THE BLOG

How good software gets built, paid for and put right

We write about the whole business of getting software built. Working out what you actually need. Saying it clearly enough that someone builds the right thing. Designing it around the people who have to use it. Knowing when something off the shelf will do, and when it will quietly cost you more. What all of it should cost, and why so few people will tell you straight. And what to do when a project has gone wrong.

Thirty years of doing this for other people, written down by the people who do the work, not by a marketing department.

Rescue Cost and transparency Bespoke vs off-the-shelf Design, BA and user journeys Thirty years in
Bespoke vs off-the-shelf

When should you replace a spreadsheet with software?

Later than most suppliers will tell you, and for one of five specific reasons. The five that justify it, the three that look like...

· 5 min read
Design, BA and user journeys

How to turn a spreadsheet into a web application

A spreadsheet that runs part of your business rarely needs replacing wholesale. Here is how to work out which part actually has to...

· 6 min read
Cost and transparency

Need one small change made? How to get a developer to do it

The jobs that sit undone for years are rarely hard. How to describe one small change so it can be priced without a meeting, and wh...

· 5 min read
Cost and transparency

Software development without a retainer: how it works

A retainer smooths income for the supplier, which is a real problem and a fair answer to it. Whose problem it solves depends on wh...

· 5 min read
Cost and transparency

Alternatives to hiring a full-time developer

The real cost of a developer is well above the salary, and most small businesses have far less work than a full-time role. The opt...

· 6 min read
Cost and transparency

Finding a UK software company that takes small jobs

Most agencies have a minimum, and there is real arithmetic behind it rather than greed. How to find a supplier whose economics mak...

· 7 min read
Rescue

What to do when your software company goes out of business

A developer going quiet and a company being wound up are different problems, and the second has rules the first does not. What to...

· 6 min read
Rescue

What to do if your only developer leaves your company

You have notice, which makes this a better problem than a supplier vanishing. Whether the notice period is worth anything depends...

· 5 min read
Rescue

Can another developer finish your software project?

Nearly always, yes. What decides how hard it is turns out not to be the code, and knowing the difference tells you whether the quo...

· 8 min read
Rescue

What to do when your software developer disappears

Your developer has stopped replying. Here is what to do first, what has a deadline on it, and how to work out how much trouble you...

· 9 min read
Cost and transparency

You paid for your software. Do you actually own it?

Paying for software does not make you its owner. Check five things: the domain, DNS, the hosting account, the code repository and...

· 9 min read
A Sainsbury's self-checkout showing its start-up diagnostic console: "Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB", "Microsoft SQL Server 2016 (SP2)", "Terminal was built on 26/09/2024", and an Intel Core i3-4350T.
Thirty years in

How to check if your business software is still supported

A self-checkout in Sainsbury's printed its own internals onto the customer screen: an operating system weeks from the end of its l...

· 8 min read

Software that needs rescuing?

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