Common Challenges in Scaling Up Software Development Project and How to Tackle them

Introduction

Scaling up a software development project can be a necessity to ensure operations can continue in a normal manner without compromising on functionality. But if not done correctly, scaling up can result in a lot of unexpected challenges and pitfalls.

In this article, we’re going to look at what those key challenges are, and the most important things you can do to not just plan for them, but avoid them hindering you entirely.

Communication

Firstly, communication – when scaling up, it’s very easy for communication to break down, which slows development and costs both time and, in turn, money.

If communication isn’t clear and consistent, different stakeholders might have different expectations, and this issue of “too many cooks” can lead to a lack of clarity in what the vision for the project is.

Another common issue is “information silos”: certain teams/individuals having access to specific information – often information which is also critical to other teams operating efficiently.

So, how do we overcome this? A good start is regular standups to ensure everyone’s on the same page and has a clear vision of their upcoming objectives. Even better, we’d recommend planning on a kanban board – having all of your key action points in a single easily accessible place gives your standups an easy-to-review breakdown of your current and future endeavours. Holding a regular, open discussion (i.e. your standups) around this board can draw attention to previously unrealised issues, ensures everyone is on the same page, and helps you avoid any potential doubling of work, because everyone knows where they fit into the bigger picture.

It's also highly beneficial to have open communication channels and centralised documentation. Rather than having your teams waste time in seeking out this information from the “keyholder”, having one transparent source of truth saves time and reduces frustration and friction from the process.

Advances in technology

We all know technology evolves at a rapid pace. While Moore’s law originally focused on hardware, the advent of AI and its subsequent iterations have followed a very similar trend. Not keeping an eye on these trends can result in falling behind both your competition and the demands of the market, rendering you obsolete.

Similarly, resistance to this constant evolution can be a big issue – it’s not at all uncommon for people and companies to get stuck in their ways, latching on to deprecated tools and methodologies. Being forced to take a significant amount of time troubleshooting or working around something that’s been superseded isn’t a productive use of anyone’s time!

How do we solve these issues? Making a point of following the latest trends in technology is a good start – that’s not to say you should blindly adopt every new flavour of the month, but being aware of them and how they can benefit you will ensure you stay current and relevant in an ever-developing world.

Similarly, it’s a good idea to plan ahead with the tech that you intend to use – ensuring something is scalable and robust should be high up on your list of priorities, rather than simply opting for the first tool that covers your short-term goals and losing sight of the future.

Scalability

We just mentioned ensuring the tech you use is scalable, and as part of the bigger picture it’s very common for teams to build for the present without accounting for the future, with scalability as an afterthought, so we felt this deserved a section of its own.

It’s important to keep your potential future need for scalability in mind when setting up your initial project – otherwise you run a huge risk of running into inefficiency, poor performance, and significant costs – both in time and in money.

What can you actually do to avoid running into this issue? The key thing here is to take a step back and look at what you’re doing. Pause and evaluate: “is this the best way of doing this?” and “what are the potential future implications of doing this in this way?” are great questions to ask yourself. Follow your development process to its logical conclusion in your head, looking for stumbling blocks along the way. When doing this, if things don’t pan out the way you’d expected them to then it might be time to re-evaluate your approach.

Feature Creep

Last, but definitely not least, we have feature creep. Feature creep happens when overenthusiasm results in “wants” being implemented rather than “needs”. What’s the outcome of this? Increased costs, missed deadlines, poor UX, a lack of focus, and technical debt – not ideal for anyone!

How do we avoid feature creep? Having a clear vision of the software’s functionality from the beginning is a good start – if it’s clearly defined, you know what to aim for as an MVP, what’s necessary, and what isn’t.

Speaking of MVPs, it’s an excellent idea to launch one. Get the bare minimum functionality in place and ship it to a test audience. Listening to their feedback not only shows you any pain points users are running into, but also lets you know which features can potentially be removed in order to avoid bloat.

One important thing to bear in mind with feature removal is that you shouldn’t necessarily remove a feature just because it isn’t being used – you need to look at why it isn’t being used. If it’s a key feature that’s being avoided by users, is there a stumbling block in the UX that drives users away from interacting with it? If so, this needs to be fixed rather than scrapped entirely.

Another thing you can do to avoid feature creep is to ensure that any added functionality further down the line doesn’t hinder or detract from the main use case – it should be an enhancement of the existing product, rather than something irrelevant that detracts from the intended experience.

Conclusion

So, what are the main things you can do to avoid the most common issues encountered when scaling up software development projects? The key takeaways are:

Communication: regular standups, kanban planning, open documentation and communication channels

Advances in technology: follow the latest trends (but don’t necessarily adopt them!), plan ahead

Scalability: plan ahead to ensure you’re approaching things in a future-proof way, pause and evaluate

Feature creep: have a clear vision, ship an MVP, remove underutilised features, ensure any added features are an actual benefit

Alternatively, if you want to avoid the stress of having to not just learn all of these ideas but also implement them, please feel free to ?? reach out to us ?? to see how we can help or visit our website to find out more.