Identifying the 3 Key “Ingredients” for a successful Information System Project Development

Are you prepared to take on the next big IT project on your company? What a nightmare! In any given case in almost every company when dealing with Information System Development you face three highly explosive ingredients for a big bang, resulting in either delay or failure.

Meet the ingredients!

  1. The Client – Ever-demanding and in most cases lacking clear knowledge of the specifications or the project itself. He just wants you to complete his job at minimum cost and with great urgency. He needs the project done yesterday! He feels sorry and sympathetic towards the developers, but he pays so he demands!
  2. The Analyst – The connecting chain link, the multi-tasker, the translator, always under stress, running around just to survive. He is buried up to his neck in responsibilities, with back and forth communications, time schedules, deadlines, budgets, GANTT charts, demands and denials….
  3. The Programmer – Another breed of people, living in their own tech bubble lost between reality and virtual cyberspace. You need to hover over them just to keep them on time and in line with the project’s specifications and customer demands.

Do you need more? Mix the above into the leaking pot of myriads of applications and technological solutions and you have a ticking disaster on your hands!

Survival Guide for the Unprepared

Do you consider yourself a dummy? Are you a rookie? Follow the basic guidelines below and you might have a better chance of survival in this jungle.

Being the Client

Okay, you have the money, you pay and everything you say is “right”. But is what you think you are paying for what you are going to get at the end? That’s the question!

So please:

  • Plan and Plan…and then Plan again.
  • Clarify in your mind for the benefit of your business and your money what exactly it is that you are paying for, a clear image of the project you are developing and how it will benefit your business.
  • Is your initial budget large, small or reasonable for the value you hope to extract from the project? Check similar applications, what they can do and how much they cost.
  • If you are not able to describe your needs and your project specifications, hire a third party to do it for you. There are specialized consultants for that. Keep track of the project and the deliverables. Don’t expect your project developer to play the role of the consultant as well.
  • Always check out the competition. In most cases, you can benefit from the experience of your competitors by capitalizing on their advantages and avoiding their mistakes. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel all over again.
  • Cross-reference the project development company with their customers and check their track record on similar projects.
  • Try to communicate in a written format and keep track (perhaps some kind of a diary) for the communications between you and the analysts.
  • Meet the development team. Sometimes chemistry and mindset is a success factor when it comes to intellectual projects.
Being the Analyst

Don’t assume that you know and have seen everything. There is always something new to face and something different to experience when it comes to handling projects and people. Every project is unique.

  • Learn more about your clients. Make the effort.
  • Have detailed knowledge of the capabilities of your team, their previous work, the libraries or platforms they use for development.
  • Always communicate any problems, changes or suggestions to the client. Be patient and conservative. You will be happier at the end.
  • Find ways to keep yourself motivated and to motivate the programmers or other members of the team as well.
  • DO NOT over work or disrupt the workflow of your programmers. Do not toss at them more tasks or disrupt them with smaller projects. The only thing you can achieve is to agitate them and lower the standards of their work.
  • Handle budgets carefully! A service-based development project, especially when it is custom-developed, can easily go over budget and over time.
  • Plan your work and the work of the team like the maestro in an orchestra. The more detailed the planning the better.
  • Try to interpret the needs and the specifications of the client in a meaningful way for your programmers. Remember you are the translator between them. They DO NOT speak the same language.
Being the Programmer

First, you must take a pin and break the big protective “cloud” you have built around yourself. It is not just you and your PC in this world.

  • Try to meet the client and get as many details you can about his company and what they are trying to achieve with this project.
  • Have your eyes and ears open.
  • Try to put yourself in the position of the client
  • If you do not know something ASK. Don’t assume! That is why you are working with an analyst. Utilise his communication skills and his previous knowledge.
  • Manage your time. If you cannot do something on a specific time schedule, say so. Don’t over work and don’t stress yourself in order to be liked. At the end this will have an effect on the quality of your work and it will come back to you like a boomerang.
  • Organize your libraries and keep them well maintained and up to date in order to minimize the work load that you have to undertake for each project.
  • Communicate any problems you have to your colleagues and ask for their insight or help.
  • BACKUP, BACKUP and BACKUP more.

Well, I guess you have the big picture. There are tons of books and information about each one of the above cases.

However I get the weird feeling whenever I am faced with a similar situation in project development that no matter who, when or where, the same issues will arise again and again and again….

Please feel free to add your comments and your insight on this topic.

By Ypatios Moysiadis, first appeared on http://cleantechgeek.com/2018/04/decoding-information-system-project-development/

by Venture Tinkers

Small Fish, Big Sea – What are the chances startups survive in the current environment?

