Software companies are becoming more and more popular as a startup pursuit all the time. That means that you have to ensure your company really stands out. One of the best ways to do this is to review precisely how you go about making software – because a lot of these developers are making the same mistakes.
Make great software
Not a word I like to use very often, but… y’ know, duh. If you’re looking to stand out in this industry, then it’s pretty damn important that your software is good. It’s not enough for the software to sound cool to you or to fill a particular gap in your life – there really needs to be some kind of demand for it.
If your software isn’t actually going to sell, then you’re not going to recuperate your development costs. And those costs are probably not going to below.
So it’s time to step outside of the design and coding state of mind for a few moments and think about business. What common problem does your software solve? Who would be interested in your product? How much would people pay for it – and, given that information, how much can you afford to spend on development? Read up on the right business approach to software creation.
Nip technical debt in the bud
What exactly is technical debt? Essentially, it’s a concept in software development (perhaps, more specifically, programming) that describes the increased work that eventuates when developers, throughout the software development process, implement quick and easy fixes to problems that arise, instead of applying code that will take a longer time but would actually be the best solution.
Let’s say you’ve injured yourself exercising. You want to continue exercising, but you’re in pain. So you take some strong painkillers and continue exercising. Sure, the immediate problem went away, but the underlying injury is still around – and that’s going to come up a bite you even harder at some point, leaving you unable to exercise for a longer interval than the recovery interval you skipped with pain medication.
A “quick fix” is often used in development because there are so many factors that make a more in-depth solution take so long. You can resolve this by easing the build execution time with top DevOps tools, for example.
Quality control is essential
It was necessary to be detailed about technical debt problems because it’s one of the biggest roadblocks when it comes to the thing that should really matter: the overall quality of the product.
When issues aren’t fixed properly, it makes the in-depth quality control phase towards the end of the project more complex and difficult. Of course, this is better than not dealing with problems at all. And this is more common in software development than you think.
If your business doesn’t place a priority on quality control, then your product – and, thus, your business – is going to suffer. Glitches in your software are going to get you a bad reputation, whether your software is a game or an app.
(And a bad reputation is the last thing a startup needs.) Your development schedule needs to allow for frequent quality control phases – and your quality control team should not feel that the errors they highlight are just going to be dismissed due to time constraints.
