Category: Business

Choosing the best Software Architecture for your Enterprise App

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Planning on starting a greenfield software project? Or ever wondered how large enterprise systems are designed? Before major software development starts, we have to choose the right architecture that will offer us the desired functionality and quality attributes. 

Choosing the latest or most popular technology in the market will not always mean that it would bring the best results. However, this does not imply that you opt for legacy technologies.

For example, if there is a project that involves building a regular data capturing form (with less than 15 fields) for a survey, which will be used only once by less than 100 users, then it will be an utter disaster if you will be using highly complex architecture patterns like Microservices. 

Thorough planning must be done when selecting an architecture pattern and the following features must be taken into account:

  • Cost
  • Time to Market
  • Number of users (current and future)
  • Level of isolation (ie: integration with other platforms/systems)
  • Toleration time for system unavailability

What is a Software Architecture Pattern?

Software structures are composed of software elements that function as a blueprint, and design teams depend on these software architectural patterns to a great extent.

“An architectural pattern is a general, reusable approach to commonly appearing problems in software architecture. Whereas, software architecture is the process of converting software characteristics such as flexibility, scalability, etc. into a structured solution that meets the business and the technical expectations.”

For example, when a product owner says they are competing in a rapidly changing market, and they should adapt their business model quickly. The software should be scalable, modular, and maintainable if a business deals with urgent requests that need to be completed successfully in a matter of time. A software architect would then note that the performance and low fault tolerance, reliability, and scalability will be the key characteristics.

What happens with a system without any architecture pattern? 

Whenever you will change the behavior or structure of one class, a ripple effect would follow where multiple other classes would break. Is your software like this? The best way to find out is by using a software design reverse engineering tool like hex-ray that studies your class/component structures. On the other hand, if we are not using a pattern, then we will end up putting in the effort in solving the problems that can be easily solved with one of the patterns.

To help you, we will skim through the fundamentals of a few main software architectural patterns along with the pros and cons of each pattern. Besides, we will explain what architecture pattern would be the best fit for a given scenario.

1. Layered Architecture

One of the most efficient and common models deployed by enterprises is the Layered Architecture. The layers of this model are not interdependent, yet interconnected to each other. This is the conventional approach to designing most software.

For example, if you’d want to switch from an Oracle database to an SQL. This switch may cause you to excel in the database layer but will not have a domino effect on any other layer, hence avoiding any crashes.

What does it solve?


It allows the software to be segmented in such a way that the modules can be evolved and developed separately with little dependencies among the parts, supporting reuse, modifiability, and portability. The layered pattern divides the software into units called layers. Each layer is a grouping of modules that provides a cohesive set of services.

Benefits

  • This architecture helps those enterprises that don’t want to go overboard with experimenting and want to stick to the conventional software architecture design patterns. 
  • Testing components become relatively easier as inter-dependencies are negligible in this format of software development engineering.

Caveats:

  • Larger applications tend to be resource-intensive if based on this format, therefore for such projects, it’s advised to overlook the layered pattern. 
  • The entire version of the software is installed as a single unit irrespective of independent layers. So, you will have to re-install the entire device all over again, even if you update a single layer. 

Best for:

  • New applications that need to be built quickly.
  • General desktop applications.
  • Teams with less experienced developers who don’t understand other architectures yet.
  • Applications needing strict testability and maintainability standards.

2. Event-driven Architecture

The event-driven architecture helps in building a central unit that accepts all data and then assigns it to the separate modules that handle the particular type. This handoff is said to generate an “event,” and is assigned to the code delegated to that type.

Take an example of this pattern from a web page:

When a user clicks a button, the browser interprets the event and surfaces the programmed action, such as video playback, matching the input with the right output. Contrary to the layered architecture where the code must flow top-down and filter through all the layers, event-driven architectures implement modules that are activated only when there is a generation of an event connected to them.

What does it solve?


Sometimes it’s hard for many enterprises to build distributed systems that can service asynchronous arriving messages associated with an event, and that can scale from simple and small to complex and large. This architecture helps in building such systems as it is very adaptable to real-time changes and is suited to asynchronous systems that run on asymmetric data flow. 

Benefits

  • This architecture is suited to applications that tend to scale. It improves the response time of an application, eventually leading to better business outcomes. 
  • It plays a huge role in defining how IoT works. This architecture is widely applicable across networks and applications where devices are part of the IoT and requires exchanging information between even consumers and producers in real-time.

Caveats:

  • If the modules can affect each other then testing can be complex. While individual modules can be tested independently, the interactions between them can only be tested in a fully functioning system. 
  • Sometimes it is harder to understand the architecture due to its high complexity.

Best for:

  • Asynchronous systems with the asynchronous data flow.
  • Building applications with few modules to interact with the individual data blocks.
  • User interfaces.
  • IoT-based applications.

3. Microservices Architecture

Microservices are an independent and self-regulating codebase that can be written and maintained even by a small team of developers. Microservices architecture consists of independent services with each service responsible for the implementation of its related business logic. 

These independent services are separated from each other based on the nature of their domains and belong to a mini-microservice pool. Enterprise mobile app developers leverage the capabilities of this architecture, especially for complex applications. 

What does it solve?

Monolithic applications become too complex and large for efficient support and deployment for a distributed resource utilization such as in cloud environments.

