Most Generic Erroneousness in Enterprise Software Development

Enterprise software development is a completely different creature than many other custom software development projects. While software applications are typically developed for a specific type of user or audience, enterprise software is built by people of different disciplines to be used throughout the organization. This is the biggest challenge when developing enterprise software. When you add multiple stakeholders, each with a slightly different approach to the project, things can derail very quickly.

Many project owners start with a holistic idea of ​​what they want the application to do, but ignore some of the necessary planning and advance design work before going into development. In some cases, this is simply due to being unfamiliar with the software process, and in other cases, it is intentional because many people feel that the budget is better spent on actual development. This is one of the most common and influential mistakes when creating custom software. Unfortunately, this mistake is not limited to inexperienced business owners only because we also see technical professionals, usually software engineers who are not well versed with project management principles, making the same mistake.

In brief, enterprise software development has to cater to all users of an organization. This means that it should be developed in such a way that it can be used by a large number of people that still function in line with its original intent.

Not Enough Focus Due to Too Many Stakeholders

For an enterprise software project to succeed, it must eventually meet its goal throughout the organization. This can be difficult when there are too many stakeholders with conflicting inputs. Unfortunately, this is often in the form of a project that affects the entire organization and attracts many parties interested in its development.

The United States Air Force, with its failed Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) project, faced a situation that was essentially going to act as a logistics program. After 7 years of development and more than a billion dollars spent on the project, the Air Force decided to skip the ECSS and move on to using only a third-party software. The official interpretation of the project's failure describes "a misleading and, at times, ineffective governance structure" that was "evident throughout the life of the program".

Inevitably, there were too many stakeholders giving mismatched inputs that took the project into the realm of mismanagement where nothing was being completed. It took 7 years and a tremendous amount of money even for one of the most well-organized institutions in the world to realize that they had worked themselves into a corner that could not be solved financially. If the Air Force can also find itself in that situation, imagine how many small companies and organizations face the same problem.

Managing Enterprise Software Development with Less Stakeholders

The solution to the problem of having too many stakeholders is to have only fewer stakeholders. Essentially, the less food is cooked in the kitchen, the better the turkey. Delegate the project to a few people to monitor development and re-organize again and again to monitor progress. Even more essential is to define the scope and end goal of the project before kickoff. The more you fully define what the finished version of the project will be, the less room for change and conflicting input during development. Alternatively, using a third-party developer would cause a lot of the pain of enterprise software development. maybe less.

Winklix is ​​ready to meet all your enterprise software development needs, with the belief that we can deliver products to your standards. An experienced team can navigate the many pitfalls facing large-scale projects and deliver a product that fits perfectly with the original vision. A good developer will have portfolios and testimonials to support them, and they will be well versed in maintaining communication.