Don’t get me wrong. I like writing posts based on my experience in the software development industry and what readers might find helpful. This industry constantly evolves. It is interesting to see how current trends connect with or expand on past software development trends. But, even the most exciting work can feel tedious after a while.

That’s where tools like ChatGPT can be appealing. There’s a lot of talk recently around AI, and how it will put hundreds of thousands of people out of their jobs. Copywriters, artists, and even developers have been the subject of threats by AI to replace them.

So, in keeping with the current industry buzz around AI, I wanted to see just how accurate these prophesies were. Would ChatGPT replace me in writing articles for our blog?

I asked ChatGPT the following prompt to find out: “Write a blog post about how companies can utilize ChatGPT in their applications”.

What ChatGPT came up with follows, I’ll provide some critique afterward:

“How Companies Can Utilize ChatGPT in Their Applications” by ChatGPT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly important part of modern businesses, and companies are looking for ways to harness its power to improve their processes, products, and customer experiences. One of the most promising AI technologies in this regard is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a language model that can generate human-like text in response to various prompts. In this blog post, we’ll explore how companies can use ChatGPT to enhance their applications and take their businesses to the next level.

• Customer Service Automation: One of the primary ways that companies can utilize ChatGPT is by incorporating it into their customer service operations. With its ability to understand natural language and generate human-like responses, ChatGPT can help companies automate many routine customer service tasks, freeing up their human agents to focus on more complex issues. For example, ChatGPT can be used to respond to frequently asked questions, resolve simple issues, and guide customers through self-service portals. By doing so, companies can improve their customers’ experiences and increase the efficiency of their customer service operations.
• Chatbots: Another way that companies can utilize ChatGPT is by building chatbots powered by the technology. Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular as a way for companies to engage with their customers and provide them with information and support in real-time. With its advanced language capabilities, ChatGPT can help companies create chatbots that are more natural and engaging than those built with traditional rule-based systems. Whether it’s for sales, customer service, or marketing purposes, chatbots powered by ChatGPT can help companies improve their customer engagement and drive business results.
• Content Generation: In addition to customer service and chatbots, companies can also use ChatGPT to generate various forms of content. For example, ChatGPT can be used to create articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and other types of written content that are engaging and high-quality. By doing so, companies can save time and resources while still ensuring that their content is top-notch. Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to generate social media posts, advertising copy, and other types of promotional content that can help companies reach their target audiences and drive results.
• Data Analysis and Insights: Finally, ChatGPT can also be used by companies to analyze and understand large amounts of data. With its ability to process and interpret natural language, ChatGPT can help companies uncover insights and trends in customer feedback, social media data, and other types of unstructured data. By doing so, companies can gain valuable insights into their customers’ needs, preferences, and behaviors, which can inform their decision-making and drive business success.

In conclusion, ChatGPT is a powerful AI technology that can bring a wide range of benefits to companies across a variety of industries. Whether it’s for customer service automation, chatbots, content generation, or data analysis, ChatGPT has the potential to improve companies’ processes, products, and customer experiences. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can incorporate ChatGPT into your applications, be sure to reach out to OpenAI for more information.

How Did ChatGPT Do & What Can We Learn?

This little experiment shows the power of AI, while simultaneously highlighting some of the things to look out for.

AI Prompts Need Specificity

ChatGPT wrote a lot of good information about how AI can help businesses. But I wanted to know how it could enhance business (software) applications. For example, how ChatGPT can integrate into applications like CRM systems, ERP systems, Accounting Applications, and the like. Maybe even how it could help with e-commerce applications.

In this, it missed the mark, but mostly due to my user error.

If I had prompted ChatGPT with “Write a blog post about how companies can utilize ChatGPT to enhance their software applications such as ERP, CRM, Accounting, and e-commerce applications”, I probably would have received something closer to what I wanted. In my original prompt, I assumed that ChatGPT would understand that I’m talking about Software Applications. When it comes to AI, best to never assume.

I also could have further defined my prompt, by adding perimeters such as length, specific arguments to address, POV, or target audience.

The lesson? If you want better answers, you need to ask better questions. (This applies to all areas of life, not just AI blog generation.)

AI Regurgitates Existing Ideas

ChatGPT is not creative in its answers. It only supplies responses based on the information it is trained on. It can’t come up with new ideas about how it might be utilized, only what has already been done.

Most of the responses are what is expected. As a result, most people probably already know a lot of the information in the response. That is because it has probably already been published somewhere on the internet. ChatGPT is just repeating what it found in its training.

The benefit of this is easy access to information. As both Google and Bing demonstrated in recent months, tools like ChatGPT improve research dramatically. Rather than clicking through tens of articles or blogs for the right information, AI provides a summary of all the relevant information in an easy-to-read format. However, that leads to the next big hurdle…

AI Is Not Always Right

So, the point above may not be entirely correct. AI is capable of creativity in its responses, specifically regarding its fabrication of inaccurate information. Article after recent article touts the fake facts AI spouts off so confidently. A lawyer found this out the hard way after he referenced several made-up cases from ChatGPT.

In the case above, there aren’t any glaring inaccuracies, but some large claims which aren’t backed up by data. For example, it claims that ChatGPT is a great tool to generate content to drive results… In a sense, it’s correct (after all, I’m using it as a foundation for this piece), but it is misleading. No company should rely on AI to generate all its content. And when dealing with AI, always fact-check the information it provides.

AI Lacks Personality

The ChatGPT article is dry, stating just the facts (or what it thinks are the facts) without any real color. It’s much more reserved than a human author and often lacks character or personality.

It doesn’t have anything personal in its response because it is not a person. Artificial Intelligence can’t base anything on personal experience or make a judgment based on its experience because it doesn’t have lived experiences. It can try to objectively answer a question, but this objectivity has often been questioned. AI is only as unbiased as the data it is trained on, and no data is unbiased.

Will AI Replace Me As A Content Writer?

AI is progressing at an incredible, or as some might say alarming, rate, but I don’t fear it taking over my role quite yet.

Ultimately, AI is a tool. And like any tool, its efficiency depends on how it’s used. I do not believe fear is the proper response to a new technology like AI, but rather a healthy combination of skepticism and optimism. It is vital to consider its limitations and ramifications. While it can help brainstorm or provide a starting point to avoid looking at a blank page, AI cannot mimic the tone, personality, and authenticity of a skilled writer.

