How to Minimize Software Development Cost

One of the typical questions when you look at the project briefing is how to minimize software development costs. Of course, there are many ways of doing it without sacrificing quality; however, don’t forget it is all about trade-offs. 

Collaborate With Software Experts

When we talk about reducing software development costs, outsourcing is one way to achieve this. Fortunately, you can find many exceptional development partners, such as Apiumhub, and you no longer have to worry about geographical or knowledge limitations. In addition, partnering with a software agency allows you to leverage a large pool of resources and save on many expenses, such as paid vacations and sick leaves, insurance, recruitment costs, budgets associated with onboarding and training, and more. At first sight, let’s say hourly, or monthly rates may seem expensive. Still, if you really choose experts, you start developing your project from the start, applying best practices, thinking about software architecture, infrastructure, etc. Note that it is highly important to provide detailed project scope and requirements before starting a collaboration.

Use Prebuilt Features

Analyze and identify which pre-built features you can use. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to pick everything off the shelf; you can simply consider this for features and add-ons that can be quickly and seamlessly integrated without having your development team write code from scratch. For example, a user management and access management solution can be built from scratch in 2 weeks, paying an hourly rate or integrated in one day with the VYou app paying for a yearly license, which is much cheaper; you can read more about it here. This can save time and reduce the overall cost of the project. Moreover, since the add-ons and prebuilt features are already tested for performance and functionality, they can help develop a comparatively affordable yet high-quality product.

Agile

Agile is an insurance policy for market changes. By designing your solution according to this methodology, your project remains flexible and is always ready for change. It is always better to correct the mistake early in the process. With this method, you keep your finger on the pulse of a dynamic market and changing user expectations. As a result, you can continuously adapt, change your strategy, and create a product that will be in demand by the target audience, even if preferences have changed during the development process.

DevOps

DevOps is one more way to optimize the development budget of your application. A key DevOps approach is that this practice and its culture allow team members to better interact with each other and the customer. The software development team and those responsible for the operation of the application share responsibilities clearly, and it helps you avoid shifting responsibilities from one team member to another. DevOps involves the intelligent consolidation of areas of responsibility. Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) are the main components of the DevOps strategy. According to this practice, each module created is gradually integrated into the business processes to assess its effectiveness and feedback. Thus, you can avoid a situation where the application created does not meet the goals and needs of your business.

Essential Features Only

It is essential to focus on a minimum viable product (MVP) – the first working prototype of your solution, which contains only key functions, vital ones for the business, to test it, receive feedback, and iterate.  

Semi-Custom Alternative

Custom software development costs can be high since developers will create each module and design each element from scratch. This is the best way to develop something outstanding or innovative; however, if your development budget is limited, it is necessary to look for other alternatives. Here, the main idea is to use existing functionality from other apps that are already proven to be working. For example, VYou app can be used as a user management system, but it can also be personalized, and you can still add features that are a must for you. 

TDD

Test-driven development, or TDD, is a process of iteratively writing tests for your code. Once these tests are in place, you can confidently develop your software, knowing that you are not accidentally breaking functionality. It may require more time at first, but it gives you this sense of confidence and security that you are not breaking the functionality; you are building working software. 

Right Tools Adoption

You can start with tools that will impact your day-to-day work. Common examples include platforms for managing projects, customer relationships, infrastructure, testing, payments, access management, etc. 

Automation

When building software, spend as much effort as possible to automate your processes. You don’t have to reinvent every wheel. Spend your time and money developing new features or improvements, not reinventing existing ones. Automation leads to greater productivity because it allows limited human resources to be focused more efficiently on specific tasks with higher payback. Besides, the only thing you have to consider is if a third-party company has already done a better job developing an automated solution for your needs or if you have enough time & money to build your solution from scratch.

I hope you found this helpful post!