How do You Make a Million Dollars in the Software Game?
DollarsAnswer: Start with a Billion Dollars. This is an old joke that I use on my brother-in-law from time to time, except it has a farming slant to it. The message really is this: without some careful planning, software development - especially custom projects where the goals are not clearly defined - can quickly get out of hand and out of budget. RAD (Rapid Application Development) quickly becomes SAD (Slow Application Development).

Software development is an exacting and labour intensive task. There are lots of modern tools that help with rapid development of applications - such as SnappMX ,  but the basic premise is the same; computers only do what the programmers tell it to do.

So how does a manager keep a development project on-budget? Or, as a liaison in charge of software project for your company, how do you keep the development contractor on schedule? We're in the midst of developing our third major Rich Internet Application (RIA) for one of the largest insurance agencies in Canada. Here are some tips that have been keeping our project on track:

  • Understand the user requirements before writing code.
  • Engineer the system architecture to accommodate expansion.
  • Lock the application's primary feature set.  Have a mechanism to deal with shifting user demands, such as a "Phase 2" requirements list.
  • Break the project into deliverable modules and develop a schedule to deploy them.
  • Involve users in the testing process; it cuts down on application training later on.
  • Finish a module before moving to another one. A finished module is one that is completely tested,  debugged, and deployed to the user's satisfaction.
  • Keep users and the development team interested by raising the project's profile. For example, we held a contest to name the application and gave away a MP3 player.

Most development projects can be a win-win situation for both the developer and the users with a little common-sense planning. If you want more information about sensible software development, drop me a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .