It is one month since we have released Silo(June 11, 2008). We have received a huge response from project management conscious people like you. More than 35 companies have started using Silo as their project management solution. Thank you.

We are committed to providing services to help you build better software. With that commitment comes fixing bugs, building in improvements and starting new initiatives. Here is what we have been up to in June 2008.

Bug Fixes

1. Milestone due date is not converted to user time zone. No impact on existing accounts. Fixed.
2. Sign up security issue for returning user. No impact on existing accounts. Fixed.
3. Create/Edit effort screen does not indicate what to enter for “Efforts” form field. Fixed.

Sales Website Improvements

1. Improvements on the front, tour and pricing pages have been done.
2. We have also added 3 new videos on the tour page.

Making the most of our Pricing Policy

We understand that all projects take some time to take off from the ground. When pitching for a project, this is your chance to impress your customer. Let them know that you can professionally manage all requirements, change requests and defects for their project, with Silo. Use the first 15 days to get your project off ground. That is why the first 15 days of every project you create are absolutely free.

Building Bridges

One of the biggest differentiating factor between US and offshore companies, is the willingness to collaborate & work with others. So we are thinking of initiating a place for offshore companies to communicate, share knowledge and learn from each others experiences. This could be a great opportunity for you to add brand value to your company as well as learn from others. Do let us know what you think about this initiative and whether you are willing to join this network.

I recently read a blog article for small software companies. I found the article quite interesting. It has some very very useful tips for small software companies.

I did not like the section titled “Looking Big When You are Small” though. The ideas explained in the section are great. But why do you need to look big when you are small? There are enough advantages of being a small company over a big corporation to tom-tom your smallness.

1. You can service and profit from customers who are too small for big corporations.
2. Your company has a human face when communicating with customers.
3. You have a quicker decision making ability and a lethal agility when it comes to execution.
4. Your customers communicate straight with the top of your company.
5. You have a better control over your budget.
6. Because of smaller budget you are more innovative than larger corporations.

And believe me there are loads of companies out there who promote their smallness. Patrick Mckenzie does on his Bingo Card Creator “about us” section. Ian Landsman is famous for being a one man software company at Userscape. And there are numerous such examples.

But small does not mean that you are licensed to be less professional. Here are some common mistakes to avoid.

1. Get professional websites. Common guys if you don’t want to spend money, there are thousands of free or open source design sites on the web (www.oswd.org, www.opendesigns.org). Grab one of those. Use the design. And please get a domain name.
2. Submit professional content. Use the spell checker. Check the grammar before you post something up. If you want to be informal, start a blog. Nothing like writing periodical posts. Bloging is free at Wordpress & Blogspot.
3. Write professional emails. Again the spelling and grammar rules apply here. Make sure you type in a subject. And if you absolutely have to have a contact email address like info@xyz.com, make sure you have a mail box like at that address and that you answer those emails.
4. Clean up your profiles. If you have public profiles on sites like Myspace, Facebook or others make sure you clean them up. There is nothing worse than people googling you up and finding disturbing messages and photos of you.

So by all means be small but do not be unprofessional.

“Project Management” is probably the most misused phrase in the software industry. Ask any developer and (s)he would swear about not needing a project manager. Ask any customer and (s)he would not be able to tell what the manager contributed to the project. In my IT life of 7 years, I have seen project managers bend, straighten and twist the term ‘Project Management’ to suite their life and save their skin. Project managers have been ridiculed over the years for this. My favorite toon has been this one(I received it in email. If any one knows the rightful owner, do let me know).

It was then I thought about a more common sense approach towards project management. After all, all management is based on common sense. And common sense is not something you learn in a PMP certification course. I will be writing a series of posts about the common sense approach. Here is the first Rule.

In order tho understand what “Common Sense Project Management” is, let us first understand what are its goals. These are the goals of common sense project management, in the exact priority order.

1. Deliver the project. Deliver it on time.
2. Keep the customers happy.
3. Keep the developers happy.
4. Get me a promotion.

Rule# 1: Always remember the goals and in the exact order.

I wanted to make movies when I was in college. Well my wish has come true. I have created my first movie.

It is about the Dashboard feature in Silo - My Project Management and collaboration tool. It came out pretty interesting. You can watch the hi resolution video on Silo Product Tour page.

You can also watch a low resolution smaller video right here.

After receiving a lot of feedback for Silo, we now offer Silo free for an initial period of 15 days. Yes, the first 15 days of all projects you create on Silo are now absolutely free. You can now try Silo before you decide to pay for it.

Retaining employees is big challenge for every company. Small software services companies in India are probably the worst hit. So what does it take to retain employees? Great salary, unlimited perks, just what is it? The answer is really simple.

Find committed employees. However long it takes.

Committed employees will never leave you. Not even if they were paid to leave. Ask Zappos. Zappos is a company in the silicon valley in California. And it is not into software. Zappos sells shoes, online. And here is it’s astonishing story.

