Custom software, built with a process
What gets made is not the same program for everyone: every project is custom. What repeats is the way it is made. As in a well-organized workshop, every job goes through the same stations, with the same tools and with someone checking the result before it moves on to the next one.
You notice the difference in three things: the price can be fixed because the path is known, deadlines are met because the components have been used before, and the software that comes out can be maintained because everything is built the same way.
How it works on the inside
- The problem comes in: what makes you lose hours, who suffers it and what you would like to happen. Nobody talks about technology yet.
- It is broken down into pieces: everything the software has to do is a named feature, and each feature has its own price.
- It is built from proven components: signing in, permissions, connections to the ERP or to email, alerts. Only what is specific to you is custom-built.
- It is tested and delivered in phases: a real delivery every few weeks, which you can use and check.
- It goes live and is maintained: hosting, backups, monitoring and changes, so the software keeps working long after it was delivered.
Software factory or developers by the hour
The term has sometimes been used for companies that hire out developers by the hour to other companies. It is not the same thing: there, what you buy is time, and the result depends on who you get and on how you direct the work yourself.
- What you buy: from a factory, a result that works; with developers by the hour, working time.
- Who takes the risk: with a factory, the provider, if the price is fixed; by the hour, you do.
- Who directs the work: in a factory, the process is theirs and you decide what gets built; by the hour, you have to direct it yourself.
- What you are left with: from a factory, documented and maintained software; by the hour, it depends on who built it.
When a software factory suits you
- When you have a clear problem and no off-the-shelf program solves it the way you work.
- When you want to know the price before you start, not an estimate of hours.
- When you have no in-house technical team that could direct developers.
- When the software has to be maintained for years, not just delivered.