In this article, we want to highlight some ideas on how to approach the development phase to significantly reduce costs without compromising the quality of your future product. How to reduce software development costs? The first step is to start by developing a plan.
The development of software can be challenging. Whether you want to create a commercial off-the-shelf software or a custom software solution, it can be a huge problem and quite costly if you don’t know how to do it right. In this article, we want to highlight some ideas on how to approach the development phase to significantly reduce costs without compromising the quality of your future product. How to reduce software development costs?
Start by developing a plan
Planning everything (from finding an idea to creating and testing the final product) is the only thing that will lead you to savings. An enterprise that achieves its goals with a solid plan or structure (including reductions in resources and shares) saves additional or recurring costs. It’s because you know how much each stage of work software development costs.
Read more: Excellent Software Requirement Specification (SRS) Guide
Outsourcing will do. What do you need to know about software development cost
This option has proven itself in the field of software development. But there are several important points to consider. First, it is better to look for a partner company in countries with more or less similar mentality and business ethics. This simplifies communication greatly.
The second point is that you should save within reasonable limits. If you look for a developmental team based on the criterion of the lowest price, then it’s better not to expect a too good result. It’s better to use the principle of the golden mean – not too expensive, but not too cheap.
The difference between the work of an expensive and an average team will often be imperceptible. But the fact is that the difference between an average and a cheap one is likely to be very vivid.
It often happens that the team underestimates the time required to implement all the functionality. Sometimes this can happen due to a lack of experience. It can also be an attempt to deceive the customer.
When the project is already more than half ready, it turns out that there is a sore lack of time to complete it, and that’s when additional costs appear… So, avoid companies that charge incredibly low prices.
Read more about Software Development Outsourcing
Use Agile
Agile is another tool that can help you save your money. Agile is all about dividing your huge project into a series of small tasks (usually called user stories) and prioritizing them.
Prioritization is very important, in fact, it is the most important thing in Agile. It’s essential to make sure that the team is focused on one sprint or the most important result at the moment. This will ensure that you achieve your business goals. This way your team will not get lost in the stream of requests and requirements and will know that every subtask they are working on at the moment is important for the progress of the entire project. User stories are delivered either continuously or in small cycles called sprints.
Develop MVP
MVP is a Minimum Viable Product. This is, relatively speaking, a primary solution that already satisfies some needs of the client or covers some pain. Developing a product in its “perfect form” is expensive. In addition, you cannot be sure that this is exactly what the client wants. Creating an MVP allows you to reduce risks and start getting feedback from the customer faster.
Find a balance between quality and ease of creating an MVP. Determine what the minimum feature set can be included in the product. What can be discarded in the early stages? What exactly should it be? After that, move on to creating an MVP creation plan.
Read more: What is MVP?
Consider cross-platform development
Pros of cross-platform development technology are the following:
- Fewer resources are required to implement an application for several platforms at once.
- Less development time.
- Simplified product update cycle.
With the help of cross-platform development, it’s easier to reduce costs.
Consider requirements
Knowing the requirements for future projects is one thing, but there is frequently the need to do more tasks than was primarily expected. Therefore, documenting all the resources, finances, and manpower required for a particular project is an important task.
You can ask for help from programmers and engineers to learn about all the intricacies of work. Communication with them will facilitate the fulfillment of all requirements without any misunderstandings and additional software development costs.
Communicate with a team
In addition to setting requirements, make sure you keep in touch with the dedicated software development team. There are many technical challenges as well as tools that need constant monitoring. Therefore, to avoid misunderstanding and errors, stay in touch with each member of the team, including developers and engineers, to know the status of a specific project.
Remember about testing
Testing is identifying bugs in software after development is complete. It can cost a pretty penny due to the additional costs of resources and labor if it is carried out again after the release of the product. Therefore, it is better to make sure that consistent testing occurs at all stages. This will make your workflow easier and faster. It will also reduce costs and avoid delays.
