How intensive collaboration between business and IT drives innovation and growth
Organizations working with traditional software almost always experience a wall between software developers and business people, such as product owners and business analysts. The result? Inefficiency, miscommunication, wasted time and time-to-market increases. That hinders growth and innovation. In this blog, Jeroen de Smedt, Lead Mendix Architect & Certified Mendix Expert Developer at Mendify, talks about how to avoid this barrier.
Dissatisfaction
When software developers and the people from the business are not on the same page, misunderstandings, inefficiencies arise, and you run the risk that the delivered functionalities do not meet the needs of the business. In short, this leads to dissatisfaction on two sides. Working with a low-code platform like Mendix’s makes those two worlds much more compatible. Then you start to understand and feel each other better, and you can reduce your time-to-market –or time-to-business – considerably. That leaves much more room for innovation and growth.
Faster development is also faster communication
By the way, deploying a low-code platform does not make that gap disappear by itself. If you can develop faster, there will also be faster communication. Every two weeks, part of the software is delivered. Of course, the business does intend to test that piece of software in the following two weeks, because by then there will be new functionality. People don’t expect that. They are very happy that their needs are translated so quickly into working software, but they don’t consider that this also has consequences for their commitment and workload.
Game Rules
The close collaboration between the business and the developers also brings another challenge. Normally, the scope of project from a to z is captured in userstories. The product owner defines the scope, that gets turned into user stories, and with that the developer gets to work. Of course, when the business and the developers are close, it’s very easy to ask for additional functionality. Therefore, you need to closely monitor the development process and establish ground rules. If you start adding all kinds of things spontaneously and don’t keep an eye on the scope, little will come out of the budget and schedule.
Innovation and growth
Good. Have you set the right ground rules? Have you developed a clear and widely shared vision of how a low-code platform fits into the existing IT strategy? Is everyone aware of the speed of development? Then this solid cooperation will foster innovation and growth.
Innovation
As a Mendix Lead Architect, my role is to combine my knowledge of the Mendix platform with my knowledge of the business environment the customer is working with. I listen to the needs of the business and translate that into the right requirements that developers can work with. People in the business often do not know what is possible. By putting a bridge builder between them, so to speak, you arrive at the most innovative solutions.
Growth
When business and technology are seamlessly aligned and the right ground rules are in place, crystal clear communication emerges. Then you avoid having to redo things and don’t fall behind. On the contrary, if the processes are running well, you are actually going to create an edge.
Want to know more?
Wondering if your organization can also fully embrace agile working with Mendix’s low-code platform? Challenge us with a case study. Provide us with an idea and we will make it concrete based on a one-day mini-project in which we play the “game” as it works in a real agile development project. This app-in-a-day experience is guaranteed to convince you of the possibilities.