North America accounts for over 40 percent of the global information technology (IT) market. The United States alone has over 525,000 software and IT services companies. That number is growing rapidly, with more than 40,000 tech startups established in 2018 alone.
As IT becomes more indispensable in business and other areas of our everyday lives, opportunities for IT and software development companies will continue to increase. But that doesn’t mean that attaining and maintaining your market share as an IT company is a walk in the park.
Competition is incredibly stiff, and you need to find ways to stay ahead. One of the best ways to do so is to reduce time-to-market when it comes to the software development process.
In today’s post, we outline six actionable tips on how to develop software faster. But first,
What Factors Influence Software Development Speed?
The best way to cut the amount of time between software development stages is by first understanding factors that determine the speed of software development. Here are three of them.
The Complexity of the Development Process
As a small business software developer, there are certain complexities you’ll need to overcome during the development process. These complexities are associated with the technical side of your project. For instance, the software architecture might be very sophisticated.
Other complexities include unreasonable deadlines, unclear project requirements, and structural mismatches.
Sometimes, your team has to tackle more than one complexity at a time. This slows down the development process even more.
Code Quality
A top-quality software code takes time to write. You must choose whether to do it well or do it fast. However, you must still stick to tight deadlines to remain competitive.
You may have to cut corners, but don’t compromise the overall quality of the code. If you do, you’ll make errors that need to be fixed before the software reaches the consumer. Doing so takes more time and money.
Your Team
The size of your team plays a huge role in determining how quickly you can develop software. The ideal team size is five people. If you work with a larger team, the efficiency of internal communication may be compromised, which could slow down the development process.
Where you’re involved in a large project that requires a big team, consider breaking down the team into smaller groups. Each group can then tackle a specific component of the larger project.
Accelerating Software Development Process
There are many ways you can speed up your software development process without compromising quality or wearing your developers out. Here are six of them.
1. Expand Your Development Team
Does the deadline of the project match its scope? If not, then a good solution is to increase resources. More developers will be able to tackle more code faster.
Consider hiring remote software developers to boost your in-house team. Outsourcing some of your software development tasks allows you access to a global pool of talent. Besides, it’s generally more cost-effective compared to hiring a full-time software engineer.
Remember to break down the project into smaller, more manageable chunks that you then assign to your developers. Doing so helps your developers to accomplish their goals faster, which accelerates the overall software development process.
2. Set a Clear Roadmap
You can only achieve faster and better results if you plan each step of the way well. Communicate to your development team what the requirements and goals of the project are. This way, everyone knows precisely what they should do and when they should do it.
Sure, your team will still encounter some challenges along the way, but these challenges will hardly be big enough to require rewriting the code.
3. Limit Work in Progress (WIP)
A common reason for software development processes taking more time is by having too much work in progress. Having your team handle numerous tasks simultaneously can be overwhelming for your developers.
Multitasking will also hamper efficiency, which doesn’t help you meet deadlines. One of the best tools for managing software development projects is a kanban board. Specify how many tasks need to be done at a time on the board’s columns, and make sure this number isn’t exceeded.
4. Focus on What Really Matters
Top developers have perfected the art of the lean approach. That means they optimize software development resources and time, reduce waste, and concentrate on what the software really needs.
If you want to move fast, build your product in considerably small increments. Try to get user feedback throughout the development process, making adjustments where necessary.
5. Automate Where You Can
While it’s hardly possible to automate the entire software development project, there are certain tasks you can. For instance, you can automate software testing by visiting https://www.qualitylogic.com/.
Automated testing helps you strike a balance between quality and speed. As a result of the repeating scripts, you can run software tests regressively without needing to repeat the steps manually. That frees up your team to focus on new features as the others are undergoing automatic testing.
6. Steer Clear of Technical Debt
Some developers consciously opt to develop software that’s not so great so as to spend less time in the development process. When done strategically, this isn’t necessarily bad. The idea should be to make up for any shortcomings your product has later.
But if you’re developing an average solution for the sake of speeding up your project, you may end up spending more time in the long run. The problems you’re overlooking may get worse by the time you’re completing your process, which then requires spending more time to address them. That’s why it’s best to write the proper code right from the beginning.
You Can Develop Software Faster
Sped is a critical factor when it comes to software development. That’s because the IT industry is highly competitive, and you need to be agile to thrive. The tips we’ve shared in this guide can help you complete your software development projects before deadlines and avoid budget overruns.
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