What are the best practices for building enterprise applications?

Enterprise applications are defined as software systems that are designed to help organizations coordinate, manage and oversee the functioning of various business processes and workflows. Studies have shown that the global enterprise application industry is expected to reach a market value of $527.4 billion by the year 2030, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 8.2%.

Powerful enterprise applications are a crucial aspect of any successful organization. However, the development cycle of enterprise applications can be extremely time-consuming and can also result in a substantial amount of wastage of organizational resources if not closely monitored. Significant delays and wastage of resources during the development cycle may even ultimately negate the prospective profitability of an enterprise application.

Therefore, modern businesses must be aware of certain best practices for building and developing enterprise applications.

Best Practices For Building Enterprise Applications:

1) Define Goals and Objectives

Before starting the process of developing a new enterprise application, your business must clearly define short-term and long-term goals and objectives for the enterprise application. Establishing a clear overview of which business function the enterprise application is meant to address can make the enterprise development process much easier.

Furthermore, clearly defining goals and objectives can make it significantly easier for developers to create enterprise applications that best serve your organization’s preferences and requirements; which will ultimately reduce the length of the enterprise application development cycle.

2) Establish a Clear Timeline

Once your business has determined the purpose and objectives of developing an enterprise application, you must establish a clear and comprehensive timeline for the development of the project. Application development projects without clearly defined timelines usually require substantially more time and organizational resources. Therefore, a clear timeline will enable your business to monitor the development of the enterprise application as well as avoid unnecessary delays.

3) Determine Required Features and Functions

One of the biggest reasons for delays in enterprise application development cycles is the need to constantly add new features and functions after an application has been developed and distributed. Therefore, determining which features and functionalities will be required for the enterprise application can help avoid delays.

This will not only help your business avoid having to ask software developers to constantly build, integrate and develop new features, which will ultimately result in delays, but also clearly outline the purpose of a particular enterprise application. Low-code application development solutions can empower your business to create powerful, high functioning enterprise applications using visual interfaces, drag-and-drop tools and on-screen guidance.

4) Test At Regular Intervals

Studies have shown that 29% of users will immediately abandon an application if it does not offer value to them. Therefore, it is crucial for businesses to carefully test enterprise applications to ensure that they provide value to users in an efficient and effective manner. Testing involves the process of searching for, discovering and addressing bugs and defects in a particular application before the deployment of an application.

Enterprise applications should be tested at each step of the application development cycle to ensure that they are no prevailing issues that could potentially affect deployment at a later stage. Low-code application development platforms can empower businesses to test enterprise applications regularly without wasting a large amount of organizational resources.

5) Cross-Departmental Collaboration

Effective cross-departmental collaboration is a vital aspect of any crucial business process. Research has shown that approximately 75% of employees regard collaboration and teamwork as important. Therefore, when building and developing an enterprise application, it is crucial to ensure consistent and effective cross-departmental communication in terms of the prospective timeline of the delivery of an enterprise application, the required features, preferences in terms of user interface and more.

Furthermore, cross-departmental collaboration can encourage teamwork, increase efficiency and productivity, facilitate faster problem-solving and decision-making processes and increase employee engagement levels.

6) Choose The Right Application Development Platform

One of the most important elements of building an effective enterprise application is choosing the right application development platform. Low-code application development platforms can enable your business to create powerful, custom-made enterprise applications using a wide variety of features such as drag-and-drop builders, cloud-ready scalable architecture, visual workflow builders, advanced chart building tools and much more.

According to a study by Gartner, approximately 70% of new applications developed by enterprises will be built using low-code technology by the year 2025.

7) Prioritize Security and Encryption

Enterprise applications are usually tasked with handling sensitive organizational and consumer information. When collecting data from consumers, your business has a moral and legal responsibility to protect their privacy. Furthermore, your business’s enterprise applications may have to support certain crucial business processes such as documentation, payment paperwork, customer service and much more. Therefore, when developing an enterprise application, your business must prioritize security and encryption to avoid data loss or leaks.

According to a study conducted by IBM, cyberattacks result in an average organizational loss of $1.52 million. Therefore, implementing certain encryption measures into your business’s enterprise applications can help prevent potentially disastrous financial losses in the long run.

Build Powerful, Custom Enterprise Applications with Corteza

Planet Crust’s Corteza is a low-code development platform. You can use Corteza to develop and scale high-value applications that can be easily deployed. Build innovation solutions and increase organisational productivity with Corteza.