Do you have what it takes as an individual to become the next “unicorn” entrepreneur? To follow on to the steps of Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk? Do you have a killer idea, an economic sense and the seed capital to start it up? What’s next? What is the story with all these entrepreneurs and small firm start-ups? Can you, a tiny little fish, survive in the deep sea?

If I had clear answers to all the questions above, I would have been a billionaire by now. But one thing I have learned in life is that things are not always black or white. Let’s elaborate a bit more….

Success in start-ups comes down to a number of factors. Of course, a solid business plan and a plausible idea are essential. But success also comes down to timings and perseverance. If at first you don’t succeed, try again.

The perception of entrepreneurship and SMEs have changed dramatically over the last century and especially the last 20 years with the introduction of technological solutions such as PCs, Internet and mobile devices that have reformed the way business is conducted and empowered the individual with instant knowledge and mass communication capabilities.

To support my case, let me provide you with some hard facts.

  • Within EU-28 about 99.8% of businesses are defined as SMEs on non-Financial sectors. In total, SMEs employ about 90 million people and provide 67% of the total employment in EU-28.
  • A huge 93% of them are micro business (micro-SMEs) with less than 10 employees and a turnover of less than 2 million €. To see its magnitude nine out of ten SMEs are micro businesses with an average of 2.1 employees per enterprise.
  • Actually from 2008 up to 2014 the number of SMEs in the EU-28 was increased by 3.6%, with a potential of further increase of about 1.2% until 2016.

This is a strong indication that a small firm and entrepreneurs can survive. But how many actually do, and for how long?

There is another important indicator to examine and this is the Net-Entry Development of SMEs. In simple words it questions how many SMEs are established and how many cease their operation in annual basis.

This rate differs between regions and countries within EU-28, but up to 2014 and despite the crisis it remained positive with the UK achieving the highest SME value added growth with 11.6%

Another critical element to examine when considering the survival of a new enterprise is the Business Dynamics. Business Dynamics can play a major role on many qualitative and quantitative factors within a business sector. Business Dynamics is a perspective and set of tools which enables us to understand the structure and dynamics of business by measuring and tracking various indicators such us:

  • The entry, growth and exit rate of businesses
  • The job Creation and Job Destruction
  • Market Share or Firm Market Participation (in a given sector / industry) and geography
  • Number and Type of Products and Services Produced
  • Customers classes

Usually new enterprises and small firms are established by young entrepreneurs with new ideas and ambitions that are able to introduce innovation and apply new technological and managerial models to their operations. There are numerous examples of new innovative and disruptive business models, such as Uber, AirBnB and Kiva (microfinance platform), which demonstrates the intuitive way that entrepreneurs are exploiting technology to create new models within very traditional industries.

Last we can take into consideration two more barometers. One the Total Early Stage Entrepreneurial Activity Rateis positive for the major economies worldwide despite the conflicts and the oil price dropping. Two the statistics indicate that the five key sectors for SMEs 1) Wholesale and Retail Trade, 2) Manufacturing, 3) Construction, 4) Business Services and 5) Accommodation and Food, demonstrate positive growth rates, in EU-28. Even in crisis people find the means and the ways to diversify, adopt to change or more intelligently start over after a failure, having learned from their mistakes the first time around.

I could provide you with more data to support my argument that small fishes can actually survive, but there are widely available in the internet. The above statistics were taken from the Annual Report on European SMEs 2014-2015 produced by the European Commission.

Source: Annual report on European SMEs 2014-2015

Entrepreneurs are essential for a healthy and vibrant economic environment. Startups can be more independent as they can choose not to comply with set market policies and rules, their market exploitation is based on personal conduct and their true investment is more in time than money, but most importantly a small firm is a reflection of the personality the capabilities and the limitations of the founder.

Business culture and the financial institutions as a whole are willing to facilitate innovation and fresh ideas. If an idea is plausible, you approach it with the correct attitude, and you’ve done your market research, there is a strong chance your business will work. You don’t have to re-discover the wheel, you just need to make it more efficient and most importantly believe in your idea.

Remember it is not just about the money, but mostly it is about the journey and the facilitation of your creativity, your personal needs and your personal goals.

by Ypatios Moysiadis, first appeared on http://cleantechgeek.com/2016/09/small-fish-big-sea/

by Venture Tinkers

Two ways to valuate and put a price tag on your startup

By Ypatios Moysiadis, first appeared on Cleantech Geek.

There is an everlasting struggle between creativity and innovation vs cold business and hard finance.

Putting a price tag to your product is a fundamental starting point in raising the necessary capital to set off your business venture.

