Independent software vendors (ISVs), which specialize in creating and selling software, seek rapid web development to scale, drive new business, support their global reach, and expedite sales cycles. It can be both seed-stage start-ups and global public companies.
Rapid web development facilitates software modernization by enabling them to achieve a pixel-perfect UX upgrade, create custom integrations, develop new dashboards and analysis applications, and transition to the cloud.
What does Rapid Web Development Mean?
Rapid web development focuses on prototyping over detailed planning. That speeds up web development compared to traditional methods.
ISVs’ stakeholders seek early value without overspending on research or framework selection. Non-functional requirements can wait for later steps.
Today’s users are impatient. They care more about apps delivering results, not the back-end code.
In rapid web development, begin with UX. Without a user-friendly, visually appealing web app, great code alone won’t boost engagement.
Product owners establish vital capabilities and priorities in line with business needs. That is followed by the creation of prototypes and designs tailored to user preferences.
After user testing, pass the approach to your development teams. Design clarifies needs, while development ensures product resilience.
The knowledge acquired through rapid web development enhances the visual and functional aspects of the final web solution. This approach is commonly applied in conjunction with the Time & Material model and agile methodologies.
How Does It Work for Application Modernization?
Today, reliability means uptime compliance, global customer support, thousands of API calls per minute, and scaling with fault-tolerant data stores for millions of database reads.
Experienced software development teams often use rapid web development platforms to bridge gaps in enterprise systems and create modern, robust business applications quickly.
These solutions offer pre-built components and robust reporting tools for coding, testing, and customization as required.
These platforms enable the modernization of a software portfolio by creating complex applications for any device, browser, and a wide range of operating systems. That is achieved by quickly establishing a development environment based on industry standards.
The rapid web development approach avoids the cumbersome process of rewriting legacy code. Instead, it modernizes systems by overlaying a new product onto the monolithic application, making it highly accessible to users.
This approach provides the seamless integration of modernized apps into customers’ daily routines. For example, by connecting them with existing backends, including on-premise databases, data sources, logic layers, third-party applications, and cloud service providers.
You can host the infrastructure in a private or public cloud or have it delivered on-premises.
Rapid Web Development Advantages:
- Improved Delivery: The initial system is delivered within weeks or days of the project start, with additional modules every two weeks.
- Enhanced Quality: Focus on essential business functionality, reducing technical complexities.
- Risk Reduction: Early issue detection is cost-effective, preventing complex, time-consuming solutions that need system-wide rethinking.
Rapid Web Development Stages
Prototyping
You don’t have to dive into development right away. Begin with a small project. For instance, start with design to build confidence and mutual understanding between you and your dedicated software development team.
The first milestone could be the initial MVP development and product rollout with soft launches.
Whether it’s your in-house department or an external partner, bring them a prototype (if available). Explain your progress, and plans, which might include code, basic platform screenshots, and customer research.
They enhance your plans and designs by outlining a development strategy, estimating costs, and setting a timeline. They can also improve your designs, streamline the interface, or create a completely new user interface.
A seasoned team recognizes the importance of ensuring specific aesthetics and functionality in the app, which can be challenging without expertise. They inquire to find optimal solutions, attentively listening to your distinct needs to create designs and prototypes that address your requirements.
They lead you through a design phase, conducting comprehensive journey mapping, elaborating on user personas, and crafting wireframes.
Project Management
We appoint a project manager to oversee various project aspects, ensuring team focus.
Using an agile methodology, we develop the app iteratively with your preferred project management platform.
That offers daily project status and meeting expectations. To enhance efficiency, we conduct internal stand-ups before meetings.
After the transition to full-scale development, we build a cloud-based app in Azure or AWS for product release, followed by ongoing production and engineering support.
The team can include a range of experts, including business analysts, project managers, designers, backend developers, frontend developers, and more.
Rapid Web Development Example
Let’s imagine the HealthTech ISV that has a custom-built software product. This product needs customization to suit the specific workflows of healthcare organizations that purchased it. This task consumed all of the in-house resources.
The company leadership has recognized that their product’s legacy framework has been hindering business growth (as it couldn’t be sold to macOS users). So they urgently require additional resources to address the missed opportunities.
To increase sales and tap into a new market segment (macOS users), the software product needs modernization to .NET Core, ensuring compatibility with both Windows and macOS. When rapid web development is essential, hiring a dedicated team is the optimal choice. This approach offers such advantages as access to experienced developers without the time-consuming recruitment process, cost savings through more affordable resources, and the ability to scale promptly as needed.
Ultimately, rapid web development proves to be a powerful strategy that allows ISVs to stay agile, meet customer demands, and stay ahead in today’s competitive software market.