Microservices help in building applications as suites of services. Each service is independently scalable and deployable and has its API layer. Different services can be developed by different teams, manage their database, and written in different programming languages.

Benefits

  • This architecture design pattern makes the system highly fault-tolerant as the services are segmented into pools. In other words, the whole software won’t crash on its end even if some microservices stop functioning. 
  • It allows applications to scale. The independent services lead to scale individually rather than overloading the entire system with the need to expand. 
  • Services can be merged into any application depending upon the work scope. 

Caveats

  • Harder to understand due to its complex logic. Requires deep analysis in service decomposition.

Best For

  • Websites with small components.
  • Corporate data centers with well-defined boundaries.
  • Rapidly developing new businesses, e-commerce, and web applications.

Conclusion

While the above-enlisted architectures signify the most favored design choices for organizational software development, there are plenty of others, equally interesting and perhaps more befitting to your project.

It’s always important to understand the pattern clearly, as applying the wrong pattern can lead to a lot of problems like inappropriate designs and implementations. A development expert would have a sound judgment that would help you understand when a pattern is not appropriate in a particular business scenario. 

Contact us if you need a team of such developers, engineers, technical architects, and PMs who can understand the ramifications of software design and the future growth of the product.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services and have hands-on experience with large, medium, and startup business development requirements. Our engineers also help in improving security, reliability, and features to make sure your business application scale and remain secure.

Saving Money on Product Development – Tips and Tricks

Posted on by galaxy-admin

When it comes to product development, it’s good to shoot for the stars and be ambitious. Ideas are immense fun on paper; execution, however, is another story altogether. The viability of ideas surfaces only when we try to build on them. Without proper expectations, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important and over-exhaust your budget. So, how to strike the right balance and build great products, within your budget without compromising quality? 

Planning is crucial

There’s a common mistake that people make while planning a product. They opt for outcome-based planning and not process-based. It doesn’t matter if you know everything at the outset, what matters is how you manage the risks.

Planning instead should be about:

  • Making assumptions about the reality of the product
  • How the production is going to work
  • What are the expected results?

What typical planning includes: 

  • Goals – Goals outline what you want your product to deliver. It could be increased sales, recognition, building a community, or providing a service. They help you determine your offerings – an app or a website, essential functionalities, and what channels will be the most suitable for the distribution of the product. They also assist in aligning the small tasks with the bigger picture.
  • Target group –  Identifying and understanding your customers is the most crucial thing to get right. You can start by filtering your customer base with age, place, lifestyle, and needs.  Focusing on a group will help you separate must-have features from the ones that are only for show.
     
  • Timeline – Developing and testing are just a part of the development cycle. You must also account for internal approvals and marketing activities early on while creating a timeline. The number of stakeholders involved and time taken for feedback can significantly affect the time to deploy. Setting an accurate and realistic schedule will have a direct impact on productivity. 
  • Budget – Needless to say, budget determines the direction and speed of product development. A well-defined budget will help you choose the right solutions and leverage the money at hand efficiently.
     
  • Solution – Deciding on the technologies is just as crucial as determining the budget. It’s always a good idea to consult specialists to choose the right set of technologies for your product. Utilize the discovery phase call with the specialists to pin down technologies best suited for your goals. Then use that information to build a detailed plan of product implementation.  

Simplicity over complexity

‘Keeping it simple’ is not only good for product transparency but it also aids in budget management. Unnecessary complexity is the foe for your product. 

Making the calls on essential features and cutting down on the ones you don’t need is the most effective money-saving advice in product development. While it’s easy to go down the path of excessive development for more features, it costs money. And not to forget, that today’s modular technologies allow us to easily add features in subsequent stages when the demand arises. Try taking the MVP route.

Bad choices are costly

Good products come at a price but cheaper alternatives cost more. A poor product leaves a bad taste on users, needs numerous refactors, and has serious vulnerabilities that require frequent patches. This eventually results in a far costlier, but inferior product. 

Go Agile 

By principle, Agile is doing the same amount of work but in short and iterative cycles that aids in tiny achievable goals with fewer delays and faster feedback implementation. Agile teams leverage instantaneous channels for communication to reduce the need for reworks because real-time communication facilitates active participation in the process and immediate reaction to potential errors. 

Outsource entirely

When you’re working on a complex project, outsourcing is one way to ensure that you have access to a large talent pool based on your project requirements. With outsourcing, you can choose between flexible engagement models and opt for the one which suits your budget and project requirements. You would know what to expect and ensure timely deliveries.

You can also hire resources in-house but this may not be the most cost-effective option. By outsourcing, you’re paying for the expertise that you need for a specific time. It is your instant and efficient access to the manpower that can often save significant time and money. 

Saving money on product development can be as easy as avoiding a few mistakes. We recommend that you use a sensible mixture of the above tips and save a substantial amount while maintaining the product quality. 

DevOps For Enhanced Business Growth

Posted on by galaxy-admin

DevOps has been around for a good number of years now. Thanks to the promise of streamlined business and growth operations, it has gained a lot of popularity as well. However, many organizations when faced with numerous implementation challenges, are unable to make a complete transition.

