Choosing the appropriate database for your application is a critical decision, and Cleverti’s top talent teams always have the best insights for every project at hands.

Databases come in a variety of forms, including relational, key-value, graph and document databases. And choosing correctly depends on the specific requirements of the application.

Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of various types of databases can help making an informed decision and ensuring efficient data storage and management.

There are a lot of different databases available, which will impact data storage, retrieval and management. Let us name their details and uses:

• Relational SQL Database, suitable for structured data where records with similar structures can appear as rows in tables with fixed columns.

These are ideal for applications that require complex data relationships and transactions – accounting, CRM, and entity management tools are good projects to use SQL databases.

• NoSQL Database, for handling large volumes of unstructured or semi-structured data such as documents and files.

Content management, social media, text-based and real-time apps are a few applicable examples, because require high scalability and a fast query response.

• Graph Database are particularly useful for fraud detection, recommendation engines, and social networks.

Their development involve complex relationships between different entities and have the purpose to manage and analyse them efficiently.

• Time-Series Database, which optimize a fast insertion and retrieval of data by timestamp.

They excel at handling large volumes of data in real-time, therefore making them particularly well-suited for applications that generate high-frequency data, including IoT, sensor systems and financial systems.

• Object Database are commonly used in scientific and engineering applications, since their content is highly structured and often interdependent.

Additionally, these types of databases handle complex object-oriented data structures and are specifically designed to store and manage data in a manner that represents a natural mapping of the domain.

Having the appropriate database is crucial for the longevity of a project. Different databases have varying strengths and weaknesses that make them more or less suitable for specific applications and use cases.

If you can’t choose the right database, this can result in performance issues, data integrity problems and scalability challenges. All of which can negatively affect the functionality and usability of your application.

Having the appropriate database service, on the other hand, ensures efficient data storage, management, and analysis for your applications. It is crucial to carefully evaluate the available options to make an informed decision that will support the needs of your project.

Although this is a very particular task which can lead to the success or failure of the project, having the right outsourcing or nearshore partner by your side is crucial.

Cleverti’s team has the right expertise in assisting and developing your project right and with fewer risks, with allocated budget, on time, and with less unforeseen events.

The post Developing web and app projects: Choosing the right database to ensure flawless results appeared first on Cleverti.

Rodolpho Lima was the first guest on the show, and he expressed his confidence in PHP’s robustness and health, citing Symfony and Laravel as two examples of excellent PHP frameworks.

A software engineering laboratory in college gave Rodolpho his first taste of programming. PHP was the first interpreted language he worked with after learning compiled languages such as C and C++.

PHP intrigued him because of the freedom it gave him as well as the lack of concern for the type of data. “A path of no return” was how he described his relationship with this programming language, which continues to this day.

Furthermore, our guest acknowledged that he would like to extend the development of APIs by incorporating unit tests. In his opinion this would give him a lot of security when introducing new code.

Click here to watch the full episode in Portuguese.

Did you find this type of content interesting? Visit us at Cleverti Hub and find out more about our content :)

The post O PHP está vivo! ep.1 [PT] appeared first on Cleverti.

With some frequency, we come across articles that mention lose of control as the most considerable risk of nearshore IT outsourcing, as no outside vendor can match the responsiveness level offered by an in-house department.

In fact, this supposed loss of control will depend on how is your nearshore software development provider organized, how you two cooperate and which level of flexibility you’ve agreed.

To assist in the decision-making process, we decided to list three key moments/actions to reduce the risk of losing control when outsourcing your IT project.

Choose Specialists instead of generalists.

Choose a provider familiar with the industry or sector of activity in which your project belongs.

It seems undoubtful that companies with specialized industry skills have a noticeable advantage, either by providing precious insights to their clients or by being aware of problems specific to each sector of activity. By working with a specialist provider, you can count on specific skills from developers through scrum masters to account managers that can save your company time and money.

Therefore, when choosing your nearshore partner, you cannot ignore their experience, or lack thereof, in your industry. To assess these skills, we advise requesting references, case studies, e-books or videos, where you’ll be able to find their previous work on similar projects.

At Cleverti, for example, there is a history of partnering with clients in some sectors like banking, insurance or energy, and for all of them, we have success stories that you can find here.

Transfer the necessary and relevant internal knowledge on time.

The quality of your nearshore partnership depends on how fully you transfer the necessary knowledge to your partner and how you communicate the basics of your business.

It is reasonable to say the transfer of internal knowledge has its proper moment, and not complying with it could harm the project. Moreover, this knowledge transfer process will also establish a decent working relationship by increasing confidence between both parties.

