How to Reduce Software Development Cycle Time!

Software Development

There are many indices to determine the general success of the software development team. Brilliant ideas, successful applications, developers’ experience and qualifications, the company’s profit, and so on.

Today we’ll pay attention to the delivery cycle time and its meaning for both developers and their ordering customers. 

Nowadays everyone is looking for options on how to reduce the time of development. Some experts say that the ability to plan and schedule your tasks is key. Other professionals insist that using modern tools to track the progress of teamwork helps a lot.

If you pay attention to https://jatapp.com/services/software-qa-testing/ you’ll see this team uses multiple approaches so it’s much easier to take control of the whole process of software development. As a result, you need to find the proper approach that will work in your team. 

What does software development cycle time mean?

This is a period that is required to perform the project from the beginning to the end. It is a metric to measure the productivity of the team. Also, cycle time means the general speed of working that realizers spend to perform the project. So time becomes a new way to analyze team performance. The faster developers can complete the task the better because by reducing cycle time they increase productivity. 

In general, time in software development is related to the Key Performance Indicators (KPI). This is a combination of indexes that reveals the general efficiency of the company. It helps to highlight the ROI (return of investments) and estimate the current business strategy. In case these indicators show weak results, it’s much easier to define the main problems and find relevant solutions. 

Anyway, the term ‘cycle time’ is important not only for business owners but also for realizers. Everyone in the team is interested in finishing a new task as fast as possible and completing it to start working on the next one. That’s why both developers and companies aim to reduce the time they spend on application development. 

Nota bene! Keeping the quality is a must for responsible realizers no matter what. This is unacceptable to sacrifice software quality because you want to save more time. That’s why the newest trend among developers is not as much a reducing cycle time as it is an optimizing time on the development process. 

Why it’s important to reduce a developing time for a project

There is no doubt that you aim to reduce the time cycle on software development. This fact has been already confirmed by business owners, team leaders, improvement engineers, and other experts. All of them agree that the following reasons will make you want it too:

– your team will experience higher responsibility for a project. Such feelings always encourage developers to use all strengths to accomplish identified goals;

– you support the holy triad of success. It includes optimized time to come out with a new product, a high-quality product, and fully satisfied clients;

– your team will be motivated and encouraged thanks to work in the top-rated team. Every member of it will pay an effort to develop new skills and bring up the work to a higher level.

As you can see, by reducing time spent on every project other important indexes of success will increase synchronously. It means that this trend will help you to work on short-term and long-term goals as well. 

A simple way to calculate cycle time

Now you know the answers to the basic questions ‘what it is’ and ‘why it is important’, so it’s time to move forward and have a look at how to do it. There are many strategies on how to make software developing fast and high-quality at the same time. All of them are based on making priorities and managing staff properly. Let’s see how to calculate cycle time and make it maximally clear and easy to understand. 

Step #1. Start the process

This step includes the first activities of PR. It means discussing issues, gathering together to understand the work requirements, etc. Leaders should reduce time on such tasks because PR always takes much time that is really needed.

Step #2. Plan the team

The team should be equipped with all essential and additional tools to work with. It helps to reduce the time on obvious issues. Besides, the staff usually consists of senior and junior experts. Such an approach helps to build the proper culture and atmosphere of constantly growing experience. 

Step #3. Load balancing

When every member of your team has exact tasks then productivity rises. But when someone is too busy while another person has nothing to do, this balance is ruined. The chaos starts when developers switch their responsibilities and help each other without having a strategy. If you plan the proper load balancing you’ll save precious time. 

Step #4. Improve work environment

The proper rhythm of the teamwork helps to avoid any extra issues. By creating a healthy and efficient workflow you keep improving your cycle time formula as well.

Influence of the optimal cycle time

Games and keymetric software, mobile apps, and PC software – no matter the type of your projects, it is an essential step to optimize the developing time. Every member of the working process will take advantage of it again and again. Let’s see the main benefits for different people depending on their role in the described relationships:

developers will notice the rise of their satisfaction from work. Thanks to completing tasks and reaching goals, you can see how your efforts transform into real results. Moving next, with the high level of satisfaction, developers will be able to increase their skills, tend to innovations, and perform new projects with enthusiasm;

– the whole team will appreciate load balancing and higher motivation. By reaching the mutual goals, the whole group of developers will work as one mechanism and keep improving the general performance in the future;

– the business owners will scale the company and its profit to support every member of the team. The success of the company always leads to better conditions for its developers. 

As you can see, cycle time is a metric you can’t ignore. It can help you level up your teamwork and business success!

Author Bio: 

Jenson O’Connell is an expert from JatApp blog who writes on issues surrounding IT development and technology. He regularly publishes in many high-profile editions and helps his readers understand trends in the tech industry and programming infrastructure.

Software development article and permission to publish here provided by Jenson O’Connell. Originally written for Supply Chain Game Changer and published on April 13, 2022.