Everyone needs to up their game to thrive in such a highly competitive business world. DevOps will help you in fulfilling many customer expectations like:

  • Prompt bug fixes
  • Fast release of new features and functionalities
  • Responsive feedback system
  • Storage of customer data and its safekeeping

So let’s see how you can leverage DevOps to minimize implementation challenges and provide an enhanced user experience.

Continuous Iteration and Continuous Delivery

The essential rule here is to keep iterating the code numerous times for removing any errors and bugs. CI and CD help you in getting real-time feedback from your website and iterate accordingly. When your program code is entered into a repository, it will be assembled and tested (more on this below) before it goes live. This will create a streamlined CI/CD pipeline, assisting you in numerous ways.

  • Less number of bugs reach your production cycle and QA engineers
  • Iterative deployments cycles will help in releasing new features quickly
  • You are at a lesser risk of causing high disruption as the changes are done in smaller batches
  • Deployments are automated hence your time, especially in the smaller iteration done

Automated Testing

When customers see the 404 error, they may never return to your website. Automated testing can help you avoid such situations. It works on predefined conditions and removes any new bugs that may hamper your user experience. You will benefit in the following areas:

  • The system detects errors before they snowball into bigger problems and fix them with minimum human interventions
  • The right QA tools will decrease the possibility of human errors
  • Your teams can focus on building new test suites and kits

Cultural Shift

DevOps integrated with Agile methodology will result in a lot of changes within your organization. DevOps is driven by a responsible, responsive, and collaborative approach to change.

Automation in processes and tools will lead to a learning environment. Developers, designers, and testers should come together to solve issues before it hampers the user experience. There needs to be a balance among organizational, technology, and innovation goals. Developers and QA engineers can collaborate to create products that end-users demand.

Security 

Any misuse of your user’s data can cost you dearly. DevOps helps you build a secure website so that you can collect, process, and secure your customer’s sensitive data like personal information, payment modes, and banking data. All this can be ensured via:

  • Server updates to be automated
  • SSL/ TLS configurations to be done correctly
  • Code vulnerabilities especially from a security point of view to be checked regularly
  • 2-FA for an added level of security
  • Data encryption
  • Source control
  • Restriction on data access

All the points above are an integral part of DevOps. Its implementation will build a more secure environment for your customers. Given below are a few questions that we encourage our clients to think about before they go in for a complete change.

  • Is your current setup ready to handle faster updates and features?
  • How much transparency and visibility is there throughout your SDLC?
  • With no new cost, can your current infrastructure generate more revenue?
  • How receptive is your team for new changes and an everlasting optimization process?
  • Which processes are you ready to automate right away and the ones in near future?
  • In the current setup, how are you planning on increasing the stability and performance of your business?
  • How much financial liberty is available for future expansion plans?

All these questions are pretty intense but so will be the transformation that you wish to take on. Agile and DevOps go hand in hand. If you have any doubts or need to talk to a DevOps expert, contact us here and we will be happy to help you.

What Are the Best Practices to Build an Enterprise Software Application?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Building an enterprise software application is a complex journey involving several team members with varied skill sets, requiring significant time involvement, and costing a lot of money. There are several phases during the enterprise software development life cycle – requirement gathering, analysis, design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance.

Due to the complexity of interacting with several team members and dependency of output from one phase to another, it is important to have a well defined process during the entire life cycle. In this article, we have compiled some of the key best practices while building an enterprise software application.

– Identifying the goal and formulating a plan

Each idea aims to solve a specific problem catering to the needs of its user base. So it is a crucial first step to identify the end objective and carry out a thorough research to know your market, understand the target audience, identify the market gap, research your competition, and differentiate your product offering. Better research leads to a better product application. If you don’t invest your time in research, you will end up with a lot of iterations which would mean increased manhours and capital. Hence it is important to carefully think out your product idea, define why and how you want to build the product.

– Choosing the right partners

Several phases during the enterprise software development life cycle require people with varied skills such as design, coding, QA, product management, etc. Building the entire team in-house can not only be expensive but can be a daunting task managing all the resources. Hence, it is important to identify the right technology partners that can help your team in building the application in the most efficient and cost-effective way.

However, choosing the right partners can be challenging and a crucial part of the overall development process. While selecting the right partners, keep in mind that the companies should be aligned with your organization as well as with the project requirements. The companies should have relevant expertise and experience, and this can be evaluated by looking at their portfolio, looking at the company’s reviews on Clutch/Dribble, as well as speaking to their references.

– Setting the scope at the start

The work scope should be established at the start of the project with clear deliverables and timelines. If you have outsourced design work, make sure that the deliverables such as user stories, information architecture, design, etc are well documented. These deliverables help the development team in writing the code adhering to the best standards.

Having a clear set of scope, deliverables and budget are crucial to a successful project. Not only will these help you monitor the progress, your partners can plan resources and allocate time accordingly. Not setting a scope at the start could lead to several iterations resulting in cost overrun and project delays.

– Identifying the most suited tech platform

Enterprise software applications are built-in specific coding languages such as Python, Java, C, JavaScript, etc. There are various pros and cons of each coding language depending on the business needs. Hence it is important to brainstorm with your team / partner and select the right programming language for your software application. It is also important to think about the platform (desktop, mobile) your software will run on.

