for your project plays a very significant role. The real devotion to and the implementation of the opted procedure is what plays out in the success of the project. Exploring a new technology and creating a small prototype to study feasibility is always a good idea.

3. Try Making Accurate Estimations

The most prominent reason behind project failure and its exceeding deadline is the poor estimation. Proper planning heavily relies on efforts, resources, budget and appropriate estimates for schedules. It is always considered best to utilize established forecasting techniques. Modifying estimates to whimsically short-schedule will most likely end in disaster.

4. Define Smaller Milestones

Major milestones and bigger projects should be accompanied with mini-milestones to deliver improved control, tractability and enhanced risk mitigation. The stakeholders can arrange meetings to align and discuss these mini-milestones with bigger-milestones to decrease interdependency delays and meet the overall schedule.

5. Outline Requirements

Actual requisite collecting forms the foundation of supporting the completed product with the business aims. Agreement and discussion on documented requirements amongst the stakeholders (i.e. customer, business leadership and team leads) are imperious.

There is a requirement to describe main, consequent and implied necessities, both non-functional and functional. Functionality can be apprehended through the use-case situations. Architectural requirements, design, system, tolerance, fault, and performance should also be well-addressed.

6. Describe System Architecture

A respectable system engineer will guarantee that the appropriate architecture opts, keeping in mind the necessities, limitations, and restraints if any. Anti-patterns in the system and threat identification are the best practices that are very helpful.

7. Elevate Design

The design must be optimal and modular. Distributing and balancing functionality over modules can make your project a successful or unsuccessful one. Aim concerned approach is one such method that guarantees modularity. It is up to the designers to safeguard that the designated method is applied well so as to attain “maximum unity, minimal connection”. Code reusability is the much underutilized characteristic that can save a lot of cost in the long run.

8. Effective Code Application

Consuming smaller modules that are implicit, unit tested and uninterruptedly combined is a best practice that is used extensively. Mechanizing build tools and automatic running of regression test suites for each encompassed functionality is also recommended to guarantee that present functionality is not broken.

Article By:

Ray Parker is an entrepreneur and internet marketer with over 15 years of experience in Search Engine Optimization, Creative Writing and Digital Marketing with IQVIS. He has worked with several clients from all over the globe to offer his services in various domains with a proven track record of success.

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Well, more than a technical jargon it is an organization-driven term that stresses on improving the sales capacity and intensity of a workforce by allowing them technical aids or by putting them in technologically controlled conditions to perform their tasks or by allowing automated machines to assist them and increase their efficiency to work and deliver.

Here, however, we are talking more of the software tools (that increase working efficiency and empower processes) when we say technical aids and supporting infrastructure.

With SFA solutions increasingly moving from the on-premise facility to cloud-based Software as a Service and mobile platforms, the range and scope of its utility has also increased in delivering best-fitting solutions to different sizes and niches of businesses. And this market is expected to reach a $4.13 billion figure by 2018 with small and mid-sized businesses expansively becoming a part of the automation ecosphere.

With this advancement, SFA solutions are now able to cater to different value propositions of a sales facility – being able to be applied to different work processes and phases of sales to validate, accelerate and optimize the quality, time and savings in a work-establishment.

Here are the different ways in which SFA does it to help out organizations to get the most of their planning and efforts to improve efficiency and enhance customer experience:

Contact and Task Management

SFAs predominantly overlap with CRM solutions and allow businesses to extensively manage contacts. With SFAs you can sort and arrange your list of prospects and buyers. It can also help you segregate the leads into different categories (like qualified, soft and dropped or maybe hot and cold leads) based on pre-defined parameters. All your important tasks and meetings can be managed and reminded by smart schedulers and trackers.

Customer and Account Management

With SFA solutions you can efficiently and seamlessly manage your customers and accounts accessing the customer management module that is designed to address all customer related tasks, queries and issues. These could be related to entering customer data, generating order receipts, issuing support tickets, tracking and maintaining customer accounts, managing complaint numbers, enhancing customer experience, and sourcing and planning loyalty programs.

Document Management

SFA contributes to document management by allowing sales personnel to consistently draft, store, dispense, share and maintain documents and dynamically manage documents across the sales team and other departments. With well-deployed formats and patterns for different communication purposes, you are able to easily plan, draft and manage documents for sales and get relieved from conventional time-consuming practices of documentation. 

Performance Evaluation

From salesforce KRIs, growth index to target records and sales graphs – all are managed and maintained through a Sales Force Automation system involving automated performance evaluation parameters. This takes into consideration different value entities calls, emails, meetings, proposals, follow-ups, repeat clients, quality of leads and time-based sales results to measure and assess the sales team performance.

Sales Figures

SFA solutions allow you to update sales figures referring to different information updates from different sources. Further, the solution can be customized to work with different industry and business requirements – helping sales department and management to set monthly/quarterly/yearly targets and goals, define sales roles, create sales funnels, assign sales tasks matching and validating resource requirements, assess sales data and measure results.

Sales Force Automation solutions allow businesses to define and deploy automated sales tasks that contribute to a range of activities and handle operations that sales departments need to put up with. This plays an instrumental role in helping departments and organization at large to comply with and controls the dynamic and volatile nature of sales. Further, it extensively helps in optimizing the sales resources to operate and act towards different short-term and long-term goals. And this goes far in allowing organizations to improve efficiency and enhance customer experience. To get it right and nice you should look for top software development companies and achieve your mark of distinction.

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