Many businesses choose custom software development to build bespoke software systems from scratch that meet their unique requirements. While there is a long list of benefits of choosing custom software over off-the-shelf solutions, it can also be risky if you fail to find the right development partner or run into crucial issues or unforeseen situations.
The process of undertaking a software project consists of many high-stake steps such as finding a reliable partner, aligning project outcomes with your business goals, and keeping the project deliverables on track. And there are many things that can possibly go wrong.
Even the most meticulously-planned projects get derailed when they run into unexpected problems. Studies show that over 60% of technology projects result in complete or partial failure mainly due to a number of unforeseen issues that arise during the course of the project, and secondly, because of the inability of the management and development team to properly tackle the challenges.
If you are a business stuck in the midst of a rocky project, don’t let it become a total failure. By planning a project rescue strategy according to goodcore.co.uk, you can save your project and steer it back on track. Let’s find out more about how you can rescue your software project.
What is Project Rescue?
Project rescue refers to services where professional software providers take over software projects that are facing critical issues and risk failure. Instead of giving up on the project, many project owners seek specialized software project rescue services to have software experts diagnose their projects and troubleshoot the problems within them.
This usually involves a complete project takeover, where the new rescue team takes charge from the original development team and implements fixes to stabilize the project.
Many businesses seek software rescue services when their ongoing projects go wrong for a number of reasons such as budgetary issues, low-quality products, development team problems, communication troubles, and incompetency of developers.
Following are some of the most common scenarios where businesses need outside help in the form of project rescue to save their existing venture:
- The development team abandons the project – developers go out of business or leave projects halfway through leaving businesses in hot water, this is when project rescue services come in handy. Business owners find a new team that can take over the source code and existing work and successfully complete the project.
- Incompetent or inexperienced developers – developers fail to comprehend the complex technical requirements of the project and struggle with it once the development work starts.
- Insufficient initial planning – Businesses and developers don’t plan the components of the project in-depth leading to an unrealistic timeline of deliverables.
- The project becomes too complex – the changing requirements make the project too big and complex for the in-house team resulting in the business looking for third-party rescue teams to take over the project.
- Business disputes and legal troubles – the partnership between the business and the existing development team fails leading to legal disputes and contractual issues.
- Loss of customers due to poor quality – the development team delivers a finished software product but it is riddled with bugs and issues and the business begins losing its customers because of the low-quality product.
All of these scenarios are common occurrences in the software development industry and project rescue is a way to save to your project if you ever find yourself in such situations.
Types of Software Project Rescue Services
Every project is different and depending on its unique circumstances, development companies offer software rescue services that cover different ways to recover the project from turning into a complete disaster. These services usually cover the following:
- Complete source code takeover
- Reconstruction and recovery of lost source code
- Comprehensive code review to identify problem areas and potential solutions
- Code rewriting for some parts of the application
- Renewal of legacy systems
- Updation and completion of technical documentation
- Resolvement of database integration issues
- Thorough software quality assurance
How Software Rescue Works
Businesses that are facing project crises prefer their rescue partner to take over instantly to salvage the project, but it is impossible to start right away because the new team requires appropriate time to understand the software project and diagnose the sources of problems.
Since every project is different, there is no standard timeframe for project rescue, but the following are the phases of the rescue process that you have to go through:
1. Auditing and assessing the existing system
The audit phases can last for a few weeks for large-scale projects or last a few days for fairly straightforward projects.
2. The new dedicated team takes charge
Once the project is audited, the development company puts together a dedicated development team according to the project requirements. The team often includes frontend developers, backend developers, technical architects, QA engineers, and a project manager.
3. Review of the source code and documentation
The dedicated rescue team reviews the existing source code and technical documentation of the project to diagnose the issues and problematic areas.
4. Comprehensive project testing
The rescue team tests the project thoroughly to identify bugs and errors.
5. Fixing all the bugs and issues
All the issues and errors identified by the rescue time are fixed during this phase. This usually involves rewriting some parts of the existing code and implementing new fixes.
6. Further feedback via UAT
User acceptance testing (UAT) provides further feedback on the software system and the issues faced by the end-users.
7. Repeat the process of testing
The process of testing and bug-fixing repeat until perfection is achieved and all targets are met. This is when the software system is ready to be released to the end-users.
8. Deployment
Once the software is thoroughly tested and you are satisfied with its quality, the software is rolled out to the end-users.
9. Post-launch maintenance and support
After successful rescue and deployment of the software system, many businesses avail maintenance and support services to keep their software up and running post-launch. Whether you are planning to start your software development project or you are already underway, it is important to understand that your project can run into critical issues that might need rescuing.
Development issues can happen – especially if you are working with a new and under-experienced software development partner. Therefore, it is crucial to find a reliable development partner for your project from the get-go, and if you ever find your project in serious trouble you should turn to project rescue to bring your project back on track instead of giving up.