For better or for worse, ChatGPT’s skills aren’t up to par to write articles for this blog.

The post How Companies Can Utilize AI in their Applications | An Article by ChatGPT appeared first on Saritasa.

What is Software Maintenance?

Software maintenance is the proactive work necessary to keep the software running at optimal efficiency. Maintenance keeps the software functioning and up to date with changes in technology. Software, just like any other asset, needs regular maintenance to keep it in working order.

Consider a house. Landscaping, HVAC systems, appliances, and more all need regular attention and care. Without maintenance, small issues snowball into larger ones. Think of an overgrown tree whose roots damage the foundation, or a pest problem that develops into a full-blown infestation. Catching the potential problem early can prevent tens of thousands of dollars in emergency repairs (and days’ worth of headaches). On the flip side, delaying early action can lead to significant costs down the road. A couple of mouse traps are much more affordable than the efforts of an expert.

The same logic applies to software. Without regular maintenance, software ages, and in the long term leads to compounding issues. Unattended updates, bugs, improvements, and “dead” code build up and result in Code Debt. Eventually, code debt can become so big that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to support the code without a major rewrite.

Benefits of Software Maintenance

As software maintenance is a proactive measure to prevent issues, some have trouble justifying the cost. After all, there’s no imminent need to drive the work. Often maintenance gets pushed off in favor of higher priority, immediate needs, or as a strategy to save money in the short term. This is a mistake because the benefits of maintenance are long-term and have larger impacts over time.

The benefits of regular software maintenance include:

• Improved reliability and performance through the identification and fixing of bugs on a regular basis.
• Longer code life span by keeping the codebase up-to-date and functional.
• Long-term cost savings by preventing small issues from ballooning into larger ones.
• Better user experience by limiting the impact of bugs or performance issue.

What is Software Support?

Software support is the reactive response to bugs and issues. Often, this work is ad hoc as issues are not always predictable (if they were, everyone’s lives would be a whole lot easier). Support levels vary mostly based on response times, or service-level agreements. Lower-level support means longer response time, while high-level support includes faster turnaround.

Continuing the home care example from above, support would be an emergency response to an immediate need. Imagine a pipe bursts, causing the plumbing to back up and flood the bathroom. You’d call a plumber and could pay a premium for immediate assistance. Or perhaps the neighborhood kids are playing baseball on your street, and a rogue ball smashes through your window, shattering the glass. Assuming you don’t manage the repairs yourself, you’d need a professional to measure, order, and then replace the window.

These needs are often unpredictable but require quick (if not immediate) responses. Another way to think of support is like emergency responders: when there is a problem, there are knowledgeable resources that can resolve the issue.

Some examples of software support include;

• Resolving functionality that is not performing as expected with a high impact on useability (critical bugs)
• Resolving external factors affecting the software’s performance
• Dealing with security issues
• Answering questions or concerns about the software

Benefits of Software Support

The benefits of software support are more tangible than those of software maintenance. Support comes in the form of access to a team of knowledgeable experts who can jump on tasks.

Some key benefits of software support include:

• Less server/system downtime, preventing a negative user experience or system outage.
• Dedicated point of contact for communication to expedite responses to problems.
• Defined response times for clear expectations between the client and the development team.

What Level of Support & Maintenance Do You Need?

Too often, maintenance is ignored to cut costs while support is retained only for the most critical issues. This is the wrong approach. Software Maintenance and Support, while distinct in purpose, operate in parallel. Both are necessary for the long-term success of any software system.

Regular maintenance reduces the risk of urgent support requests by keeping the code maintained properly.

Going back to our homecare analogy. Perhaps regular pipe maintenance could have prevented your pipes from bursting, saving you thousands of dollars from avoided water damage and repairs. Maintenance can’t prevent every issue though. For example, maintaining the integrity of your windows wouldn’t stop the baseball from shattering them.

Maintaining code keeps resources familiar with the software ready and available for any needed support. Developers familiar with the code are significantly more efficient at investigating and fixing issues than those who aren’t.

The level of maintenance and support required varies based on the complexity of the individual project. If a system relies heavily on several 3^rd party integrations and spans multiple platforms (iOS, Android, and web), it’ll require more maintenance and support. Similar to how a 30-story apartment building needs full-time dedicated maintenance staff whereas a single-family home can get away with a handyman on speed dial.

When In Doubt, Defer to Your Developer

If you are unsure what kind of maintenance and support you need, reach out to your development team. The best recommendations come from those who know your system. That’s why having a team you trust is critical to the long-term success of your software.

The post Software Maintenance Versus Software Support appeared first on Saritasa.

However, success is never guaranteed. The road of software development is bumpy and filled with pitfalls. In fact, upwards of 40% of IT projects fail. In this article, we will discuss some of the common causes of software development project failure and provide solutions to help avoid some of these pitfalls.

Reason 1: Inadequate Planning and Requirement Gathering

The most common reason for software development project failure is inadequate planning and requirement gathering. A project without a clear and well-defined scope is more likely to fail than to succeed. In fact, we have an entire article on the importance of a thorough product plan.

In short, without proper planning, the project risks major delays, cost overruns, and ultimately, project failure.

Solution: Well-Documented Requirements

Requirements must be clearly defined, understood, and agreed upon by all stakeholders.

Involve stakeholders early in the project. Engage in active communication throughout the project. Document all requirements and get buy-off early. Avoiding changes late in the development cycle keeps the project on track and on budget.

Reason 2: Lack of Strong Project Management

A Project Manager can make or break your project.  A project requires proper planning, organization, and management to ensure success. Without a dedicated Project Manager, projects quickly become chaotic, with duplicate tasks, missed deadlines, and misused or overallocated resources. Too many projects run over budget or miss delivery milestones due to poor management or communication.

Even the most well-documented project will fail if the person overseeing the development lacks the skills necessary to get the job done. The Project Manager is critical. They lead the project, set the timeline for milestones and deliverables, and secure the right resources. They handle the translation of requirements, task assignment, and execution. Project Managers are ultimately responsible for the project coming in on time and on budget.

Solution: Retain A Dedicated and Experienced Project Manager

The best practice is to assign a dedicated Project Manager to lead the project, provide clear goals and objectives, and implement a project management methodology. The ideal candidate has experience or certification with best practices in project management, like SCRUM or Agile.  They are strong communicators, both written and verbal, with the ability to understand technical requirements and business logic.

