With the complexity of supply chain systems and increasing expectations for their management, businesses think thrice before going with a particular supply chain management software. Thus, to increase the value of such tools, SCMS providers are bound to utilize relevant needs, talents, and techniques.
Revamping Your Supply Chain Management Software: Solutions for a Scaling Product
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Adept Tactics and Decision-Making
Whether your SCM software is at its starting phase, in active development, or expanding, engaging optimal processes and resources is the foremost decision you can make for a great product. For in-progress and growing campaigns, it is crucial to monitor the production progress so as not to miss the moment when it is time for scaling.
#1. Extending the teams
Broadening your team can shorten SDLC, increase performance, and enhance quality as you widen and enrich their professional expertise. However, it is also important to advance related departments.
For example, QA engineers will not be able to efficiently handle the increased workload from an augmented development crew if their number stays the same. Such mismatches can lead to bottlenecks at later product development stages.
Therefore, to streamline your workflow, it is necessary to analyze how changes in one unit can affect the rest. Thus, making relevant modifications to the entire system will guarantee undisrupted progress and stable productivity.
#2. Organizing working processes
Effectively organizing department functions and workflows improves unit efficiency and collaboration, amplifies cumulative functionality. Creating a system where everyone has clearly defined responsibilities and sticks to tasks within their area of expertise allows for increased productivity and streamlined SDLC. This enables stable releases with no critical defects in production.
For example, we often mention that QA experts are the ones who should run software testing. On the one hand, it may seem that testing a digital product is easy, and everyone can do it. On the other hand, if developers, business analysts, or project managers start testing, they risk missing something important. Moreover, they get less time to complete their direct responsibilities and may eventually feel demotivated.
#3. Establishing productive communication
Scaling the team has the potential to complicate communication. To avoid this, establish a robust correspondence protocol. Cooperation within and between departments is vital for potential issue prediction, timely problem detection, prompt error removal, and enhancement ideas exchange. Providing organic and dependable communication channels/space ensures the operative functioning of your team.
#4. Improving your QA plan
Controlling and standardizing your SCM software’s quality is critical for positive CX. Specifically, a sophisticated strategy is a must to achieve optimal results during QA and testing. When scaling your product, consider the following:
- Test automation. Active product development and scaling are bound to increase the scope of repeated checks. At a certain stage, it may be helpful to automate the most frequent testing tasks. If you don’t have an AT specialist, you can consult with a QA provider to understand whether automation is already relevant to your product.
- Increased attention to integration. Securing the absence of conflict between separately developed features requires systematic integration testing. It helps with prosperous module combinations, smooth incorporation of altered requirements, and missed defect elimination.
As SCM is especially dynamic, setting up a QA process properly ensures that your product is top quality, be it logistics, supply chain optimization, risk management software, or a complex system including multiple functionalities.
#5. Following your IT team
Actually listening to your IT department is the first thing to do when scaling your supply chain software. As you work with specialists on ERP, CRM, and SCM, paying attention to their concerns and suggestions will further better your product. Engaging with every agent and following up on fresh yet knowledgeable perspectives is truly the best decision for the SCM software development process.
Promoting Innovation via Collaboration
As innovation transforms software necessities and customer expectations, it is important not to miss the moment for change. With this, introducing new agents and their expertise is indispensable.
#6. Delegated QA as a safe choice
For supply chain management software providers, the quality of the application is paramount as it determines customer satisfaction. And there is no better way to ascertain and enhance a product’s worth than quality management. In the IT industry, this comes in the form of software testing services.
QA has quality at its core. It prioritizes customer experience and impacts CX metrics. And with QA outsource, organizations can further bolster product value by entrusting product improvement to specialists with the corresponding expertise. Particularly, delegating this service to a QA company allows enterprises to:
- Cooperate with industry experts.
- Pick services specific to product needs.
- Accelerate software development.
- Advance in-house team effectiveness.
- Evaluate the product with a bias-free perspective.
- Reduce expenses for in-house personnel management.
Given the range of user necessities supply chain software embraces, delivering full coverage for each factor would be extremely resource-consuming. Outsourcing testing is the optimal solution to avoid delays, going over budget, and handling extra functions.
In addition to flexible cooperation options, QA service providers often retain dynamic teams with experienced professionals in many domains and can assist with urgent tasks under aggressive deadlines.
#7. Business analysts as control points
Business analysts act as intermediaries between stakeholders/management and production. They bring innovation and harmony to enterprise affairs and have a significant value for revenue outcomes.
BAs have to take care of many business processes, which is precisely why they are such an asset. A range of advantages comes with adding business analysts to the team:
- Defined paths for product development.
- Optimized project requirements.
- Enhanced decision-making and strategy.
- Efficient communication between all SDLC agents.
- Advanced project testing and implementation.
Specifically for SCM software, BAs have to be tech-savvy and well-versed in this field and, preferably, have a technical background. Keep this in mind when looking for a business analyst for your team.
#8. Outsourced developers as added value
Software outsourcing providers have become important business partners that accelerate product development and company growth. Dev areas that are highly specialized, like IoT, blockchain, and cloud computing, are no longer a ‘dare’ for startups, SMEs, and enterprises with no in-house development department.
In short, outsourcing developers positively influences SDLC, among other merits:
- Providing access to expertise globally.
- Complementing current frameworks.
- Shortening E2E development.
- Boosting flexibility by covering specific talent/project needs.
- Minimizing risks via expert liability prediction/mitigation.
- Strengthening workflow processes by expertise sharing.
- Assigning responsibilities efficiently.
- Saving time and expenses.
IT outsourcing is a powerful and progressing market. Forbes predicts spending on the industry to reach $519 billion by 2023. As digital transformations skyrocket, IT services outsourcing continues its steady growth, becoming an integral component of ranging businesses and industries where any organization can find its perfect match.
To Sum Up
Scaling a software product is never easy, especially if it is such a complex system as supply chain management. Integrating new systems and partnerships into an enterprise can be challenging, but with service outsourcing, everything can be done right, fast, and to high standards.
Hiring experts or service providers with relevant expertise is the best way to make it efficient. Ace business analysts, developers, and QA engineers are a necessity for supply chain software that wants to stand out. Outsourcing might be the right choice for the effective and rewarding collaboration of all agents.
