Turning your ideas and business requirements into a piece of software can be a difficult process. So how do you bridge the gap between your dream business application and the people that will make it happen, the Software Development company? I have outlined a couple of easy to use tools which could help you to reduce development costs, time and headaches!
When you first started the business Microsoft Office pretty much provided everything you needed to mange your small client list. Today your client list is into double figures, and that Excel spreadsheet that holds your core business data is become nightmare to manage. Hopefully you can pick an “off the shelf” product that will meet your current and future needs. Alternatively you may have to consider a “bespoke” software system, tailor made for your business.
Map Your Ideas
I’ve mentioned before how Mind Mapping software (Plan your projects using Mind Mapping software) could assist your project planning and ideas. I suggest the best place to start is by downloading FreeMind and just grow your project ideas with an informal approach.
Alternative Tools
CmapTools - Flow diagrams (Free for personal and non-profit use)
User Interface & Design
Using PowerPoint can be one of the most effective and cheap ways to produce User Interface designs for your website or software application. I personally use it to design web templates to show clients before developing them into full websites.
You can also use PowerPoint and Word to create diagrams that may help to explain your current business procedures.
Alternatives
Microsoft Visio - Visual Interface and flow diagrams (Trial Version available)
Java GUI Builder - Visual Builder for Java Applications
Adobe Illustrator - Alternative to PowerPoint (Trial Version available)
YAML Builder - Web design layout (HTML and CSS)
Project Management
Although the Software Development company should provide you with timescale’s with expected milestones and deliver dates etc, it may help to also produce your own a project plan. You should consider the following…
- Testing
- Staff training
- Cross over of systems
- Budgets.
Microsoft Project can help you produce a Gantt Chart that allows you to plot resources, milestones and delivery dates. Although I couldn’t recommend that you depart with £300 plus until you give GanttProject a try. This free open source project management software should provide you with the core features that Microsoft Project provides.
What tools do you use?
What software tools do your clients use in order to convey their business requirements?
Related posts:
We’re a small development team of 14 and we use Wrike for our projects. Wrike’s is all in one for us: a planning tool, a project management app and a bug tracker. It lets you track bugs through your email correspondence. It captures all the screenshots too. Wrike is very agile and lets us practice Scrum. Check out this post http://www.wrike.com/blog/8/12/2007/Scrum_in_Wrike__making_software_development_more_agile
Comment by Michael Oldis — October 4, 2007 @ 10:40 am