In-house Software Development
What is in-house development?
In-house development is using an organization’s current staff (or hiring additional staff) to perform the service or create products.
Investing in an organization’s own staff is not an easy decision; if the good/service an organization is trying to produce/perform is available in the market, and not a core business process among several factors, then it is worth contracting external suppliers.
For additional resources on deciding between in-house development and outsourcing, check this article: Outsourcing vs. Inhouse Development | by Suhail Hammad | Nov, 2021 | Medium
Once an organization decide to develop a certain service using its resources, or produce a product in-house, then, it should consider the following factors:
Best practices of in-house development:
- Staff Commitment
First things first. Once you identify the need for a certain piece of software to be added to the environment, you must involve the mid or top level management to approve the concept and to commence the development process. Management approval on the new system increases the possibility of that system to be used and utilized. Formal letters / correspondence to document the need and the proper communication of the development process is rewarding.
You will be surprised that potential users (staff will be using your app) will lose interest in using your software after a few weeks/ or months of development, and then, all development efforts will go for nothing. - Phasing and Gradual Implementation
Do not try to develop a complete platform and return to your client after six months. By this period, technical needs, or business needs may change; and the expectations and knowledge of potential users will surely change.
Divide your systems into phases; and within each phase, develop module by module, and present the developed module to the users. Thus, the development team receives early feedback, which leaves a room for fine tuning of future modules.
User experience and the evolution of users’ knowledge is a major factor of success or failure of software implementation. - Holistic View
Design phase is the most important phase in the software development process; the development team must consider serving current and future needs; even if you plan to develop immediate current needs only. The design/development teams must think about unifying the database management systems, integrating all related systems (direct links or using APIs), think about servers’ integration, single sign on, accessibility to all users, and last but not least, controlling software development versioning. - Engage Remote Sites
In the design phase, think of remote sites. Remote sites may require access to the system, and they may add a great value to the process. Sometimes remote sites are overlooked by headquarter staff, while they are a vital part of the process.
Decentralising of the process usually has a great impact on work efficiency. - Consider Security
Availability of business processes combined with granting more access rights to system users, and modernization of work procedures increases the chances for contemporary threats. System developers must consider security issues paired with using each technology.
New security procedures, firewalls, antiviruses, web application firewalls, security awareness, establishing of physical security, and protection against social engineering must be implemented to protect organizations from emerging vulnerabilities. - Standardization
IT systems development, especially software systems, requires more than one single officer to accomplish the entire work. Therefore, organizations, and development teams, must adopt, or develop their own coding standards, and agree upon object naming (like database object naming, file naming,… , etc.).
Developing work (and coding) etiquettes maximizes the coordination between developers, and minimizes troubleshooting and maintenance efforts.
On the other hand, ‘Outsourcing’ is contracting supplier(s) to produce a product or perform a service, you may read about outsourcing best practices in this article: Information Security in Supplier Relationships | by Suhail Hammad | Oct, 2021 | Medium
The Bottom Line:
For an organization, deciding to develop its IT systems in-house is a game changing decision, and there are some important factors to be considered.
Once a decision is made, few resources have to be devoted to succeed. and Developing IT systems ranges from few weeks to few months
