Johannesburg, 20 Sep 2024
Often, when a business encounters a process challenge or sees an opportunity to do things better, it will look for a software solution it can plug in to achieve its goals. But the company may do it too broadly or narrowly, or it may overlook the fact that it doesn't need software at all - an internal process change might meet its needs.
This is according to Grant Jubber, Co-founder and Director at software development specialist Kohde, who says procuring software that isn’t fit for purpose, or forming solutions with unclear requirements, are key reasons why so many software development projects fail.
“Kohde doesn’t just blindly churn out code because a company thinks that’s what they need. Kohde focuses on a thorough understanding of the client's needs and what problems need to be solved for them. We love solving complex problems and improving our clients’ businesses, so we will work with clients to assess what the solution should accomplish and exactly what features are required to achieve this,” he says.
Jubber says Kohde is uniquely honest in its feedback, and may recommend different approaches and features, or possibly no new software at all.
“Ultimately, we’re not happy unless the solution we deliver is a top-quality piece of software that gets put to use and adds real value to the client’s business. This approach has been key to our success. Most of our major clients have been on board with us for over five years, and the bulk of our new clients come to us from referrals,” he says.
“We take our initial client discussions very seriously as when we start mapping out the direction of the software project it's crucial that we take a bunch of variables into consideration before starting with any development work, for example:
- Is the proposed solution scalable?
- Will we be able to accommodate an increase of users and usage over time?
- Are we considering the right technology, giving our client the best future-proof solution in the most cost-effective way?
- If we add features in the future, will it be uncomplicated to add without any downtime?
A great example would be Afgri Logistics - the way we built the company's solution, using the right technology stack and correct software architecture at the start, allowed it to easily add additional features, upgrades and expansion over the past five years, without any downtime or software redesigns.
He notes: “At Kohde, we’ve built a reputation for software development excellence for two reasons - we build well-formulated, quality software, and our clients actually use our implemented solution to overcome challenges or grow their business.”
Defining Kohde quality
To Kohde, quality means more than just writing code with no defects or bugs. “You can have a perfect bug-free system and still not address business operation efficiencies,” Jubber says.
“We believe software is of good quality when it solves a business problem or improves the business without unnecessary features that cost more money."
The Kohde quality assurance loop
Kohde is unapologetically insistent on quality through every facet of its operations.
“Because we build solutions for people, people are closely involved in testing and reviewing our solutions every step of the way. All stakeholders are an integral part of the design and development lifecycle,” Jubber says.
Kohde uses prototyping, Scrum and DevOps methodologies, with close collaboration across a team with diverse skill sets, experience and disciplines, so nothing is left to chance. Every code change is reviewed by other team members for potential logic errors before being accepted into a deployment branch. Regular pull requests are checked by other team members before code is migrated to the production environment.
Jubber elaborates: “Not only do our diverse teams offer different perspectives and knowledge, but we also go so far as to regularly rotate projects. This means the projects are in a constant handover state, which forces company-wide best coding practices and ensures there is always sufficient documentation in place for a said project.”
With this approach, development is scrutinised daily across Kohde’s internal teams. Every two weeks, a prototype functioning system is reviewed by the client, to ensure the solution is on track to meet their needs. A constant feedback loop informs quality development and production.
“Kohde turns our clients’ ideas into reality by promoting swift feedback, fostering enhanced collaboration and ensuring seamless deployment,” Jubber says.
The process doesn’t end there, however. Kohde development projects for major clients such as Axiz, Afgri Logistics and Table Charm Direct are in a constant state of new feature expansion to support each organisation’s growth and changing needs.
“We know better than most how software solutions can have a phenomenal impact on business performance, so we strive to add value in every project we undertake, building best-in-class software solutions, unlocking new opportunities for our clients and in turn becoming the preferred software development partner within the industry,” says Jubber.
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