Creating custom software for your organization has the capability to open many doors. With the right strategy, you can serve your customers in ways you never could before. Compounded with modern development techniques to quickly create software, the results are exciting. Be careful not to let the excitement get the best of you. It’s not uncommon for organizations to take value for granted in custom software.
Before long, anything and everything is put into custom software. For whatever reason, people assume automation and software are always the right thing to do. Many of these projects are marginally valuable at best.
But, projects of marginal value have no place in the world of custom software. Custom software comes with a host of expenses in the short, mid and long term. It’s not at all like purchasing software, though there are similarities. Unfortunately, the similarities lead people to invest in custom software with the same mindset of traditional, one size fits all software.
There are always costs you’ll be unaware of with custom software. Marginally valuable projects quickly burn through the little value possible. Especially in the mid to long term. Not to mention, creating custom software is often a learning process. Trying to plan every little detail is a waste of time, and not even possible. You have to have some margin to work with.
If you want to be wildly successful, you’ll tackle your highest value projects first. Doing this requires rules of thumb to quickly eliminate troublesome investments. If a custom software project isn’t worth several factors more than what it may cost, it’s not worth it. Taking it on is setting yourself up for failure. Use this to help prioritize what you invest in. Certainly, your list of really high value projects isn’t lacking, so why bother with marginally valuable projects?
What are you doing to identify and eradicate marginally valuable projects?