Tech rates and Development Methodologies

When you employ the services of a software development company, what you want from that company is its knowledge, expertise, and an innovative and efficient solution. Clients are often accustomed to scoping out an entire solution, and expect an accurate quote for the project, known as the Waterfall Approach.This method is not the best way to cost and approach projects, especially on large bespoke projects. What should be used to determine this is The Agile Approach.. 

Here we discuss the factors to consider when selecting a service provider, and the advantages of The Agile Approach:

Factors to consider when selecting a service provider:

Partner with a reputable company with a reputable team, but do your due diligence and take note of the following points:

• The Methodology the company utilises:
  • Agile Approach – preferable, delivers better results, and more accurate in terms of costings and resource allocation)
  • Waterfall Approach 
• Regardless of the approach used,if the planning is not done correctly you could potentially end up with scope creep, resulting in higher project costs which may damage your relationship with the service provider, and incur additional charges. Establish the make-up and skill set of the team assigned to your project.
  • This is vital when comparing the company hourly rates against one another as teams may vary significantly in terms of the level of developers assigned to the project, thus, a cheaper hourly rate can result in a longer and more expensive end product.
• Ensure you know exactly what services you are getting for the hourly rate and what guarantees are provided relating to bug fixes and ongoing support.
• Is the software development company you are partnering with tracking their time honestly and providing accurate and comprehensive timesheets of the hours spent?
  • Vital to ensure the hourly rate is the actual cost you are paying for the services.
• What are the project management costs and have they been catered for in your cost estimates? There may be administrative tasks associated with the project which could amount to a few hours each day/week.

Service Provider Pitfalls: 

• Service providers may feel that there is no incentive to work efficiently but rather to stretch out the job because the longer the project takes, the more the service provider will earn.
  • At R and R Tech we provide you with access to our sprints, deadlines and development cycles to provide you with a transparent experience.

The Agile vs. Waterfall Approach, and why we use the Agile Approach:

• The Agile Approach focuses on determining your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in order to develop the concept in the shortest time period, while ensuring resources/capital is not wasted on unvalidated assumptions/functionality.
  • When using the Agile approach we can get your solution to market in a shorter time period, thus enabling revenue to be generated to cover the cost of development.
  • When using the Agile Approach, assumptions and functionality built are tested and validated on an ongoing basis to ensure the correct validated solution is built.
    • Capital savings 
    • Validated end solution 
• Significantly cheaper analysis costs 
  • When using the Agile approach we do not need to wireframe and pre-build your entire solution on paper in order to determine a cost.
    • If the above is not done, accurate costing cannot be determined. Generally high estimates are provided by service providers in order to ensure projects will be profitable, however often these estimates are inaccurate and additional expenditure is required.
• Better Financial Planning and Transparency
  • When using the Agile Approach we ask our clients to put forward a sustainable monthly budget as well as indicate a total budget for the project. We then use this to assign time to the project and deliver the MVP for the least amount possible.
    • We only bill for actual hours utilised. 
    • Progress can be tracked continuously to validate the monthly payments for the development of the solution.
• When using the Waterfall approach the end result is generally an unvalidated solution that then needs to be altered, and in most cases estimates provided are generally not sufficient.
  • Additional costs 
  • Delayed launches
  • No capital generation for lengthy periods of time

At R&R Tech we feel that clients look at an hour/hourly rate and they see it as a unit of measurement. We feel this is a mistake in most cases as we invest in top quality, experienced and vetted resources, thus in turn we provide far more in an hour than most businesses would.

We are also transparent in tracking our time. We use time tracking software, while we develop our own in-house developed time-tracking tool, All Hour Time, and provide accurate and comprehensive timesheets of the hours spent.

The Benefits of using Service Provider is that they

• Take on the risk that they will produce a value-add deliverable timeously within the forecasted project costs limit.  
• Are encouraged to assign topnotch, experienced developers to the project to ensure that they produce a topclass solution within the project budget. 
• Are incentivised to stay abreast of the latest technology and software tools which they can use so that they can become more efficient in their job. 
• Can concentrate on producing a quality value-add deliverable, if they don’t have to worry about going over the budget as their creativity and work excellence is not stifled by time-keeping.

To measure value, before selecting a software development company, you should consider all the above factors and ensure that the company addresses all these points and that you ask innumerable pertinent questions and request proof for the provided answer.

Value-based billing is about what a software development company has to offer, its knowledge and expertise and whether it can deliver an innovative and efficient solution to meet your business needs. For, in the words of Albert Einstein “The only source of knowledge is experience.” 

Contact us at R&R Tech if you require any software solution. We are an ethical, professional and experienced  software development company: https://randrtechsa.co.za/

Click here to read our previous article: Software Development https://blog.randrtechsa.co.za/choosing-the-right-tech-solutions-for-your-business/
For a professional customised software solutions, contact us at: greetings@randrtechsa.co.za