2023 – Lets face it! Apart from the turbulence in the world, a lot has also happened in the software/technology sector in the past year. Large and small projects have succeeded or failed mercilessly. But since you are reading this guide, you could learn from the mistakes of your predecessors. By being here and following this software development project guide you are already well on your way to successful IT project completion. Whether you’re the founder of a startup or the CTO of a company leading the next software project, take inspiration from some of these tips and give your tech project the right boost!
Developing Expertise
First of all it is very important to have the right tech expertise on board. In order to satisfy your clients needs properly, you need to understand not only what your client wants but what he needs.
To determine this correctly, of course, a precise understanding of the technologies involved is elementary. This includes the choice of the right resource-saving developer languages, the most efficient and practical tools and, above all, the correct planning of all other tech and software aspects.
Are you yourself a capable CTO or have professionals in your team then you are good at this point. If not, you definitely need access to high-quality sources. You can get this, for example, from a professional software development company. Either you work closely with them, such as sourcing embedded developers or using consulting services.
Outsourcing as an opportunity
Although you may not know it at the beginning, outsourcing is the most sensible approach to get professional advice and take over various technical aspects of your project. In any case, ensure technical expertise to avoid potential mistakes in the various stages of your software development.
By outsourcing, you can increase the capacity of your IT infrastructure and achieve a high level of user satisfaction. This, in turn, will increase investor attention and provide you with ongoing positive feedback. And if you are concerned about how to hire developers for your startup, you should know that the process is more straightforward than most founders think. Especially with a competent partner by your side.
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Manage your tech project the right way
Your project management style should fit your business goals and the way your project team works. Hiring or learning a good project manager is an essential part of this process.
The main point here is that good project management not only ensures that your project aligns with your company’s strategic goals or project requirements, but also establishes a clear and focused process for accomplishing those goals. Further, it sets realistic and achievable goals for each phase of the project, holds all team members accountable for their role in the process, and ensures that all steps are completed correctly and on time.
Let us show you a short overview over the most relevant project management types of 2023
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3 Project Management Styles to choose
Lean Project Management
The aim of a lean project management approach is to increase effectiveness throughout the entire process.
Project managers must first determine what represents value to the customer. In the next step, they must determine the project’s value stream – the sum of everything needed to complete the project. This includes all required actions and eliminating any operations or processes that do not add value. This evaluation process is ongoing and allows for client feedback and continuous improvement.
The point here is really to keep the bureaucratic project planning effort to a minimum. Cut the waste and think lean!
Agile Project Management
In the agile project management method, the focus is on continuous releases and the incorporation of customer feedback into each iteration.
Software teams with agile project management methods develop faster, collaborate more effectively and can respond better to market trends.
Agile management could also be seen as an umbrella term for other types of project management. The following is one of the most prominent representatives of agile project management.
Scrum Project Management
Scrum is a framework for agile project management in which tasks are distributed over iterations of a fixed length – so-called sprints.
The starting point is the backlog, i.e. the sum of the tasks to be completed. In Scrum, there are two backlogs: the first is the product backlog, for which the product owner is responsible. This is a prioritized list of features. The other is the sprint backlog, into which issues from the upper area of the product backlog are transferred until the capacity for the next sprint is exhausted. Scrum team members have distinct roles that relate to their part in the process. There is usually a Scrum Master, who is the most proficient in the Scrum method of all team members. In addition, there is a member which takes the role of the Product Owner, who represents the product or the interests of the potential buyers, and finally the Scrum Team, which often consists of members from different functional areas and is responsible for the actual work.
4 Scrum Ceremonies to rule them all
Sprint scheduling
Planning meeting of a team to determine the tasks to be completed in the upcoming sprint
Sprint Demo
Meeting where the team presents to each other what was delivered in the recent sprint.
