October 13, 2009
According to London, Ont.-based consultancy Info-Tech, you never want to have more than five cooks in the kitchen when it comes to selecting a vendor for a pre-packaged app or hammering out a requirements list for a custom project
When buying a commercial app or working with a vendor to create one from scratch, organizations are specifying too many requirements, including ones that are non-essential or cosmetic. According to one Info-Tech Research Group Ltd. consultant, the key to successfully selecting a vendor for packaged or custom applications is to identify core requirements quickly and keep the initial selection team small.
“If you have a team of more than five people who are commissioned with finding the right solution and requirements, you’re probably wasting a lot of effort,” said Andy Woyzbun, lead analyst at London, Ont.-based research and consultant firm. Especially for customized projects, design by large committee almost never works, he added.
While some organizations gather staff from across multiple departments to work through all aspects of a project — from the initial requirements gather project through to vendor selection — Woyzbun warned that this practice will cause most companies to miss the essentials.
“Don’t sweat the details until you’re well into the development process,” he advised, adding that it’s a far better strategy to select a vendor or develop a set of key project requirements without wasting too much staff time outside of the initial development team.
Bringing in employees from various departments is great to validate what’s been chosen and what features can be added on top of the core functionality of an application, he said.
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