Our Development Process

Custom Business Application Development to Save You Stress, Time, Energy, and Money (SYSTEM)

Many businesses are new to custom business application development. But no worries! Thanks to our development process, creating a great software application is well within your grasp. We can help your business succeed through automation, organization, and efficiency.

The 3 primary stages to building a great business application:

Design
This is where we plan it out and answer questions like “What exactly do we need it to do?” and “How much will it cost?”.

Development
This is where we spend the majority of time building the layouts, coding the scripts, creating the reports, and building the dashboards your business will need.

Deployment
Once completed, we install your application on a server. Then, we import any starting data, add account access, and do some final testing and adjusting of your application for real-world usage.

STAGE 1: THE DESIGN PHASE

Good planning here will save you a lot of time and money later. At the end of the design phase, you will have three deliverables in your possession that will form the foundation of your business automation software:

  • Entity Relationship Diagram: The ERD is a schematic showing your business’s “data flow.” It is an essential first step to preparing your database solution, such as an electrical chart or a blueprint for a house. The ERD will help your application to have a solid foundation and be scalable for future growth or changes in your business.
  • Design Layout Mockups: These are (usually) black-and-white wireframe diagrams that illustrate your solution’s significant layouts. They give a general idea of dimensions, buttons, data entry fields, and other aspects of the application layouts. With a couple of iterations in editing, we will have the plan for layouts before we ever start developing them in FileMaker, saving you money and speeding up the development process at stage three.
  • Application Description: This long document details every element of your application. It will list all entities, layouts, fields, buttons, scripts, reports, and the access and deployment methods. We need a big picture of the entire application to plan the development more effectively. Finally, based on this detailed application description, we can better estimate the potential costs of your business automation software.

STAGE 2: THE DEVELOPMENT PHASE

With a solid foundation laid, this stage can go more quickly and efficiently. As the development happens, you will be sent constant updates and opportunities to review progress. With regular project meetings, you will control the development process at every step.

STAGE 3: THE DEPLOYMENT PHASE

At this stage, we will release the software for deployment and testing. If you use a hosting company, we will upload your database so you and your employees can access it. If you are self-hosting, the file will be delivered to you for installation on your servers.

Then, there will be a period of testing where you give it a trial run, and we make any necessary corrections or tune-ups. After that, you can sign off on the software and be on your way!

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

Because each stage is independent, you can stop the process at any point. You will receive copies of everything. Therefore, you own everything completed for each stage.

Ready to get started? Contact us today! We will jump into your project and begin working for you!