10 Tips for a Successful Development Process with Enterprise Software Applications

Enterprise application software (EAS) development inspires company growth simply because it’s designed for large-scale business functions. The tools it can offer typically include:

• Content management and creation
• Collaboration and communication methods
• Project management
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software
• Software change management (SCM) software

From ROI to productivity on new projects, EAS has a lot to offer your teams. Even if you focus on the ERP aspect, companies told TEC that the top three benefits of ERP systems are faster business processes, better collaboration, and an enterprise-wide data system.

But planning for successful development and implementation takes careful attention. In 2022 so far, 41% of companies worldwide went over their ERP budget according to Statista. This is up from 2021, suggesting that budgeting is one of the biggest challenges for these types of projects. Make sure you stay on track with these tips for streamlining enterprise software development.

Read: How to Measure Digital Transformation Progress

Top 10 Best Practices for Enterprise App Development

Have a clear product goal:

You can update your project vision as needed, but only if you define it before you begin. What problem does this enterprise software application solve? Why did you want it developed to begin with? Once you have these questions answered, your teams will be more cohesive and efficient because the work they do will have a concrete purpose behind it.

Plan out a specific project roadmap:

Similarly, it’s easier to adapt an outlined strategy. Figure out your must-have features ahead of time so you—and your development team—know exactly what needs to be done. Avoidable changes during EAS development are time-consuming and can make you go over budget. Project roadmaps lay out your strategy to help prevent that. Most organizations include their deliverables, goals, milestones, and available resources on this detailed timeline.

Build the best development team:

Human resources can recruit in-house personnel to meet your needs, which can take at least 32 days (according to SHRM). If you want to get to market faster, you can accelerate your project timeline with staff augmentation or software outsourcing to suit your development needs. The quick recruitment time and scalability of these teams can be particularly helpful.

Choose your tech stack:

Your programming language and platform determine how you can accomplish what you want to do, so you should choose that early. Common programming languages include JavaScript, SQL, Python, HTML/CSS, and others. These can build all kinds of applications from mobile games to management software. If you’re launching on a desktop, you’re likely considering Windows, macOS, or Linux. For mobile, you’ll choose from React Native, Flutter, Android, and iOS, among others.

Prioritize accuracy over speed:

The former CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty, said: “Growth and comfort do not coexist.” Keep that in mind, because you may not be completely comfortable spending valuable time on making sure your code is up to par. But it’s important for your reputation and customer service to deliver a fully functional product that clients can count on. This applies to your MVP and beyond.

Balance ambition with realistic expectations:

Act on your business intelligence and market opportunities, but be careful not to overwork your team. Burnt out employees are almost 3 times as likely to resign, as found by BioSpace. Since 2/3 of full-time workers have reported feeling burnt out, it’s a common pitfall. If you find yourself in this situation, you can also turn to staff augmentation or outsourcing to get the project done on time without losing employees.

Don’t get ahead of yourself:

If you don’t need a feature now, don’t develop it. Meeting deadlines and staying on budget relies on your development team delivering results. If you start spending time on ‘what-if’, you’re almost guaranteed to have a bottleneck in your project management systems before long.

Commit to a project methodology:

Every time you change how something is done, there’s re-training and admin work to do. When you pick a methodology, you should stick with it (unless it’s causing problems). We suggest Agile for its fast, flexible workflow and the sprint schedule to keep teams in communication regarding regular updates.

Integrate QA into your process:

Rather than testing only at a certain point in development, you want to stay on top of correcting bugs and cleaning code. Doing a little QA regularly helps you avoid time-consuming fixes and provides a working product at several stages in the software development life cycle—not just after the testing stage.

Establish your communication schedule:

If you use Agile methodology, which we mentioned earlier, you already have this checked off. Frequent meetings to stay on the same page are a key principle of Agile development. There’s a planning meeting, daily standups, feedback-focused review meetings, and solutions-focused retrospective meetings. You can adjust this as needed, or make your own collaborative meetings.

Enterprise Software Development, Done Right

Project management in an enterprise setting is so specific to those businesses, it has its own terms and processes. Your development team should be as tailored to your project as your process is to you. Find the right-fit talent in 14 days by contacting us today to go over your enterprise app ideas. We’ve got you covered.