Anyway, let’s focus on which kind of knowledge you should pass on regardless of the provider you’ve chosen, and what methods you may follow:

1.  Agree on a non-disclosure agreement, protecting sensitive data;
2. Give access to the software architecture documentation;
3. Explain your business requirements;
4. Make clear what is your project roadmap;
5. Provide deployment guidelines;
6. Mention (and if possible share) software development tools and techniques you use;
7. Access to the existing environment and third-party systems.

When making technical decisions, listen to those who know the tools to accomplish it.

Assuming you followed the previous steps, you may consider the three dimensions of knowledge sharing: from the individual to the team; from the team to other groups within the company, and from those to other company teams – Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995).

Having this in mind will allow you to support your decisions based on feedback from developers. In addition, this will also allow decision-makers to look at developers as a valuable part of the project.

Yet you should be asking at which times the technical opinion should be taken into account (more than at any other time). So, take a look at the following moments:

1. When choosing dev machines;
2. When introducing new technologies/frameworks;
3. On architecture decisions
4. CI/CD practices

Have you ever thought how absurd it would be to hire an expert cook but disregard his advice about the mise en place?

The post Get better nearshore software development results by following 3 simple steps appeared first on Cleverti.

Before March 2020, claiming that in a few days we would be confined in our homes, on a global scale, would be considered alarmistic, to say the least. The idea of living under a State of Emergency which, among other restraints, would shut down the economy and force us to wear masks on our daily routines, would be seen as a nearly insane act from an Orwell fanatic.

Still, it all came true in a glance and many assumptions we had as a civilization have changed overnight. In this context, when we talk about change, we mean mostly three guiding axes of life in society: work, business community and environment.

In recent months, we have seen a metamorphosis in the logic of work and business. The pandemic, through remote work (in many cases mandatory), has built a more efficient and collaborative network within many organizations. Full-room presentations have been replaced by webinars; meetings gave way to calls by Zoom, and document sharing became much more prominent through digital platforms.

We were able to observe some dose of drama and agony that, over time, have been converted into hope and innovation.  Although, unfortunately, this is not the reality for many sectors and industries, there are others where the upturn was clear.

For instance in Portugal, where 99% of the Portuguese business community is comprised of small and micro companies, we realize that, due to the sales restrictions in physical spaces, small entrepreneurs were forced to adopt digital channels as the ultimate chance to evolve their businesses.

Furthermore,  this is not a localized event but a global one. The data made available by relevant media and organizations show an exponential change in buying habits – as the mindset for e-buying increases, so do effective online sales.

If we may say so,  the initial impacts of the confinement were, in fact, dark times for a huge number of companies. However,  as the conditions arising from the pandemic proved to be abiding, they also showed a light at the end of the tunnel for various businesses. A hope driven by an exponential growth of e-commerce channels, along with a significant progress in digital literacy across all society layers.

Also noteworthy,  is the unique opportunity that this generation has to carry out such an imperative digitalization taking on the respect for future generations and the environment as a standard.

Companies like Cleverti, whose everyday focus lies on rendering digital transformation to client’s business, gain an increased responsibility to lead this “efficient and sustainable digitization movement”. And that’s what we’re already doing.

Written by

Ana Raposo HR Manager

Mário Martins / Marketing Assistant

The post What if the pandemic can actually lead to increased business sustainability? appeared first on Cleverti.

The Cleverti team took on the challenge of developing a fundamental MVP for a North American customer’s business to acquire Investors and also Customers for its unique product. They didn’t have the technical skills to develop a web app or a mobile app, but luckily they found Cleverti just in time. The deadline played a critical role in this plan. We received a very short notice, and the client needed this project extremely fast. Fortunately, everything was developed in time because we could deliver the project punctually at a very cost-effective price.

The results were brilliant, and we have made just another client very happy (you can read the full review on Clutch.co. ). Thanks to the Cleverti Care methodology, the pandemic situation had no impact on the development of the project, because we’ve maintained the ordinary meetings with the client, not forgetting the meetings between the account manager and product owner.

This is noteworthy, especially if we take into account that delivery has coincided with the peak of the CoronaVirus – Covid19 pandemic, a few days before the Portuguese president announced the state of emergency. Do you want to know how and what technologies were used to satisfy our customer’s requests? Read the latest success story here.

The post How Angular and node.js made the most recent success story appeared first on Cleverti.

We are about to enter the last quarter of the year and the pressure to deliver is higher than ever. Right now, all you can think of is what you can do to ensure a timely deploy within the 2018 roadmap and in the meantime also set the roadmap for 2019.

