Before developing custom-built software, one of the first things that companies need to determine is how much the project will cost from start to finish. The best way to go into any new development project is by discussing all of the major factors that businesses need to assess while estimating the price for their next software development project.

The Main Factors of Cost Determination

There are 3 main factors that affect the price of the software. This includes the software type, the project size, and the required members for the development team. Let’s see them in more detail.

Type of Custom Software Development Projects – The type of project usually determines its complexity and how long it will take to have the final product ready. Some of the common software categories include the following:

  • New software or modification of existing software – Building completely new software from beginning to end usually costs more than one that simply needs modification.
  • Software integration – Most of the software today requires integrating with several other tools to work. With all other factors constant, software that requires more integrations to work usually costs more than one that requires only a few integrations.
  • Web-based or desktop software –  With all other factors considered, building web-based software typically costs less than building desktop software. With desktop software, dev teams must build separate apps for different operating systems. They’ll also need to consider the hardware resources used to run these apps. All this increases the complexity of software as well as its cost.

Size of The Software Project – The size of the custom software development project determines how long it will take and the size of the team required to have it done within a given period. The different sizes of software projects usually include small, medium, large, and enterprise.

  • Small projects that involve simple tasks, such as bug fixes, usually last no more than 8 weeks. However, this is dependent upon the type of software.
  • Medium projects are substantially bigger than the small ones and usually last between 4 and 12 months.
  • Large projects usually involve building new software from start to finish or making substantial changes to existing software. These usually last up to 18 months depending on the type of software and size of the team.
  • Enterprise software projects are the largest and usually for quite a significant amount of time which is dependent upon the size of the project undertaking.

Size of The Software Development Team – The number of devs on the development team usually depends on the size of the project and how fast the client needs or wants the development process to be.

Each project has 3 main roles, including project manager, lead developer, and quality assurance tester. Sometimes each of these roles requires more than one individual. In some small projects, one individual can take on more than one role.

Cost of Development?

Determining the overall cost of a project always depends on the 3 factors mentioned above. Estimating the overall costs requires businesses and dev teams alike to assess the project to determine its type (the category it falls under), size, and the number of individuals required to execute the project within a given period.