How to collaborate with an IoT development house
If you are reading this blog post, there is a high likelihood that you already have a certain degree of knowledge about IoT and its potential for bringing significant value to your business. You may also have an idea of what a potential IoT project could look like for your company. To get started on the right foot, we recommend that you read our post "The Quick Guide - How to Get Started with Your IoT Project."
Time to read: 5 minutes
Subject: IoT, Collaboration, Project approach
Author: Villy Olsen, Iterator IT
This blog post takes it a step further by examining how a collaboration with a development company takes place. Either you already have a clear vision of how your IoT project should look and how it will bring value to your business, or you have read about some projects that you can mirror in your own company but do not have a clear plan for whether it is feasible or whether it will bring value to your business. If you find yourself in the latter group, fear not. Iterator IT is not only an expert in development but also in the creation of business cases and project scoping.
It is important to pick a development house, that have experience with end-to-end IoT projects, and who has a wide catalog of cases similar to your own case. (You can find our cases here).
When you have found a development company that suits your project, it is important to align expectations on how the collaboration will proceed.
Waterfall or Agile collaboration in an IoT project
We often differentiate between the traditional/waterfall and agile approach when discussing ways of collaboration within the digital industry.
Through a traditional collaboration, you have established a budget and timeline for your IoT project from the outset. All requirements and specifications are defined before the development process commences. Similarly, the project phases typically include design, development, and testing. This approach is now considered outdated due to the complexity of IoT projects. We require more involvement from all involved parties to adapt the project as necessary, and this is no exception for IoT projects. Instead, we work together through different iterations, from project scoping to a functioning prototype, to a fully scaled IoT solution, through an agile approach. Through this approach, we ensure that your project is optimized based on your vision and data. We test, scale, and improve your project from start to finish to ensure that you achieve its full potential and create the most value in your IoT implementation.
Through agile collaboration, the focus has also shifted. It is no longer as valuable to deliver a product within a budget and a deadline. Instead, the product itself is valued higher, as it is continuously improved during the iterations.
Despite not working with a fixed budget and timeline, it is not something we overlook. We still focus on how many hours we spend and on what. The time spent on each task is logged. This means that you also know what your budget is being used for and why. If you are interested in getting an overview of what an IoT project costs, we recommend you read our blog post. "What does an IoT project cost?”.
The development of your IoT project begins as soon as you have selected your development agency and agreed on an hourly rate. You do not need to have defined specific requirements for your end product from the beginning, but there is an opportunity to continuously work with new requirements and specifications after each iteration. Therefore, it is important that our collaboration is agile: we build your solution together, and you may end up with an even better end product than you had envisioned.
The Agile approach and Minimum Viable Product
If you've been browsing around our website, you probably know that we're big advocates for "minimum viable product" (MVP). Our philosophy is that there's no need to dive headfirst into a huge IoT project right away. Instead, we work with an MVP approach where we identify the core of your IoT project and start there. From there, we can tweak, optimize, and scale your project through the phases of the agile approach. This approach ensures that your money is used wisely and that you end up with an optimized end product that's developed according to your vision.
The approach to working with your development agency is incredibly important for the future success of your IoT project. When it comes to IoT or digital projects in general, the traditional approach is simply outdated. The agile approach, on the other hand, is capable of handling the often complex projects.
If you're interested in hearing more about how a collaboration with us works, you're very welcome to contact us either through our contact form here or call our CEO Casper at +45 31 39 05 69