Reason 3: No Dedicated Product Manager

The role of a Product Manager is often overlooked even though it is critical to a project’s success. This position is completely distinct from the Project Manager. The Product Manager provides the vision and product direction while the Project Manager handles the execution. A lack of clear direction from a Product Manager can lead to projects running awry and missing the intended mark once complete. A lack of strong product management can also lead to a “Design by Committee” situation where all the stakeholders end up having to approve every small change or addition, which leads to lengthy delays and cost overruns.

Solution: Empower a Sole Point of Contact for Product Decisions

The Product Manager prioritizes functionality and drives the vision. Ideally, this is a separate position from the Project Manager but can be a dual role in a pinch. A strong Product Manager clearly understands the intent of the application. They must know the core competency of this application and what features and functions are most important to solve the problem or fill its intended need. It is vital to have a sole point of contact for the project that truly owns the product and is empowered to make decisions on its own.

Reason 4: Insufficient Testing and Quality Assurance

Poorly tested software can result in bugs, crashes, and poor performance, which can ultimately damage the reputation of the business. While this appears obvious, many software development projects fail because they overlook this critical component in favor of satisfying budget or timeline requirements.

For example, many projects don’t consider the effective load placed on an application once it is launched. Without load testing, high-volume applications will likely experience problems post-launch.

Solution: Don’t Skimp on QA

An investment in quality assurance can save a lot of money later.

Ensure that sufficient time and resources are allocated for testing and quality assurance. Automated testing tools can streamline the testing process and reduce the risk of bugs and crashes. Load testing for high-volume applications performed in the production environment ensures that the application can support the intended user activity and volume with acceptable performance.

Reason 5: Poor Communication and Collaboration

Communication is the keystone of any successful project, not just software development. But in a scenario where stakeholders and collaborations may have varying degrees of technical or industry knowledge, communication makes or breaks the project. Lack of communication and collaboration leads to misunderstandings, misaligned expectations, and ultimately, project failure.

Solution: Establish Open & Transparent Communication

Encourage open and transparent communication among all stakeholders from the first meeting. A culture of collaboration and open discussion keeps everyone aligned. This affects all parts of the project, from planning to regular updates and project reviews.

Reason 6: Unforeseen Technical Issues or Hidden Complexity

Technical issues and complexity can also lead to software development project failure. Projects that are too complex, have unrealistic timelines or require cutting-edge technology can quickly become overburdened and fail. Often business processes can seem simple to those that are responsible for them every day. But software developers might not be familiar with these processes, which may undercover complexities that those day-to-day managers might not consider as they view the operations through a different lens.

Solution: Accept Known Unknowns

Even the most well-planned projects uncover additional complexities or questions as they go. It is nearly impossible to account for every unknown. However, that doesn’t diminish the importance of realistically assessing the technical requirements of the project. The better the development team understands the processes and logic, the earlier they can untangle complexities and estimate the effort.

Reason 7: Scope Creep / Loss of Direction

Software development is exciting, and many creative ideas occur during the process. Often, these new ideas are outside the original scope and intent of the application. It is easy to lose sight of the original intent and add features to the application that you think the end users will love.

Adding features to an application will increase the development effort required and increase the cost. The additional scope will also lengthen the timeline.

Adding complexity can also make an application less intuitive. This can make the learning curve for an application steeper and may require additional training for the end users.

Solution: Stick to The Plan

It is typically easier to know what functions will fill the original need rather than to try to predict all the features a user might like. It’s best to start with the development of a Minimum Viable Product that solves the problem or fills the need with the minimum functionality required. You can always add additional features in a later release.

Strong Product Management plays a key role in ensuring the development process does not go off track and sticks to the original intent of the application. Never lose sight of the main reason why you decided to develop the application at the start.

It is important to consider this issue when using an Agile development methodology. Because Agile methodologies are intended to allow a team to pivot and make changes to the scope throughout the development process, it is very easy to get off-track. When using an Agile development process it is still very important to have a simple product roadmap that provides a clear direction for the application development and to stick to the plan.

Software Development Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

Software development projects can be challenging and complex, but with proper planning, management, and execution, they can be successful. By understanding the common causes of project failure and taking steps to mitigate these risks, organizations can ensure that their software development projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

The post Why Software Development Projects Fail: Common Causes and Solutions appeared first on Saritasa.

Without a plan, your journey would likely be beset by all manner of wrong turns, distractions, and visits to unintended places. You may even be misguided or taken advantage of by ill-informed or ill-intentioned people. That dream of a shiny new product could quickly become a nightmare, as resources drain away, leaving your travel log filled with lost time and opportunities.

This is a grim picture. You may think I’m being overly dramatic, but the IT world is filled with product junkyards; a landscape littered with unfulfilled promises and unrealized dreams. Without proper planning and a qualified team, the odds are uncomfortably high that your product will end up in this proverbial product junkyard. The larger the project, the greater the risk. Conversely, with a good plan and the right team, your odds of success go way up!

What is a Product Plan?

A product plan is a strategic document that maps out your new product, from vision to deployment, over time. The product plan should include a vision statement, your business strategy, the purpose of the product, the intended audience, and the value it adds, such as competitive differentiators. It may include some competitive analysis or market research, often found in a business plan.

The product plan includes the product’s functional requirements, as well as highlights the key functional components needed for a minimum viable product (MVP). It identifies “must-have” versus “wish-list” items and the priorities of each into phases, as part of the larger product timeline. The plan should also identify technology platforms and key architectural markers. For example, is it used internally or is it subscription-based (e.g.: Software as a Service or SaaS, etc.)?

In its essence, the product plan is a roadmap that helps to guide strategic decisions and plans for execution.  It is a document that all stakeholders should align with before starting any development.

Top-Down Leadership: The Right Mentality

The value of proper planning simply cannot be overstated, especially in large and complex projects.  This article is not an instruction guide on product planning. There are plenty of resources on road mapping concepts, methodologies, and tools.  Rather, my focus here is on the “whys”, not the “how-to’s”, of product planning as well as the key business relationship with a technology partner.