– Outlining the features/functionalities clearly

Software application development is an iterative process. During the process, a lot of changes happen including adding/deleting/modifying features and functionalities. Frequent changes to these can slow down the project and will mostly impact the budget/timelines. Hence, it is important to identify the core features and functionalities clearly at the start. While minor modifications are acceptable, they are unlikely to have a major impact on the overall development life cycle.

– Setting up effective communication

Effective communication is a key factor in the success of software development. Working with partners across the globe with different time zones, different cultural/linguistic differences, etc requires effective project management tools like Asana, Jira, Basecamp, Trello, etc and communication channels such as Slack, Zoom, Teams, etc. These tools enable teams to work together throughout the development life cycle efficiently.

– Relaying timely feedback 

The output dependency from one phase to another makes the entire process dependent on timely feedback during all the phases. Any subsequent change to output from one phase due to lack of proper analysis and feedback results in multiple iterations across the life cycle, which is both time consuming and expensive. Hence it is important to have a frequent and open communication dialogue during each phase and evolve the product idea ahead of development.

Conclusion

Enterprise software application development is a complex and long decision involving many variables. For a successful execution, you need multiple partners that help you during the entire process. As we flagged above, it is important to have a well defined process during the entire development process. If you’ve any doubts related to software development and if you need assistance developing one then feel free talk to us here.

When Should You Consider Outsourcing Software Development?

Posted on by galaxy-admin
Outsourcing software development has been a strategic approach that has been adopted by many companies to not only fill in any technology gap but also to take advantage of lower pricing in offshore locations. Outsourcing is not a new approach and businesses have been dependent on it since the early 80s. Still, outsourcing is one of the most talked about business strategies and many still have their inhibitions and questions around whether to outsource, what are the benefits, what are the risks, when is the right time, how to find the right software development company, etc. In this article, we are going to talk about the benefits of outsourcing and when is the right time to outsource software development.

What are the key benefits of outsourcing software development?

Outsourcing is not just offloading your work to another company in an offshore location. There are many benefits of outsourcing software development –
  • Increased strategic focus on the core business functions: While the outsourcing partner is focusing on building your software product, businesses can focus on their core business functions including the growth areas.
  • Cost reduction: One of the benefits of outsourcing is cost reduction. If a business’ objective is to minimize software development costs, then there is no better option than a well-planned outsourcing.
  • Access to latest technology: If your business requires advanced and latest technology, then building such expertise in-house will be very expensive. This is where outsourcing to a specialized technology partner scores over in-house development. The outsourced company’s technology stack allows businesses to integrate state-of-the-art features and functionalities at fraction of a cost to develop these in-house.
  • Adjusting to project demand: Outsourcing provides benefits of adding scope and team members depending on the demand. Working with an in-house team has its challenges of scaling up or down quickly due to legal and regulatory issues regarding employment. Outsourcing provides business flexibility to scale the team up and down very quickly as per your software demands.
Outsourcing also has its fair share of challenges such as communication issues, cultural differences, improper project management, inability to handle big projects, etc. However, the benefits of a well-planned outsourcing strategy outweigh the challenges.

When outsourcing software development makes sense?

Outsourcing could play a strategic role in your business if you –
  • Need tech experts from global companies to supplement your in-house core team
  • Have hiring limitations due to lack of budget to hire in-house tech teams across different expertise such as design, development, QA, project managers, et al
  • Need to focus on your core business competencies rather than worrying about software development
  • Need to scale up the product after doing a prototype to test the market. Scaling up requires skilled resources across multiple teams such as server, security, maintenance, etc along with the usual development teams
  • Need to modernize the existing tech infrastructure with latest technologies

When to outsource? 

Once you have identified the need to outsource, the key question that needs to be addressed is when to outsource software development. Outsourcing makes sense for your business if –
  • Your region does not have the required skills or are unavailable due to existing demand scenario of such talent
  • Your team does not have additional bandwidth and hiring new resources is not a near-term option due to limitations around onboarding, employment challenges, etc
  • You have budgetary constraints around adding new resources to handle constantly changing technology stack
  • You are not able to focus on your core business competencies as management and monitoring of any project in-house is time consuming and challenging
  • You want a quick turnaround time and do not worry about hiring, training and other issues associated with in-house hiring. Most outsourced companies can start working on your projects right away, build an efficient roadmap and stick to strict deadlines to deliver your projects on schedule
  • You want to focus on costs. Outsourcing software development is an effective way to reduce overall development costs. This is mainly due to the pricing differential across different regions – Asia/Eastern Europe ($15-30/hour), South America ($30-$45/hour), North America ($80+/hour).

Conclusion

Outsourcing your software development needs is a tough decision involving many variables. Many businesses have been successful in outpacing their growth objectives and scaling up with the help of outsourced partners. A right software development partner can be a game-changer for your business. If you’ve any doubts related to software development and if you need assistance developing one then feel free talk to us here.

Leveraging MVP For Your Business

Posted on by galaxy-admin
MVP is your product idea with the bare necessary features that you will test with real users. Feedback received from this stage will then be used for developing your actual product. The response from your MVP sets the direction of your product and answers essential questions like:
  • Is your idea marketable?
  • Will the users pay for your idea in the future?
  • Does your MVP solve the problem as you anticipated it?
  • What additional features users expect in your product?
Your MVP gives a reality check of the viability of your product, hence it’s vital not to skip it.

