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When the app team keeps slipping

Our app team keeps missing dates. Why is it so slow?

Measure how your team delivers before you judge it or add people: how long a change takes to reach users, how often you release, and how often a release breaks something. For businesses whose customers or staff depend on the app, we start with an $8,000 audit, in 1 to 4 weeks, that shows where the work gets stuck. If the team needs a senior leader to fix it, Embedded Leadership starts at $45,000 a month, for 3 to 6 months.

For businesses whose customers or staff depend on the app.Audits are $8,000, in 1 to 4 weeks.

Tell us what is going on

Who this is for

This is for you if

  • Releases keep slipping, and every missed date comes with a new reason.
  • You have your own developers or an outside team, but nobody senior owns how the app ships.
  • Your customers or staff are still waiting on fixes and features that were promised long ago.

This is not for you if

  • You need a standalone website with no app behind it.
  • You want the cheapest developer hours, not a senior look at why the work is stuck.
  • You want more developers added right away, before anyone knows where the time goes.

What the research says

Why is software development so slow? What DORA's research measures

DORA is a research program at Google Cloud built on yearly surveys of people who build and run software. Each fact is DORA's own finding, linked to its source.

Five measures, not four

DORA measures delivery with five metrics: how long a change takes to reach users, how often you deploy, how fast you recover from a failed deployment, how often a change fails, and how often deployed work has to be redone. Older articles list only four.

Source: DORA (Google Cloud) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0)

Outside sign-off slows teams down

Approval by people outside the team, such as a change board or a senior manager, hurt delivery in DORA's research, with no evidence that it lowered the failure rate. Peer review backed by automated checks worked best.

Source: DORA (Google Cloud) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0)

What to do first

  1. Measure how your team delivers before you judge it.

    Track five things for this one app: how long a change takes to reach users, how often you release, how often a release breaks something, how often work is redone, and how fast you recover.

  2. Don't turn the numbers into targets.

    Targets get gamed. Use the numbers to see where the work is stuck.

  3. Don't assume going faster means more breakage.

    DORA's research finds the best teams are both fast and stable.

  4. Look at who has to approve each release.

    Sign-off from people outside the team slowed delivery in DORA's research without reducing failures. Peer review with automated checks worked better.

  5. Ship smaller changes more often.

    DORA found small batches predict better delivery and better business results.

  6. Get the whole team together and fix the biggest bottleneck first.

    Then measure again, and repeat.

  7. Compare the app with its own past, not with another team.

    Very different systems don't compare fairly.

What it costs

Audits are $8,000. Embedded Leadership starts at $45,000 a month.

The audit covers one app and one codebase, in 1 to 4 weeks. Larger apps are quoted higher, and the audit is paid on its own. If your team needs a senior leader to change how it delivers, Embedded Leadership starts at $45,000 a month, for 3 to 6 months. Prices are for remote work. On-site work is quoted separately and priced higher.

How the audit works

What you get from the audit

Where the time goes

The five DORA measures for your app, from your own history, so you can see where work waits.

What we check

Who owns each decision, how releases are approved, how much testing is automated, and how app store review fits the schedule.

The biggest bottleneck

The one change most likely to speed the team up, explained in plain words.

A plan and a price

What your team can fix on its own, and what Embedded Leadership would cost if you want a senior leader to run the change.

Case study

Fixing what was there before adding more

A behavioral health company's team was busy shipping new features while the people using the app struggled with the ones it had. A short review showed the existing features were the problem, so we fixed those first and set up a regular crash review with the team. On a current iPad, our testing observed opening an important record go from approximately 10 seconds to under one second.

Read the case study

Common questions

Why is software development so slow at our company?

It is rarely one person. DORA's research points at things like sign-off from people outside the team and large, infrequent releases. Measuring how your team delivers shows where your time actually goes.

Should we just hire more developers?

Not before you know where the work is stuck. More people don't fix a bottleneck in how changes are approved, tested or released.

Is our team the problem, or is it something else?

Often it is the process around the team rather than the people in it. The audit looks at how work moves and tells you which it is.

What is Embedded Leadership?

A senior leader from CAM Software joins your team, finds the real constraint and helps put the changes in place. It starts at $45,000 a month, for 3 to 6 months. The audit comes first, so you know whether you need it.

How long does the audit take, and what does it cost?

1 to 4 weeks, and $8,000 for one app and one codebase. Larger apps are quoted higher.

Tell us what is going on with your app.

A short note is enough. We reply with whether we can help and what the first step costs.

Tell us what is going on