Successful projects, at the most basic level, begin with the right mentality. Embarking on a software project can be like venturing into foreign lands; the more prepared you are the better. Good planning is something any business, large or small, should understand and care about. Planning is the best way to reduce risk and uncertainty and accomplish achievable, measurable goals.

You may be wondering … “why should I concern myself with this?  I just delegate all this planning to my employees or consultants anyway.  That’s what I pay them for!”

Indeed, product/project managers, IT Managers, architects, and developers are largely responsible for creating, validating, and implementing the plan. However, successful business leaders and product owners understand the value of getting involved early in the process when a top-down mentality is most important.

There’s significant value in engaging early in the planning stages. Engaging in creative visioning, road mapping, requirements gathering, key decision-making, and regular project check-ins will help ensure the project remains aligned with your business goals. Now, there are certainly times when being a hands-off boss is appropriate.  You don’t want the team to feel micro-managed, but that’s not a good excuse for a lack of engagement in the project.

Product Planning – Mind the Gap

Every project can benefit from good planning.  Naturally, as depth and complexity increase, planning becomes increasingly crucial. Big dreams often clash with poor execution, false starts, cost overruns, and outright failures.  Why are these problems so prevalent in software development? There are several reasons why projects go sideways.

Here’s my Top 5 list of focus areas to keep in mind while putting together your product plan:

1.) Identify a Product Manager

A good product manager will keep front of mind where technology intersects with business. This is not the project manager, who runs the day-to-day of the project, but rather an individual focused on the overall vision. They understand that business analysis and strategy are critical to ensuring that the Right Solutions are developed for the Right Audience(s), in the Right Way.

The product manager is responsible for the roadmap. A roadmap is recommended for any type of software project, be it internal or customer-facing. The greater the size and complexity, the greater the need. A seasoned business analyst, product engineer, or product manager will expertly walk the line between the needs of the customers, the business, and its stakeholders.

2.) Avoid Shortcuts

As discussed, poor up-front planning is often to blame for poor product quality.  It can have a ripple effect that leads to poor user experiences and back-end technical choices, from architecture, technology stack, programming quality, QA, and deployment.

Poor planning results in a lot of technical debt.

What is technical debt?  Wikipedia defines it as “the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer.”  For software development projects, this means avoiding shortcuts!

3.) Right-Size Your Budget

Proper estimating and budgeting are critical.  If the developer’s estimate isn’t realistic or properly vetted, or if a client’s budget isn’t realistic – note that these often go together – problems tend to build slowly and accumulate over time, resulting in unmet expectations and an increasingly acrimonious relationship.

Developer bids can be deceiving (whether purposeful or unintentional), and “comparable” estimates can be surprisingly far apart. How does one reconcile conflicting bids?  For starters, make sure you’re comparing apples to apples. When it comes to product requirements and technical implementation details, take the time to get a clear picture up-front about what to expect.

4.) The Devil’s in the Details

Before tying the knot, you should take the time to understand the developer’s internal processes specifically, how they structure their software projects. Do they have a formal process in place?  Can they explain it to you? Who’s your project manager (day-to-day contact)? Are they in the States?  What’s the time difference? How well do they communicate in English?

Understand the pre-development process.  What can you expect before they start coding?  Is there road mapping, whiteboarding, storyboarding, UI/UX, and design collaboration?  Are milestones agreed-upon? Do they encourage a client check-in and sign-off process? The bottom line is that you should feel that the developer has a solid process in place and is forthcoming and transparent about it.

Finally, when it comes to pricing, always compare hours estimates, not cost estimates.  Any major discrepancy in hours should raise a red flag and prompt a deeper dive, as cost estimates are easier to fudge.  Inaccurate or low-ball estimates can arise from a) different understandings of the requirements and complexities of a project; b) different approaches and technical toolsets; or c) lower-quality developers or an insufficient development team.

5.) Say No To “Yes-Men”

Poor planning can also result in having an imbalanced team or the wrong team for the job.  A lack of creative collaboration and poor communication are telltale signs of an imbalanced team. Cross-team collaboration is the key to avoiding common software product missteps and pitfalls.

This can be caused by a disconnect between the client (or visionary) and their technical counterparts. Often, this can be traced back to a lack of up-front preparation, consultation, and planning – which could indicate a poor fit with the technology partner.

If a client is surrounded by “yes-men,” or the IT team is afraid to ruffle the client’s feathers, it can result in a creative vacuum, where team members are afraid to voice opinions or actively participate in creative brainstorming.  A healthy team encourages all members to think outside the box and respectfully challenge assumptions. This helps avoid and address blind spots or inherent biases early in the process.

The planning process will include some or all of the following: requirements gathering sessions, existing system walk-throughs, client interviews, defining user personas and the user journey, etc.  The consultant will help identify workflow bottlenecks and areas of opportunity.  They should help to identify the different needs of various departments or stakeholders and use this to inform the roadmap and feature priorities.

IT Product Planning is Business Planning

Technology should never sit idle. Maintaining the status quo is not enough. Businesses of every stripe and size rely on technology. Even non-technical businesses can’t afford to sit on the sidelines while time and technology pass them by. At a minimum, every company needs software to effectively run internal sales, business development, and finance operations. Yet, many businesses still limp along, year after year with outdated or inefficient systems.

The roadmap is a great tool to help clarify your business goals as they align with your technology strategy.  It provides a structure where plans are documented, evolved, and agreed upon.  The plan also serves as a means for aligning the team on the vision and for holding them accountable.  It helps to establish priorities and define milestones, which are key to managing budgets and/or investors.

If you’ve had bad experiences with software development in the past, this combination of pre-sales consulting, proper planning, and a reliable, professional technology partner will make all the difference. As you explore growth opportunities, you’ll need to tackle several thorny issues, which a good technology partner should help you navigate. These insider tips can help you avoid the worst IT mistakes and avoid your product becoming just another roadside casualty.

We Can Help

If you’re planning a new product or giving your current product a makeover, you’ll most likely need external help. Evaluating potential technology partners early in the process can help to forge a healthy, trusted relationship.  To learn more about what to look for in this critical business relationship, keep an eye out for my follow-up article “Choosing the Right Technology Partner”.

Saritasa has deep experience helping companies build custom software solutions and evolve or replace their aging tools. Through a balanced process of consultation, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary IT expertise, we help our clients create everything from innovative, cutting-edge apps to professional-grade “run the business” workflow management systems.