Why is MVP necessary?  

To further elaborate on the importance of MVP and to convince anyone who says otherwise, reason with them with the points below:
  • An MVP lets you test a basic product before it goes for design and development stages, thereby saving you time and effort.
  • Helps you in identifying a group of early adopters for future testing.
  • Is cost-effective viability and feasibility check.
  • Gives you insight into user expectations concerning your product.

When does MVP come into play? 

The obvious answer here is right after the ideation of your product. However, there are times when you take the MVP route apart from this. If you wish to venture into a new category in your existing product. For example, you are an online bakery shop with great reach and wish to leverage your brand to diversify offerings. You are thinking of including frozen food in your product offerings. You need to see if there is a separate website to be developed or you can integrate the new products into the existing one. If you wish to revamp your older website with a new design and improved UI. There will be a new color scheme, different navigation, basically a complete makeover. You can create an MVP for both scenarios to see your response. Your existing customer base can be reached out for their inputs on the new MVPs and give their feedback on whether your vision is being reflected in the new design. So the scope of MVP is not restricted to just a new product, it can be for:
  • New features
  • Different design
  • Introducing your product to newer demographics

Which MVP model to go for?

The decision to build an MVP of your product is not complete yet. You need to select which MVP  model is feasible for you to build with the available resources and timeline. Here are the most popular ones.

Landing page MVP

You create a landing page with the basics:
  • A description of your product
  • How is it different from your competitors, i.e. your USP
  • A CTA button can be added for signing up for newsletters, more content about your product, contact information, etc.
Buffer went with the landing page MVP. Google Ads helped Joe Gascoigne got 120 sign-ups and was able to talk to many of them to get their thoughts on his product and what they liked the most about it.

Explainer videos MVP 

In this, you create a video, preferably a short one that describes your product and a demo of your product in action. You will need access to your audience, via their email IDs, or targeted ads. Animated videos can also be created here. Videos are known for higher engagement rates when compared to text, so you have a chance of creating a buzz on social media as well. Dropbox’s four-minute-long video went viral, and they got the attention of the potential users within a short period, thanks to the video.

Wizard of Oz MVP

This is the “Fake it till you make it” scenario! In this, the customer interacts with your product thinking that it’s the final one. But in the background, a person will be handling the responses to your customer. The tasks performed by your team will eventually be done by certain algorithms or automated technology. But before you invest your time in that, you wish to see if users need it. Plus you get user responses this way that will act as the base for your future assumptions. Jeff Bezos similarly launched Amazon from his garage.

Concierge MVP

Concierge MVP is helping your users manually to achieve their end goals. Every customer that visits you, will be guided by a human resource. Via this method, you get a one on one conversation with your real users and understand their pain points. It’s testing the waters yourself! You interact with your users and incorporate their feedback to your original idea. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to develop a complete prototype to test as you are present to guide your users. Airbnb started similarly. Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky tested if people were willing to stay in houses and build a website around the same concept and three people signed up.

Email MVP

The starter pack for this method is an email list and a good response rate from the same list. Sending a product via email is way more convenient than building a website. However, a good click rate is a must, otherwise, your emails are of no use due to lack of feedback. An existing user base can be helpful here as they are familiar with your product and brand. They will be more willing to spare a few minutes as opposed to shooting emails to strangers. A lack of response can lead to a dead-end here, so it must be avoided at all costs. Ryan Hoover’s Product Hunt received a huge response from the emails he sent and could thus leverage that for creating a successful platform. Everything said, skipping an MVP is never a good start. Numerous options can be taken to see the viability of your product. They vary as per resource availability, timeline, and tech friendliness. If you think that developing an MVP involves a lot of work, call us, and we will make the MVP journey smooth for you. About us  We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services. Our digital product experts are creative problem-solvers with a decade of experience in all facets of digital and interactive design and development. We create compelling and human-focused web and mobile experiences delivered through clean, and minimalistic UI.

How to decide what’s the right tech stack for your Mobile/Web App?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Choosing the best technology to build a robust solution is a very crucial decision. This is the third step while planning mobile and web application development. It comes after establishing the business perspective and product structure. With large companies, in-house and offshore developers typically make the choice collaboratively. It’s more complicated if you’re a small startup.

The decision will generally decide whether your mobile and web application will perform well and be scalable. It will also impact your budget! A well-chosen tech stack gives a competitive advantage and helps it grow, whereas the wrong technology can set you back by months.

This article will give you insights on things you need to know about the tech stack, and some clues for making smart decisions when the time comes.

Differences Between Web and Mobile App Tech Stack

What is a tech stack anyway? Bluntly put, it’s a set of software tools, databases, frameworks, programming languages, and technologies that are used to build a mobile, web app, or a website.

Web applications are generally internet-enabled. Thus, users don’t have to download them to access it. Web app tech stack uses the resources provided by the system. In this way, to build a web app, you will need to use a combination of front-end and back-end technologies.

Mobile apps are created for a specific mobile platform, i.e. a particular environment and cannot be replicated to another environment. To use a mobile app, the user should download it from the app/play store. Thus, apart from front-end and back-end technologies, to build a mobile app, you should use platform-oriented technologies – Swift and Objective-C for iOS and Java or Kotlin for Android app development.

