Delivering value through software excellence
Digital Architects (DA) is a software design + build + operate firm that excels at implementing bespoke software solutions that deliver broad value for our clients, through effective client collaboration and a continuous focus on quality.
"Less a vendor, and more a true collaborator, Digital Architects worked very closely alongside us to plan, design and execute our EU cross-border expansion. With excellent software development skills combined with product design expertise,
Digital Architects supported us with everything from regulatory research, to business requirements analysis, to software implementation. Working with their team was seamless – more like working with close colleagues, rather than an external vendor.
Without a doubt, one of the best experiences I’ve had working with an IT services vendor, bar none.”
― Lorne Taylor, General Manager, Borderfree
We have extensive real-world expertise in software design & architecture and cloud infrastructure best practices, as well as specific experience in Logistics, eCommerce, Finance, Payments and Software-as-a-Service product design.
As outlined below, our Software Design & Development capabilities are offered under a variety of flexible delivery models, to best fit your needs.
Rapid Requirements Discovery
At the outset of a new software or IT project, you know your goals, but how reach them and what specifically needs to get built is far less clear.
To help plan the way forward, we can lead your team through a fixed-duration Rapid Requirements Discovery engagement to undertake critical requirements gathering and definition activities.
Led by a Business Analyst from Digital Architects, such activities may include Project Charter Kickoff, Requirements Discovery Workshops, and guided Requirements Gathering Sessions with smaller groups of stakeholders.
Such an engagement would yield tangible deliverables such as:
- Project Charter to define scope & priorities, and guide decision-making throughout the project
- User Story Inventory outlining the work ahead
- Risks & Uncertainties Log to help with risk mitigation planning
- Implementation Option Analysis detailing the pros & cons of potential implementation options
These deliverables are crucial to getting a project started on the right footing for success, by effectively setting up the next stages of planning, solution design & Agile development.
Software Development as a Service (SDaaS)
Today, most growing organizations rely on some custom software or IT solutions to power their business. However they often do not have or desire the capacity to effectively manage the development and maintenance of these solutions "in-house". Recruiting, retaining and managing software engineering talent is a costly and resource intensive endeavour.
As organizations continue to seek to outsource the development of their software, DA's Software Development as a Service (SDaaS) combines all the benefits of a dedicated in-house team, with the staffing flexibility of outsourcing.
With an SDaaS engagement, DA will field a software engineering team with the mix of skills and experience to deliver on your project or roadmap, managed by a Team Lead Software Engineer. This team would become highly embedded within your organization, working closely with product owners and other stakeholders on a day-to-day basis, and following an Agile software development process to continuously deliver new features and functionality.
Staff Augmentation
Alternatively if you need to temporarily augment an existing project team with additional capacity or specialized skills, we offer Staff Augmentation engagements to help you staff specific roles on a contingent basis.
Whether it's software engineers with deep experience on your preferred tech stack, or complementary skills in UI/UX, Cloud Infrastructure, Data Engineering, AI/ML or QA Automation, DA can provide the right team members to fill the gaps or accelerate your team's velocity.
DA's unique hands-on interactive evaluation process ensures that all our team members are leaders in their field with a resourceful "roll-up their sleeves" attitude -- individual contributors who are readily able to jump into new projects and quickly become productive.
Mobile Application Development
Digital Architects can design and develop custom mobile applications that extend the reach of your software to smartphones and tablets.
Depending on the project's specific needs and functional requirements, during a Mobile Application Development engagement, DA can employ either native or hybrid development technologies.
Native mobile app development involves the creation of separate applications specifically for Apple iOS (typically written in Swift) and Google Android (typically written in Kotlin). Native apps can optimize performance and user experience, and can better and more fully utilize the device's hardware features (such as camera, GPS, accelerometer, etc.).
Alternatively, hybrid mobile app development frameworks can significantly reduce the cost of mobile application development and maintenance. They enable a single web-based application codebase to be used to implement both iOS and Android applications. DA utilizes technologies such as React Native & Capacitor to deliver on the value of hybrid mobile apps.
DA can use an existing web application as the starting point for a mobile app, or design and implement entirely new mobile apps from the ground app.
QA Test Automation
Digital Architects has always been a proponent of the importance of test automation to protect investments in software development. Automated testing ensures the ongoing reliability of your software, through consistent and repeatable test runs that can be executed whenever they are needed on-demand, at very little cost.
Manual testing is rarely a suitable replacement, as each run is labor intensive, more costly, not easily repeatable and thus less likely to be practiced consistently, resulting in higher defect rates.
Automated testing is also invaluable as a risk mitigation "insurance policy", when significant changes (inevitably!) need to be made to software. Automated test batteries instil the confidence to make any changes necessary, secure in the knowledge that any regression issues will be rapidly and comprehensively identified.
During a QA Test Automation engagement, Digital Architects can implement "black box" test batteries for your software projects, either to outsource this important concern during development, or on a post-implementation basis. Testing can consist of functional or load/stress testing of web applications and APIs.
DevOps Modernization
As software development teams seek to accelerate their productivity, the adoption of DevOps tools and processes has grown across significantly.
However implementation of DevOps best practices can be often be uneven or inconsistent, particularly in industries relatively new to managing software development. This is further complicated by DevOps needing to be tailored to the projects and operations of an organization, rather than as a one-size-fits-all undertaking.
With a DevOps Modernization engagement, Digital Architects will work with your development and technical operations teams to plan and implement DevOps processes and procedures that are appropriate for your organization.
Scope may include automated Continuous Integration & Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, Source Control best practices, Configuration Management, Release Management, Infrastructure Provisioning, Observability & Incident Management with incident response playbooks. All with the clear goal of improving your team's productivity across the software development lifecycle, from shipping new features, to operating them in production.