Planning for the Future-Software for Tomorrow

By: solstice technologies Click author's name for more of his/her articles

For many years, innovation has been a major impetus for change in the free market. The world of technology is in a state of rapid change. Businesses tend to grow and change at a similar rate, so tying business and technology together can seem like hitting a moving target. It clearly isn't cost effective to be constantly chasing the curve, and with some planning you can hit that mark the first time and be very satisfied with your return on investment. In developing workflow software, planning is critical to see big returns.

Developing software requires lots of planning and attention to detail in all stages of the project. Software requires a virtual foundation, much like a physical foundation of a building. Both require significant preparation, planning, time and effort. Once the foundation is laid, one must consider the connections that will be made and the integration between programs, databases, etc that will take place. These connections are crucial to the effective transfer of data that is inherent to automating a company's workflow. These connections are the plumbing of your application. Installing plumbing requires significant planning and is difficult to move once in place. If a builder decides halfway through construction that a bathroom should be moved to another location, water pipes will need to be rerouted, which presents the builder with added costs. By planning for that extra bathroom, even though one isn't needed yet, wasteful expenditures can be avoided.

The analogy between building software and building a house could go on and on, but there is one simple point to be taken from it. Planning the development of a software program should be taken no less seriously than planning the construction of a house. If crucial aspects of a software program (foundation changes, changes to specifications, altering data transmission) are changed halfway through, it will probably end up being very expensive and time consuming to change. If time allotted to planning in the beginning of a project is insufficient, specifications may change halfway through. Avoiding these changes by planning ahead can save tens of thousands of dollars.

In addition to planning for the technical side of software development, planning must be done on the business level, and the political level. Anticipating potential changes in the business as a whole may bring to the surface issues that have yet to be accounted for. Developing software to cover these potential issues ahead of time can save a great deal of money. For example, perhaps you only have one location right now, but the idea for building a second location has been kicked around. Developing software with the knowledge that it may be expanded to other locations will mean design changes in the foundation. These changes don't require a great deal of time to make if they are caught early, but adjusting completed software to work for multiple sites may mean a massive overhaul. Obviously, anticipating all possible business changes is impossible, but considering your options ahead of time may drastically reduce your budgetary needs in the future.

There are also political forces at work inside your company that can affect the success of your software. Employee buy-in is critical to the implementation of any project. If the end-users of your software don't like it, don't understand it, or don't want to use it, there will likely be issues when you roll it out. The discussion of why employee buy-in is necessary is an article in itself, but that doesn't affect planning for the future. Getting your employees on board shouldn't be a problem if you remember why you are automating your workflow in the first place; to help your employees! Be sure to include them and use their input as much as possible. They are the ones experiencing the pains of inefficiency, and will know their issues better than anyone else. Generally, if you are providing the opportunity for your employees to make their lives easier, you won't have any buy-in issues. This is only one strategy, and buy-in may be achieved in many different ways. How employee buy-in is achieved is irrelevant, as long as it is part of the planning process the likelihood of rolling out a successful project with an attractive return on investment is significantly increased.

Technology and its utilization are in a state of constant change and market savvy programmers need to plan carefully in order to meet the demands of tomorrow. Developing the software of tomorrow requires significant planning today, by programmers and by businesses. A virtual foundation must be created, and significant planning must occur to determine which programs and databases will be connected and integrated. Finally, implementing a new solution must be carefully planned out in the business and political spheres in order to maximize the return on investment.

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