Front-end technologies include:

  • HTML/HTML5
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • UI-frameworks and libraries: ReactJS, AngularJS, React, jQuery, and others

HTML and CSS Toolkit

There are several frameworks used for CSS and HTML. Some of them include:

  • Pure
  • Materialize
  • Susy
  • Bootstrap
  • UIkit
  • Bulma
  • Foundation

Popular choices among them are Foundation and Bootstrap. While Foundation is ideal for developing nimble, responsive websites, Bootstrap uses HTML, CSS, and jQuery library to make responsive web pages,

JavaScript Frameworks For Front-End Development

Modern web applications use JavaScript in the front-end. We have listed the best frontend frameworks to use in 2021 for web and mobile applications.

Back-end technologies include:

  • Operating system
  • Web server: Apache, Nginx
  • Databases: Neo4j, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and others
  • Programming languages:  Objective-C, Python, PHP, Java, C#, and others
  • Cloud infrastructures and services: AWS, Heroku, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and others.
  • Various frameworks build over programming languages: Django, .NET, Node.js, and others;

Once again, we have listed the best backend frameworks to use in 2021 that you may use.

Here are a few types of popular back-end tech stack combinations used mostly:

LAMP Stack

The LAMP stack helps in building an environment for running PHP applications. It’s used for hosting websites on Linux. The stack is made up of the following technologies: Linux (the environments OS), Apache (the HTTP server), MySQL (the database), and PHP (the server-side programming language).

Wins Stack

Windows Internet Naming Service (Wins) is another back-end stack that consists of a Windows server, internet information services, .Net, and Microsoft SQL Server. It’s a system that is used to determine the IP address associated with a particular network computer.

MEAN Stack

The mean stack consists of MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js. It is more of a full-stack structure. It‘s an open-source JavaScript software stack for building dynamic websites and web applications.

Xampp Stack

Xampp toolkit consists of X, Apache, MySQL or MariaDB, PHP, Perl. AMP stack lets you install Apache, MySQL, and PHP on your computer together with some other useful software. It’s designed to provide you an easy installation experience.

MERN Stack

MERN consists, MongoDB, Express, React/Redux, and Node.js. The MERN stack is very similar to the MEAN stack. This stack is sought after because of the growth in popularity of ReactJS in front-end development and NodeJS in back-end development and is useful for building high-end single-page applications.

Choosing the right Tech Stack | 11 must-know things

Your choice of technology stack should be based primarily on the quality and functional requirements you want to have in your app or website. If that tech stack can develop all the desired features and functions you want, then, it’s the right choice.

The Size & Complexity of the Project

One of the key factors to watch out for is the size of your project. The tech stack needed for a mid-sized or even large project will vary from that needed for a small project. Besides the size, the complexity of the project also matters a lot. Complex projects ask for thorough technologies and tools.

The Product Functionality and Specification 

You need to be sure that your defined functionalities should solve the problems of your target audience. It makes sense to run this step after or along with market research to find out what products already exist and what additional specifications your software needs to have to beat the competition. According to this, you will be able to choose your right set of tools.

Products’ Required Speed and Functions

It goes forward to double-check the compatibility and efficiency rate of pairing a project and tech stack. Here, the functions, and speed expected with the project is supposed to deliver to its users well, which goes a long way in determining which tech stack to use.

System Load Requirements

This is another very important aspect to pay attention to. Several projects have different processing loads and therefore not all tech stacks can serve all processing load requirements. With this, you will need to compare your prospective product processing loads with the capacity of the tech stack to ensure that it can meet that need.

Clearly defined requirements for MVP

MVP is the imperative to the mobile & web application development process of a product. As a bare-bones set of crucial elements, MVP is generally designed for experimental proof of the competitiveness and viability of the product in a real market situation. Thus, it’s essential to understand what matters to an app right from the start and what technologies will be needed in the future.

Scalability Requirements

It’s essential to understand that there are two types of scalability — horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal scalability means the capability of running on more devices. Vertical scalability helps in adding more elements to an application. Both are equally important for the growth and efficient operation of the product.

The tech stack you choose should be able to support your app as it scales up. When you are ready to enhance your productivity, your tech stack should be equipped with the right tools, frameworks, and aspects that would step up the process without wasting time or money. As the app landscape is dominated by MVP models, your stack should be able to support upgrade and scalability at various stages after the launch of a prototype without complicating things.

Performance Requirements

The influence of performance stats comes from two sources. One from the business requirement and the other is what the technology is capable of in a situation.

Performance requirements determine how fast the system can react and how many requests the system can process at what rate. Since the whole operation must react to thousands of events at millisecond speed – it makes sense to pick the most reliable option.

Costs

Budgeting the tech stack is probably the trickiest thing in the entire development process. Why? Well, software development is not precisely writing on a piece of paper with a pencil — it demands a significant financial resource to get the job done. There are:

  • Subsequent maintenance costs
  • Technology education & licensing fees
  • Developers’ salaries
  • Hosting costs for keeping the product

The trick is to avoid overspending wherever possible, avoid bloating, and balance things out.

DevOps & security requirement

The kind of DevOps practices you are used to, as well as the level of the security requirement, is a crucial factor, too. Will your app just serve as an informational hub for end-users or your app will manage their financial data?

