OVERVIEW Specialist no code, low code and traditional code developers have two things in common. First, they all claim some level of expert status – at least extensive expertise in, and knowledge of, highly complex software development tools and platforms. Second, they are notoriously optimistic planners. The flipside of this second trait is that […]
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The low code revolution is now in full flight and we’re reviewing dozens of project ideas every week with newly minted founders. Most have no ambition other than to launch a minimum viable product (MVP) as quickly as possible. They are clear about their requirements and need no convincing about the merits of the low […]
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Whenever we compare estimates from software development agencies and specialists, I expect to see major differences between them. Our clients don’t. In fact the variation in software development time estimates, amongst equally skilled and competent developers, is often as high as 70%. We find that some estimates are systematically lower or higher than others and […]
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The pace of both change and innovation is increasing all the time. Customers have insatiable appetites, and high expectations, for the next new thing. Despite widespread adoption of agile and more customer focused approaches to software development, mobile app development still takes anything between 4 and 12 months. The availability of Low Code platforms, and […]
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Quality is first and foremost about making things that are a good fit for the intended purpose. Not over engineered – which implies waste – with features that do not provide value to users. Agile Quality Assurance is specifically designed to make sure that every product is always “fit for purpose”, and quality assured at […]
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Businesses that fail to investigate and diagnose requirements develop software products around assumptions about users’ needs and likely behaviours. THE BOTTOM LINE According to the Standish Group, 64% of software development produces ineffective or substandard results [Chaos Report 2018]. Traditional Requests for Proposals (RFPs,) especially those driven by tech leaders without adequate business or […]
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Planning is an often overlooked, yet critical, ingredient of any software development project. The most successful projects are built on solid preparation and foundations – that includes a clear vision, roadmap, requirements, tech. stack and continuous product backlog refinement. Successful projects start with significant preparation and planning but they also retain the flexibility to respond […]
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Covid has changed the economy beyond recognition and is catalysing the transition to a remote-first workplace. Many organisations embraced the concept of remote work decades ago, some by outsourcing Software Development. In the Covid era more organisations will be driven to instinctively focus on remote-first as a tool to achieve cost minimisation and efficiency maximisation […]
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ABOUT PLANS AND RELAY RACES A project plan shares some characteristics with a relay race. For example, how long it takes to complete a planned project or relay race will depend on internal and external stressors, and breakage points – operating environment, pace of team members, quality of handovers, etc. – that may individually or […]
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Ten years ago, Google announced that its programmers were doing work on mobile first. Only 4% of all internet traffic came from mobile devices, but Google saw the future – mobile internet traffic soared above 50%, initially through Native Apps. Now, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are fuelling further growth by lowering costs. Native […]
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Crowdfunding is an effective fundraising tool, well suited to the needs of Startups. BrewDog raised a world record breaking £25 million through their crowdfund. According to MarketWatch, the global market is expected to be worth circa $22bn by 2024. Below are the key points from the talk that I gave at WeWork Labs. All of […]
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START WITH THE CUSTOMER “Digital organizations start with the customer,” Peter Sondergaard, former SVP and Head of Gartner Research said. “They don’t ask what the customer wants, they watch what the customer does”. In Sondergaard’s blog, he mentions Steve Denning’s book, The Age of Agile, and bemoans the lack of more specific direction for leaders. Thankfully, […]
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The slides below were presented at the WeWork Startup Funding event on 9th December 2019. For up to date details regarding startup funding options, including Crowdfunding and STOs, contact G2Guide here. G2Guide G2Guide
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G2Guide’s Segun Osu on Hiring Remote Dev Teams and Setting Them Up For Success Remote development teams can deliver greater productivity and provide a boost to achieve the full benefits of diversity. This is a summary of a session held by Wework Labs mentor Segun Osu, director of G2Guide. Common benefits of hiring remote […]
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How to Use Agile to Manage Remote Dev Teams, from G2Guide’s Segun Osu The way you manage a remote team’s work dictates both their success and yours. This is a summary of a session held by Wework Labs mentor Segun Osu, director of G2Guide. Why agile makes sense for remote teams Agile is designed […]
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G2Guide’s Segun Osu Explains How to Find and Attract Remote Development Talent Remote hiring can provide fast access to talented developers and whole teams. This is a summary of a session given by Wework Labs mentor Segun Osu, director at G2Guide. The rise of remote dev teams Remote is the new default for startups […]
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Last week Wework Labs invited me to give a talk to some of their members – tech. startup founders, CEOs and CTOs – based at Wework buildings in London. We planned this with Wework Labs to share how best to recruit, manage, motivate and retain remote software development teams. Q&A surfaced some of the issues […]
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Condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the air crash a week ago today. So called “faulty” flight control software is now blamed for that crash and for another crash, also involving Boeing’s 737 Max, five months ago. Boeing has been around for over 100 years and like many large organisations […]
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The iPhone was launched just over ten years ago and I bought my first tablet (Samsung, running Android Froyo) around the same time. App stores already had some very useful mobile apps but our expectations, and the availability of apps – taxi hailing, delivery tracking, product configuration, medical AI and more – has changed and […]
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Millions of people across the world don’t have legal registered titles for their homes, land and businesses. They can’t be certain that their ownership rights will be protected by law. If they had registered titles, according to Hernando De Soto, it would unlock $9.3 trillion in assets (Soto, 2000). Uncertainty breeds disputes and makes it […]
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Carillion’s collapse wiped out tens of thousands of jobs and may bankrupt thousands of subcontractors. Early reports confirm that many of their large public sector contracts were unprofitable. However, their demise could also be traced back to the use of outdated project management practices. Carillion’s collapse is a reminder that rigid and sequential plans, as […]
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Outsourcing the development of your organisation’s App, AI or other software could significantly lower your development costs and reduce project delivery times. However, outsourcing is not appropriate for every organisation, product or project – you still need the right leadership, a robust service level agreement (SLA) and you need to follow the Golden Rule to deliver […]