The post Roadmap to the Future | 5 Tips for Mapping Your Product Plan appeared first on Saritasa.

Common DevOps Tools – Kubernetes & Terraform

As mentioned in my previous post, Kubernetes and Terraform are important components of DevOps. Kubernetes can be almost synonymous with DevOps, it’s very hard to separate the two. It is important to note that Kubernetes and Terraform are platform agnostic. They work with any cloud hosting platform and are not specific to AWS or Azure.

Kubernetes is an open-source application that aids with container orchestration. It helps automate deployment, scale, and networking. It makes it easier for DevOps engineers and developers to manage Containers.

Terraform is a tool that enables engineers to set up a template for configuring a hosting environment. These templates are called Blocks or Terraform Blocks. Terraform can help configure cloud hosting environments like AWS or Azure. A Terraform Block could be set up to configure numerous cloud hosting services, like setting up EKS, RDS, and VPC on AWS. More on this in the next section.

AWS Cloud Services

A big part of the DevOps language is all the cloud services an application might use. Setting up, configuring, and maintaining all these services is part of a DevOps engineer’s job. Below is a list of these services with a short explanation of what they are. These are AWS services, but Azure and Google Cloud offer similar services which have different names. If hosting an application locally (on your dedicated servers), you would use various utilities to manage these same resources.

• Route53 – Manages all the DNS – Points mydomain.com to the right place on AWS
• VPC – Virtual Private Cloud – The internal network for all the stuff on AWS
• RDS – Relational Database Service – This allows you to set up any relational database on AWS. Relational databases include:
  • MySQL
  • SQL Server
  • PostgreSQL
  • Aurora (Amazon)
• EKS – Elastic Kubernetes Service – Amazon’s way of hosting Kubernetes
• NLB – Network Load Balancer – Balances the user load across multiple containers
• ECR – Elastic Container Registry – A directory for all the containers. It stores the containers we use and allows us to move them around easily.
• S3 – Storage – Think of this as disc space, but in the cloud.
• ElastiCache – Think of this as memory, enables better scaling and response time, like holding something in memory as opposed to a disc.
• SES or SendGrid – Email server
• EC2 – Elastic Compute Cloud – The cloud equivalent of a processor

Other DevOps Services

Not all DevOps services are specific to AWS. Here’s a list of tools we use in our DevOps process that are not specific to AWS.

• • Cert-Manager – Manages SSL (security) certifications in the cloud
  • Tekton – An open-source continuous integration / continuous deployment (CI/CD) framework that helps standardize tooling and processes across languages and environments.
  • Argo-CD – A continuous deployment framework that automates the deployment of application versions, aka version control. Version control helps keep deployments auditable, trackable, and, easy to understand.
  • Grafana – Monitoring tool for optimal application performance. This tool enables the user to create custom dashboards to display performance and resource usage metrics. We use a set of standard dashboards for all our implementations so that any of our DevOps Engineers can easily understand the state of any application deployment.
  • Prometheus – Used to collect metrics and integrated with Grafana
    • Alert Manager – Works with Prometheus to route alerts. For example: send an email to Devops if something is slow.
    • Loki / Promtail – Manages application log files and allows you to query all of them at once.
    • Tempo/Open Telemetry/Jaeger – Tracing tools, monitoring performance, and troubleshooting transactions
    • Velero – is used for backups
  • Teleport – Security platform that enables the management of access for everything in one place.

The Importance of a Standardized DevOps Process

There are many tools and services used to manage a DevOps process for an application hosted in the cloud. While this may seem like overkill, many of these tools are critical for a seamless flow from development to deployment. Consider that you must maintain and manage three typical environments for an application; Development (where the coding happens), Staging (Where QA and Testing happened), and Production (where the end users access the application). Maintaining and managing all the services for each environment while migrating code from one environment to another is a complex process with many moving parts and a lot of little details. It is good to have a well-formed and standardized set of tools and services to avoid any performance issues or application downtime.

At Saritasa we use a standardized deployment to AWS using the same toolset and set of services so that each deployment we perform is very similar. Doing so means that any of our DevOps engineers are immediately familiar with any deployment. There is no reliance on specific application knowledge to maintain the process day to day. This provides a high level of redundancy within our DevOps team; any engineer can work on any application efficiently with little or no ramp-up time.

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Powerful business automation software spurred improvements in our work lives, giving us sweet relief from tedious tasks and drudgery. Email dramatically sped up communications and untethered us from fax machines. Tools like MS Word/Excel/Access, relational databases, and SQL helped free us from laborious tasks and reams of paperwork.

In addition to improved working conditions, businesses saw competitive advantages as automation tools created efficiencies. New technology allowed them to react faster to changing market conditions, and improve workflow processes, customer response times, and so on.  These changes were so profound that it’s hard to even imagine life and work before them; for those born in the ‘90s or later, it must be truly incomprehensible.

That was (gasp) 30 years ago?!

Time has a strange way of creeping up on you. 30 years or so have passed and yet, peek behind the curtain of many businesses today that grew up during that time and you’ll see employees still banging away on systems that are 10, 20, and even 30 years old. What was once transformative has grown outdated. Inflexible software, decentralized data, and siloed processes are shockingly inefficient compared to modern solutions.

The adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” unfortunately is too often the fallback position of executives when it comes to their aging IT infrastructure.  While it may have a ring of old-timey truthiness, it’s a very risky sentiment when it comes to IT.  Thousands of companies are still stuck in the 1990s or coping with stagnating IT infrastructure born out of that era.

The status quo will only serve so long before the high-speed, technologically driven world of today leaves you behind, or in a constant game of catch-up. Upstart companies with young talent, drive, and modern technology are achieving new levels of efficiency and reach. Competition is nipping at your heels.

While it can be difficult to make foundational IT changes, it really ought to be right up there at the top of your company’s New Year Resolutions.  Like most resolutions, it isn’t easy.  Demands pull you in multiple directions … maintaining legacy systems, managing servers, meetings, employee resources, customer demands, and so on.  However, it can be perilous to put off key technology upgrades, year after year.  The systems that underpin your operations are vital to the company’s health and growth.

The new year is the perfect opportunity to take stock and begin planning your IT roadmap.  If this resonates with you, then consider taking this time to seize the initiative to begin a top-down review of your current automation processes.  The first step should be to engage a professional business analyst and experienced development team that specializes in business workflow management systems, who can guide you and your team through the process.

