There was a time, in the early days of your business, when you had no choice but to bootstrap your operations. But with growing stability and success, you start wondering if there’s a more efficient way to get things done.

That’s why many scaling businesses turn to software to automate parts of their operation. The only problem is, software doesn’t always exist for the processes you need help with. You could continue to do things the slow, manual way, but why?

Convergine’s design and development team doesn’t just build customer-facing solutions for businesses. We have experience developing custom software solutions to help our own customers run their businesses more effectively and efficiently.

If there’s a solution you envision but no one has yet to build something for it, we can help.

Need a custom software solution to better streamline your operations?

Our approach to custom software development

Because every custom project is different, we don’t have just one approach to development. That said, there are generally two kinds of approaches we use and we’ll determine which is best based on what you need:
The Agile/flex-time approach is best for complex projects like software or web applications with numerous unknowns and scope. We break the process down into short iterations and organize them based on priority. It’s the best and most cost-efficient way to handle a project that is likely to change in scope along the way. You only pay for the work we do, which is why it’s crucial to divide the project into small actionable segments. You’ll be billed hourly for all work completed.

This is what our Agile/Flex-time approach looks like:

This is our requirements gathering phase. We’ll take the time to learn as much about your business, market, and goals as possible — from you as well as our own research. In the end, we’ll have sorted out:

  • The value proposition
  • The list of features (necessary
  • and nice-to-have)
  • A competitor analysis
  • A risk assessment

This is our requirements gathering phase. We’ll take the time to learn as much about your business, market, and goals as possible — from you as well as our own research. In the end, we’ll have sorted out:

  • The value proposition
  • The list of features (necessary and nice-to-have)
  • A competitor analysis
  • A risk assessment

If we’re going to release your product while it’s still in production, we need to know what that minimum viable product (or MVP) is. Essentially, we need to establish the baseline features and functionality that will satisfy early users.

At this stage, we create app specifications, wireframes, and working prototypes to start collecting early feedback on the solution. This will allow us to test the viability of the solution while also assessing the feasibility and cost of the features outlined.

This is when we start to work out the kinks.

Although we want to help you achieve your business goals, the user must always come first.

That’s why we dedicate an entire stage to user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) strategy and design techniques. This allows us to test and fine-tune not only the aesthetics of your solution, but the intuitiveness of the user journey itself.

Learn more about Convergine’s UX and UI process here

We break this stage into two- to three-week sprints. This allows us to build the MVP based on which features are the highest priority. We’ll chip away at each of the features, making time to test them with users and collect feedback to ensure that every piece of the application is rock-solid.

At this point, we want you to fully review the solution and provide us with feedback. Did we build all of the required features? Do they work as hoped? Have we met your objectives?

Because we’re often working without a scope in these kinds of projects, it’s critical to get your validation on what we’ve built. If there are issues or gaps in the product, we’ll go back to the product, revise, test, and validate again and again until you’re 100% satisfied.

When we’re working with lesser unknowns and have a clear scope, our process is more straightforward and streamlined. That means you’ll have a clear timeline and set costs from the get-go. This is what our fixed price and scope approach looks like:

This is what our fixed price and scope approach looks like:

This is our requirements analysis phase. We’ll take the time to learn as much about your business, market, and goals as possible — from you as well as our own research. In the end, we’ll have sorted out: 

  • The value proposition
  • The list of features (necessary and nice-to-have)
  • A competitor analysis
  • A risk assessment

For highly specialized products, we may also have one of our business analysts with domain knowledge weigh in. We’ll need their expertise to properly analyze and document things like: 

  • Product vision
  • Project scope
  • Functional and non-functional requirements
  • UI components
  • Data flows

Once we’ve defined the parameters of the project, we’ll put together a Statement of Work (SOW) that details the job in its entirety: 

  • Scope of the project
  • Stages and timeline
  • Final costs

Both you and Convergine will need to approve and sign this agreement before we move on.

Although we want to help you achieve your business goals, the user must always come first. 

That’s why we dedicate an entire stage to user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) strategy and design techniques. This allows us to test and fine-tune not only the aesthetics of your solution, but the intuitiveness of the user journey itself. 

Learn more about Convergine’s UX and UI process here.

At this stage, we translate design into code, taking your solution from working model to operational product. 

However, this isn’t just about coding. We go through multiple rounds of quality assurance testing and updates to ensure that all the original requirements have been met. These will be done in short iterations to allow for a frequent feedback loop. 

Prior to deployment, we’ll conduct a rigorous process of user acceptance testing. By putting the solution into the hands of real users, we’ll find out if there are any further improvements needed. These tests may include functionality, security, content, and usability testing.

With all requirements met and approvals in hand, it’s time to deploy your solution. We won’t just hit the “Publish” button though. We’ll prepare a launch strategy, run it by you, and then implement when you’re ready. 

There’s a lot of stuff you have to do to keep your business running, your customers happy, and the money coming in. Rather than manually try to wrangle all of these tasks on your own, Convergine can help.

Start automating even the most complex of tasks with custom-made software. With over a decade of experience and expertise in building custom solutions for businesses, Convergine can help. Fill out this contact form and we will be in touch soon.

Ready to get started?

Then, fill out the form or use our project planner, telling us a bit about what you’re looking for, and we’ll be in touch soon.
lamp