Our Process for Developing Customized Business Software

Contents

The Initial Discussion

Before you commission us to develop your new computer system we'd like to meet with you and discuss the information you'd like to see in your new system.  This gives us the opportunity to become acquainted and allows you to decide whether or not to engage us as your software professional.

Identifying the Data Entities

From our initial discussion we'll create a list of the basic data entities in your business that you want to record information about.  Once we've compiled this list we'll meet with you again to go over it together.  The purpose of this second meeting is to ensure we've covered everything and that we're using terminology that we both understand.

Identifying the Relationships

Once we've agreed on the terminology the next step is to identify the relationships that exist between the various data entities in your business.  This part of the process consists of a series of detailed questions designed to ensure we've correctly understood your business processes.  In particular we need to be confident we've fully grasped the complexity of these relationships.

Creating the Entity-Relationship Model

Having identified the data entities and the various relationships between them we'll create an entity-relationship model for your business.  This model is expressed in the form of an entity-relationship diagram.  This diagram becomes the fundamental blueprint on which your computer system will be built.

Because it's essential for you to get this entity-relationship model correct and because you may not appreciate its value we'll do it for you free of charge even if you don't plan to engage us on a professional basis.

There are two reasons we make such a generous offer.  The first reason is that we believe the neglect of entity-relationship modelling is one of the main reasons customized software has developed such an abysmal reputation and we aim to rectify this.

The second reason for our generosity is that to provide you with an accurate estimate of the time and cost to build your system we need this entity-relationship model.

Identifying the Screens and Reports

Only when the entity-relationship model has been completed are we in a position to identify the data entry screens and reports needed by your system.

(It's a sad fact that most computer programmers fall into the trap of designing data entry screens and reports before they have a comprehensive entity-relationship model to provide an accurate picture of the business.  This results in a lopsided database design and is the single biggest reason customized software has received such a bad name.  The fact that they don't bother to test each line of code comes a close second!)

Estimating the Time and Cost

This list of screens and reports combined with our significant development experience allows us to accurately estimate the total work required.  The cost of developing your new system is based on the total time at our standard hourly rate.  For a general idea of what it's likely to cost please see our pricing guide.

(Because we include the total time taken to build and implement a reliable solution most of our potential clients look for a cheaper option.  Instead of a computer system that's simple, reliable and tailored as an exact fit to their business they prefer one that's overly complex, has bugs or never quite does what they want!)

Building the Software

We prefer to build and implement software in small steps rather than as one large project.  At each step you get to use the software and provide us with the feedback we need to stay on target.  This approach eliminates the risk of an expensive failure and guarantees an end result that provides you with complete satisfaction.

Our role is to help you build your own software with the benefit of our experience to ensure your success!

Installing the Software

The software we build can be installed from either a CD or a website.  Please see our download page for some examples.