Today’s guest author is Sara Dillard, Director of Communications at Inverse-Square. She works on creating marketing messages as well as managing the “Team Awesome” brand.  You can follow her on twitter at @mssaradillard.

Contracting a software development company to build a custom web application to support your business processes may seem daunting, but with the extensive knowledge and experience of the custom software developers at Inverse-Square, we can make sure that the engagement is as smooth and stress free as possible.

The following steps give a high level view of what you can expect during a typical custom software engagement.

Step 1: Presentation 

We begin our relationship with a few meetings to get to know you, to understand what you need, to explain what we can offer you, and then finally to demonstrate how we can work together. Integrity and transparency are our core values and we promise that there will never be any funny business.

The first meeting is generally a, ‘are we a good fit‘ kind of meeting. In our second, we will delve deeper into the challenges your organization are facing. And at the third meeting, we will present you with a plan of how we will overcome your challenges and increase your process efficiency with process automation.

Step 2: Assessment

If your problem is especially intricate, it may require that we go through a brief assessment period to thoroughly understand all of the details involved. This usually takes two to three days but is not required for everyone.

Step 3: Design

The design phase is when we create the custom software blue print. Expect a number of meetings, phone calls, and emails during this step as we will need a lot of information from you. The design generally makes up between10% and 20% of the project. During this step, we build wireframes and hash out functional requirements. At this point everyone involved with the project will be clear as to what’s being built and why.

Step 4: Build

Things begin to come to life during the build stage. The Developers start to develop, our Business Analysts will continue to clarify and demonstrate progress, and you will be kept up to date with weekly project reports.

Step 5: Acceptance

Along the way and when the application has been completed, you will have the opportunity to accept (or reject) the work that is being presented to you. Once you have accepted it, your warranty period will begin.

Step 6: Warranty and Upgrades

We encourage our clients to consider engaging in an enhancement plan to keep their application up to pace with their needs. Enhancements are items that can be seen as a lack in functionality that escalate in priority until the items are worth building, and will also ensure that your application keeps pace with new technology.

For a more in-depth look at a custom software development life cycle, sign up today for our free tutorial that will walk you through the process from the beginning brainstorming sessions, through to the build, the implementation, and finally to installation and beyond!

The Custom Software Guide   

Inverse-Square is a custom software development shop based in Indianapolis. We build software that makes business processes easier.