App Development
How We Work
65 Bits employes a programming discipline called Extreme Programming to rapidly build quality software that is tightly aligned with business and operational needs. Extreme Programming, a form of Agile development, ensures that immediate priorities are always determined by the client. This empowers our customers to adjust the project’s goals, requirements or milestones throughout the project life-cycle and does not limit the scope of the project.
Project Management
We acknowledge that the design and development process is organic, and new ideas or concepts may arise throughout the project. Our flexibility and project management approach accommodates these changes, but all work is charged at the same rate regardless of whether that work has been identified in the planning stages or discovered throughout the build.
65 Bits is a proponent of Extreme Programming and Agile development principles, but is pragmatic about it’s use to optimise the process for each client. We use Pivotal Tracker to store User Stories and track progress towards meeting your business goals.
Technologies Used
Web Framework
Ruby on Rails is the framework of choice at 65 Bits due to its suitability for rapid prototyping and our own rich experience with it. There are also a myriad of ways in which Rails can be used to meet the changing needs of a project over time. Other key considerations include:
- Maturity: Used by startups for over 12 years Ruby on Rails is a proven technology
- Developer availability: Most developer schools and bootstraps teach Ruby on Rails.
- Stability and security: Being used by large and popular startups all over the world, security issues get found and fixed quickly.
Hosting
While we are Amazon Web Services experts, for an MVP we recommend the lightweight and cheaper cloud based servers at Heroku.
Security
65 Bits mitigates against security issues by employing Ruby on Rails best practices and adopting Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) recommendations. We also use Brakeman which is a static analysis security vulnerability scanner.
Performance
Inherent to our best practices performance is a key consideration. Nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and they tend to abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds.
Design and Styling
We use the Bootstrap framework, a very popular open source toolkit for developing with HTML, CSS, and JS that provides an extensive library of prebuilt components. Bootstrap is ideal for providing the base look and feel of an application, as well as being open for customisation and more elaborate custom styling as the project grows.
Search Engine Optimisation
Most software developers don’t pay attention to marketing and search engine optimisation during development. While SEO isn’t always a key consideration for early stage startups, our approach provides a highly optimised base platform by default at no extra cost to you. This means that SEO agencies employed in the future won’t require an application rewrite, and they can focus on the less technical parts of internet marketing to achieve the best results for your business.
Continuous Integration
65 Bit uses Codeship as it’s Continuous Integration tool to provide fast deployment and releases throughout our iterative development process. This means a Staging environment is created for you to test and approve new changes before it goes to Production where your users can see it.
Testing and Quality
Automated software testing is part of the Extreme Programming process. Tests are written judiciously alongside each new feature to minimise the risk of downtime, bugs and security breaches. This is at no additional cost to you, but dramatically improves the stability and extendability of your code base.