Recommendations for the orderly development and handover of IT projects
What should a neat software project look like?
A common situation is that the project was developed from scratch by the programming company of your choice. The project has been successfully launched and is generating benefits for your business, but there is still room for improvement: you have the ideas, you have the budget, and all that's missing is the work.
But life is different - developers refuse to develop the system further, or work so slowly that it takes years to realise the vision.
The natural step is to look for another company. However, once it is found and the project is handed over, it becomes clear that the changes will have to wait a long time. What's more, there are additional costs for running the project in the new environment. Common problems encountered during project handover:
- The client does not have the software code. Depending on the technology used, the code may be on the server (e.g. PHP) or may be in compiled form (e.g. Java, .NET). Extracting or decompiling the code is time-consuming and the readability of the code is affected.
- No versioning system (GIT) was used. It is an essential component of every software project. Without it, it is impossible to see clearly what has been changed and when. Moreover, it is not enough to simply place a project in GIT - you need to configure which files are to be versioned and which are to be generated automatically.
- No project management system was used. It is common practice to record all tasks in such a system and include their numbers and descriptions in GIT messages. This allows you to understand the context of each change and make the right decisions faster.
- No automated installation. Modern GIT platforms (Github.com, Gitlab.com, Bitbucket.org) make it easy to automate deployment. This saves a lot of time and ensures that even if a technician changes, it is clear how to run the project. It is a one-off investment that pays for itself many times over.
- Relationships between tables are not established in the database. In this case, you have to analyse the program code to understand how the data is linked, even though it could be seen directly in the database. This slows things down considerably.
What should you have in place to manage your project sustainably and without dependence on the supplier?
- Have the system's programming code In the GIT versioning system . You can ask your supplier to add you to their environment, but even better, keep the code in your account.
- Use a project management system . For smaller projects, Trello.com is sufficient, for more complex projects, Jira.com is fine. Most of them are free for small teams.
- Make sure that the programmers, when making changes, GIT messages include the task number from the project management system. The most popular systems integrate with each other, so that a link to the relevant code change automatically appears in the task.
- Take your time for automated deployment . While this may take tens of hours, it will save much more time later and reduce the risk of human error.
- Periodically do the following database audits to ensure the right connections and structure.