Project Management

Modern businesses frequently find they need new software to remain competitive, especially in crowded markets driven by rapidly advancing technology. The decision to implement software often comes down to a choice between custom and commercial-off-the-shelf software. Custom software has a higher up-front cost, but its maintenance costs are often lower since it probably won’t require as many changes going forward. Organizations making this decision must also consider the longer implementation time of custom software.

Continuous delivery is a software development practice that offers a wide range of benefits, from faster times to market to lower costs to higher quality products. However, continuous delivery is also a practice that entails a number of hurdles that must be overcome. To help you overcome these hurdles in order to enjoy the many benefits offered by the continuous delivery approach, we'll cover everything you need to know about continuous delivery, including what it is, how it works, and the important pros and cons to consider before you decide if continuous delivery is the right approach for your next software development project. 

Modern software development is usually a complex process involving many team members with a variety of skill sets besides the ability to write code. This team’s structure is therefore a key component in a development project’s long-term success. There is no one-size-fits-all structure that works for all projects, but assembling an effective team usually involves more than simply finding a group of experienced developers.

As with any type of debt, technical debt happens when you borrow from the future for today. You select a solution that will be fast and easy to develop — a solution that will get you past your major hurdles. But you know that the solution won’t be as elegant or well-optimized as it could be, and you know that it will make development more complicated later on.

The project manager role has taken on a greater amount of prominence in the past decade. This is true across numerous industries, including the software development industry. Still, there is plenty of confusion about what a project manager does, as well as about what project management is—and isn’t.

On average, three out of ten IT projects fail among companies that aren’t in the top 25% of technology producers (1). Of those projects that succeed, more than half of them eventually cost almost 200% of their original estimates (2). The IT sector is booming and IT projects are plentiful, yet as many as a third of these projects are put to rest before they are ever completed.

You’ve finally settled on the right software developer and it’s time to set up a contract. You don’t want a pricing model that will force you to renegotiate late, so you want to get it right the first time. Let’s break down two popular software project pricing models to help you make an informed decision.