What is SDaaS? (Software Development as a Service)

SDaaS (Software Development as a Service) is a service offering where a company hires a third-party provider or software development partner to provide software development services on an ongoing basis. 

As opposed to a typical custom software development build, which is usually carried out on a one-off basis, SDaaS is an ongoing, long to medium term partnership. With Software Development as a Service, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a company to work with its software development partner on a semi-permanent basis, scaling up and down as needed. A company may have its own in-house team that works alongside the SDaaS team or it may work exclusively with its SDaaS provider.

Features of an SDaaS Engagement

Below are some common features of a software development as a service engagement:

                      • Your SDaaS partner covers everything from end-to-end. The duties of your SDaaS partner are all encompassing. Your partner’s senior team lends their expertise in all areas. This includes discovery and investigation, project planning, designing, developing, hiring, testing, deploying, and anything else involved in bringing your software development project to life.
                      • Collaborate engagement. While your software development partner takes the lead, it is very much a collaborative effort and strategic partnership. In this way your SDaaS partner feels like an extension of your own team.
                      • Filling in gaps in expertise without the hassle of recruitment. During the initial stage of an SDaaS engagement, your partner is able to understand a company’s technical capabilities and what expertise is needed to bring a project to fruition. 
                      • A full-stack team of developers. Once gaps have been spotted, your SDaaS partner will put together a technical team that may include developers, technical architects, UX/UI designers, QA and test automation specialists.
                      • Monthly subscription. Similar to how you might pay for cloud storage depending on your usage, SDaaS is typically provided on a monthly subscription. How much you pay will depend on your software development requirements for that month.
                      • No hidden surprises. You plan your month (or several months) in advance. You decide what resources you need and agree on a set fee for those months.
                      • Flexibility. With SDaaS you can scale up and down resources depending on your needs. You may need to increase resources for a short period of time or to achieve certain project objectives. However, during quieter months you can reduce resources to keep your costs down.
                      • Agile development methodologies. SDaaS typically involves an agile approach to software. At every stage of development, features are tested and iterative improvements are made based on the findings.
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What is SDaaS?

SDaaS – How it Works

At Keeper Solutions, a typical SDaaS engagement takes place in two distinct phases.

Phase One: Discovery and Investigation

You can think of this as the preliminary stage. A company comes to us with a software development project idea and through a detailed investigatory process, we help them decide if the project is worth pursuing.There are three main scenarios in which a company comes to us or any SDaaS provider. 

                      1. To build a new software product. 
                      2. To modernize an existing product. 
                      3. To move from one software development partner to another.

All three scenarios start in the same way — an initial phase of discovery and investigation, which usually takes the form of a design sprint. 

The main focus of this initial design sprint is to gain a better understanding of the idea or existing product, the end user, and the scope of the project. This initial design sprint is also used to map out challenges, explore solutions, decide on best approaches, validate ideas, test assumptions, and, ultimately, create a prototype and test it. This approach can be boiled down to five simple words – map, sketch, decide, prototype, and test. 

Another way of looking at this stage is to investigate ‘As Is’ to ‘To Be’. This model focuses on where the processes currently are and where they need to be. Here, the software development partner understands your capabilities and limitations, and what areas a company will need to strengthen if they are going to pursue a software development project long-term.

Both parties (the company and the software development partner) take an active role in this phase. By the end of it, the company is left with a clickable prototype and has the information needed to decide if they want to continue a full scale development project. 

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Phase Two: Full Scale SDaaS Engagement

If a company decides that an idea is worth pursuing, they commence a full-scale SDaaS engagement. What happens next depends on the outcomes of the initial phase and the scope of the project. However, for new software builds the following will take place. 

Software Development: Arrangements are made to carry out a full software build. This includes a list of monthly tasks and objectives, a breakdown of the development team including all developers, engineers, architects etc, agreed upon channels of communication, and roles and responsibilities of all involved. A sprint schedule is put in place and all parties work towards bringing the product to market as quickly as possible. 

Quality Assurance and Testing. We always recommend that QA engineers be included in the development process as early as possible. When a QA gets involved early in the process, there will be fewer bugs and surprises down the line. We firmly believe that quality assurance shouldn’t just follow development. It should be at the heart of it.

Deploy, Iterate and Scale. When a product is launched on the market, it is only the start of the journey. With Software Development as a Service, your software is continuously user tested, new features are added, bugs are fixed, and iterations are made based on user feedback. Everything is done with the overall objective of fulfilling your user’s needs and bringing your product to the very top of the market.

Steady State. There is no end-point in a software development project. Once a product is launched a team stays with you for the entire business lifecycle, helping you move seamlessly from one iteration to the next. However, there are peaks and troughs. There may be months where you need to reduce the number of developers and months where you need to increase resources. With SDaaS you turn the dial up or down depending on your workload. 

SDaaS

Conclusion – Software Development as a Service

In the past, companies that were looking to develop software either worked with an outsourcing firm who provided talent for hire or worked with a custom software development team on an ad-hoc basis. Software Development as a Service provides a compelling alternative that falls somewhere in the middle and is more fitting for modern business. It is a flexible, on-demand software solution that allows you to lean on the expertise of an external team but in a much more collaborative and sustainable way. 

To learn more about our SDaaS solution, click here.