The AndPlus Software Development Blog

The process of taking an idea for a new tool or feature, or a solution to an existing problem, and turning it into something people actually want to use, is not always simple or easy. It’s easy to make mistakes in planning. So we need prototyping to test ideas. The trouble with prototypes is that they involve a trade-off between how useful they are and how costly and time-consuming they are, which means that in the past they’d often be used to validate designs rather than invalidate and iterate on them.

End users don’t care much about the technologies we use or the methodologies we rely on for development. But they do care about their experiences. Everyone knows this, and when it’s time to market products and services, we remember. But when we’re designing solutions, whether they’re consumer-oriented or B2B, it’s often forgotten.

The Internet of Things (IoT) goes a long way beyond consumer-level technology like smart toasters and doorbells. It’s being adopted across manufacturing, warehousing, supply chains and logistics worldwide. Good results often follow: 80% of IoT projects achieve better-than-expected results, according to Gartner. The same survey found that the involvement of the CIO was crucial to the success of IoT projects, not surprisingly.

Some businesses are moving data from legacy systems to the cloud. Some are moving from on-site servers to other on-site servers, or between cloud implementations. It’s sometimes necessary to migrate data between applications, as business processes change and stacks change with them. One thing is certain: most businesses will do a data migration. When they do, it will be fraught with risks — both as it’s done, and afterward when you try to run your company on the results.

Cloud computing is rapidly becoming ubiquitous. The change is driven by a spread of unarguable advantages, ranging from speed through security to access and user experience. Underlying these benefits are the facts of cloud computing: remote hosting and as-a-service implementations of everything from software to infrastructure means you hire out tasks to experts, instead of trying to build an in-house team that can compete with Salesforce and Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

The hiring process for software engineers is complex and time-consuming. At the end of it, your company has a new hire with high salary expectations who might take several months to reach full productivity. You could spend many hours and thousands of dollars for each addition to your team, only to find they’re a bad fit — or even that they want to move roles again.