Software development outsourcing FAQ
The article is a part of Code Inspiration’s software development outsourcing Knowledge Base.
After being awarded as a top IT outsourcing company according to clutch.co number one in Belarus and number nine worldwide, we received a lot of incoming calls, emails and messages from potential clients. As one of the main services we provide to our clients is consultancy, we decided to make it public and to publish top 5 questions from real customers with answers and explanations to them and then to proceed with a second part of another top 5 questions next week. Feel free to send us your feedback and let us know if this kind of content is interesting for you!
- Is it possible to develop an application without server side? – In different forms and explanations, we are told “I want just a website or I want just an application, I do not need a server side to be developed”. Regarding the answer – the answer is “YES”, it is possible to do a simple app or web without server side if it is not necessary to store data. However, in case you need a login for users and need to save their credentials, if you have a profile page with photos, if you have to store any other information according to the logic of your software – the back-end part would be necessary to proceed. As for now practically all ideas require third party API integrations and necessity to store a lot of data and update information of the app, development of the server side in 97% of all requests would be needed.
- Some web development functionality can be implemented on the front end or on the back end. – You might be surprised, but it is also true. We had some cases when the logic was implemented 99% on the back end. Mostly those websites were informative and didn’t require protecting data. However, if simply – everything that needs to be protected should be done on the server side. The more complex the software is, especially if it is connected with sensitive information or financial transactions, it is of the highest importance to protect the software from hackers. However, if during the development your project manager explains to you that it is possible to do on the back end or on the front end some functionality – it might be absolutely possible and the answer is “YES”.
- When the software is released – the project is over. – This is a very popular myth among beginners. The truth is that the more successful your software is – the more development efforts it will require, the more users it has – the more development efforts would be needed for the maintenance. That is to say the answer to this question is “NO”. It is always important to understand that the first release is just the beginning of the long way.
- Every idea described in details can be easily estimated. – The answer is “NO” as IT development is something about specific details. In order to proceed with the estimation, it is not enough to understand well the idea, the number of screens, deadline for the release, number of users, complexity of the design and many many other factors will impact the estimation. There are 2 major approaches to start the project. The first one is: development of a detailed specification guide, which will contain screen mock-ups, per screen descriptions and overall description of the logic. After the specification guide is fully approved by the stakeholders – a PERT estimation is formed and according to the average scenario the budget and the calendar timeline for the project is calculated. The second approach is to concentrate on the timeline, scope of work and budget of the iteration, and go iteration by iteration. This approach requires constant participation of the whole team and is considered to be flexible.
- Is it possible to do a simple website within 1-2 days? – Yes, it is. Nowadays there are lots of constructor options which will provide you with a possibility to do a website even without tech knowledge. However, if you are looking to a unique website with custom design and custom development, for sure, it will require much more than two days to establish the structure, make the design beautiful and develop the website according to the approved design.
As it was mentioned in the beginning of the article, there would be a second part with popular questions. If you have a question to ask – do not hesitate, send it over, and we will publish the answer next week.
The article is a part of Code Inspiration’s software development outsourcing Knowledge Base.
