Tuesday 26 June 2012

Gearing Up for Customer Demands through Distributed Software Development



Technological innovation in the mobile industry has paved way for an exponential growth worldwide. With a large subscriber base with nearly 440 million smart phone users, this industry is still heading forward.  These figures showcase the demand for mobility among the new age customers and their need to stay socially connected. Further, the power of the smartphones and the computing tablets have also paved way for the growth of mobile workforce and virtual offices, shopping malls and libraries. However, to stay ahead in the competitive environment, organizations need to device ways and means meet the ever-changing digital life of the customers.

Today’s IT industry is busy developing mobile applications, operating systems and platforms for a boundary less working environment.  Adoption of such applications will facilitate enterprise mobility and allow corporate houses and business establishments to connect to their workforce, clients and suppliers anytime irrespective of the location. However, to get the most of the enterprise mobility, the industry leaders in product R&D services need to develop applications that are intuitive and user friendly, support various operating systems, devices and carriers, with ability to integrate with backend systems while being compliant to the corporate security policies.

However, in today’s complex technology landscape and availability of various frameworks, a distributed software development that supports collaboration and network outages will prove beneficial for the modern enterprise environment. Distributed software development actually refers to the development of software solutions and applications either through nearshore development services or outsourced from offshore development teams. Irrespective of working in a heterogeneous development environment and being a part of nearshore development services or offshore development services, this process requires active participation by every team member.

Communication is an important aspect for the distributed software development teams and needs to be in constant contact irrespective of geographical boundaries. These distributed and networked teams make use of emails, threaded discussions, instant messaging and web conferencing to stay in touch. However, industry leaders of mobile technologies have developed best breed of technology stack to provide the developers the freedom to integrate various technological frameworks. These providers not only  help the developers  to gain the advantages of distributed Agile development  but also facilitates the use  of features such as continuous integration, issue tracker, repository code and repository browsing besides providing  clarity and transparency across the breadth and depth.

However, the distributed software development teams are fast catching up today to meet up to the customers demands for software projects.  With newer modes and innovative ways for information exchange, these teams collaborate easily. Further, the availability of web based repository-centric development tools have given these offshore development teams real-time accesses to update themselves.


Also read on - agile lifecycle management,  Product R&D Services

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Effective Agile Lifecycle Management to Ensure Top Product Quality

An agile methodology can be of great assistance when the customers’ necessities go through a change and the enterprise is not in a position to act in response to the new requirements in time. Agility is the need of the hour and is the most important component responsible for positive developments in business. Your enterprise needs agility to be capable of addressing the risks and concerns effectively to ensure smooth operations and efficient performances. With its ability to respond efficiently to the ever evolving requirements, the agile methodology provides immense benefits to the enterprise.

Agile methodologies promote a project management process that encourages stakeholder involvement, feedback, objective metrics and effective controls. For best distributed software development, the solution needs to have the ability of facilitating effective communication across distributed teams. It also needs to also be ready to offer absolute transparency into project health monitoring, risk management and progress tracking. An agile lifecycle management ensures that there are no gaps in communication and understanding of the customer’s requirements, as there is an incessant and steady communication with the customer.  Specific documentation and delivery of best quality also makes agile lifecycle management significantly important among enterprises.

The various project teams of enterprises can employ agile lifecycle management solutions to avail of benefits that consist of the generation of timely and actionable reports, ability to track several projects precisely, identifying potential risks, getting real-time information, easy and effective reporting abilities. With new technological developments in mobile applications, embedded systems, cloud-computing processes, product testing and quality assurance have become the critical components for organizations in maintaining a competitive edge. Invest in a solution that provides a complete traceability matrix and continuous integration framework. The solution must also enable product owners to align a product to real user needs and adapt the development process accordingly. It must significantly reduce code defects by enforcing excellent coding practices.