Before panic settles in, take a deep breath. Not everything is lost. There are a few steps you can take to ease the whole process.

The status quo

Pressure is non-stop in software development. An absolute truth for any CTO. It’s safe to say that leading the technology path and assuring application delivery is always a must…

# Software must be state-of-the-art and must be developed quickly.

# Developers must have the right skills and must be ready to deliver in a jiffy.

# The software development team must be swiftly scaled (up / down) as workload increases or specific tasks end.

Oh! And at the end of the day…

# You must get the best value for money.

In this line of work speed, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness set the rule, and by this time of year their significance reaches the heights. Right?

To make matters worse, you are most likely struggling to find the skilled labor you need for that ultimate boost in your software development.

It’s not breaking news that many European countries are facing a tech talent shortage. As economies become more digital, the demand for Software Engineers keeps rising. And this is not a sectoral issue. Skilled software Engineers are required in almost all economic sectors, and hard to find allover. As a result, hiring costs keep rising too.

Source: Indeed

The problem is more pressing wherever tech development rates are higher. Many innovative economies such as France, Germany, Netherlands, most Scandinavian countries, Switzerland and the UK are facing a severe lack of specialists to fulfill their needs. Several countries are taking action to fight it, which includes increasing the schools and programs training IT specialists, attracting more women to IT and converting other professionals to this field. These are all useful measures in the long-run, but they take time and meanwhile hiring costs tend to skyrocket.

So, how can you fix your problems on the short-term in order to deliver what your stakeholders expect of you and your team?

1. Engage with people who can relate to your pain

A quick and safe way to enhance productivity is clearly outsourcing. Engaging with a development partner allows you to scale your team consistently without losing track. Partner’s skilled engineers add capacity to your team and the process is less time-consuming than hiring. Outsourcing may also provide access to a wider technology stack and specific skills you’re lacking. A good development partner is able to understand your business and technology requirements, embrace your product roadmap and help you implement it.

2. Make your development more Agile

The basis of Agile software development is interactive and incremental requirement delivery along the project lifecycle. Agile methods follow short development cycles (“sprints”) enabling the team to manage work more effectively while promoting continuous product improvement. Agile teams are multidisciplinary, highly collaborative, flexible and better adapted to change. In the end, this allows the development team to deliver a better product, in a faster way.

If your team is already using Agile this is also the best way to work when you extend your team with a partner. Even working from different locations, Agile teams collaborate easily and you can keep a close track on development progress.

If you are new to Agile, the right development partner can help you get started. Take Cleverti for instance, we have been working with several Agile methods (Scrum, Kaban, TDD, BDD) for nearly a decade. We are used to working with own and mixed teams and our clients capitalize on this experience.

If our clients already have Agile teams, we integrate them promptly and know exactly how to fit the existing governance structure, taking as many roles as required (e.g. Scrum Master). On the other hand, if our clients intend to become Agile, we are able to advise on the best method (or mix) for their project, evangelize and train internal staff and even take the reins during the Agile team set up to ensure a smooth transition into the new methodology.

3. Act now, bearing the future in mind

The haste of delivery can lead you to make mistakes. Although your immediate goal is to scale development before the end of the year, it’s important to rely on a partner who can stand by your side in the longer run.

Ultimately, you need to follow your product roadmap and make sure you can deliver cost-effective, high-quality applications in 2018 and beyond. This is much easier when the development partner shares your company and product vision.

A development partner needs to be more than a mere supplier of software experts. Regardless of location, outsourced and on-site crews need to collaborate as a single team focused on the development of your applications. Their motivation and focus must be the same – develop excellent software, on time, on budget. Together they should be able to meet your efficiency, profitability, innovation and other objectives, in order to support your business. The longer they work side-by-side, the more their involvement grows.

A long-term, reliable partner is likely to raise your competitive advantage and improve your overall performance. As in any relationship, closer ties increase the combined strength.

As we approach the end of the year, challenges do increase. But this is also a fine opportunity to start preparing the future and base your software development on proven practices that will bring you great benefits ahead.

Written by Ana Raposo| Marketing Manager at Cleverti

The post 3 tips for CTOs to scale development (before the year-end) appeared first on Cleverti.

There is risk in outsourcing software development. It’s an undisputable truth. But it’s also true risk plays a significant role in our lives.

Driving to work every day, eating out, or jogging in the evening carry a certain amount of risk.  We cannot anticipate all the risks in our day to day, lest we fail to live. What we do know is some factors can substantially increase it… in life and outsourcing.