Time & Technology Marches On… 

As time marches relentlessly forward, so does technology.  We’ve seen huge “tech-tonic” shifts. Perhaps the two most impactful are the massive adoption of cloud computing and the rapid evolution of powerful mobile devices.  These technological leaps are simply game-changing and cannot be ignored.

In short, cloud computing is on-demand internet computing.  Cloud computing has commoditized data processing and storage to such a degree that maintaining on-premise hardware is becoming increasingly hard to justify. The cloud has truly become an essential part of most modern workplaces. Cloud computing allows businesses to keep data and files on remote databases and retrieve them whenever they’re needed. The cloud enables remote data storage, databases, software, and servers.

The cloud simply makes good financial sense. It lowers IT costs significantly by removing the maintenance required by traditional office equipment. Your IT team will be happy to focus more on the delivery of IT rather than troubleshooting daily issues.

All of this innovation brings great opportunities as well as great confusion.  How is it that some companies run like well-oiled machines, while others flounder in inefficiencies and workflow bottlenecks? It comes down to making a top-down commitment to investing in IT and a ground-up approach to doing it the right way.  While growing pains around technology are normal, businesses must evolve their processes to remain both resilient and competitive.

The Frankenstein Effect

In more recent times, an explosion of 3^rd party tools and services (from APIs to web services to plugins) has helped businesses address specific bottlenecks, from automated email marketing, to form generation, shipping, data feeds, analytics, and so on.  Companies often end up with a hodge-podge of systems, taking the easier short-term band-aid approach; tackling immediate needs for the sake of expediency.  Over time, however, these will become unwieldy and untenable.

Disparate systems often don’t work and play well together; one hand (or department) doesn’t know what the other is doing and over time, data becomes increasingly decentralized and fragmented into multiple databases – some of which you may not even have control of or direct access to.  Any attempt at integration or data consolidation becomes either a pipe dream … or a nightmare.

This is the Frankenstein Effect.  A disjointed monster that has grown into something you can no longer understand or control.  It’s a very common problem that often leaves companies in a tough spot, as they wake to the realization of the severe limitations imposed by disparate systems, on top of the ongoing licensing costs.

This data fragmentation is often overlooked for short-term gains until management realizes that all of these tools are preventing them from being able to effectively assess and analyze the health of their business, using business intelligence and data-driven decision support tools – which rely on well-structured, consolidated, and aggregated data.

In practice, the optimal solution is to replace these separate in-house and 3^rd party tools and workarounds with a unified custom solution.  This process involves shifting the focus from siloed departments, groups, and servers, into a multi-departmental, holistic approach to the organization and its business processes.

A seasoned business analyst will map out your key data/process flows, identify bottlenecks, and pain points across the organization, and present solutions.  As objective outside observers, they can also help to align the goals of upper management with departmental stakeholders and the day-to-day needs of key users into a shared vision.  The result is an internal product roadmap that everyone can agree on.

By unifying your business processes into an integrated platform, data will seamlessly flow throughout the organization, in an easy-to-manage environment – that ultimately reduces costs, increases productivity, and provides data visibility across the company.  Done properly, your entire organization will realize a better work/life balance.

IT Culture is Key to Work/Life Balance

If your IT culture is stuck in the 90s or your systems and processes have become painfully inefficient, you will also struggle to attract and retain new talent.  The younger generations are technology-savvy, highly driven, and will add vitality and energy to your company.  Providing a positive work/life balance is critical in today’s culture and employee expectations around work.  Younger workers look upon a landscape of job opportunities, options, and perks like never before.  If your processes and culture are stuck in the past, it can create a barrier to entry to finding new talent.  So, consider a New Year’s Resolution that will stick – and benefit your business for years to come.

We Can Help

Saritasa has deep experience helping companies build custom software solutions. We’ve seen it all … the good, the bad, and the ugly!  Through a process of business analysis, collaborative planning, and agile development, we develop unique workflow management solutions to address our client’s aging IT infrastructure, modernizing your processes and helping you grow into a brighter, more balanced future.  Together, we can help make it a Happy New Year!

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DevOps often feels like another language. This article is intended to help clear up some of the confusion surrounding the basic concepts of DevOps and why it’s so important to your software projects.

Basic Concepts – DevOps, CI/CD, Containerization, & Cloud Hosting

Let’s start with some basic concepts.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a method that combines the software development teams and the operations teams into one group that works together. Some even describe it as a culture. The people that develop the software (developers) work hand in hand with the people that test the software (QA) and the people that deploy the software and manage the applications running on bare-metal servers or in the cloud (DevOps engineers). For more on how it evolved, see my previous blog post.

What is CI/CD?

Another core concept here is that of Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery or CI/CD. I like to equate CI/CD to Agile Software development. CI/CD is a set of steps (and in some cases quite large and complex) to ensure the safe delivery of the application developed and tested by the development team on the hardware running on-premises or in the cloud.  A properly designed CI/CD process enables the team to build, test, and deploy incremental pieces of an application rapidly (daily or even multiple times a day) with the least amount of human mistakes in the process.

What is Containerization?

The concept of Containerization is key to making everything run efficiently. Containerization refers to “packages” of everything required to support an application (like the server configuration, frameworks, libraries, network configuration, etc.) for quick deployment to a hosting environment. Equate it with moving everything in your home piece by piece, versus packing everything into boxes.

• Without Containerization, engineers build a development server piece by piece. They write the code (probably using libraries and a framework), set up the database, install any security measures or encryption certificates, etc. When it comes time to go to production, they need to replicate this whole environment, piece by piece, move it to the new environment/hosting, get it all up and running, and test it.
• With Containerization, the engineers distribute all that stuff into multiple containers that can run concurrently in single or multiple servers, then move these containers to any new environment all at once. In other words, the container bundles all the code and dependencies. One application can and should consist of many containers. Containers can hold different services and quickly deploy to most hosting environments (Local or Cloud). Containers can be scaled up or down separately – and this is the biggest advantage over standalone servers where scaling the server itself requires tremendous effort and upfront investment.

How Are Cloud and DevOps Connected?

