Is a software accelerator the cure for the problems that have been plaguing your software product development? By combining the right leadership and experience with the right software development program, your existing team can achieve your software product goals. Get your software product into the market and making money for you faster when you free up time and allow your developers to focus on innovation and creativity!
What Are Software Development Accelerators?
Software development accelerators are all-in-one software development components that can help you build software solutions without re-creating the wheel. These components build off of your current software offerings to address business challenges and create solutions quickly and efficiently. Software development accelerators save you from having to invest in custom software development, while still providing the customized options you want and the speed you need.
Think of software development accelerators as a recipe with ingredients. Yes, you could take that recipe and those ingredients to cook that meal with no problem. It might not be perfect, but it’s good enough for your family. Similarly, a piece of basic software will likely work fine for your internal teams.
However, once you’re developing software products at the enterprise or commercial level, the bar is set higher. You’re looking at the difference between cooking a meal for your family vs. asking people to pay for that meal from the menu at your five-star restaurant.
The typical software accelerator provides the basic components that you need. For commercial product-level development, you need the boost that a solution like PlatformPlus® can give you. Software accelerators can quickly help you overcome a small project or development. When it comes to enterprise software development, you need accelerators, PLUS guidance and strategy, to take full advantage of their benefits.
Five Signs You Need a Software Development Accelerator
Lack of Leadership
Developers who don’t have clear leadership can’t provide the results you need. Leading an R&D team without structure and planning is like constructing a building without knowing how many floors it needs to have. You need to enhance productivity through leadership, inspiration, and guidance. Remove the obstacles for your team so they are equipped with the tools they need to maximize efficiency.
Solution
You don’t need to hire expensive consultants or superstar software architects to solve your leadership problems. With the right tools and partnerships, you can increase efficiency and productivity without the need to hire more people. Look for the software development accelerator partner that allows you and your team to tap into their maturity and experience to help you make the right choices along the way to de-risk and accelerate your development.
Lack of Direction and Strategy
Do your developers understand how their work contributes to your overall business strategy and success? If your team is going to have a chance at success, you’re going to need a technology roadmap to get you there. In order to be successful, your development team needs to have accountability, ownership, and insight on the journey of the product.
Solution
Look for a partner that offers a different way to de-risk and accelerate your software development process. If you feel like a lack of technical direction is keeping your R&D from reaching its full potential, a software development accelerator can help close the knowledge gap and allow your development team to see how their work contributes to your business strategy.
You Still See Software Development as a Sunk Cost
If you still view software development as a sunk cost, and not as a revenue generator, it’s time to look at Software Development through a different lens. The Dev team is responsible for product engineering and making sure those offerings are innovative and different. Without it, you have no groundwork for other departments to build off of. Sales, customer support, marketing; these departments all depend on the innovation that comes out of development and the value they provide.
Solution
Simply changing the way you utilize your development organization gives you the power to realize it is not a sunk cost. Look for a software development accelerator that measures success on your software ROI. Your partner should be there to help you efficiently deploy capital, not focus on maximizing their billable hours!
Loss of Confidence
Do you feel like your investors and internal stakeholders are losing confidence in your development department’s ability to deliver? It’s important to be transparent with your stakeholders about where you are with development, even if the news is not what you want it to be.
Regardless of the news you are presenting to investors, first and foremost: be honest. Tackle the problem head-on and show them how you plan to move forward. Add a positive spin by using perceived failures as opportunities to improve processes and strengthen the company in the future. Show investors and stakeholders that you are able to learn from your mistakes and build a better system.
Solution
You can modernize your software without rewriting it. This allows your development team to stay focused on innovation and maximize the features that make your company competitive. Look for a software development accelerator partner that can help you get to market quicker, with higher quality, and at a lower cost. You can use the team you already have – so you don’t have to spend additional funds hiring new staff!
Building Code that Could Be Automated
Are your developers stuck building everything by hand instead? Try using intelligent pre-built components and AI for the “plumbing code” to save time! Your software developers are likely wasting 80% of their time manually developing the 80% of the code that could be automated. They should be focusing on the 20% of the code that really needs human problem solving and creativity.
Solution
Building isn’t always the most efficient answer to software development. Sometimes the best solution is the easiest. When it comes to the 80% of code that your developers are spending the majority of their time on, embrace the future of automation. Look for a software development accelerator that provides the prebuilt architecture and components you need, to free your dev team up to focus on what they’re best at and let them focus on the 20% of code that needs problem-solving 80% of the time!
Go faster, build better
If any of the five reasons above sound like your development situation, it’s time to evaluate alternative strategies.
In the ultra-competitive software development space, you must gain every advantage and release software to market before the competition.
If you need help getting started, chat with our founder and get his two cents.