The cost of software development is always a sensitive subject. Regardless of how large your budget is, you don’t want it to exceed the estimated business value of your software product. On the other hand, you don’t want to sacrifice its quality by being too stringent. Planning a software development budget is a tricky balancing act, that’s why it’s best to approach it with careful consideration.
Just how big your software development cost will turn out depends on a lot of factors. Your software size, its overall complexity as well as the complexity of UI design, its integration with external systems and the necessity of data migration will determine the eventual budget. The uniqueness of an application will also dictate its price: something niche and complex will usually require hiring skilled developers who cost more.
On average, the cost of a robust custom software project will range between $50,000 and $250,000, although some sources say the price of a hypothetical mobile app built by a large development company may reach $1,000,000. The price for powerful enterprise web apps may even exceed $1,000,000, although a lot will depend on a development company: larger companies will usually charge more. In general, small apps tend to cost $10,000-50,000, medium apps are around $50,000-200,000 and the cost of large enterprise applications usually exceeds $250,000.
Lately, though, a survey published by Harvard Business Review revealed that each 6th software dev project ends up with almost 200% cost overrun: an eye-opening figure that should stress the importance of careful budgeting.
How to reduce software development expenses
Even if you’re up to building something enterprise-scale and complex, with lots of numbers to crunch and data to process, there are ways to lower software development expenses. A list below should give you some actionable tips.
-
Don’t reinvent the wheel
-
Develop in iterations
-
Outsource to a lower-cost destination
-
Hire freelancers
-
Combine your onshore and offshore resources
-
Allocate workloads to leverage junior staff
-
Use DevOps, Cloud and AI automation
All in all, a clearly outlined software specification (the cornerstone of development methodologies based on Agile principles), with a clear vision of an MVP product and its core features will help your development team focus on what’s important. Also, some software solutions can be custom tailored to fit within the budget. Of course, you will have to prioritize some features over others and agree to introduce others later, in the form of updates. A general rule of thumb, though, is to stay flexible: use code libraries and AI automation whenever you can, develop in iterations and test on the go, combine your onshore and offshore resources and partner with a reliable outsourcing company to benefit from reasonable pricing and access to high-quality global talent.
Check out a detailed description of these tips HERE!
Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have started to gain traction over the past years, and today, nearly every emerging startup is trying to leverage these technologies to attract funding and disrupt traditional markets.
And it’s true that companies using “AI” and “ML” as buzzwords in their pitch are more likely to attract external investments than their counterparts working with traditional and mainstream tech.But still, apart from all this hype around machine learning, how applicable is it for solving real-life, everyday problems and when does it make sense to use it instead of/together with traditional software programming?
Let’s start exploring the issue by describing the various types of machine learning and its basic principles.Machine Learning vs Traditional ProgrammingTo better understand how machine learning works, let’s look at how it differs from traditional programming.First of all, machine learning does not replace traditional programming, and a software developer will never use machine learning algorithms to create a website.
For example, ML can be used to build predictive algorithms for an online trading platform, while the platform’s UI, data visualization and other components will be implemented in a mainstream programming language such as Ruby, Python, or Java.The rule of thumb: only use machine learning when traditional programming methods are not effective/feasible for solving a particular problem.To better exemplify it, let’s consider a classical machine learning problem of exchange rate forecasting and see how it can be solved with the help of both techniques.In this article, we looked at three types of machine learning: supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement.
Each of them has areas of practical application in real-world conditions and its own distinctive features.Supervised ML is by far the most developed and applicable form of machine learning to date.
Now there are dozens of ready-made classical algorithms for machine learning, as well as various Deep Learning algorithms for solving more complex problems, such as image, text, and voice processing.On the other hand, unsupervised machine learning is much less applicable in real life.
Are you looking for Budget Management Software?
BAZ is the best tool for determining how often budgeting is necessary, resource management, accurate financial statistics and many more.
Visit our website http://empronc.com for more info.
Outsourcing software product development services is an effective way to maintaining the profitability of businesses.
But, the emergence of new software development technologies like cloud computing, AI and virtualisation has changed the overall concept of outsourcing.
It has also made the businesses change their business models.
It gives too many questions with unclear answers like “cheap means worse”.
In this blog post, we will find out what are the risks and competitive advantages of outsourcing software product development work.
Know Why You Should Outsource Your Project
This question is among the initial ones that are being asked when any app development project begins.
Quite often a company owner finds herself trying to answer these two questions – how much does it cost to make an app for my business by hiring a professional versus how much does it cost to make an app by myself.As much as we would like to put a finger on the cost of app development, we can only come up with an estimate, simply because each app development process involves many factors that collectively influence a final cost figure.
Luckily there are several app development budgets forming factors that will help you to shape the development cost of an app.
So, an app development cost breakdown comes down to:App functionality and purpose – what an app will actually be capable of doing for its users.Mobile platforms and devices are supported – whether an app will be developed for iOS only or has an Android / Windows Mobile version as well.
iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S+, Samsung Galaxy S6, and so on?Integration points – will an app be integrated with third-party apps that will be the source of its content.Use of visual objects – complexity of visual objects inside of an app will significantly influence the cost.Use of smartphone hardware features – whether an app will be using such smartphone features as GPS navigation, NFC technology, motion co-processor, and other technologies that are packed into smartphones or tablet computers.Maintenance plan – once an app development project is over, certainly it will require technical support from its developer.What Should I Budget For?
Keep in mind, what you pay for in the software developing world will determine the quality of the application you receive in the end.
