Topic #6 PLUL : Best Enterprise App Development Case – A Worth Reading Project Development Case Study For Every Entrepreneur

It is equitably said that “Haste makes Waste!” Even in the race of tortoise and rabbit, the dawdling mammal hit the finish line early than the brisk reptile. History has been a witness to stand by this and here we add one more illustration to add up to the collection which the history can share with others on the path of success.

Here we share one of our best enterprise app development case with an auto-parts manufacturing company, which clearly depicts how hurry can bury one’s goals. Reading this might save your effort and time for the next time when you want a software solution for your business.

In any deal, communication plays a prime role in bringing all the stakeholders together agreeing on a common goal. Every crusade can be unraveled just by the right understanding of each other and the correct set of clear words.

We had once got a proposal from a custom motor vehicle-parts designing & manufacturing company. (Here, their customers are substantial auto brands who outsource specific auto-part developments.)

Communication

And the journey began.

Concept- Project Introduction

__________

In this finest enterprise software development case, let us first understand what they wanted. The company wanted two tools, one for their customers and another one for their executives (i.e. Sales Head, QA Manager, Engineering Team Lead etc).

1. Customer Portal (this can be considered as an e-commerce store):

It will show all the company’s product types and details of the making with their related information. A customer can only see the product related information (auto-parts data, images etc) but he cannot make a purchase directly from the portal. The customer has to make an order by filling the Request for proposal (RFP) form that contains different fields regarding the part’s attributes like length, width, power, capacity, weight etc. The company executives will get this information and based on that they will get to know what kind of product customer wants to buy.

2. Quoting tool (for the company executives):

This tool is the main role player in this outstanding enterprise app development case study. It will compare the attributes provided by the customer (in the RFP form) with all the auto-parts available and produced by the company. The search will aid a list of similar auto parts (design models and blueprints) from the warehouse along with the details. Thus, executives can make a precise quotation for their customer looking up to their pre-set pricing tiers.

The Client’s Idea!

It was a huge manufacturing company having various manufacturing locations across the USA. Now, every time there was a demand for a specific motor part, they had to manually analyze and fill the data related to that part, and go through the salesperson, analyst, product manager, engineering team lead, and the QA manager to give a precise quotation to the customer. Thus, they wanted one such solution that can reduce the time to estimate the quote and keep a track of all types of auto parts in the warehouse with all their details. Through the back-end, the executives can add any new auto-part introduced in the warehouse along with its details and images.

They wanted to turn this manual process into an easy software solution.

Complete Project Development Plan

• First, we prepared the functionality document explaining the features included in the tools and the steps to follow to execute the functions. This formal document is known as the Statement of Work (SOW), which is supposed to be approved by the client.
•  Next, we defined the Project Timeline and Cost (PTC) for developing those tools. Here, the tentative timeline is set for each and every step/process in the project development. This keeps us synchronized with the client’s expected time-limit.
•  In the next step, we finalize the technology stack to be used in the project after consulting it with our software development team. The tech-stack lists the software tools and programming languages used in the front-end and back-end development of the project.

The SOW included all the detailed requirements, deliverables, and pricing along with the terms and conditions. As the client was in a hurry for the tools, he simply overviewed and approved the statement of work. He thus passed a confirmation to start the Project Development phase.

On client affirmation, we developed the first iterative model of the software implementation and presented it to them.

(In an Ideal Case…)

If the client approved the first iterative model, we would have taken our hands on to the Development Phase. 

• In the Design and Development phase, we would have started with the design and the front-end development parallel.
• After completing the design and front-end development, we would have worked on the back-end development for both the tools
• Finally, in the end, we would Test the software before handing out to the client.

The Issue: Most agitative part of this best enterprise software development case study.

Initially, the client had asked us to develop the quoting tool in a manner that only the Auto-part name, details and images were supposed to be added from the back-end and the same was mentioned in the Statement of Work (SOW). As they were in a hurry, they confirmed it by overlooking the details or without deep perusal.

