Recently, many enterprises have been propagating the principle of building products faster. The aim has been to launch the product in the market before the competition and capture the customer base. It’s the classic example of an early bird catching the worm.

However, did you know that over 65% of such software projects were not completed on time or went over budget? This is not due to a flaw in the practice itself. Practices like agile are crucial for developing and launching software faster in the market and continuously improving and innovating the product to meet the customer and market needs. The issue lies in the lack of clear specifications and requirement documentation. Research shows that projects with clear requirements are 97% more likely to succeed. 

Without a vision or specific requirements, an enterprise could face issues such as:

• No clarity on the solution: In a hurry to release new solutions or features faster, enterprises often compromise on project requirements. They don’t brainstorm ideas enough with other teams and start working on the solution without proper clarity. This leads to misunderstandings between the teams and results in a waste of valuable time, cost, and resources. Even if the solution is built eventually, it might not meet the customer’s expectations.

• Too many solution scopes: Sometimes, enterprises include plenty of features in the solution’s scope. Although well-intentioned, a lack of well-documented scope could lead to budget overruns, delays in project completion, and a product with too many inessential features. 

• Poor solution management: A project requirement document includes all the details about the solution, milestones, communication matrix between team members, and more. Without this document, the enterprise will have no clarity on the goals, milestones, and metrics. This could lead to solutions derailing midway and enterprises losing money and time. 

• Unrealistic expectations: Without a proper roadmap, the development team will have to deal with unrealistic timelines, a tight budget, and complex requirements. This creates unnecessary pressure on developers and often results in developers compromising on the product’s quality and customer satisfaction. 

Enterprises must approach a consultant before coding to avoid these problems and release high-quality tech solutions on time. 

How Can Consultation Solve These Problems?

Developing a tech solution involves several factors besides coding. You have to gather requirements, understand the solution's scope, hire and train resources, and choose tools, frameworks, and technologies that can help meet those requirements. It is impossible to do all these activities without the help of a consultant. A tech consultant is an expert who provides enterprise guidance and advisory services. They have the knowledge, skills, and experience to help enterprises overcome roadblocks and build successful tech solutions. 

They help enterprises determine the solution scope from plenty of ideas, document the requirements to keep track, set realistic goals and timelines, and ensure successful solution development. 

Typically, tech consultation involves:

• Developing a multiple-solution approach: Every enterprise has different business needs and challenges. Thus, there can’t be a one-size-fits-all solution for all problems. Consultants can offer multiple solutions and empower enterprises to choose the right one based on business needs, budget, available resources, and timelines. A multiple-solution approach will allow enterprises to weigh the pros and cons of every solution and make informed decisions. It will also help consultants develop a tailored solution scope and a roadmap to implement the solution successfully. 

• Developing strategies: Once the enterprise decision-makers approve the roadmap, the consultant helps them build a strategy that aligns with their vision. Based on project requirements, they evaluate and recommend frameworks, technologies, and tools and document and share the technical specifications with consultants to guide them through the development phase. They ensure the developers adhere to all the coding standards and best practices to build a secure and successful solution.

• Aligning designs with solution requirements: To ensure a smooth user experience, the consultant collaborates with the design teams to align the designs with the solution’s requirements. They help designers balance user-friendly designs and the product's technical complexities. 

• Ensuring timely delivery: In this stage, the consultants ensure that the tech solutions have undergone rigorous testing and quality assurance and comply with industry standards. They also provide training and support to relevant teams to ensure a seamless transition from development to implementation. 

• Making continuous improvement a norm: Even after successful implementation, the consultant guides the stakeholders to iterate the solution based on client feedback and changing business needs. 

How Consultation Before Coding Can Benefit Enterprises?

Undoubtedly, consultation before coding serves various benefits to enterprises. It helps:

• Save time and costs: By helping developers choose the right tools, technologies, and frameworks and creating a roadmap, consultants ensure that the developers are not overwhelmed by too many options and new requirements and focus on building what matters the most to achieve the business goals. This helps enterprises save time and costs when developing solutions.

• Streamline the coding process: The process can go haywire when project requirements, milestones, or business goals are unclear, or coding procedures are manual and redundant. Consultants understand the existing processes and workflows and suggest improvements such as automation to alleviate the challenges. This helps streamline the coding process and allows developers to focus on building world-class tech solutions instead of bothering about the nitty-gritty of the process. 

• Accelerate time-to-market: By helping developers focus on the most critical requirements and building a roadmap, consultants ensure that everybody is aligned with the shared business goal. The planned approach reduces misunderstandings, confusion, and decision paralysis among different teams. It enables all teams to develop, test, iterate, and launch products in the market before others.

• Enhance business outcomes: Since enterprises are clear about the objectives to be achieved and the different milestones before coding, there is less confusion or miscommunication throughout the process. It helps all teams to stay aligned and build only what’s documented. This helps them stay on track and achieve their business goals. Additionally, consultants help enterprises track and measure the outcomes and make continuous iterations to improve the product and delight customers. 

At InovarTech, our team of consultants helps enterprises identify new opportunities, develop strategies to capitalize on them, and then transform their businesses to stay agile and responsive in this hyper-competitive business landscape. 

For more information on our consultation services, contact us.