After an intensive four-week training period that compensates new employees with their full salary, the company presents the freshly trained group with something called The Offer: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos tests the commitment of its employees from the get-go, because it realizes the importance of a strong call-center team when that’s the only customer service experience an online customer will get. Zappos is happy to absorb the cost of $1000, only because it knows too well, the remaining won’t quit any time soon.

Too often small software companies in a hurry to grow too big too quickly forget to hire(& retain) committed employees. Let the Zappos story make sense in your business too. Happy employees create happy customers.

I am addicted to reading. I read books, blogs, news articles and everything that I can lay my eyes on. Recently I had read blog posts from an entrepreneur who was grumbling about customers here and here. To quote…

Why do most clients have the privilege not to pay in time while supplier/vendors are expected to deliver on time. ??

He also wrote a post about when he was on the other side of the fence here. I admit that I might have done the same in all the above three cases.

But some recent articles and posts(I have read) suggest a growing sense of delighting your customers. In a growing and ever competitive world where you could get stuff on a click, creating happy customers has become a priority for a lot of companies. Here are some examples.

Put Buyers First? What a Concept

Amazon replaced a stolen package despite delivering right and having the neighbors signature for the record. Not only it made the customer happy, he wrote about it on the New York times. Imagine the good will amazon is attracting.

This really happened too

Rob Connery blogged about how apple replaced his iPhone after he had dropped it.

Just try walking into your phone store and telling them you dropped your phone. Then tell them you’ll buy two of them. I’m going to bet that the last thing they do is offer to replace your phone for free.

Going great lengths towards delighting your customer always pays off. Sooner or later. If you did something good for one customer, they would go and tell many others about it.

It is hard to determine a pricing model for something as unpredictable as software development. However over a period of time most companies start getting a hang of how pricing works. But typically one pricing model does not work in all situations. The perfect pricing model is which earns your company the highest revenue, while not making the customer feel looted. Here are a few options…

Fixed Pricing

Typically this type of pricing works for small projects or even a small set of tasks. The customer agrees to pay you a fixed amount for a project or a task(s). The problem with this model is poorly defined requirements can often harm the project. The customer tries to get most of the amount she has paid. The service provider might feel a bit squeezed.

The solution is to use this model for very small projects. Typically 1-2 week projects work well in this scenario.

Silo Tip: Silo shows you estimated work hours per day for your project. Use this as your pointer when charging fixed price.

Getting paid by the hour

This is a no-brainer. You get paid for the amount of time spent working on a project. But let us face it. Most small software companies do not have the good will to attract hourly rate projects. And while your company might love these projects, you customer might not be too happy. The biggest problem for the customer is what constitutes a working hour? Are meetings, toilet breaks included? And even for you, in this competitive market, the hourly rates are always going south. So how do you determine your hourly rate?

The solution lies in asking for the amount you feel is right. Never charge lower than what you can afford. The project quality will suffer if you charge low. Second keep a meticulous record of efforts on the project by your team. Share them with the customer on a weekly basis. That should keep your customer informed and happy.

Silo Tip: Silo helps you track efforts spent and  your customer can view them online. This build confidence in your customer and helps you channelize your teams efforts towards important tasks.

The curious problem of long-term projects 

Long term projects are hard to guesstimate. Off course the customer would expect lower hourly rates and fixed rates are a strict no-no. So how you get by for long-term projects.

The idea is pretty simple. Divide your project into smaller milestones. Each milestone should deliver a set of tasks. Typically each milestone should be 1-2 weeks long depending on the project length. No you can choose to charge fixed price or if you choose hourly for each milestone.

Silo Tip: Silo indeed features milestones. You can your customer can easily keep track of each milestone from the dashboard page.

Software development is complex, unpredictable and hard. A Customer often does not know what he/she wants. Your success as a service provider is depends on this customer’s success. So how do you ensure your customer wins?

Needs++; Wants–;

Concentrate on your customer’s needs. Not on what he/she wants. Needs are critical. Wants are often nice-to-haves. ‘Needs generate money’. Wants fly with fantasies. By concentrating on the ‘needs’ first, you ensure that the customer is making enough to pay you later to fulfill the ‘wants’.

Prototype

When you or your customer are not clear about something, prototype. Prototypes need not be software or even digital. They can be paper prototypes or even rough sketches. ‘Remember a picture speaks a thousand words’.

Suggest. Suggest. Suggest.

When you think of something let your customer know. Let her see how involved you are in the project. When you hit a roadblock, don’t just go with a blank slate. Be ready with alternatives. Some of your suggestions might land in a trash can, but that should not stop you from doing some more suggestions.

While !complete… Iterate

‘Release early. Release often.’ Thats the mantra. Every release should be production quality. There are multiple benefits here.

1. Customer goes to market early. Starts making money early.
2. Customer is less reluctant to change working stuff. Good for you.
3. You hit production early. Know the pitfalls early.

Silo Tip

Silo helps you group tasks by milestone to track your release iterations. All you need to do is assign a task to a milestone. The milestone progress is tracked on the dashboard page.