All this typically happens in the cloud. Understanding some basics of the Cloud Environment can help. When most people think of DevOps we think in terms of the cloud. The cloud automates processes and removes the heavy lifting of manual tasks. Most larger applications are hosted in the cloud for a reason. That is because one can rent unlimited hardware, and return it without paying any upfront investment. It’s easy and fast

Servers owned and housed by a private company to support only that companies’ applications (local private hosting) can implement DevOps. If you use private servers, then you must manage all aspects of the environment, such as networking, storage, redundancy, firewalls, load balancers, etc. You need to monitor application health and performance, manage the DNS routing between servers, balance network, and server load, manage SSL certificates, and manage security.

That’s not to say the cloud handles everything. You still need to consider how to manage all these aspects of your environment. Often cloud requires decisions on which tools to implement, but a lot of the manual maintenance and housekeeping is automated. For example, if you are hosting an application yourself, you may need to manage storage space, power equipment, AC equipment, etc. In comparison, cloud storage is elastically scalable and will dynamically scale to meet the current requirements automatically. However, even in a cloud environment, you will still need to monitor application performance and reliability yourself to ensure you maintain a responsive application.

Common DevOps Tools – Kubernetes & Terraform

Kubernetes comes up frequently in the conversation around DevOps. It’s a cool name, but what is it? Kubernetes is an open-source application that helps with container orchestration. It helps automate deployment, scale, and networking. It makes it easier for DevOps engineers and developers to manage Containers.

Terraform is a tool that enables engineers to set up infrastructure as code which allows programmatic management and maintenance of any infrastructure. Using terraform someone with proper skills can configure any cloud like AWS or Azure. A Terraform code could configure numerous cloud services (like setting up EKS,   RDS, and VPC on AWS … I explain this in another post) and any on-premises solutions like VMWare.

The Benefits of DevOps

By now, hopefully, these terms are starting to come together. But now that you understand the terminology – what are the benefits?

Easier On-going Maintenance

Deploying an application to the cloud isn’t the end – it’s the beginning. You still need to monitor your system to react proactively should any issues arise. A central console provides an easier way to keep an eye on the health of your system. Small issues are immediately spotted and fixed before they snowball into larger ones.

Avoid Knowledge Concentration

Properly configured, DevOps creates standardized processes and a set of tools. No single individual has all the information in their head. This enables any DevOps engineer to work on any project.

Faster Releases

As mentioned earlier, CI/CD allows for smaller, more frequent atomic and incremental releases. These releases are less prone to large, system-breaking bugs because smaller chunks of code are easier to test than large modules. It also enables quicker fixes and pivots based on user feedback. Rather than waiting weeks or months to roll out huge version updates, smaller chunks of functionality roll out regularly.  Small, frequent fixes deployed quickly allow for faster issue resolution.

Greater Scalability and Reliability

Because of the standardization built into a sound DevOps methodology, you can scale your environment to support application load quickly and the whole is more reliable. Also, because logic rules can automatically restart processes and quickly alert to performance issues, the application is much more fault tolerant.

We Can Help

I hope this helps you better understand some of the concepts and tools surrounding DevOps. If this all seems like a lot to learn, don’t sweat it, Saritasa’s got you covered. We provide full DevOps services. Whether we built the project or take it over, we can help. We put a lot of time and effort into developing a DevOps service offering that is cost-effective, redundant, and utilizes the best tools available.

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Over the years, we’ve worked with hundreds of non-technical clients who turned to us for their first software projects. Based on those experiences, we’ve put together a list of the top 3 mistakes people who are new to software development make on projects to help you avoid them. 

Mistake #1: Underestimating The Language Barrier

Communication is a two-way street. Some of the biggest issues stem from a misunderstanding – either of requirements, expectations, or solutions. Translating complex technical concepts into layman’s terms is no easy task. Entire job roles exist for that purpose (hello product engineers!). 

But it’s not just technical terminology that can cause gaps in understanding. The language of software development confuses many non-technical people, but the same is often true in reverse. When working with your team, you likely use industry or company-specific terminology. Technologists are specialists in their field, but not in healthcare or logistics or finance, or other sectors. 

Solution: Over-Communication 

Don’t be afraid to clarify terminology and ask questions. Even better, go the extra mile and define common terminology you use within your own industry. 

Practice patience. You didn’t learn your job overnight – nor will you understand all the intricacies of development right away. The best way to learn is through experience. Remain diligent, ask questions, and embrace the process.

Mistake #2: Getting Stuck on the Wrong Things

This mistake most often comes up during the wireframing and design phases. It’s exciting when you first get your hands on something tangible. The problem? Often people get caught up in the details, like stock imagery or filler copy. In this early stage,  it’s not about the content but rather the structure and outline of the page or the way menus work. 

The main concern during the wireframing phase of a project is to make sure the functionality you would like is represented. Don’t be too concerned about the look, that comes later during the design phase. When looking at designs you should look at the color and feel of the design as well as the layout, don’t be concerned about the text content or images. Pay attention to the layout of the text and the area available, you need to make sure there is enough room to communicate what you like.   

Solution: Clarify Feedback Expectations

Many development projects follow an agile model, with biweekly sprints focusing on smaller pieces of functionality. Check out our article on development methodologies for more information on agile development.

Whenever you receive a deliverable, ask your developer what you should be evaluating. For wireframes, it’ll likely be the page structure and user flows. For designs, review the colors and page elements. Make sure you understand the objective of each sprint and provide feedback accordingly. 

Mistake #3: Simple to Explain =/= Simple to Build 

Just because it is simple to explain (and understand) a workflow or process or feature needed in a software application, it does not mean it is also simple actually to develop. 

For example, you want to add the capability for a user to add/upload a document to your existing online form submission. Sounds simple – we’ve all encountered this capability online. And, this is relatively simple to develop. However, to do it correctly, the code should do a lot more than just accept the file and store it in a database on a server.  Code needs to account for user considerations, security issues, error handling, data storage, and retrieval capabilities. Here are a few examples:

• What kind of file types will be allowed to be uploaded?
• Are the files free of any viruses or malware?
• What is the maximum upload size?
• Did the entire file transfer from the user’s browser to the database?
• How do we give the user feedback on the transfer and success (or failure)?
• What happens if the user’s internet connection fails during the transfer?
• Can the user delete and upload a different document if they accidentally uploaded the wrong one?