If you need to manage user data, security is of paramount importance and hence, you should also consider choosing a tech stack that always facilitates a high-end security framework to fulfill app development goals.

Maintenance

The Tech stack should be easy to manage without lengthy codes. If your tech stack confuses your developers with complex codes and takes a long time to process and complete a task, then you might get stuck after a point in development.

At the same time, choosing a stack that has a very illegible coding structure can lead to additional spending on training and development of resources. So, your focus should be on finding a tech stack on which code is easy to maintain for your development team.

Seek out professional guidance

If you are new to the world of application tech stacks, then seeking out the help of an IT professional is a good idea. These professionals will be able to provide the guidance needed to get the best tech stack components.

Conclusion

These are the essential things you need to know about Tech Stack as a concept and how it affects the development of a project and defines its prospects.

With these tips, you will be able to navigate in the vast sea of options, not get caught in the shuffle, or lose sight of your goals.

Contact Us right away to discuss your website or app development tech stack according to your business requirement and complexities.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services and have hands-on experience with large, medium, and startup business development requirements. Our engineers also help in improving security, reliability, and features to make sure your business application scale and remain secure.

Customer Journey Mapping For Better Website Performance

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The most important question that project managers should ask themselves is, “How do I help my customers achieve their goals on my website while still achieving mine?” Focusing on that question is the starting point for improving your website experience and building a customer journey map. The first goal for preparing a customer journey map is to identify the customers’ requirements and what they are seeking using your website. Your team (Designer/ Developer/ Tester) should understand the entire process your customers go through.

The Journey Phases

This implies the different stages in the customer’s journey. They may vary as per particular scenarios. Each company can use data to analyze what these phases are as per the corresponding situation. Here are some examples:
  • For a B2B scenario (like rolling out an internal tool), the stages could be purchase, adoption, retention, expansion, advocacy.
  • For a big (or luxury) purchase (like test driving and buying a car), the stages can be engagement, education, research, evaluation, justification.
  • For an ecommerce scenario (like buying Bluetooth speakers), the stages can be – discovery, try, buy, use, seek support.
This will help you determine your journey phases according to your business type. There’s a common saying that you can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes – and that’s exactly what customer journey maps do. They help you put yourself in your customers’ shoes and understand your business from their point of view. Based on this rationale, you can’t deny the importance of a customer journey map. Thus, we’ve created the following steps for crafting the best map to help your company website improve.

1. Set clear objectives

Before you can dive into creating your map, you need to ask yourself why you are making one in the first place. What goals are you directing this map towards? Who is it specifically about? What experience is it based upon? You can start by writing down the objectives on sticky notes or use a customer journey template. A customer experience map will help you narrow down one specific interaction with your business. You can have individual customer experience maps for each of the following scenarios of your business:
  • Reading your blog or exploring your website
  • Interacting with a customer support agent
  • Visiting your store or your ecommerce site
  • Using your product at home or work
  • Interacting with sales during the process of becoming a customer

2. Profile your personas and define their goals

Next, you should conduct research. Some great ways to get valuable customer feedback is through questionnaires and user testing. The important thing is to only reach out to actual customers or prospects. You want the feedback of people who are interested in purchasing your products and services and who have interacted with your company before or plan to do so. TIP: It’s best to pick your most common customer persona and consider the route they would typically take while engaging with your business for the first time. You can use a marketing dashboard to compare each one and determine which would be the best fit for your journey map. Don’t worry about the ones you leave out, as you can always go back and create a new map that’s specific to these customer types.

3. Monitor how your customers move on your site

It’s important to understand how users move through your website. For example, if you’re offering a discount code to all first-time visitors, then why is the sales low? The offer (or, ability) might be great, but consumers still lack the motivation to buy. In this case, it doesn’t matter how much products are discounted. This common scenario can be uncovered with the Behavior Flow report from Google Analytics. Make sure to examine different segments of users, whether it’s first-time visitors, returning visitors, purchasers, or create a custom segment for visitors with long session durations but no purchases: Google Analytics: Behavior Flow Look for trends, like specific drop-off points were so many users are leaving your site without converting. What page do most first-time visitors view after landing on your homepage?

4. List out all the touchpoints

Touchpoints are all the places on your website that your customers can interact with you. Based on your research on Google Analytics or basic research on your CMS dashboard, you should list out all the touchpoints your customers and prospects are currently using, as well as the ones you believe they should be used if there is no overlap. Apart from Analytics on your website, you need to determine how your customer might come across you online. These might include:
  • Social channels
  • Paid ads
  • Email marketing
  • Third-party review sites or mentions
This is an important step in creating a customer journey map because it gives you insight into what actions your customers are performing. If the number is more than expected, it is likely that your website navigation is complicated. However, if they are using fewer touchpoints than expected, this may imply that they are not convinced with your offerings and may leave the website early.

5. Map the pain points

Go back over the map and jot down pain points on sticky notes. Place them underneath the corresponding touchpoints on the journey. For added value, talk about the impact of each pain point. Is it trivial, or is it likely to necessitate some kind of hack or workaround? Even worse: does it cause the user to bounce off the website and leave their journey entirely? Get to know what roadblocks are stopping your customer from making their desired action.