As we enter the business sphere, risks gain a different dimension. Starting a new business entails a variety of them: getting financing, sticking to legal and regulatory compliance, hiring the right people, keeping up with the market “mood”, are just a few.

One, three and five-year survival rates of enterprises, business economy, 2015 (%). Source: Eurostat Statistics Explained

Levering and taking on the risk is what makes an entrepreneur. As Dictionary.com puts it, an entrepreneur is

“A person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.”

Of course, none of this is totally new to you, or you would not be where you are right now! Which brings us to…

The risk in outsourcing software development

When we consider outsourcing, a great deal of our evaluation effort lies in choosing the best partner. After all, we are delivering part or all of the development of our applications to an entity that is unrelated to us.

Most probably, these are the first questions we will seek to answer:

1. Is the partner able to fully understand our requirements and deliver the service we need?

2. Does the partner have satisfied customers to prove skills and service quality?

3. Does the partner have suitable premises, infrastructures and equipment?

4. Is the partner able to keep up with our growth path?

And, when we consider outsourcing to a different country, more questions arise:

5. How will partner’s time-zone, language and working schedules impact communication?

6. Will the partner’s staff be able to work effortlessly with my own team? Do they have matching quality, skillset, and working culture?

7. How will the partner safeguard our quality standards, legal framework, intellectual property, data protection, etc.?

Obviously, this is not at all wrong and we should definitely get adequate answers to these and eventually other questions. It just may not give you the whole picture. Do note the emphasis on the partner.

Often, while we weigh a number of external risk factors, we neglect a key dynamic for successful outsourcing…

Do we have what it takes to hand-over our software development project to a partner?

This is a question we should be asking ourselves before outsourcing. Assessing our own internal risk indicators may set the difference between the success or the failure of our outsourcing project.

Let’s look at some of the main risks of outsourcing-fiasco-by-internal-factors we need to consider:

# Risk 1: Unclear purpose and goals

Do we know what we are trying to achieve?

How to avoid it: By setting clear business goals and strategy, as well as a consistent product roadmap, monitored by objective performance metrics. Our internal team needs to be aware of these indicators and realize exactly how the right development partner will get us further – e.g. will the partner provide a specific technology, give a global boost to our development, help us place our product on another platform?

# Risk 2: Poor engagement

Is our team prepared to cope with outsourcing?

How to avoid it: By enforcing team collaboration. Our people must be committed to the success of outsourcing and a single-team approach favours this. Involving the internal team in the outsourcing project from the beginning (defining requirements and specifications, asking questions, interviewing outsourcing team members, etc.) makes it easier to see the partner as an extension of ourselves, enabling a smoother collaboration.

# Risk 3: Weak management and processes

Are the right people on our side engaged in the project?

How to avoid it: By ensuring capable management and close monitoring. Even if the partner has a competent local management layer, we need to engage some of our senior staff to this endeavour. They must dedicate enough time and effort to the project in order to drive its success. Implementing formal processes and metrics, such as touchpoints, delivery reporting, KPIs and escalation procedures in advance, is also decisive to keep the project on track.

# Risk 4: Bad interface

How do we ensure proper interaction?

How to avoid it: By setting up fluent communication and feedback mechanisms. Before project starts, it’s imperative to clarify all our doubts and even meet face-to-face with the partner if required. When in a different country, we must anticipate any time-zone, work schedule, language and culture impacts in order to deal with them in advance. In the course of our project, we need to have adequate procedures and tools in place to ensure knowledge transfer, consistent interaction, and timely feedback, both on the partner side and on our side.

# Risk 5: Technical skills below expectations

How do we ensure that the partner’s staff has the right skills and experience?

How to avoid it: By getting actively involved. Defining a handful of requirements is not enough. We must look at the all process as an investment in our product. It takes more time and effort, but it pays off in the long run – e.g. when we hire for our internal team, we follow a set of procedures and we must do the same here. Similar skills and attitude on both sides makes engagement easier and enables seamless teamwork.

# Risk 6: Poor quality assurance

How will our quality standards be met by all?

How to avoid it: By never, ever overlooking quality. This is about our product and we are accountable for it. We must make sure that our quality standards are clear and understood by all, and guarantee the means to bring them to life. The partner needs to have quality assurance procedures in force to address our requirements, but we have to make sure they are sufficient and effective. Likewise, software development and management methodologies have to be defined and implemented in order to serve our purposes – e.g. Agile methods are better suited for geographically distributed projects.

Successful software development outsourcing is possible and in fact quite common. Leaving nothing to chance is the key to anticipate and deal with many of the risks in outsourcing projects.