Daily Meeting of 15 Minutes
15-minute short meeting, also known as a stand-up meeting, in which the software team coordinates with each other
Retrospective
Time to look back on the finished work the team has done. Review of what went well, what didn’t and what should be improved in the next sprint
Visualize your progressÂ
The Scrum-Board
A Scrum Board is used to visually represent all tasks in a given Sprint. At the sprint planning meeting, the team works its way from the product backlog to the sprint backlog. In Scrum Board, the workflow can be divided into several steps like To Do, In Progress and Done. Scrum Boards are the most important factor for high transparency in Agile project management.
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Data Protection & Cybersecurity for your software project
Cybersecurity
Are you on the each of building the next big trading platform for nfts. Do you plan to develop a lean crypto wallet? Whatever it is, your project needs to be secured on the highest level possible.
It is important to recognize that risks can only be managed if they are identified in advance.
Cloud Security
What is Cloud computing? It is the delivery of hosted services, including software and storage, over the Internet. The advantages of rapid deployment, flexibility, low upfront costs, and scalability have made cloud computing virtually universal for organizations of all sizes, often as part of a hybrid/multi-cloud infrastructure architecture.
Cloud security refers to the technologies, policies, controls and services that protect cloud data, applications and infrastructure from third-party threats.
This very complex point would fill its own blog article, so feel free to contact us for further questions.
Data Protection
Data protection is about protecting important information from damage, compromise or loss.
The importance of data protection is increasing as the amount of data created and stored is growing at an unprecedented rate. There is also little tolerance for downtime, which can make it impossible to access important information.
Consequently, a big part of a data protection strategy is ensuring that data can be recovered quickly after it is damaged or lost. Protecting data from compromise and ensuring privacy are other key components of data protection.
The coronavirus outbreak for instance led to millions of employees working remotely, resulting in the need for remote data protection. Companies need to be prepared to protect their data wherever their employees are – from a central data center in the office to laptops at home.
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Leading UI/UX Design for your engineering project
User-friendly design is, of course, the non plus ultra of today’s product development.
All project efforts should always be made in accordance with a certain user-friendliness. These insights are not particularly new, certainly. But we are concerned with applying them to current opportunities to catch trends before they arise.
Mobile optimization and responsive design is something everyone has probably heard of. So let’s dig a little bit deeper and focus on the latest developments in this industry.
5 UI/UX Design Trends of 2023
Lottie Animation Design
Let’s animate it in order to make it more interesting! But what is a “Lottie Animation”?
A Lottie is an animation based on JSON. It’s designed to help designers quickly serve any type of platform. One of the biggest benefits of lottie animations is that the files are smaller than GIFs and PNGs. And yet they have a higher graphic quality.
Lottiefiles is becoming a leading platform for Lottie animation files
You might look at a startup that focuses on these scalable animations, to see what can be accomplished with this new way of implementing design.
Dark Mode (Dark UI Design)
First of all, dark design should not be understood as a simple replacement of light design or colorful design with black design or simple with the color black.
It could best be described as a “low-light” theme. One of the main concerns with dark user interfaces is to achieve sufficient contrast so that visual elements are separated and text is readable. Most designers would think that using black is ideal to achieve strong contrast. However, it is better not to use 100 percent black (#000000) for backgrounds or surface colors. Black is best reserved for other UI elements and should be used in moderation. True black can be used for small UI elements or a surrounding border, for example.
What are the benefits of dark mode design?
- Reduces blue light rays
- Extends battery life of your device
- Meets the needs of consumers who want to choose the dark mode
- increases focus due to contrastÂ
Voice User Interface (VUI)
Optical graphic solutions are almost “old hat”. One of the latest trends is to focus on other senses as well. So voice search is the name of the trend. It is a user interface design that goes further than “just” visuals.
This trend has already spread to many areas, pioneered by Amazon with Alexa and Apple with the virtual assistant Siri.
The advantages are obvious. Since clients or customers have no time but want to have convenience, voice user interface is the answer to that, you don’t even need to spend time to navigate to an app or type out something to your friend while driving on the freeway.