6. Improvement Ideas

Start by prioritizing which touchpoints or pages to address first. You can rank pages by cost-effectiveness and or how easy they are to change. Improvement ideas are usually integrations, services, or features that we can enable. Then, it’s a matter of determining what to test. For instance, if research suggests that customers worry about getting locked into a particular plan after they sign up, tweaking your copy on a relevant page could minimize their hesitations.

Conclusion:

Once you have a better understanding of the customer journey, you can use that knowledge to improve your site by honing your messaging to match customer needs, smoothing out frustration points, eliminating extra steps, and even creating content. This will ensure your website is providing a seamless and effective interaction for customers, which leads to a better user experience. The companies need to anticipate the routes their customers may take, and optimize their customer experience along the multiple touchpoints rather than relying on one assumed journey. About Galaxy Weblinks We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services. Our digital product designers are creative problem-solvers with a decade of experience in all facets of digital and interactive design. We create compelling and human-focused experiences delivered through clean, and minimalist UI.

Galaxy Weblinks Proud to be Named a Top Development Partner in Massachusetts by Clutch!

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Here at Galaxy Weblinks, we realize it can be tough to balance high impact app development while also staying afloat in a weak global economy. That’s why we’re here to help! We’re a web and mobile app development firm that’s been in the game for over two decades. With over 1000 projects under our belt, we have the technical expertise and know how to help your business achieve its goals. All of our clients appreciate our dedicated project management style and how we communicate effectively in all of our projects. Whether you need Android, iOS, or Hybrid app development, we’ve got your back!

In light of our accomplishments, we’ve been considered one of the top companies for app development in Massachusetts by Clutch, a B2B market research authority. They employ a one of a kind ranking formula to compare leaders in the business services sector. Clutch’s work helps interested buyers find and partner with the vendor of their dreams!

We couldn’t have earned this award without our wonderful clients! They took time out of their day to engage with the Clutch team to assess our performance. We were evaluated on the basis of quality, attention to deadlines, fairness of cost, and overall ability to drive results. We’re happy to report, we’ve earned a lovely 4.8 out of five stars on Clutch! Take a look at our most recent review below:

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“We are thrilled to be listed in top 15 companies in Massachusetts for web and mobile development by Clutch”  Varun Bihani, partner Galaxy Weblinks.

We’re over the moon to be recognized for our accomplishments! Thank you to our clients and to the Clutch team for making this award a reality. Drop us a line today if you’re interested in learning more about how Galaxy Weblinks can help your business thrive!

Agencies That Build #8 All About the Agency | Chad Pytel

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In this episode of Agencies That Build, we have with us Chad Pytel, Founder, and COO of thoughtbot. It’s a group of designers and developers collaborating closely with clients.
Per the #ATB tradition, we picked the brains of our guest for some common industry myths and handed him the Mjölnir to bust them.

Myths

  • Your primary motive for getting into consulting should be to earn some money to bootstrap a SaaS product.
  • You should only hire experts for your agency
You must be invested in helping people scale while enjoying the process of the transition otherwise, you might get stuck on a consulting treadmill.
Be super clear about your priorities and be intentional about your work early on Chad Pytel
If we rewind on all the episodes of this digital leadership series, this has been one common theme that every leader that appeared on our podcast talked about. This is what Chad also emphasized when we asked from a small agency perspective about what practices he recommends for leaders. Following up on the best practices, Chad added, incorporate training into your hiring. There is one common mistake that agencies do while trying to scale. They work with unfilled positions for months and months waiting for experts to fill them. They end up paying recruiters 25% of the package for the said expert after say 3-4 months of hunting. Instead, hire and train people that fit within your culture for 4 months for that 25%. Training is a powerful tool because it enables you to hire more people than you’d otherwise be able to and it also makes the people you hire more successful. Then the conversation took a turn towards the hottest debate of the industry, Specialist vs Generalist. Chad had an interesting take on the whole situation. Generalist or Specialist – whatever you do, if you’re not consistent and intentional then your team will have a hard time working together. Even the agencies that position themselves as generalists have something that they’re good at, they provide specialization in that particular domain with small structured teams of developers and designers. We also discussed with Chad the future of the technology and how the pricing dynamic has changed during this full remote work culture. Can we retain the prices of services as a nearshore agency while still working completely remotely? Find this and more on our Podcast and YouTube. TL;DR | Takeaways for All About the Agency
  • To close any productivity and communication gaps, remove the middleman between the founder and project team. “We fundamentally believe in having a small group of people who are good at what they do working directly with clients to create something.” ~Chad Pytel.
  • Aspire to build successful products AND successful businesses. Training clients to facilitate a meeting or prioritize planning helps them be lucrative in the future outside of your own business.
  • Set specific expectations for your team in terms of communication and holding the company philosophy. This sets the bar for your team and allows them to have a growth mindset going into projects.
  • Training is a powerful tool that enables you to hire more people than you otherwise would have been able to and sets your team up for success. Apprenticeships and other training programs are a great way to accomplish this!
  • Whether you are a specialized or generalized company, the most important thing is to know what your model is and stay consistent with that. This provides a basis for your team to execute.
  • Career advice from Chad Pytel, have an honest conversation with your founders about expectations and what you want to achieve before starting your company.