This is the case for just about every feature or functionality that a software application can perform. 

Solution: Don’t Assume Anything is Simple

You know what they say about assumptions – they make fools of everyone. No matter how simple a concept or functionality seems, there could be a number of “behind-the-scenes” complexities that make it anything but “simple” to develop. For a deeper dive, check out our article on the hidden complexities of development.

It All Comes Down to Trust

All that being said, there’s a reason you hired a professional development firm to build your software rather than doing it yourself. You rely on them for their experience, knowledge, and skills. There will be decisions around technology stacks, architectural structures, and more that you may not understand. Each choice will have ramifications for the current project and future maintenance. If you choose the right software development firm, they will have your best interests at heart for every decision, but it may be difficult to explain the technical reasoning behind it. This is where trust comes in.

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During your research, you will likely encounter a wide range of quotes, making it difficult to determine a realistic budget. But there is more to consider than just price. In the spirit of the budget-planning season, we put together the top 5 tips for preparing next year’s software budget.

Define An MVP

When it comes to custom software, the cost is entirely dependent on what you ask for. Software estimates reflect complexity. The more complex the project, the more effort it takes to build (and the more hours of development time) which leads to higher costs. Part of the draw of custom software is how much control you have over designing the system. It’s easy to get lost in the possibilities and define a robust product. That’s where an MVP comes in handy.

What is an MVP?

A minimum viable product, or MVP, is an initial product stripped down to the core functionality. It has only the critical features, or enough functionality to validate a product concept and appeal to early adopters. We have an entire article on defining MVPs, but the general idea is to separate your features between “need to haves” and “nice to haves” to cut costs and focus on what is most important.

A benefit of an MVP-centered approach, especially a well-documented one, is that it helps avoid costly scope creep. 

Rome was not built in a day – and neither are most software products. One of the benefits of custom software is its flexibility. You control all the functionality. As your needs evolve, so can your software. When you focus on an MVP, you get a solid foundation to build on. 

Plan for Realistic Timelines

Good software, like all good things, takes time. Often more than you may think. Be sure to consider timelines in your budget proposal. As most projects span several months, you can break up your budget proposal into quarters. 

Ensure you work with a realistic timeline. It is not unusual for clients to reach out looking for turnaround times of 2 or 3 months only to find their project will take significantly longer. The good news is that most developers bill as they work, so longer timelines mean spending spreads out throughout the project. 

When under a time crunch, adding more resources to the project to speed up development is tempting. After all, five developers working in tandem should finish the project five times faster, right? Not quite. Often larger teams work less efficiently while billing more hours. Plus, there are diminishing returns. While a large team may sound like the solution to a rapidly approaching deadline, you will likely end up with a significantly larger bill and only marginally faster results. 

The most efficient way to develop is with as small of a team as possible. This ensures smooth communication between all parties involved and high attention to detail. However, small teams take longer – which is where planning comes in. Plan ample time for development to ensure the best results. 

How long does a software project take to complete?

On average, software projects take 5-6 months to build out, though it is not unusual for them to stretch to 8 months or more. For smaller projects, or rushed builds, they can come in around 4 months.

Why do software projects take so long?

Software development involves far more than coding. It is a blend of dozens of unique skillsets creating a product out of a concept. The process includes UI/UX design, architecture planning, and testing. For a complete guide to the software development lifecycle, check out our article here. 

Plan ample time for each stage to avoid cutting corners or rushing the end product. Nothing is worse than releasing a buggy platform to meet a deadline. 

Remember Estimates Are Not Set In Stone

While focusing on an MVP helps control scope creep and some unexpected costs, there will still be unknowns that can impact your project. “Known unknowns” are a staple of development. The design phase may uncover additional requirements while defining the user flow. Other times certain pieces of functionality turn out more complex than previously thought. Or maybe the 3rd party API requires workarounds to use. 

On the topic of 3rd party integrations – this kind of work is notoriously difficult to estimate accurately. Unless your developer has worked with the same integration before, it is almost impossible to know how complex the integration is before getting started. You have no control over a third party’s code, which may or may not be well-documented and easy to implement.

Ideally, your developer will consider this in their estimate. The scope should define some assumptions. In most cases, the estimate you receive will be a range of hours rather than a fixed amount.  

If you have spoken to multiple developers, you probably already know this. Estimates fluctuate depending on a variety of factors. Not only can the costs vary based on unknowns, but they vary from developer to developer. Not all developers are created equal. Those with experience in similar projects may work more efficiently. On the other hand, developers who have built a similar system may know more about the hidden complexities. Higher estimates reflect that.

Plan to budget for 150% of the estimate. You won’t necessarily spend all of the budgets, but if something goes array, you will be glad to have a cushion. 

Unexpected costs are never welcome, but that leads us to the next tip…

Find A Developer You Trust – And Stick With Them

Code is another language. More than that, it is most easily understood by the one that wrote it. When developers work on the same project for a long time, they get into a flow with the code. New developers need time to learn the intricacies of the code, even well-documented and structured code.  

Switching developers midway through a project will negatively affect your budget. That is not to say you should stay with a developer that is not delivering what you want. Sometimes a switch is inevitable. In which case, you may need to resort to a code takeover. Just understand that any time you move developers, you will incur additional costs from onboarding that could balloon your software budget. Whether you hire internally or outsource development, the sentiment remains the same. 

Find a developer you can trust and stick with them. You will benefit from a team that knows your code and works efficiently. 

Don’t Forget Maintenance Costs

Just like anything else, code needs maintenance to continue to function. Once you launch your new platform, you will still need developers to maintain the codebase. And, if you build an MVP, there is bound to be additional functionality added over time. 

Security, server maintenance, and release management require resources too. As technology evolves, the ecosystems to maintain and care for software systems become more complex. DevOps is the latest practice to implement updates and control the health and security of your solution. As DevOps is new (read about the evolution here), the resources are costly but often well worth the investment. 

There are other ongoing costs beyond code maintenance as well. You will need to pay for servers, hosting, licenses, API fees, and more. These costs vary and grow as your platform does. Factor all these costs into your software budget. 

Investing in new software can be intimidating. Often it may feel like a whole new world – and not always in a good way. But the right development partner will guide you through the process. As you plan for next year’s software budget, invest in deep conversations with potential developers, and keep in mind these tips. Above all, good luck!

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