Atomic's Pre-Project Consulting

Quotes are great for predictable, repeatable projects—when you already know what the end product will look like. But creating a new, unique software product involves a lot of decisions, risks, and tradeoffs.

We can give you our hourly rate and a likely team structure and timeline. After an in-depth meeting (Stage 2 of this process), we can give you a ballpark estimate for your project. Then we’ll help you set a reasonable budget with enough funding for a highly-valuable first release.

Very likely, yes. Since 2001, we’ve made software that runs on mobile phones, web, desktop computers, custom devices, and enterprise infrastructure. Our clients have ranged from startups to the Fortune 500, across many industries. Check out our Portfolio for examples of typical Atomic projects.

You can also visit our Tools page for a list of more than 100 languages and frameworks in our wheelhouse.

We’d like to meet with both the project manager and the person who will make the final hiring decision. We suggest you also include your team’s technology expert—both to assess Atomic and to answer technical questions.

Absolutely. Do you understand the problem you’re trying to solve? Then we’re excited to help you solve it. (If you’re still trying to understand the problem, we’d suggest a design firm like IDEO.)

We’ll use our research, design & planning process and years of product development experience to design a product that will help you reach your goals. Our flexible, Agile approach ensures that we continue to refine and refocus goals—all the way to the product launch.

An estimate says: “$X will get you all the features and functions on your wishlist.” But that’s not in your best interest. Why?

Instead of estimating every item on your list, we help you figure out, “How much money will it take to create a valuable first release?”

• Estimates make a lot of assumptions. Software development is full of risks and unknowns, and you can’t truly explore them before a project starts. While scope can be estimated, those estimates will need to be validated through thoughtful engagement. That’s why our team will spend the first few weeks of your project analyzing your risks and exploring the cost and complexity of different options. Then we’ll share what we’ve learned and make recommendations on the best path forward.

• Your feature list is too big. Building a full-feature initial release is expensive and risky. We believe that you should budget for a small, focused first release, instead. Get it in users’ hands as soon as possible. Then gather feedback, and use that to plan and budget future phases.

• Your feature list will change. You will learn things during the project that change your mind about which features and functions are the most important. A budget will give you the flexibility to change your plans and release a more valuable product.

We refer to this as a responsible budget. Budget too little, and your app might lack the features and functions it needs to be useful. Budget too much before releasing to users, and you could be wasting your resources on the wrong things.

They sky’s the limit with custom software. But if you start with a smart budget and a set of goals, we’ll build you a Phase One application that starts creating value immediately.

Using a combination of methods, we’ll identify a range that we believe will give you enough capital to succeed. We bring together a few different approaches:

• Break down the different features/functions and give each a range estimate.

• Compare your project with similar projects we’ve done in the past.

• Draw on our industry experience.

We charge a flat hourly fee for the work we do. The more complex a project is, the longer it will take to complete, and the more it will cost. Project complexity usually comes from:

• Number of platforms involved (e.g., web, mobile)

• Integrations with other systems

• Complexity of the business logic

• Client’s organizational structure and the number and type of stakeholders involved in decision making

• Complexity of the user interfaces

• Number of user types (e.g., customer, store owner, system administrator)

• Number and types of features

• Which languages and technologies we use

• Deployment process

We can help you find the simplest solution to your problem and plan a highly-valuable first release. Of course, it’s possible that you might not need custom software at all.

From kickoff to launch, we focus on your big-picture goals. With an agile approach that keeps us on course, no matter what.

• Smart planning – Every Atomic project starts with a Research, Design, and Planning phase. Using a Human-Centered Design approach, we look at scenarios from the user’s perspective. Then we plan and prioritize features, outline the architecture, and start designing the user interface. This helps us focus on the important problems first and deliver the right features at the right time.

• Scope management – Atomic uses a fixed-budget, scope controlled approach: your budget is fixed, but your scope can be managed. During the project, you’ll meet with your Atomic team every two weeks to see their progress. We’ll show you how much budget you have left, and you’ll have the opportunity to adjust the plan. You’ll be able to incorporate new ideas and deal with unexpected problems—without going over budget.

There are always more ideas than there are time and money. So no matter how much you budget, you’ll finish your first phase of development wanting more.

Fortunately, a strong first release will help you validate your ideas. And it will start generating value (e.g., saving money, creating revenue) faster, helping you secure the budget for Phase Two.

Next will be your Kickoff and Research, Design, and Planning phase. You can learn about those and the rest of the project on our Process page.