You might want to update a piece of software that was developed last year or 5 years ago. It might be as small as adding a couple fields or showing some information differently. Making changes to existing software can be very easy and it can be very difficult. It really depends on the quality of the software you have.
There is a lot of software that has been strung together over the years and hasn’t been properly maintained. You can think of it as a house that started out as a shack and has grown by adding additions. If the builder was careful and ensured all the beams and walls lined up well, the house would be fairly easy to modify. However, if the builder didn’t do these things, it would be a mine field any time you wanted to make a change. This is probably not the news you wanted to hear, so let’s go to the good news.
The good news is that we have strategies to deal with poorly maintained software. When we work, the going is a bit slower, but we’re able to setup partitions in the software so that our changes have the least impact on the rest of the system. This way we don’t have to spend as much time fixing past mistakes and we can focus on making the changes you requested. The other piece of good news is that there are some great developers out there, and some of them may have worked on your system. If they have, making changes will be a breeze, there will be less chance of issues afterwards and everyone rides off into the sunset.
Our approach to dealing with software modification projects is the same as all our other projects, we use our 7 step process. First, we learn about your business and the problem that your facing. Second, we create flow chart diagrams of your process and how we can modify it to create an efficiency. We review the flow chart with you and ask for your insights. Once we’ve finalized the process changes, we create wireframes (low resolution photos) of the affected areas of the software. We review the wireframes with you to confirm that they make sense for your business. Then we build the software, where we use some special techniques specific to existing software projects. Finally we validate and deliver the update to you. A couple months after we deliver the software, we check in to see how the changes are working for you. This is a quick overview of our process. You can find a more formal listing of our building process at /our-building-process.
That’s all we have to say for now. We’d love to chat software with you. Choose a time that works best for you in the calendar below and we’ll get connected!