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Business needs should drive the choice of technology for your mobile app which will in turn influence the selection of the ideal development team, upfront development costs, ongoing maintenance costs, product performance and its expected useful life. Programming languages, platforms, frameworks, databases, containers, etc. is the stuff your mobile app depends on. This short post explains why technology […]
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It’s Not The Economy, Stupid The UK Government effectively bans the building of native apps. In their service manual, they explain why they favour progressive web apps, and clearly state that other solutions are unlikely to be approved. Although not as explicit as the UK, U.S. federal agency policy favours a similar design approach. […]
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By the end of 2017, market demand for mobile app development services will grow at least five times faster than internal IT organizations can deliver them, according to Gartner. They forecast 2.1 billion mobile device units by 2019, which will fuel demand for enterprise apps. Gartner analyst Adrian Leow said enterprises find it a challenge to […]
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High Level, Easy Access As outlined in my last post, Gartner says there will be 2.1 billion mobile devices by the end of 2019, which will fuel demand for scarce development skills and drive up costs. I outlined how using remote development teams could make mobile app development more affordable, if you have the bandwidth […]
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No sacred cows The uncertainty surrounding the government’s likely decisions around Brexit certainly makes forecasting and planning difficult, especially for those businesses with a direct or indirect dependency on the EU for customers, suppliers or labour. However, despite the fact that the post Brexit business environment is full of risks, there are also ample opportunities. Now could be the […]
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About 60 percent of software development produces ineffective or substandard results. Circa 25 percent fail outright. Traditional RFPs, especially those driven by IT leaders with little understanding of the business or user needs, are especially prone to failure. By failing to properly investigate and diagnose business requirements software development (especially Apps) are developed around assumptions about users’ […]
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Our Story Back in 2007 we realised that we needed fairly sophisticated and complex technology to run businessbuyguide, a sister brand to G2Guide. With a very small budget and limited time I knew there would be challenges – one option was to hire developers in a lower cost geography. I also knew that the total […]
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In an earlier post we discussed the key advantages, and also some of the hidden costs, of outsourcing to remote teams via upwork, freelancer and similar job boards. As mentioned, you can achieve project success via remote teams if you align your budget with the Total Cost of Delivery. In a nutshell, this is about making sure […]
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Against the backdrop of global economic turmoil, proxy world wars, and the refugee and border crisis in Europe, the Brexit debate could not be happening at a worse time. Migration, especially from war torn Syria, is a political hot potato, with various EU countries erecting new physical barriers to halt migration, and Turkey offering to […]
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The advance of digital has already radically transformed the business environment – a digital wave is sweeping through every industry, organization and culture. Customers and staff expect businesses to be digital by default and there is a race to recruit the talent needed to transform and evolve processes, people management and business models. One role, the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) […]
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Any business can access a vast global pool of talented and specialist workers from anywhere in the World. The proliferation of high speed Internet allows firms to find, and work with, the best people, wherever they are. Very large companies first started to harness “global knowledge workers” on a grand scale, 15 to 20 years ago, to reduce project durations and costs, without compromising quality. The […]
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According to Gartner, in 2014 market leader Salesforce grew their share of the CRM market by an incredible 28% whilst Oracle grew theirs by just 3%. Microsoft achieved an impressive 22% and SAP just 7%. Other CRM vendors, as a group, achieved 10%. Market Share Growth Rate Others 50.4 11.5 Salesforce 18.4 28.2 SAP 12.1 […]
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Gartner predicts a $36n market The global market for CRM will total $36bn by 2017 and in 2014 we saw a 13.3% increase in sales, up from $20.5bn in 2013, according to Gartner, a research firm. Our Market Quadrant positions the global CRM vendors that are driving this growth, in terms of their market dominance […]
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The Market Quadrant (MQ) is a two dimensional matrix that highlights key differences between vendors. Each vendor’s positioning is determined mainly by their market dominance and how well they address users’ needs. Methodology The inclusion and relative positioning of each firm is based only on publicly available information such as company size, financial and social status, functionality […]
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We recently extended our CRM software advice service to include the USA and Canada. To support this change we updated our CRM categorisation and re-evaluated hundreds of CRM applications, resellers and add-ons. Stepping back, we can clearly see that a growing and high percentage of CRM vendors provide good core case management and CRM capabilities […]
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This guide outlines important steps to select the most appropriate software vendor, value added reseller or agency for your business. A typical short listing process for a small to midsize company can consume 18 or more hours of management time. Larger companies require considerably more time. The 5 steps in this guide show you how to […]
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Not all CRM Software is the same, and not all buyers look for the same thing. Sometimes, software choices are inadvertently driven and determined by the buying habits of an organization and/or department and/or buyer (especially if a procurement professional or department is not part of the decision making process). Astute business software buyers make […]
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Gartner predicts that the CMO’s technology spend will outstrip the CIO’s by 2017. In fact, IT research analysts around the world are predicting that CMOs will control larger technology budgets than CIOs, within the next few years. This change will require good budget control and put greater demands on CMOs to deliver better marketing results. […]
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The benefits of virtual teams are well documented. Easy access to a vast global pool of highly specialised and talented people can reduce project delivery time and significantly lower project costs. But there are also many pitfalls and hidden risks. Below are some of our ideas to mitigate the risks. This is based on best […]
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Over the years we’ve been exposed to thousands of large and small project tenders and been fortunate to learn more about best practices when selecting the right supplier(s). I could start with a few stories but I’ll leave that for another time. For now, the guide below outlines key steps that you need to take […]
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