At the design stage of the project, price is among the key factor to consider. You need to understand how to correctly estimate the costs of software development. After all, it is the budget that determines the scope of the project and its capabilities.
Sometimes it is impossible to formulate all costs at the initial stage since many budget items are formed during the implementation of the project, based on its needs. There is even a concept of “cone of uncertainty”.
The concept states that the more project details are provided, the more realistic the picture of the estimated budget will be. Therefore, the most important thing you can do at the calculation stage is to understand your project and describe the desired result.
In the article, we will analyze the issues of the cost estimation algorithm and the criteria for building the cost of developing future software, as well as the dependence of the price on the complexity of the project.
Let’s Explore the Algorithm for Estimating Expenses in a Software Development Project
In order to correctly estimate how much expenses will be spent on the implementation of a software development project, it is necessary to act on the following steps of the algorithm:
1. Determine The Level Of Complexity Of The Project
The complexity of the project directly affects the time required to implement the software, the number of project participants, and their skill levels. So, the more functions you need to implement in a project, the longer it will take to implement its entire life cycle.
Additionally, never forget the post-release phase of the software. It will need to be updated, improved, and fixed bugs that will definitely pop up during interaction with it. All of this needs to be budgeted for.
Some basic software with minimal functionality, simple designs, and no integrations to third-party servers can be made by an inexperienced specialist. If this is what you were looking for, the development will be inexpensive and take several weeks.
But if you want something worthwhile, it is better to trust professionals and not be attached to too small amounts. After all, everyone who has studied and practiced for many years wants to get a high level of income for hard work for several months.
According to software development cost calculations, enterprise software always comes out more expensive. But if you want to optimize your costs and stay with highly qualified professionals, then you should consider hiring remote developers. Here´s why:
- Reduce Office and Infrastructure Costs: You don’t need to provide a workplace for remote employees, computers, office equipment, and other resources. This allows you to reduce the cost of the overall development cost significantly.
- Expanded access to the global labor market: Remote developers = access to all the talents of the global labor market, where the cost of services may be lower or in a more competitive range.
- Reduce Tax and Insurance Costs: By working with remote developers, a company can avoid the additional costs of social security, property taxes, and health insurance.
- Flexibility and work time optimization: Remote developers are often more flexible in how they manage their work time. What is so important for the use of working hours. For example, developers from other parts of the world can work on a project while local developers rest, which increases efficiency and reduces development time.
2. Estimate The Scope Of The Work
To estimate the cost of software development, you need to consider the amount of work ahead. In particular, the initial costs and those cost items that may become relevant after the project is scaled up. Think about:
- the time frame that is supposedly needed to complete the project – it is better to take time with a margin;
- the necessary resources (both human and material) – try to decide what you need;
- possible risks – unfortunately, knowingly increasing the amount of work is also not a good idea, because there is a risk that you will waste your budget.
When forming the question “How to estimate the costs of software development?” also set clear expectations regarding the functionality, timing, and cost of the project.
For this, various methods and tools are used: peer review, analysis of similar projects, etc.
3. Consider Team Structure
One of the main factors that affect the cost of software development is the choice of team or individual specialists. Think about which professionals will work with you, because they need to be paid, and the difference in their salaries is enormous.
Once the scope of a project has been determined, it is essential to analyze the technology stack, complexity level, and team structure. This also means determining which specialists are necessary to start and finish the task, and what skills each individual should possess.
When the appropriate specialists and the correct system are implemented, the project can be accomplished within the specified timeframe and allocated budget.
4. Set Up a Project with Templates and Tracking Time/Cost
An integrated way to estimate and control the cost of your software development project can be setting up a project cost tracking template.
How to set up an effective cost tracking system?
- Create a project to track the cost of your dev team. We recommend Asana, as it worked best for us
- Create tasks for each expense you plan to track. Consider using categories such as “Hardware”, “Software”, “Design”, and “Testing”.
- Assign each task to the appropriate team member.
- Set a deadline for each task.
- Create a custom field for tracking the cost associated with each task.
- Create subtasks for each task if necessary.