After the tools were developed and provided to the client. By the time of the first iteration of the tools, the sales head realized that the quoting tool was not providing expected results. Now, they realize that even the auto-part category and the auto-part price should be dynamically added from the back-end. As it was a big company, there were many products to be added often, thus keeping the category and price static would create mismatched results as per our quoting tool functioning.

This issue was realized when our plan was already executed. It was like Crying over Spilled Milk

Factors behind the issue:-

1. The Client personnel interacting with us since the beginning was the IT product head of the company. Being unaware of the company’s sales process, he took the decisions and had confirmed the SOW at that point.

2. There was no internal communication amongst the different departments of the company. Ultimately, this lack of internal communication led to creating a misunderstood expectation.

3. The Client was in much of a hurry and couldn’t wait for the solution. This muddled him of the shortcomings of the hurried decisions.

Let me explain this scene in a simpler manner:

You want to have your favorite Pasta for Supper and you visit a newly opened Cafe. You hurriedly order the waiter to bring you Pasta without having a glance at the menu. Pasta is there within 10 minutes but what you see in front of you is not what you expected. You wanted Pasta in the Red sauce instead you get it in Pesto sauce. Also, you wanted your pasta with many vegetables whereas you get plain Pasta. Bad Luck!

Here you should have understood that an Amateur Chef would not have understood your taste for Pasta that too Without your Communicating Clear with the waiter. Precipitance was your major lack as you could not wait. You were in much hurry to have your Pasta. Results- You get to gulp down what you don’t really like.

Forthwith, the client asked us to discontinue development in this direction. The customer portal was working all fine but the quoting tool was not giving appropriate search results. Thus, they wanted us to make changes there.

Who was the culprit? After the prosecution, who was found guilty?
Instead of investigating the mystery, we had a word with our client friend and tried to understand their perspective in the scenario.
We were more worried about how will this malfunction be eradicated with the new upgrade. We focused acutely on the time required to cope with the change.

Thriller Part In This Best Enterprise App Development Case: The Client’s Role In The Solving Issue

Optimism & Composure

In such a situation, it is imperative that the client loses control when getting unexpected results with the software solution. But, in lieu of hurried reactions, the client needs to have a broader view of the entire scenario and think in a balanced manner. Instead of cribbing over the misfortune, the client must be positive and must start finding ways to solve the issue.

Our Client believed in the quote “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will shine”.

If the situation is patiently understood and then taken into consideration the available paths to escape the problem, the key would not be much far. This best enterprise app development case tells a client story of overcoming the issue.

As the issue was detected, the IT product head of the company, the one who had been in conversation with us since the beginning, consulted the issue with other technical department heads like the head of sales, chief information officer (CIO), chief operations officer (COO) etc. Together they discussed the problem and understood how the flow works in the quotation process.

For about a month, they analyzed the entire process and redefined their requirements. They explained to us the step-by-step process of quotation. They explicitly provided us with what changes and which features they wanted in the quoting tool. In our final meeting, they made the heads of each of their departments participate and put their share in the idea collaboration.

The Vendor’s role in the issue

Endurance & Fortitude

How would you feel when after spending months after a project, it gets spurned? Poor right! It sounds like running tirelessly towards a goal, which never existed.

That was the way we, the TRooTech Team was feeling. It is a bigger discontent to us when we cannot meet the Client’s expectations. Though it was their hurried decision and uncalculated information requirement, still, we empathized.

This situation resembled the sinking of the huge Titanic due to collision with an iceberg. However, the issue faced by us was not as big as the iceberg and moreover, our ship was stronger than Titanic so, we didn’t sink but withstood the jerk, standing firm and unshaken.

Isn’t it said that building a new idea is many times less painful than modifying an existing idea? Sure it is. But we don’t leave our client mid-way in the pool, rather we swim along with them till the shore. Hence, we decided to go resilient.

