Our Development Process
Scale-Proof Development
- Twelve-Factor
Twelve-Factor App Development
Maintainable, globally accessible & lean, this has become the de-facto standard for developing cloud-native builds. We progressively integrate these factors.
- Test Driven
Test-Driven Development
Any pattern that brings more clarity to thought processes during development is beneficial. TDD has numerous downstream benefits but we love it for the focus it places on quality and efficient code writing.
- Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration
Every build is configured from lift off for CI. Setting up CI for each project allows us to reduce deployment times and push more changes to your build without down-time. Every second counts.
Environment Setup
The selection of the best suited environment(s) and technologies for any software project is integral to its success. We identify must-haves early on and begin building out our technology stack from there. We never try to make our favorite tools fit your projects. This ensures that your projects remain lean and highly scalable. Once the environment has been determined we containerize the build so no matter where the software runs it performs exactly the same. The container environment is the source of truth whether the software is in the development, staging or production environment. One of the many advantages of this setup that we've grown to love is that software can be automatically rebuilt on a new server instances in the event of a server failure, without human intervention. This is excellent for high-availability projects that have limited human resources available for operations.
Full-Stack Development
- Backend Creation
From server and subnetwork configurations to database development, we specialize in a gamut of backend services with a focus on cloud-native software. Each project has its unique set of challenges and requirements so we bring our learnings to the table and tailor our solutions to meet your needs. We are driven by performance and quality so where appropriate we utilise development patterns which make our code more readable and more performant and less prone to unexpected errors. We also fancy robust error logging throughout our builds which enable us to track down any errors or bugs with ease.
- Frontend Creation
"...form ever follows function, and this is the law." - Louis Sullivan. Functional, but sexy! Can't we always have both? We believe that it is impossible to have great software without a great user experience that is intuitive and aesthetically pleasing. We all remember a piece of software we used that just worked and that was easy to figure out even if we had never used it before. Great design should be intuitive and heavily based on a psychological profile of the intended audience. The reason we remember great software is because it was built specifically for us. This is the type of thinking that shapes our UI/UX designs.
- Quality Assurance
Testing never ends. Since we embraced Test-Driven Development practices, we rarely have functional errors that make their way to QA testers but still, this phase is extremely necessary to ensure that your project functions the same across all intended devices. We simulate environments with low internet speeds, test across the devices that are most prevalent for your intended audience and even create a closed testing group with your team during this phase.
- Security Testing
Security is fundamental to any software project. All the patterns that we adhere to relating to backend development feed into this and that gives us a bit of a headstart but security is a constant job. Our approach in development and even server configurations is to lock down everything and only turn on what is required for production environments. Our researchers continuously feed us information on security best practices for development purposes and server configurations and we often change tools in favour of more secure ones as we navigate the digital space. Rest assured that any measures that we can take to ensure your project is safe will be taken.
Ideation of Brand Loyalty Strategy
How is your business perceived? More often than not this can be very different from how you might think your business is perceived. Every decision we make, including brand perception, can be traced back to our Digital Roadmap Artifact (see Our Design Process). Your current brand perception as well as your desired brand perception informs all marketing initiatives associated with your project. If the project is an internal one we work with management to ensure we minimise hurdles to user adoption.
Marketing &Sales
- SEO Strategy
We take advantage of several factors as it relates to SEO. Unless the project requires us to deviate from guidelines we adhere to usability and accessibility guidelines which means our projects start on the right footing from their foundation. This paired with semantic coding practices means we can focus our attention on higher level SEO strategies after the build is complete. From Google Search Console to SEM Rush, we utilize several tools to monitor SEO performance based on the requirements and budget constraints of your project.
- Social Strategy
The pulse of your business should be felt through social media channels. We build social media strategies that are in alignment with the audience you are targeting and continuously tweak it as we acquire new knowledge. We don't ever advocate creating social channels because its popular as we believe all messaging should be intentional and channels that cannot be operated effectively and in alignment with your messaging, inevitably contribute to negative brand perception.
- Paid Media Strategy
These days, ads are near impossible to get away from either as a consumer or a provider. Having a solid ad strategy can have a massive impact on your bottom line. We help you make sense of it all. Just as with everything else relating to your business, ad strategies must be financially feasible. We calculate your initial Customer Acquisition Cost and work out how much you should actually spend on ads using your average Customer Lifetime Value, then build campaigns using these and other parameters. A/B testing also helps us to fine tune your ads for efficiency.
- Conversion Monitoring
Although conversions usually refer to sales, they can be any indicator that represents an intended objective being met because of your digital efforts. Conversions need to be monitored closely to ensure strategies are performing as planned, especially during campaigns. We use specialised tools to monitor all conversions so we always know the status of campaigns and if the course taken needs to be updated. For example, conversion rates are used to determine the performance of A/B tests as this is a direct indicator of how well one ad has performed in comparison to another.
Final Steps
- Deployment
This is the part in the story where we press the big green button and launch your project into its new lifecycle. WOOHOO! We love good stories. We use a complex array of tooling to ensure this goes as smoothly as possible.
- Documentation
We outline every detail for easy adoption and management of the project and this is handed over to your team. Our documentation is always very thorough.
- Training
In addition to documentation we hold Zoom walkthrough sessions to get you on your way to productive usage in the shortest timeframe.