However, we recognize it is a very difficult thing to put a value your startup. How do you make a safe estimate? Is there any easy straight forward way to do that? What do you need to consider to give a realistic IRR and NPV calculation to your potential investors? How do you estimate the discount rate that you need to apply?

There is no step-by-step process or any kind of a magic formula to value your business. Depending on which side you are on the valuation and the estimation is highly subjective. If you operate as a VC and you are a potential investor you will possibly recognize the potential business value and the possible profits by investing on it, but you will underestimate the price of the start up because simply you are aware of the risk and the fact that the start up might not make it to its first year without your money. Also because you want to buy something potentially valuable to a bargain price.

On the other side of the coin, if you are the entrepreneur than you are going to estimate the price of your start up much higher due to the fact that you are putting a sentimental value towards it. Most probably you have made many wishful assumption on your business plan. Your assumptions and estimations are higher than they should and of course you take into consideration the psychological pressure and sentimental value of the business to you that you are risking more than just time and money.

Below are so key points on how to calculate the value of your startup.

Financial Approach

Before you start you need to be aware that a new startup doesn’t have the financial records and the performance history in order to make safe assumptions and projections. The true value of the startup is essential to what the market is willing to pay for it.

You need to project on a 5 to 10 year basis the estimated revenue and cash flow of your company. You can do that by examining records of other companies in the same market i.e. considering the market average price/earnings ratio. Once this is done you will need to apply a discount rate based on the risk attached. In simple words, that is the risk of your startup not reaching the projected revenue targets.

From experience, I can tell you that discount rates vary between 20%-70% based on the market condition and the investor risk appetite. Usually Angel Investors will go for more than 50% of a startup. VCs will invest on lower discount rates but on more mature companies.

If you are a startup with a bit of financial and trading history you might consider to use the EBITDA (earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) and multiply it by a conservative and justifiable factor.

Finally, you need to value the assets in your company. Most startups don’t have many real assets, but it is good to valuate whatever you have. What can be an assets for a startup except from obvious things? Well, your brand, trademark, patents, the people, the so called “sweat equity”, partners, contracts, qualified leads and prospects are assets that can help you quantify and justify the value of a startup.

Market Based Approach

Another approach to estimate the value of your company is to see the competition. What did your competitors managed to achieve? How much money did they raise? Which assumptions have they used? In plain terms this is like pricing your car. When you want to sell it you look at the range of the market prices and then based of the characteristics of your car you can safely estimate the average price.

Remember that the overall size of the market can have an impact of your growth rate projections. However there is always the case of a market bubble, (see the .COM at the start of the century and 15 years on we have the Green bubble). If you get lucky you will sell high, if not you might not be able to sell at all.

The competition analysis and the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats “SWOT” analysis can play also a major role on your business value. Obviously more competitors mean less growth potential and smaller market share. However if you can demonstrate that your business is “watertight” through a robust SWAT analysis, that might actually help. Remember, the competition can actually validate your idea, your business and the market you operate.

Last but not least, there is “Good Will”. Depending on intangible things like the experience and the people within the team, the deliverables track record, the market conditions, the social impact, etc an investor might be willing to pay a bit more

There isn’t a simple recipe for valuation, there are many different schools of thought and methodologies. I have seen internet companies raising money with a simple draft business plan and other with assets, teams and trading history struggle. You can use any mix of approaches and methods to reach your goal for raising the capital you need. You need to re-adapt your pitching strategies and your business plan over and over again until you say what the investors want to hear on a realistic, and if I might add, conservative way.

At the end of the day it is all about you and your team demonstrating that, you have invested in creating business assets that add value to your proposition and you know your audience (in this case the investors) and where you pitch.

By Ypatios Moysiadis

by Venture Tinkers

Why design systems are essential

Design systems are essential

Post by Dimitris Bizioglis, first appeared on https://www.bizioglis.com/design-systems-are-essential/

New studies showing that companies prioritising design are seeing 32% higher revenue than those who aren’t. We’re seeing some dramatic shifts toward more intentional systems and processes.

Over the last few years, the concept of a design system, or component-based shared resources between product and brand, has quickly gained momentum. Companies regularly publish their design system documentation, and entire conferences, have emerged dedicated to this topic.

2019 is the year that design systems will become a must-have for any company of consequence. By implementing design systems, forward-thinking companies will not only have an efficient codebase and consistency across platforms and products, but they ’ll be able to get more from their design teams; to unlock their true potential to dig into tough problems, where they were previously spending cycles recreating existing UI.

Beyond just documenting the components we use, these systems encompass how a team’s work is produced—design principles, accessibility guidelines, and learning resources.

