The AndPlus Software Development Blog

There’s nothing more damaging to a medical company than to spend months developing new features only to have them become obsolete by the time they’re delivered.

Medical companies that use traditional waterfall development processes often see their projects go months over their deadlines, with budgets doubling or even tripling. Often when projects are finally delivered, their intended users no longer need those features or functions. These repeated failures make it nearly impossible to keep getting funds or buy-in from the staff or executives for future projects.

But software development doesn’t have to be a long and expensive process. By moving to an agile software development process, medical companies can more quickly and cost-effectively create software that meets their users’ needs.

Dave Nevogt is a co-founder of Hubstaff, a leading time tracking platform for managing remote teams. We recently asked Dave about Hubstaff and the challenges of launching a software startup today.

Agile or waterfall? 

What is the best way to develop custom software? Agile is like the cool new kid in school. All the popular start-ups are doing it. Definitely very “lean.” But why?

Agile is easier and has less risk than other software development methods. How? It is collaborative. It is “plain English,” not techie speak. It is transparent and removes “the black box” from software development. Agile provides value quickly. And it is very flexible. 

Agile software development is a flexible framework, that is implemented through a set of methods and practices.

What steps should you be taking to ensure your agile software project is a success? 

In this post, we share the 6 step methodology that we use at AndPlus to implement the Agile software approach.

Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, a content marketing and social media firm. She's written three business books, and blogs about small business on sites including Forbes, AllBusiness, and The Marketing Eggspert Blog.

In the software and IT world, you hear a lot about the miraculous cures of the Agile process. It's the fix for projects that get off the rails. It's the solution for long-winded meetings that accomplish nothing. But Agile is the next thing since sliced bread...only if it works.