Software Design | New York

Custom Software | a Reappraisal

More often then not a company will consider upgrading, migrating, or replacing old software as an absolute last resort, and going with custom software development is usually over looked in favor of an overpriced, under featured off the shelf software product. Why ? The answer is fairly simple. Over time we become adverse to change. The same innovation that put you ahead of the curve 10 years ago can easily be replaced with the complacent sense of “if it isn’t broken don’t mess with it”. In some organizations this an acceptable practice. Who wants to change a recipe that works ? However, in our technology driven world this is the exception not the rule. As we settle into a routine it becomes very easy to get “stuck”, and as the moss builds up it becomes ever easier for the present to pass you by.

Using Software Development to Get Unstuck

Software in its purest incarnation is utility. Software Development in its purest incarnation is problem solving. When you marry utility together with problem solving you can uncover some serious potential for Getting Yourself Unstuck !

What do I mean by getting Unstuck ?

When you stand very close to a work of art it can be difficult to see the whole piece. When you fall in to the groove of repetition it can be difficult to be present of waste. When you find routine and convenience are overwhelming innovation it can be difficult to accurately take stock of your strengths and weaknesses. The process of sitting down with un-biased observer and developing software can be more powerful then the software alone will ever be. The act itself is a opportunity to start fresh and think about, why your doing what your doing, and how you go about doing it. This is a spa treatment for your business, equivalent to massaging the mental knots that develop around the routine. Even if the following issues are not directly addressed by the final software, the simple act of bringing them into the light is a therapeutic and productive undertaking. Remember that you can’t fix problems that you are not aware of, so rooting them out is half the problem.

Business Software Design

The reward is in the process. The process is something that wouldn’t occur in the normal grind of a day to day operation and as such it is a unique event. Because of this it can present an area of great potential to your company to Get Unstuck.

The first step in designing custom software for a business is looking at whats currently in place and figuring out how it got to that state. It is important to remember that the history and past planning is often just as important as the current environment. Once you understand the environment you can move onto working on developing solutions and improvements.

Rooting Out Weaknesses

Finding the weakness in a work chain and turning it around to a strength can offer a serious return on investment. My experience is that the law of “Rate limiting Factors” applies to most companies. A real world example of what this law says – in layman’s terms – is that you can have the fastest car in the world, yet if your stuck in a one lane road behind and old lady going five miles an hour your only going to be able to go 5 miles an hour. This is the case with many companies and because the management and staff are often so focused on running the business, they are often unable to address the issue or simply unaware of it. Identifying and releasing this congestion from your workflow can allow for massive productivity increases with minimal investment.

Capitalizing On Strengths

Lets not get bogged down by the negative stuff. One of my favorite avenues to pursue when developing customized software for a company is appraising what the strengths of the organization are. From here it is always a fun process of figuring out how to capitalize them to improve other areas, and possibly even find ways of making them better. While this may not offer the prodigious productivity increases that weeding out rate limiting steps will, it is often in this vein that we can identify, analyze, and deduce the solutions that will fix the previous.

Avoid the Blame Game

Pointing fingers does not produce good software. On the contrary once people feel the blame game coming they close up and start withholding information. Following this, the software development will quickly become a fruitless undertaking. In fact, this is very often the problem that leads to the accumulation of unresolved problems at a company. Instead of putting aside blame and addressing an issue people side step, displace blame, and sweep issues under the rug to avoid perceived fault. At the very beginning of a Software Development Engagement it must be made clear that no one is to be held accountable for past problems and instead we are focusing on how to improve the company NOW !. Obviously if you uncover something serious it must be addressed, however, if you are hiring quality staff people generally do what they can at the time and should not be penalized in hindsight as this will not resolve the underlying issue.

Is Custom Software Right for You ?

You don’t have be a fortune 500 company to develop high functionality customized software for your business. We offer affordable rates, world class service, state of the solutions and the insight to take your company to the next level.

Contact Us Today for A Free Consultation

David Wetherell
NYC-Software Solutions
consult@nyc-software.com