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How we work

Bespoke Software Development Services 

Our goal is that all the solutions we develop will be intuitive, robust and high performing. We also aim to make complex systems simple for users. Together, these inform our processes from the moment we start talking to you about your project.

To achieve our goals, we’ll ask you upfront about yours. No surprise there. But we’ll also ask about your organisation, your staff and how you like to work. That’s because we find the most effective way of working is when you consider us part of your team — and we hope that works for you too.

We take enormous pride in what we produce, but everything we do is arranged so that the process is as good an experience for you as the final result. We align with your business processes to deliver what you need while maintaining our speed and agility as a partner.

Bespoke software design

Every project that we work on is different. It’s true that no software is completely bespoke — apart, perhaps, from the original moon landing software. However, the integration of your business systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and sales systems, into your digital app will always result in a unique design.

As a result, we customise our processes to align them with the requirements of each project. We then determine how we can seamlessly connect everything to enable friction-free business for customers — and for you.

If you have an in-house team, we’ll ensure our processes enable us to work directly with them from the start. And when you don’t, we’ll be your team for as long as you need us.

Project management methods

We always have an open view on what and how we will deliver when we engage with you.

For example, you may want a fixed price project with a fixed scope. Alternatively, the development work can be iterative if you, the customer, recognise that you will learn more as you see the product grow and want the option to change your plans. If and when you do decide to make any changes to the project’s scope, we’ll talk through them with you and then realign the roadmap.

In almost all cases, we do work in an iterative manner, meaning that we use Agile and Scrum practices, with short sprints of two to four weeks. Unusually, we also add a layer of cost control and transparency to projects. That lets us — and you — understand at all times how far we are through a project, both in terms of features delivered and budget.

We also like to use personas as a basis for our work. This helps us address any concerns about performance, scalability, integration and security, and make sure that the needs of all stakeholders are considered and prioritised. 

We like to talk

Communication is vital throughout a project, so we have regular catch-ups to demo, plan and ensure progress is on track and clear to everyone. During the project, you may hear us talk about standup meetings, ‘Three Amigos sessions’ and ‘backlog (or roadmap) reviews’, which are other ways we monitor progress, make decisions with you and ultimately move forward at speed.

Model of a flying cyclist in front of a huge bookcase.

Software development cycle

Given that every project is different, you wouldn’t expect us to adopt the same rigid development cycle every time. And we don’t. Nevertheless, there are some aspects we always consider upfront as part of the planning process. Our early work together then determines the best development cycle for your project.

Guaranteed delivery dates, flexible schedules

The media regularly features stories about large government projects overrunning, and we dislike this as much as you. But we’re happy to revise deliverables and schedules if you identify anything along the way that would make the overall solution better for you and your customers.

Our clients praise us for our flexibility and we’re proud of how many new clients we’ve gained through recommendations for that reason. Similarly, we are very happy to have kept many customers long after the original project has finished.

We have had a large percentage of our customers for four years or more. These are the greatest endorsements we can claim.

Absolutely fantastic!!! The team is a pure joy to work with, they're highly skilled in their craft, and the project managing skills on top of that have always resulted in speedy work, with high quality in the end.

Tony Markov, Fastspring

Who you’ll work with

All of our project managers are certified Scrum Masters or Advanced Scrum Masters. 

On the development side, we are all senior developers. We have backgrounds in a range of sectors, but more importantly we are embedded in the open source community. Many of us have made significant contributions to Drupal and Ruby on Rails, for example, and multiple staff members have their apps in the various App stores.

Your long-term partner for success

A traditional software company helps you get your software live and then walks off into the sunset. We can do that if we are training an internal team to take over. But we particularly excel in helping to deliver outstanding business outcomes when we continue to partner with you after your application goes live.

Our most successful customers retain us to continue to innovate for their own customers every month. This allows us to constantly deliver value and grow products, including reacting quickly to competitor product innovations.

Get in touch

We’d love to chat to you about how we work on projects like the one you have in mind. The person you meet will be someone who develops applications for our clients, so you’ll be talking to someone who knows exactly what our approach is.

We pledge never to have a separate pre-sales department, preferring instead to have our developer team learn from you during the initial discovery phase and then go on to partner with you throughout our relationship.

Drop us a line and we’ll arrange a time to talk.