Independent Software Development at Amplified
Amplified software developers are best described as roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-shit-done code ninjas. Every engineer is either a full-stack developer, or is on track to become a full-stack developer. Amplifiers love technical challenges and are always looking for opportunities to expand their skillsets. As of today, Amplified’s technical competencies include:
Front-end: JavaScript, TypeScript, React, React Native, Angular, Svelte, NativeScript
Back-end: Java, Node.js, .NET, Play, Express, GraphQL, SQL and NoSQL Databases, C++
Cloud: AWS, Azure, Heroku, Firebase, Hasura
DevOps: Quality Assurance, CI/CD, standby support, data and analytics
We build software in one of two ways. Either we work independently on a standalone project (such as an MVP for a pre-launch startup) or we join forces with a client’s technical team and work in an integrated fashion. The rest of this blog post elaborates on the first model: independent software development. To learn more about the second model — integrated software development — read this blog post instead.
Independent Software Development
If you want to take a minimally viable product to market, but lack technical capabilities on your startup team, then Amplified can serve as your partner to build your Version 1. Similarly, you may already have a core product built, but you have a software initiative on your roadmap that is separate from your core offering, and you lack the resources to execute. In this case, Amplified can work in a focused capacity to deliver this stand-alone feature or product.
Generally, our process breaks down as follows:
1. Pre-project planning: We start with a series of calls to gather initial requirements. We then work with you to produce product specification and, if necessary, design files. This work is highly collaborative and iterative. Essentially, we’re trying to translate your product vision and priorities into documentation and other technical assets that are consumable by Amplified’s engineering team. Depending on the scope of your project, it can take 2–4 weeks to get everything organized. By the end of this process, we will have written requirements, design specifications, and an architectural plan. We will also have such a comprehensive view of what needs to be built that we can then produce reliable time/cost estimates.
2. Agile sprints: Once the project is sufficiently planned, we will mobilize a dedicated team of engineers (usually MVP teams range from 2–4 full-time engineers) and a part-time project manager. We run agile sprints that typically last two weeks, but we can adjust the length of sprints if necessary. At the beginning of each sprint we work with our clients to prioritize feature development, performance improvements, bug fixes, etc. We then take on a workload to which the engineering team feels comfortable committing themselves. Clients will typically see preliminary, functioning software after the second sprint, or about one month into the development effort. This would be considered a pre-alpha, and from there we will continue to update and iterate with each deployment at the end of a sprint. For MVP development, it will typically take 5–8 sprints, or 10 to 16 weeks for us to deliver an MVP that is sufficiently debugged and performant that you then feel comfortable sharing with users (initially, perhaps in a limited “closed beta” capacity and then gradually opening up access as the product improves). This timeline, of course, is not a promise, but rather a benchmark based on our previous experience building MVPs or stand-alone products.
3. Post-launch support: Once the MVP or stand-alone app is built, we can restructure the team in various ways to support your ongoing goals. Some startups want to keep Amplified engaged well beyond the delivery of the MVP, so that we can continue to improve the product. Startups that are well capitalized and have market validation will want to move fast. So we’ll stay involved as long as it makes sense. Additionally, we always support our partners when they try to build internal engineering teams. In which case, we can restructure the Amplified team into an integrated team, so that if you make an engineering hire (or two, or three) we can synchronize processes across both teams and start up together. Other startups may decide to slow down development after the launch of their MVP. Maybe they want to preserve capital, or they want to give themselves time to observe market performance before committing more resources to their venture. In which case, we can either scale back the team so we can continue to maintain and incrementally improve the app, or we can disengage entirely. But even then, we’ll never disappear for good; we will remain an email away to jump in and support you on an adhoc basis if an issue emerges. Regardless, you’ll always find us to be a cooperative partner. And we keep our code neat and well documented, so that if non-Amplified engineers inherit the software in the future, they will be well-positioned to continue building on top of it.
How much does this all cost?
That’s always the million-dollar question, isn’t it? And unfortunately, the answer is always, “it depends.”
We do not bill according to a fixed-price arrangement. Rather, Amplified bills hourly. We don’t do fixed-price work because in every software project there will be change requests, and in a fixed-price model that will prompt a renegotiation of the contracted price, which can lead to an adversarial relationship and a break-down of trust between the two parties. For example, a client may observe an issue in the software and ask that the vendor “fix it” — because, obviously, they need to make sure that everything works! But the vendor may interpret your “fix” as a new requirement for how the feature should behave, and insist on getting paid more in order to accommodate your change request. Back and forth and back and forth and you can see how this sort of relationship can break down…
In contrast, billing hourly is effectively the same as hiring a team at X price that will work for you over Y period of time. And now since you have a team mobilized, you can shift direction and priorities without worrying that the development team will insist on new prices and contractual terms.
So, what are our bill rates? They range between $30 and $90 an hour. Someone billing $30 is likely a recent college graduate who is quite good — good enough to pass our technical assessments, which are effin’ hard — but doesn’t have years and years of experience. Senior developers bill between $50 and $70 and Jedi Master developers bill at even higher rates.
That said, we do, of course, provide estimates at the beginning of a project. We will also periodically re-estimate throughout the project as necessary. Additionally, if you have an idea for a new feature we can provide an estimate for that so you can compare the cost of developing that feature to other priorities. But these estimates are purely to provide budgetary alignment and to inform product decision making.
That’s about it! If you have more questions or want to chat further, send us an email at hello@amplified.software.
