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“Reducing costs” sounds like a magic phrase: everyone dreams of putting it into practice, but very few people truly know how to do it.

When we talk about reducing costs in IT, the task can feel even more herculean. After all, IT professionals are expensive, as is the investment in hardware and the development of software that could, in the future, actually reduce a company’s costs.

So how do you break out of this vicious cycle?

At X-Apps, we know exactly what can be done inside your company to reduce costs—especially in software development—and we want to share the main tips to turn this goal into reality.

Ways to reduce software development costs in your company

The first thing your company should do to reduce costs is to truly understand what needs to be done and in what way. Not everything we think we need is, in fact, what we need.

If this doubt is constant in your business, count on us to run a diagnosis and evaluate the real impact of a software development project for your current market moment.

Once that’s clear, follow the four tips below.

Use an agile methodology

Nothing says “reduce costs” more than doing as much work as possible in the least amount of time. Besides time itself—which generates cost—using agile methodologies, such as Scrum, also reduces rework during the final approval stage and optimizes the work of everyone involved in software development.

That leads to higher-value delivery, more efficient solutions, and far less individual effort, since agile practices depend on continuous teamwork and adapting to change as it happens.

Cut down your requirements

With an agile methodology defined, it’s time to reduce costs through the strategic planning of the software to be created, including the business model and an analysis of every requirement.

The fewer items you need to document throughout development, the less time you’ll spend—and, as we’ve already said (and you already know by now), time is money.

By cutting down requirements, you can build a kind of development roadmap that guides not only your work but also the work of everyone else involved in the process.

Enable automation

If there’s any development stage that can be done automatically instead of manually, consider it as a concrete way to reduce costs.

Automation in IT increases quality (by reducing human error), speeds up delivery, and can be much cheaper than hiring specialized labor for a specific phase of the project.

Whenever possible, also use artificial intelligence and remote monitoring resources capable of generating efficiency reports and giving the team a more strategic view of what can be done to remove obstacles that are undermining the chances of delivering the project on time.

Consider outsourcing to reduce costs

Building IT teams, training them in agile methodology, and requesting a development project—all of this generates expenses for the company, starting with the salaries of everyone involved.

One of the best ways to reduce software creation costs is to outsource the work through an IT outsourcing provider. In other words, a capable partner that can deliver the same quality—or even a higher level of excellence—than the software would have if built internally.

The benefits are numerous, starting with the ability to rely on a specialized team without having to allocate internal revenue to cover all salaries. In addition, the contracted company does not use the contracting company’s infrastructure (neither hardware nor software), which also helps reduce costs.

And finally, once the project is completed, there are no long-term ties between the company and the outsourced provider, which makes it easier to hire multiple one-off projects.

Still unsure whether outsourcing is the best way to reduce costs in your software development? Talk to X-Apps!