Agile MVP triangle: Fast, Good and Cheap
Last updated: July 23, 2024 Read in fullscreen view
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Software engineers are all about managing tradeoffs. the highest level tradeoff is during planning and prioritization in the form of trading off value delivered, the quality level of that value, and the time to deliver it.
Under pressure from the market and their competitors, machine builders, but actually every system developer, are looking for ways to stretch and compress the ‘magic triangle’. In other words: deliver higher quality in a shorter time at a lower cost price. Money-time-quality are inextricably linked in this triangle.
Point of the triangle, you are explicitly giving up some focus on quality and a polished experience. you're also choosing to push out time to delivery somewhat to get more value in.
This is jokingly talked about as "fast, cheap, or good. pick two. no, not that one. " alternatively described as, "nine women cannot make a baby in one month" (mythical man month), meaning that even if you did add resources in the form of extra engineers, you can quickly get to a point of diminishing returns where adding people doesn't actually speed up the delivery.
Businesses know they need to set aside a budget to ensure they get an app that will meet or exceed these minimum expectations. We even created a calculator to help companies get a sense of how much they need to budget.
Although we take a transparent approach to pricing, timescales and project management when working with clients, we know not everyone in our industry does. Some web and app development firms charge considerably more. Others charge a lot less, aiming to rush through product development so they can move onto the next paying project.
Cost
This is basically scope. it could also be labeled "features," both in terms of breadth of different features, and the depth/scope of an individual feature. i thought about calling this "user value," but quality could also be considered to deliver user value. likewise, scope could include quality/polished work. in the end, this isn't a perfect term, but i basically mean user value excluding quality/polish.
When you pay too little for something that needs more investment to ensure you get the results you actually want. App and web development is a sector where bargains aren't always what they appear and trading between constraints is not always a good way to go. Web development firms that are up-front about costs, that show how/where that budget is going to be spent, are the ones that are worth working with.
Quality
Some examples of quality are high fidelity graphic style, ux optimizations based on feedback and performance tuning. this is often subjective and can take a virtually unlimited amount of time as you polish on the far end of the diminishing returns curve. the trick is getting to 80% of max quality with 20% of the effort.
Quality is a huge concern. If the end-result is an app you aren't happy with, it could take months to fix problems, or you might need to wait until you can work with a different firm to rebuild the app. Agencies that promise cheap and quick results often compromise on quality. Even if something looks nice - which is easier to achieve than ever thanks to templates - the user experience could let you down.
Time
This is simply the time to ship - to put the software in front of real users.
App development goes through several stages. From wireframe and designs, to iterative testing, creating the front and back-end, connecting the app to any databases, APIs or other services as needed, then quality testing, further iterations and changes, as needed.
Web development company that skip some of these steps, or take shortcuts to reduce timescales throughout the process aren't doing their clients any favors. You could end with an app full of bugs. An app your users or paying customers don't want to download and use. An app that receives bad reviews on app stores, making it far less likely that new potential users will download it.
Every app comes with its own production timescale. It depends on the number of features, estimated hours - which should be illustrated in a proposal - and time for a web development firm to work with a client, communicating needs and changes throughout the project. However, a quote seems too long or too short, it probably is. Reasonable quotes should reflect the total time to build, iterate, test, improve and complete an app. Not rushing a project for a quick finish, nor dragging the work out for months and months.
Good, fast, cheap: choose wisely!
Picking the right web development firm to work with shouldn't involve compromises. Select the one that delivers the work you need at the right price, with an emphasis on quality and realistic timescales. It's also useful to take a look at the clients they've worked with, how clients rate them, the reviews, and other indicators of their ability. Here at TIGO, we provide full-cycle development from initial concept to a live application. We have all IT specialists for hire – software engineers, designers, mobile developers, QA engineers and DevOps.
Our customers get exactly what they want by communicating with engineers directly and controlling the project as if they were in the same room with the team.
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