Exceptional design systems scale design’s impact by allowing product teams to build better products, with limited design resources.

Ben Blumenfeldco-Director, Designer Fund

A decade ago, designers mastered a consistent set of tools. Fast forward to today, and designers have more options than ever before. But building a design system is as much about the people and communication as the tooling you choose to manage these systems. And when it comes to design systems, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

We often hear from our customers that no one knows how this “should” be done, and each company has to figure out what will fit their needs. As Spotify’s Josh Mateo and Jillian Nichols say, “Everyone’s business is set up differently and will need to lean into their values and structure to move in the right direction.”

Do you have this problem? Think…

  • Are you always happy with the speed of product development?
  • Do your interfaces share the same design patterns, colours, typography and other styles?
  • Do you always have enough time to deliver a quality product to meet KPIs?
  • How much time and money do you spend on redundant design or code tasks?
  • How much time and money do you spend cleaning up design or technical debt?

One NO makes the creation of the design system worthwhile. To overcome these challenges thousands of companies are investing in Design Systems.

What is a Design System?

A scalable framework of decisions & team behaviours across a product portfolio to converge on a cohesive experience.

Nathan Curtis

A design system is a collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build any number of applications.

The-Structure-of-a-Design-System

Why is a Design System important?

Diana Mounter, Design Systems Manager @ GitHub, summed it up rather well:

  • Design systems bring order to chaos. Everyone is kept on the same page, so the entire product remains consistent and polished throughout.
  • Design systems improve the user experience through the repeated use of familiar and proven patterns. Designing anything from scratch leaves room for error, so try to use what already works.
  • Design systems improve workflow efficiency. Product teams know exactly how components of new features should look and how to implement them.

Is it worth it?

Let’s look at some conservative numbers.

Are designers spending 30 minutes/day on any of these?

  • What shade of blue are we using?
  • Can you redline this for me?
  • Can you redesign this, we can’t build it?
  • Where’s our logo?
  • Where are approved stock photos?
  • Was this pattern used somewhere else?

Design System ROI for the Design Team:

$50 per hour. Team of 20 designers.
2.5h/week * 52 weeks * $50 * 20 designers = $130,000/year

UXPin Inc.

Design System return on investment for the Development Team:

Design systems also save time and money. Just by eliminating code redundancy, more than 20% of a developer’s time can be regained. For a team of 100 developers, this means around $2 million per year.

projekt202 Managing Architect Drew Loomer

Just the time and money saved thanks to a design system makes the whole project worth it. And this isn’t even the entire value. You’ll deliver better experiences faster. Customers will notice. By using well-tested components, you’ll lower the cost of long-term maintenance. And you’ll get the most out of every new hire, due to faster-standardised onboarding with the design system.

A Design System is a full product, which is going to help the creators of a project to build other products. Design systems have the power to transform a typical organisation into a powerful product design force.

Special thanks to Heather Phillips and UXPin Inc.

by Dimitris Bizioglis

by Venture Tinkers

Guiding principles all entrepreneurs should consider when designing their website and digital presence

How important is the website for a business?

Imagine yourself getting a reference for a service or a product from a company that you have never heard before. What is the first thing you do? You go and search for the company’s website and also check their social media. Correct? At least this is what I do. In 2019 the digital presence or digital “foot-print” of companies is one their single most important assets. In simple terms you can simplify it and see it as a digital brochure a tool that informs your audience about who you are what you do and how you can help them with their problems.

When I interact with a lot of different startups, they always ask me about the importance of building up their website and whether they can start without one. MY answer is simple. You don’t need a website to establish a digital presence especially when you run on a frugal start-up budget. However, you cannot grow and scale-up without a site that projects your brand, your values and the solutions you offer to your client’s problems.

Defining the Internet in business terms?

Let’s start with the basics and try to define Internet in business terms. So, the Internet could be described as an electronic virtual environment that allows people to communicate, interact, exchange and find data, educate, inform and trade or simply conduct social & business transactions anytime and anywhere in the world.

The Internet has already surpassed more traditional media (i.e. print and TV), it represents the primary tool which allows you to reach people on a global level and enables you to trade and interact with them. Internet will continue to involve especially as our life becomes even more interconnected with wearable technology and the so-called Internet of Things. Just imagine how easy any browser-based information can be accessed wherever we are by our smartphones, our tablets, our laptops and by any device that runs an IP protocol.

The need for a good Design

Design plays a vital role in human psychology. Design reflects the perspective we have for things and our positive or negative feelings towards anything tangible.Remember the design of the website should reflect and communicate the core values of your brand. It is a mirror of your WHY, HOW and WHAT.

