The demand for software development is constantly increasing due to evolving technology and the impact it has on the market. If your turn has come to develop a solution or expand the existing one, you may wonder which form of support to pick. Among software houses, it is common to offer a few options the clients can choose between. One of them, aside from team extension and body leasing, is end-to-end product development. What does it look like, and what are its main benefits?
What is end-to-end product development?
As the name suggests, end-to-end product development covers the whole product cycle, starting from ideation until the market release and further maintenance. In the case of such cooperation, your product is in the hands of a complete team that takes care of every aspect. It is autonomous in the sense that you do not need to engage your own resources in product development. However, the team stays in close touch with you so that you can follow their progress and implement changes if necessary.
What to remember when working with an end-to-end product development team?
First of all, in such cooperation, you should pay particular attention to the project methodology. In the case of team extension, you are responsible for the project to a much greater extent, but at the same time, you organize work on your terms. Working with an end-to-end team, you are less engaged in the process by default, but you still want to have control over it. And project methodology defines how easy it will be to maintain it.
End to end product development teams often work in Scrum, but that’s not a rule – there are some staunch supporters of the waterfall and other project methodologies. We recommend Scrum, as it breaks down work into short sprints (they usually last 2 weeks). Between each, you can easily intervene and implement changes. In waterfall, the effects are delivered at the end, and if there were some misunderstandings on the way, it could be hard to change things without additional costs.
What does the end to end product development process look like?
The product development process usually divides into 5 stages:
- ideation – that’s the part where all the ideas are welcome, whether bad or good. It is time to brainstorm, think out of the box, research, and exchange ideas. Often, this part adopts a form of a few-days workshop involving the end-to-end team and the client.
- definition – once you have gathered all the ideas, it’s time to organize them and pick those that have the biggest potential. In the definition phase, you create the product roadmap, define your goals and KPIs, and identify opportunities and challenges, as well as competition.
- design – when your idea is already defined, time to get your hands busy! The design part involves UI&UX specialists and developers working together to create a functional solution. From wireframes to full-blown functionalities, it’s where the magic happens.
- testing – the product cannot be released to the market without thorough testing. It is the last moment to find bugs and errors and identify features that need polishing before the market release.
- launch – after all these stages, it’s finally happening – your product gets released to the market! But don’t treat it as a finish line – your end-to-end development team is still responsible for its maintenance.
End to end product design allows you to keep things consistent, as the same team works on your solution throughout all the stages. You also waste less time on onboarding and communication. If you are looking for digital product development services, we recommend sticking to companies that offer this option.
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