Our Philosophy

Would you use your own software?

It's a simple question with important implications.   You see, whether intentional or not software developers know that the final product will not be used by them. Therefore, when a decision needs to be made whether to do what's easiest for the software developer versus the best outcome for the end user, the software developer always wins.

This is unfortunate.

At Cyberwolf Software, we combat this natural tendency by asking the question...

Would you use your own software?

By focusing on that question, it reminds the software developer that although they may have to build it one time - the end user is "stuck" with those consequences every time.   It forces the developer to think and act as if they were a user of the software.   And that produces better software.

As a simple example, let's assume that the developer chooses a "treeview" - a navigation that has to be expanded by category.   As opposed to a simple list, perhaps the developer thought the "treeview is cool".   But it turns out that every time a user goes to this form the first thing they do is click a button which changes the representation from a tree view to a simple list.

Think this can't happen?

This is what I have to do every time I go into an online banking system as a customer.   And...it irritates me every time.   Most customers of the bank have only a handful of accounts (I asked) and therefore providing a simple list would have been a better decision.

Put simply, there is more to software development than coding to a set of requirements.   This is why Agile Project Management has been embraced by the software engineering industry.   The short feedback loop and the constant contact with customers and users provides a better solution than strictly coding to requirements.

Ultimately, we want the same thing as our customers.   A reliable, high-quality application that requires no maintenance and solves the business problem!