When talking about Web Design, you should consider that together with content this is one of the key factors which provides the overall User Experience or UX. The goal is to build loyalty and achieve repeated visits by as many users as possible.

What drives the need for good web design?

  • The functionality of the front-end and the aesthetics of the theme that you project from a website.
  • The need to facilitate the purpose and goals of a website
  • The intense competition in any subject or field.
  • The need to exceed quality expectations for any project.

Where do I begin?

Well if we could identify the four basic phases to produce a website then we have:

  • Strategic Planning – Why are we developing it, who are we targeting, why should anyone visit our site, what is our USP, etc
  • Design and Functionality – Physical design (mood boards, themes, templates, etc.), storyboarding and navigation, back-end and front-end functionality,
  • Development – Technology Usage, Programming Languages, etc
  • Deliverance – Training of the administrator, visitor support, hosting services, connectivity with third parties (banks, data banks, etc), content management, updating and maintenance, etc

How do I bring people to my website?

In other, words how do you generate traffic? This is the practice of Internet or Digital Marketing. This discipline applies the principles of physical marketing to the virtual and electronic environment of the Web. The main difference is that the web empowers the user on what to see and how to react. So, internet marketing is both proactive and reactive when it comes to promotion and advertisement.

Content and Design attract users, navigation and functionality keep the user browsing through a website. So, Internet Marketing is vital when it comes to the designing process. Internet Marketing and Web Design goes together like a horse and carriage (to rephrase the infamous lyrics from Frank Sinatra).

A crucial element in generating traffic especially on the early level of a start-up is the utilisation of as many social media platforms as you can and the content you produce. Remember if you do not utilise the free social media platforms by delivering authentic content which can be amplified exponentially than you have minimal possibilities to scale-up and succeed.

I tend to have the odd questions about whether putting forward your knowledge or by sharing information is beneficial as you “give away” your IP and expertise. Believe me when I say that 99.9% of the people do nothing with the information and knowledge they get. On the contrary, you create a connection with potential clients and partners who having read your article or seen you on a video feel more comfortable to interact with you.

How to develop a website?

Well, there isn’t a specific step-by-step success guide for developing a website. Every project and every case has its own demands, it’s challenges and it’s tricks.

Despite that, we could outline some general guidelines for website design & development.

  • Collect as many information for the project as possible.
  • Analysis the reasons that you develop the website, the needs that you intend to facilitate and definitely check out what the competition does. Remember you don’t need to rediscover the wheel.
  • Plan for the budget of the project and put a strict schedule.
  • Set tangible marketing and sales targets by trying to quantify them.
  • Sketch your storyboard. Basically, the main navigation pages and the data that each page will hold. Make sure that your site sticks to the 3-click depth rule (A website shouldn’t have a depth more than three clicks deep. That means that in three clicks a visitor can reach the end child page of a section from your site).
  • Get the content together or at least try to have a clear structure of the content categories.
  • Define the colours, the styling of the photos, the logos and in general all the design elements that will define the mood board and the colours pallet of your website.
  • Design or choose an appropriate template (if you don’t want to create something unique or if your budget is limited you can buy a template from the thousands that are available online).
  • Carefully choose your CMS – Content Management System. This will determine the capabilities for content updates and content management of the website but will also determine the opportunities for future system updates expansions and add-ons. There are many different CMS platforms to use the most dominant one is Word Press.
  • Choose the appropriate template and the appropriate CMS and marry them both to create your website. There are thousands of free and paid themes that you can choose.
  • Any templates that you use should be multi-platform. People will access your site from smartphones, tablets, laptops and large screens. The template and the CMS should be ready to adapt to different formats, screen sizes and browsers.
  • Custom made applications – If the functionalities of your website demand the development of custom-made apps and extensive coding, consider the technologies you are going to relay on and take the time to do a comprehensive market search for everything that is available. When using a programmer or a development agency always ask for references and when the budget permits it, use a third-party for work validation (a consultant with extensive experience).
  • In your GAANT chart and your project create evaluation steps for progress and quality control. It is better to take time and inspect every development level than realising a mistake later on that will demand more time and money to overcome it.
  • Always consider the support of the system you are developing and the services you need to keep it up and running (issues like traffic, security, downtime, etc, should be taken into serious consideration).
  • Finally, when you have your system online always consider what will enhance the experience of your visitor/customer when he navigates your website.

By following the simple guidelines above, you will be able to minimise any kind of mistakes and drawbacks when developing a website.

Please feel free to add anything you think is essential to the comments below.

by Venture Tinkers