Far Reach Core Value #5 | Simplicity & Quality

Read more about the 11 Core Values we use every day.

As a custom software and web development company, our Core Value #5 ? Simplicity & Quality is at the heart of what we do.? When we discussed this Core Value as a team, we noted that quality and simplicity are relative terms, meaning different things to different people.?? How does a team like ours work collectively to ensure we?re implementing simple, quality solutions for our clients?

There are a few key areas we?ve addressed in our efforts to carry out the ?Simplicity & Quality? Core Value as a team.? Implementing simplicity and quality as a guiding principle requires persistence, and there?s always room for improvement.??? It also requires the courage to walk away from opportunities that might offer short-term benefits, but compromise our commitment to a certain caliber of work.? ?(It?s never easy to take a pass on a project, even with five years under our belts.)

Below are some of the decisions we?ve made as a company in the interest of simplicity and quality?some were made at the very beginning, some more recently, as we?ve learned through experience:

Business Development:? We don?t have dedicated salespeople.? Project leads meet with potential clients from the very beginning to ensure we?re asking the right questions up front.? After all, what?s more critical to a high quality outcome than a thorough understanding of the goals of a project??? During business development, we help potential clients understand our process and work to ensure we?re the right fit for the client and vice versa.?? We?ve turned down opportunities knowing the fit was wrong and that, for one reason or another, the relationship or parameters wouldn?t net the highest quality product.

Pricing and Estimates:? Building something of quality takes time and comes at a price.? We know not all potential clients are willing and/or able to pay what we charge for custom websites and custom software solutions.? We give realistic bids for potential projects and do our best to demonstrate the extra value we bring to projects.? With website projects, we know the minimum cost to create a website up to our standards.?? For custom software projects, we don?t offer fixed bids. Experience has shown that, with a fixed bid project, the chance both parties will enjoy a positive outcome is extraordinarily slim.?? We give estimates, perform thorough analysis, and communicate clearly throughout the process.

Quality Assurance/Testing:? While we certainly offer clients the opportunity to review and sign off on the final product before release, we won?t take on projects that don?t include our own testing process in the scope of work.? Occasionally, clients believe they?ll save money by doing the testing themselves; however, we?ve found our own tools and trained testers are critical in ensuring a system meets all requirements, as many bugs as possible are caught and fixed prior to launch, and the system works properly in its intended environment/s.

These principals provide the framework within which our website development process (we recently covered it in detail) and our custom software development process (we?ll share it in coming months) are successfully carried out.

We watched several videos to inspire simplicity and quality in our work at Far Reach.? One of our favorites is a TED Talk by Simon Sinek.??? While it?s considered a leadership talk, it speaks to the core of inspiring quality from a team.?? He asserts, ?If you hire people just because they can do a job, they?ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they?ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.??? And this is exactly why we hire team members and partner with clients who believe what we believe about simplicity and quality.

What ideas, ?rules,? or rituals inspire your quest for simplicity and quality?? We hope you?ll share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Source: http://blog.farreachinc.com/2012/11/09/reach-core-5-simplicity-quality/

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