The ability to be usable at any time and in any place can be the decisive advantage. This is especially true for younger users, who are not only familiar with VUI, but also eagerly expect it.
The global voice user interface market is expected to reach $95.31 Billion by the year of 2030.
Great Outlooks according to an global opportunity analysis and industry forecast, 2021-2030
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Microinteractions
What are Microinteractions? Simple, functional and engaging animations that give the user direct visual feedback about changes in order to display their actions.
They should contain the following features:
- Communication of the actual status
- Providing simple & clear feedback
- Helping user to see the results of their actions
But make sure that these little animations are indeed short: according to google they shouldn’t be longer than 400 milliseconds each.
You can find a lot of those said microinteractions on popular social media apps like instagram. For example, when you like something – welcome simple microinteraction.
Bold Typography
Last but not least we’re talking about a more easy to apply solution in order to enhance your design game.
By using bolder typography you can quite simply catch the attention of your users. It would be important to note that words should not be written simply bold at random. Rather, the application should be limited to certain high-traffic areas of your website. For example, on a landing page.
home page of coca cola germany
homepage of codecombinator.com
As you can see, it is not only bold, but also stands out from the background. Thus it is used to a reasonable extent. âś…
đź’ˇIn every way, according to Peter Moreville, UX Design should be the following, in order to be valuable:
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Customer Support
Customer service is key. But you have to do it right. If you provide easy ways for customers to reach out when they need help, and if you actually help them, you will increase your customers’ product satisfaction immensely.
Make sure you include easily accessible options for your customers in your product from the start.
- Create a FAQ with the most important questions you (possible) get
- Choose and implement a help desk software (e.g. Freshdesk or Help Scout)
- Use a customer service software platform (HubSpot Service Hub, Salesforce Service Cloud or Freshdesk and Help Scout)
In the beginning, you can rely on simple solutions such as email or messages. Just make sure your contact is easily reachable on your website. However, the number of customer requests may increase over time. Therefore, sooner or later it is better to use a specialized solution to ensure seamless ticket processing. That’s why you need the right software architecture from the very beginning.
Testing, Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control
Whether you are a startup founder or a project manager in an enterprise. It is important to have a high quality standard from the beginning when it comes to code and programming. Small bugs can quickly work their way up to serious system errors, if you do not pay attention.
So, dedicate enough resources and time to this issue and secure your application through QA testing.
altexsoft.com did a really good job with explaining testing, quality assurance and quality control. Take a look.
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Data Management and Software Architecture
As a founder of a startup or a project manager, you should find out the reasons and benefits of proper data management, especially in the early stages of the project. As before, you should determine “where” and “how” your project’s data should best be stored. Remember that data-driven growth requires transparent and reliable data management in order to make predictable and logical decisions based on it. Furthermore, you should create a dedicated software architecture so you can make the most of data services such as data collection, data reports, dashboards, etc.
If you need help with building the right software architecture, we are able to help
Programming Languages
Determining the right programming languages for your software project depends primarily on what you want to build, what product you end up with.
Here are a few features to help you choose the right programming language:
- Type of application
- Scope and complexity of the final product
- Open source software vs. proprietary software
- Skillset of your current team
- Serviceability
- Scalability
- Data Security
- Compatibility
We have already dealt with this topic in detail elsewhere. Check out our blog post on this. đź’ˇ
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Key Takeaways
In order to set up the right software development project, it is necessary to have some proper components. It is important to have a good interaction between them throughout the entire project. So in the end a working and satisfying product can be achieved.
Having the right team onboard is essential. Especially in these uncertain times, there is a lot to be said against it. The worldwide shortage of !quality! IT specialists is the most serious of all.
We can say with confidence that we are the right partners when it comes to providing tested and professional tech staff. Through our worldwide network of developer hubs, and our proven processes, we are capable of delivering real value to your software development project.
We hope to have helped you with this article. Feel free to share it with your network, thanks ahead.
Written with know how
by Team codecombinator