Our team found out the reason behind the issue in the first place. We realized that even we should have taken care of the below mentioned things:

(i) To double confirm the process of comparison of auto-part listing and pricing.
(ii) To confirm the SOW by all the department heads before starting to develop the project.

However, instead of fretting, we worked positively and promptly. We did the complete Re-evaluation of the project. Keeping aside the newly built tool, we asked the client team to reconceive their requirements. We got them to document their requirements and an explanation of what exactly they wanted.

Now, comparing the requirements, we started searching for the methods that will help us meet the goals this time by overcoming the flaws of the present system.

You see, co-operation from both sides makes the finest enterprise software development case.

How the Project was affected

What if it rains before your crops have been harvested?
An unseasonal rain is a devastating phenomenon. And for the farmers like us, it’s a matter of trustworthiness. However, instead of crying, we will work out ways to overcome the loss.

Effects of Change in the project:

Resources:After the recognition of amendments, requirements were re-assembled and defined again. Clear communication was established including all the process heads along with us and the client provided us with the Requirements for development.

We, as the vendors added more back-end developers to match the project outcome. This left us unavailable for our other projects onboard. As our entire back-end development team was confined with this redevelopment of the auto-part quoting tool project, we couldn’t take up any new projects in hand.

Timeline: Changes were essential in the back-end, and not in the designing or front-end of the project. As the designing and front-end development occurred parallel, little change was required. We focused on the change while undergoing back-end development, and the timeline of the project was re-established.

“Rome was not built in a day”. Everything requires time to heal.

Co-operation: : It takes two to tango! This is definitely the prime and most essential remark to be addressed. Instead of rising conflict, problems or blaming each other, the client and our team, both understood the situation well and co-operated to help each other out in finding a solution to the occurred problem.

A mutual understanding between the two is indispensable. The Vendor and the Client must come on common grounds and support each other to solve the issue.

Like in this best enterprise app development case, we reevaluated projects and collaborated with the client departmental team heads and intervened the entire process. Similarly, though the client wanted early outputs, he was patient enough to wait for us to recompile the back-end, add the lacking features and re-test everything. Mutual consensus solves the issue.

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Sailing together towards the Solution: Final Scene of best enterprise app development case

After the detection of the discrepancy in this best enterprise app development case, and the re-sampling of the requirements, there were three viable options to get to the solution of the problem:

Option 1. Developing a New System from Scratch
Option 2. Changing the current system tools for accurate result generation
Option 3. Developing separate algorithms for auto-part matching and merging it with the existing system tool

We opted for the last method. After much analysis, we found that it wasn’t needed to change the existing system. Rather, only adding a separate query algorithm to the existing quoting tool would aid us the expected results.

Implementing the Solution:

We set out on the march with an extended army of back-end developers so as to manage the expected time of the client. We underwent redevelopment with more number of developers this time.

For the accurate search results of an auto-part, we build a search algorithm that gets the expected outcome. It was essential to develop a dynamic RFP form for the customer portal as well. Here, as the client will be able to add the new auto-parts from the back-end, they are supposed to add the part’s features, category, and pricing as well. All these attributes will also be appended in the RFP form as well.

This time, the results hit right. Ultimately, we were successful in building the quoting tool accurately within the expected time.

The client was also Satisfied.

Phew… That was an adventurous experience! We took a sigh of relief.

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What Did You Learn From This Best Enterprise App Development Case?

If you are an enterprise/ business requiring a solution and you don’t want to face any such mid-project malfunction, what should you do?

The answer is you can do NOTHING. We should learn from this finest enterprise software development case study, it is very human to make mistakes. And these mistakes teach us lessons, that success can not teach. The only thing to take care is to list your requirements very acutely. And secondly, you shouldn’t be in any kind of haste.

Whenever such an issue is emergent, what you should definitely do is to have good communication while narrating your requirements to the developers, have faith in them, and collaborate.

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If you are ready to take the 1st step towards us, we assure you that we will take the rest 99 steps to reach you!

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