Working with a reliable partner is halfway through but there is some work to be done at home.  Failing to do it is as good as drink and drive: the risk of a fatal accident can increase anywhere between 2 and 20 times.

Written by Ana Raposo| Marketing Manager at Cleverti

The post Six software outsourcing risks and how to avoid them appeared first on Cleverti.

Behind these words, with some exceptions, of course, you’re likely to find big problems for you and your project. As a car or a cell phone, if you are looking for quality to increase your business, you need to pay a fair rate for the service, as you might understand.

The software market is currently an unstoppable train that grows with each passing day. If we want to be more specific, software development is nowadays divided before two options: the development ‘in-house’ and the outsourcing solution. If the first may in some cases be safer because you have total control and management of your project, the second option is one of the trending topics for the next few years in this market, due to the lack of resources. They are many advantages if you are searching for the better price to boost your project, meanwhile is important to give a double check in the “cheap outsourcing”.

But what is “cheap outsourcing”? First of all, it’s important to explain that if you are looking for the best deal, sometimes the low hourly rate could be an attraction, but beware, because that low-rate option may have poor characteristics which will not get you the solution that you want, on the timetable you need it delivered, and may ultimately become more expensive than other options.

So, after this, you’re most probably wondering: what is the minimum rate in outsourcing? According to some specialists and industry critics like Accelerance, 25€ is the minimum from which you should start negotiating an outsourcing solution for software development. Below this rate, and according to the organization, it’s a clear ‘red flag’ and you should avoid this because you can have problems with this “low cost” solution and everyone wants to get a good deal for the money they spend.

Outsourcing software development is a proven way to reduce your costs of developing and deploying applications and you could have more to win than to lose. There are some good deals in every corner of the world and Portugal, in the past few years, has won the authority to discuss with the biggest central Europe markets for a position as important outsourcing location.

What determines an outsourcing rate?

The answer is not difficult to understand because cost ultimately determines the rate. In every part of the globe, there are some factors that determine the outsourcing rate and common elements which will affect the cost of a developer. First of all, wages, because all software developers are paid a wage that is in-line with the place where they live. Second, employee benefits such as a programmer’s total compensation, which will have elements that include vacation, sick time, insurance, payroll tax, retirement contributions, etc. So, if you combine the cost of wages and benefits, you will get the most important part of the rate.

In a different but also important step, you need to consider the expense to supervise employees, because a software development team has to be managed in order to control work priorities, as well as coached and guided regularly; they also need tools such as computers, software development tools and testing tools and, last but not least, the office space (furniture, phone, internet, coffee and other bonds) to work and develop your project in the best conditions.

So, behind the outsourcing rates, you will find several factors that give you a “fair price”. When you pay under 25€ and you need to include all of this, the alarms should ring in your mind and avoid this kind of “cheap rates”, because it is possible that you aren’t getting the fullest value for the hourly rate you pay. Outsourcing is nowadays a great solution for your company and projects, but you need to find the best partner to give the boost that you need. Why?

In the foundation of an outsourced software development, there must be confidence between two companies to give you the best delivery, the best talent and the best operation to achieve your main goals. Portugal is actually one of the best countries to build outsourcing teams for many reasons: highly talented developers, low time-zone difference towards other European countries, culture, and the capacity to adapt and cover the most important languages of this specific market. Have we cheapest rates in the market? It’s a clear no, but we are very competitive when compared to central and northern Europe, including countries such as France, UK, Germany, and Scandinavia.

On the other side, locations such as India, North Africa, and Eastern Europe can provide you “cheap rates”, but for all the reasons above, you may not be very well served and in recent years references to negative experiences have been increasing. High turnover in the companies, insufficient tools, poor process, limited talent, language and time-zone barriers are the major problems of outsourcing to countries that provide you “cheap rates”.

Portugal in the past few years has assumed an important role in the outsourcing market. With competitive rates, the country produces great IT talent, recognized among their peers. With a great culture of work and close to important time-zones in Europe, Portugal is nowadays one of the most important countries if you are looking for quality outsourcing, with good delivery and best practices in the market.

In conclusion, that key-sentence that you need to retain: you get what you pay for. Outsourced software development can be cost-effective, and you can have a great experience with the right partner. However, “cheap outsourcing” means you are not getting full value for what you pay and you can probably have problems, like delays, turnover and poor scope delivery.

Written by Tomás Santos |  Business Development Manager at Cleverti

The post Outsourcing prices: Below 25€? Thanks, but no thanks appeared first on Cleverti.