| |
| |
|
Web Development Information |
|
Five Steps to Create Your Software Product with Outsourcing
Many executives and investors are skeptical that software products can be developed using outsourcing. Even more skepticism is expressed at the idea of outsourcing version 1.0 of a product. Yet Accelerance clients are using outsourcing to create their products right now. What is the secret to using outsourcing to successfully develop a software product? Many people believe outsourcing is useless when you are in the Fuzzy Front End - that fuzzy zone between when a market opportunity is known and when serious software development can begin. They think you need to slog through the Fuzzy Front End by coding a prototype of your product. If so, you need the development team here, not several oceans away. Another false assumption is that you need to write a comprehensive specification for your software during the Fuzzy Front End. Many companies use a very formal product definition process, optimized to remove as much "fuzz" as possible. How long should it take to design a software product before development can begin? Obviously time is of the essence when developing a new product, but before the development process can begin you must have some idea of what your software will do. It is best to find this out from your prospective customers. But how can you involve your customers early and often in a collaborative process, when both of you are not sure of what they need or want? And what does that have to do with outsourcing? According to Steve Blank, founder of several software startups and now lecturer at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, you don't need a product development process. You need a customer development process. You need a process to discover what ornery problem your potential customers have that will cause them to part with their hard-earned money to solve that problem by buying your software. The first step of Blank's customer development process is Customer Discovery. Here are his steps of customer discovery: * Create a product (or product demo) * Meet with customers and answer these four questions of customer discovery: 1. Have you identified a problem customers want to solve? 2. Does your product solve these customer needs? 3. If so, do you have a viable and profitable business model? 4. Have you learned enough to go out and sell? * Change your product to reflect what you learn * Iterate until all questions can be answered positively Is there a way to shorten these iteration cycles? The Accelerance answer is, don't code up your product or prototype at the start. Use an HTML editor to create screen mock-ups. Then link them together to tell the "user stories" of your software product. They show the major use cases of your product. Demonstrating the use cases this way is like putting your product requirements in motion. It simulates how the real product will be used. HTML is easy to edit and requires no programming. You can make quick iterations before committing your product ideas to code. Here is the five-step Accelerance formula you can follow to successfully design your product: 1. Describe your product idea and its benefits 2. Create a demo of the major use cases showing the biggest benefits of your software 3. Perform the Customer Discovery steps described above, iterating until you & customers are satisfied 4. Write an MRD using screen shots from your demo as illustrations 5. Develop and test your software In modern business, you should focus on your core competency and outsource the rest. In the Accelerance five-step process, the first 4 steps of defining your product idea, completing the customer discovery process and documenting the requirements must be part of your core competency. The last step is not. *** Anybody can develop software. But only you can figure out what your customers will buy. And that makes your software development a non-core process. Use this five step formula to take advantage of low cost outsourcing as an effective way to get your product developed quickly. Steve Mezak is a successful Silicon Valley technical entrepreneur and international outsourcing expert. Get your copy of his free report on "Outsourced Development - A Secret Weapon for Quickly Creating Software Products" by visiting his Accelerance outsourcing company web site now.
MORE RESOURCES:
Goal-Setting - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
4 Rock Solid Reasons For Building Your Own Website What is the point of having a website, you may ask, when the affiliate programme you have joined has provided you with your own web page to promote? This is a fair question. The answer has to be that with your own site - and of course your own domain name - you will have a lot more control over your business. Do Authors Need a Website? "I am a writer, not a business-person. I don't want to have anything at all to do with business," you might think. Successful Commercial Sites Do you make your website just to entertain yourself or do you want it to be a great web store? The fact is more than 80% of websites are trying to sell you something. There is nothing wrong if you want to get some money from the website you made, but remember to put some REALLY interesting information on your pages. Websites: You Get What You Pay For! So you finally decided to invest in a web presence or upgrade your current site? There are many available choices in "web designers" to choose from. This decision is an important one! You may have a relative or friend of a friend who will do your web site at a very low cost from the comfort of their house. I Want To Be A Freelancer So you have decided that you want to do freelance work. You have done your homework and have developed your skills in HTML, PHP, CMS, and a slew of other applications. Free Webmaster Tools - 7 Things Every Webmaster Needs in Their Toolbox Webmaster tools are vital to becoming both efficient and effective in your online efforts. The following are my picks for the top types of webmaster tools:Tool #1 Link FindersEvery webmaster needs this free tool. Are You Losing Sales Because of These 4 Simple Website Mistakes? Losing website sales and traffic is sometimes simply a case of web usablity - your website just isn't clear to your visitors. By fixing these simple mistakes, you'll easily increase your conversion rate and make more online sales. Pick Up Your Own Domain Name Think up a name and check if yourname.com is available. The Number 1 Reason Most Websites Fail Failure, just like success, is measured differently by each and every one of us. What one man treats as success another may view as failure. How to Draw Icons or Images on a Mapserver Generated Map In this example I have used the map of the Itasca demo of the Mapserver.I have done only small changes to the map file. Web Accessibility: The Basics What is web accessibility & why is it important?Web accessibility is about making your website accessible to all Internet users (both disabled and non-disabled), regardless of what browsing technology they're using. In addition to complying with the law, an accessible website can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business. Maximizing ROI via Web Site Traffic Analysis We are clearly well past the innocent "golden age" of the Internet - Darwinian economics have become the order of the day today. Any company worth their salt must maintain a web site as an information resource and/or to generate incremental ecommerce revenue. Why You Need A Web Site "I have a small business with just a couple of employees and I don't think my product can really be sold online. Do I need a web site?"In this day and time, there is very little that can't be sold over the Internet. Where on Earth is Your Websitee? You've just finished congratulating your marketing team. After six months of concentrated effort you can now actually find your own company web site within the search engines. 7 Golden Rules For Building Mini Sites First, an eye opener. Making your fortune throughaffiliate programs on the internet is not easy. 5 Ways to Build a Website If you are like me you have wanted to build a website but didn't know how!Why?Because you haven't learned htmlBecause it costs too much to have someone do it for you.The software you have found is too complicatedYou just didn't have the time or patience to read the 500-page manualThere was no one to teach you how to do it. Art, Artists and the Web: Part 3--What to Put on an Artist's Website What to put your the website if you are an artist.1) The art workTry and think like a gallery hanging a show. How to Get a Knock Out Website! The first step in setting up an online business.. Building a Web Store on Shoestring Budget in less than Four Hours Starting a business online is no longer as difficult as it used to be! Now, there are plenty of interesting business ideas that anybody can pick up from various Internet resources. Startup related cost, which used to deter many in taking action, has become negligible. CPanel Fantastico - Features and Benefits Fantastico is a 3rd-party cPanel add-on and can be purchased and added to the standard cPanel interface. Fantastico allows you to quickly install a variety of open-source scripts.
|
| home | site map | ArticleGecko | A ClashX Production 2006 |
| © 2006 |
