2021 - Flexible Preside development
The traditional life-cycle for the development of anything, whether it’s software or house building, has always been about discovering what someone needs. You validate those decisions and then create something that satisfies that need.
The trouble is no matter how good you are at this, as you progress through the process, there will always be changes to those original assumptions. The most successful projects are those that allow flex.
When I did my weekly supermarket shop at the weekend, I had all the family meals agreed, all the items I needed listed, but I still came back with things which weren’t on the list. Some things just weren’t available and a few ingredients I’d forgotten to put onto the list. Some things I didn’t know existed and were a better choice than I’d planned - and some were just donuts.
So the point is about trying to be adaptable. It’s important to plan and try to understand all the requirements, but it's just as important to acknowledge that things change as part of the process.
Steve Dowle, Head of Product
At Pixl8 we always try to be as flexible as possible and understand that delivering against a scope is just the starting point for success. As we continue the direction of projects being built from the solid foundations of our products, we are making sure that our products are flexible enough to meet your business needs. This means more than just adding extra options - which could lead to confusion. A different approach is needed.
In Preside version 10.13 we made some subtle improvements to the form builder, so not only can you collect information on anything, but you can now create rules from the data. Last year we developed our own workflow engine, which allows us to relatively easily build custom solutions which have configurability from the outset.
This year we are building new solutions and re-engineering existing products to allow you to create and edit fields and make decisions about what happens with that data. In doing this, we give you the flexibility to adapt your platform to your changing needs, but with the stability of a solid product and a simpler user interface.
Our new abstracts and grants modules will be the first to combine all of this. Built as products, they’ll be rock solid and constantly improved, however from the outset they will be adaptable, allowing you to collect the information you need and change the review and approval workflow to suit your business needs.
While projects will always have their own shopping list of requirements the way we are developing our product features means that flexibility is built in from the beginning.
Now, I see there’s one donut left - think I can just about flex to that.
