Software consultancy

Development process

You see the product start, grow, and change, rather than meeting it for the first time at a launch. At the end of a bespoke job you hold the intellectual property and the source, so maintenance is a choice you make rather than a bill you receive.

A prototype you can argue with

An early prototype, then incremental releases, with defects fixed as we go. The first release has some of the function, later releases add more, and it stops when it is finished enough to install and train on. People are far better at reacting to a working screen than at imagining one from a document, so we give them the screen early.

The steps

  1. Initial meeting, about an hour: how the business works, what has to change, and what is new
  2. Initial proposal: options, timescales, costs, and room for change. On a large project a functional specification comes next
  3. Design and development: a first release as soon as it is honest to show, then iterations. Larger jobs may invoice against delivered function
  4. Delivery: install, training, and support
  5. Sign-off when we have delivered what we promised
  6. Further development once it is in use, because a well-designed system should take the next idea without a fight
  7. Maintenance: a period of support is included, and ongoing arrangements are set out in the proposal

Intellectual property

At the end of a bespoke project we hand over the intellectual property in the deliverable, and the source. We hope you come back, and we would rather you came back because you chose to.