William A. Foster once quoted “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” It is therefore essential to adopt a solution that can quickly adapt to changing requirements while maintaining product quality and successfully meeting launch deadlines. Enterprises that get the get the agile solution advantage allow their project team managers to gain crucial visibility into different projects. An effective agile lifecycle management solution enables clients to balance innovation, cost, time-to-market and product quality by relying well-defined roles, artifacts and communication models.


Related Links: mobile application development, nearshore development services

Monday 11 June 2012

Offshore Development Services- Gearing Up for  Global Demands



The innovations in the world of technology have prompted the need for advanced products and services. Globalization led to increased business needs that has placed in demands for enhanced software applications and IT infrastructure. The large number of processes flowing in a networked business environment Has brought with it complexities. Further, with businesses carrying out a number of interrelated functions, the need for high rate of accuracy in developing software applications also high.
With globalization comes expanse of business across wider locations.
The leading IT giants in their attempt to meet the customer requirements and organizational objectives have now forayed into distributed software development. Further, with IT market booming in to meet the challenges of the competitive business world there number of software developing teams and individuals also who work either as freelancers or have formed up as small and medium enterprises. Besides the corporate giants in the IT industry, these small and medium level software developers either take up work orders of customer research.
However the new trendsetters in the industry are the software development companies which take up application development as offshore development teams to help organizations to meet their requirements of various software applications. These offshore development companies with good industry expertise use wide variety of business intelligence tools to develop cost effective and quality software solutions. Such solutions facilitate organizations to enhance customer engagement and retention.
Outsourcing of software development has a number of advantages because of which this has turned into a booming industry sector on its own. The software development companies with their industry expertise across verticals ensure continuous improvement as they develop solutions for all markets and business needs . With good customer research and innovation as the key, these teams work out unique solutions customized for each organization. All the software service providers work with an aim to building trust and strengthening their business relationships with the clients, thus ensuring amazing returns on the investment for the clientele.
The providers of offshore development services ensure that the critical data and network are secure from all vulnerable threats. These distributed software development teams work out solutions to maintain the security and confidentiality of the data and network. Today with technological advancement leading to cloud services, these software development enterprises make use of the cloud services to provide their clientele with an automated, flexible and convenient storage space that is accessible anytime from any locations.

Related links: offshore product engineering, android application development


Thursday 7 June 2012

Make Strategic Decisions with Customer Research

Customer research is more than a process. It is often known as a reality check that organizations need to have for formulating future product expansion strategies. It challenges the status quo and offers few odd surprises here and there. Customer research is an effective way to find out what your target customer is really thinking. You get actual feedback when someone outside the sales process is conducting it.

Why customer research is important?
Most companies that have been actively involved in customer research have been surprised many times by the consumer trends that the research highlighted. Effective customer research programs allow you to locate the need for product innovation, assess partnering opportunities and get access to valuable competitor information.

However, the actual value of customer research can be experienced when the data is collected systematically by an expert researcher or a service provider. This data is further used to distinguish the trends prevailing that otherwise can be termed as hearsay without much evidence. When the trends are identified with adequate evidence it acquires a strategic dimension allowing organizations to arrive at smart business decisions.

Industry Offerings in Customer Research Solutions
Today leading brands in Product R& D Services have come up with new age customer research solutions. This enables an organization to achieve a better understanding of their consumer's psyche. These companies with their new age methods and able project execution engineers offer users with the very basis for continuous collaboration if used regularly. In addition to that, other incorporated procedures help clients to engage their respective stakeholders in product planning and outline new product features through the development lifecycle. Some of the core focus areas are listed below:-

  • Customer Requirements
  • Product Requirements
  • Product Usage / Features
  • Future Products
  • Pricing Models

Customer Research and Marketing Initiatives
One of the popular definitions of marketing defines it as the “process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual (customer) and organizational objectives". The central point here is the role played by an individual and his association with a particular service and product. To know what the customer associate with a brand and its offerings customer research is the key element. It helps enterprises to understand what factors contribute to brand loyalty.


Read on - software development company, android application development