Bespoke Development
When is Custom Software Required?
The need for custom software development generally arises from two distinct cases, either a desire to avoid the limitations/hidden costs of generic packages for more standard processing needs or where a truly unique requirement exist.
Cormant is well versed in developing bespoke software solutions for global organizations either for standard processing needs or where unique requirements are to be addressed.
Our software development services have been used to help customers in following ways:
High quality solutions
A principle imbued in all the team, designed specifically to satisfy the business requirements.
Scalable solutions
A critical requirement in many organizations.
Service Oriented Architecture
Developed with a Service Oriented Architecture in mind, thereby allowing for use across the organization.
Productivity
Addressing productivity needs by simplifying existing procedures.
Secure IT Infrastructure
Stable and secure IT infrastructure.
Cost effective development
Cost-effective development using a traditional waterfall approach or an Agile methodology.
For standard processing, most businesses have unique work flows that cannot be readily accommodated by generic, off the shelf, software solutions. As a consequence, companies frequently face a choice between amending their work flows or accepting limitations when integrating standard commercial software solutions or commissioning a solution tailored to their particular needs.
The real cost of any compromise when using a standard product can be hard to assess as it may not be readily visible (e.g. additional time incurred by employees) and it may arise over time (e.g. limitations on implementing changes required in the business).
When a company has relatively unique requirements, it may not be feasible or cost effective to use off the shelf solutions even where customization is feasible (e.g. integrating internal applications). In such cases, companies need to commission the development of an application that satisfies the particular requirements.
What is Cormant's Approach?
Analysis
Our project team meets with clients to perform the necessary research to understand the commercial and technical requirements. This will normally involve a project manager, business analysts, software engineers (including a software architect) and database specialists. Our team has flexibility in approaching this as a separate phase or within the overall scope of a project. In all cases, the requirements and the approach are agreed in advance with our clients.
Development
As a general rule, Cormant uses an Agile software development method, dividing the project into iterations or sprints. Each such sprint represents an entire software project; including planning, requirements walk-through, design, development, testing, and documentation. Each sprint concludes with a retrospective where the project priorities and performance are re-assessed, thereby resulting in continuous improvements and accurate monitoring of the project plan.
Delivery/Implementation
When the development has been completed, the application is delivered for testing. Cormant works with our clients on their particular testing phases and this can include Performance Testing, Technical Acceptance Testing, User Acceptance Testing, End to End Testing, Operational Acceptance Testing, Beta testing etc. These are critical phases to achieve success for any project and we work with our clients to ensure that they are defined properly.
Support
Occasionally a software application will experience a problem and our clients may decide to support applications developed by Cormant or to engage us for this purpose. Cormant maintains a helpdesk on a 24x7x365 basis and offers three levels of support service, namely Gold, Silver, and Bronze, thereby allowing clients to select a service level that meets their particular needs. Support can be provided on Levels 1, 2, and 3 depending on our client’s requirements.
What technologies do Cormant Support?
Cormant follows an n-tier approach to application architecture in which presentation, application processing and data management functions are separated logically. By separating the application into tiers, increased flexibility exists in modifying or adding a specific layer instead of refactoring the entire application. This reduces the overall long-term cost of maintenance, including the cost of future changes to the application.
The choice of the right technologies will help to make a project successful. This may be affected by the knowledge of the IT personnel in our clients (e.g. preferred technologies), speed of development or the cost effectiveness.
Java and .NET
Cormant has Java Development Teams and .Net Development Teams, the two primary technologies used in enterprise class application developments today.
Test Driven Development
Test Driven Development incorporates module tests into the code itself so that any faults introduced can be identified before they have any impact on the integrated release.
SQL and Oracle
We support SQL and Oracle databases.
Quality Assurance
This ensures that there is a separate, and objective, assessment of the requirements as well as independent testing of the application.