- Set up automated reminders for team members to submit their expense reports
- Generate reports to track the overall cost of the project.
- Track progress by setting up visual markers to indicate when tasks are completed.
- Use the project dashboard to view the overall cost of the project and compare it to the budget.
5. Select The Platform On Which The Project Will Be Deployed
Formulate as much information as possible regarding its implementation. These actions will bring certainty and become an important basis for the implementation of the original idea in practice.
You can stop at one thing, for example, only on IOS, Android, or Windows. Each of these platforms has its own specifications both in terms of the required resources – specialists, time, and financial costs and in terms of working tools – programming languages, frameworks, libraries, etc.
Yes, it is best to choose cross-platform. That is, to create software adapted to all operating systems and devices from which interaction takes place. But then you have to spend a lot of money at once. If your business justifies the investment, do not hesitate and choose all platforms at once.
6. Unexpected Costs Might Arise
Unforeseen expenses may arise during the software development process. Some of these may be due to technical difficulties, changes in requirements, or unforeseen problems. Here are some examples of contingencies to watch out for:
- Changing requirements: Implementing new features or changes will require additional time and resources to implement them.
- Technical Issues: Incompatibility of various system components, unexpected errors, problems with integrating third-party services, and other technical problems can all cost additional time and effort on the part of developers.
- External factors: If these providers of cloud platforms, web services, etc. change their terms or experience problems with their operation, this leads to unexpected costs and delays.
- Security Issues: There may be software vulnerabilities or security risks that may require additional efforts to detect and fix.
- Changing market conditions: Changes in the market or in business processes may require additional work to adapt the software. For example, changes in legislation or industry requirements may require changes in functionality or the introduction of new security standards.
It is important to consider the possibility of unexpected costs when planning the costs of a software development project.
Software Complexity As A Determining Criterion
The complexity of the software greatly influences development costs. Consider how it is determined and affects the term of work of specialists.
1. Basic Software
Basic software is characterized by a set of simple basic options. For example, it could be a user-friendly login and a standard subscription that uses an email address. The simplicity of design is another plus of such software. It does not provide for the integration of additional services.
The same applies to processing large amounts of data. Such software is not aimed at such complex tasks. Therefore, the development period is quite short. The creation of basic software takes from 1 to 2 months. And this means that the client company can quickly get the expected result from the IT specialists with whom it cooperates.
2. Medium Level Software
In addition to the basic functionality, there are other options. For example, it can be the integration of additional services, payments, real-time communication, and powerful analytics that allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of the project. The design in this case is also more complex, which is reflected in the personalization of UI / UX.
Since such software has a number of additional options, it takes more time to develop it than in the previous example. Here, IT specialists need to work from 2 to 6 months.
3. Complex Software
To develop complex software, a team of IT specialists needs to spend more than six months of time. Such terms are quite understandable and justified, given that this software has a huge functionality. The design takes place at an integrated level, which provides broad program support.
Options include third-party integrations, synchronization, data encryption, and video content. Productivity optimization makes such software very effective. And compatibility with various hardware and software becomes another significant advantage.
So, the time that needs to be spent on its development depends on the complexity of the software. This also affects the budget and the demand for the level of specialists who should be involved in this case.
What Other Factors Affect The Cost?
Finally, it is worth touching on one more additional aspect. This is a recruiting model. The prices set by an IT agency or individual freelancers can vary significantly.
But most importantly, these two formats of cooperation freelancing and remote work are very different in quality.
Hiring a person freelance or outsourcing, you will never fully understand who is in front of you. Such a specialist really takes less money but does not give any guarantees of high-quality work performed in compliance with deadlines.
Therefore, here, you risk paying a double price, because you cannot be sure of the conscientiousness of the performer. And this will be much more expensive than hiring responsible people for normal remote cooperation.
Turning to a recruiting agency such us DistantJob and hiring a whole team of IT professionals or individual specialists, you can be sure that software development will be of high quality and timely. You’ll have experts on your team that fulfill your technical requirements and adapt smoothly to your company’s processes and culture.
