With technology so widespread these days, more and more software businesses are starting up all the time. To make it in this industry, you need to put a focus on quality and efficiency. Here’s how you do just that.
The right hiring choices
If you want expertise and efficiency, you’re not going to get it by hiring programmers who are fresh off of their computer science course. While it’s important to give recent graduates a chance in the industry, I can tell you from experience that many development studios take it too far. They do this not because they want to help graduates, but because it’s a lot cheaper to hire graduates than it is to hire programmers with even a couple of years of hard experience under their belt. But this can result in a low of slowdown during development.
Detailed development documents
Design and development documents are just there to outline a rough vision at the beginning of the project. They need to be updated throughout production – and the rules and guidelines set forth should be adhered to. If they’re not, then the documents mean very little, which increases the amount of time you all have to spend talking to each other to clear up inconsistencies.
Development standards
Programmers working on the same project may not necessarily go about writing the code in the same way. Indeed, the codebase of your average software project looks like a poorly patched quilt! This isn’t to say that the end product will necessarily be affected. But programmers will often have to jump into each other’s code to investigate issues. And if they’re having a hard time reading one another’s coding quirks, then it slows everything down! Work with them to implement standards of syntax.
Project management assistance
You can get free solutions like Trello that will help massively with the management of your project. And you’re definitely going to need this sort of help! With everyone working on different areas of the same project, wires can sometimes become crossed. If one person hasn’t completed a task correctly, then someone else’s task may be blocked completely even if the two didn’t seem too closely related! Software development is a complex business. Everyone needs to have access to the same project management overlook.
Powerful testing software
There are two ways you can go about testing. The “old way” was to finish the product and then submit it for thorough testing. This is nowhere as efficient as it may sound. The best way to go about it is to test thoroughly throughout development. This is something the developers will need to get involved in to some extent, too. Working with Jira test management software can make the entire process a lot more streamlined.
Fewer meetings
Meetings are a timesink. The developers work best when they’re able to sit there for hours and get into “the zone”. The same goes for pretty much everyone in the process, but it’s especially true for programmers. When you pull everyone into meetings, it really disrupts the flow of everything. A meeting at the beginning of the week every two or three weeks should suffice. If you need daily catch-ups, then super-early standups at the way to go.
