The Ohio State University (OSU) is a leading research university that also provides tremendous support to the entrepreneurship community. This support comes in a variety of forms, such as mentorship, patenting, and even grant funding. As a result, many local entrepreneurs seek help from OSU, 90 of which, are startups that use technologies proprietary to OSU.
OSU grants are competitive and are heavily sought after by entrepreneurs. However, these grants come with a number of constraints; one in particular is time. Stewart Davis was tasked to source a software developer who could not only deliver a full application within a two-month window, but also have it launched on the Apple App Store within that same window.
The Challenge : Crunch Time
- Time is of the essence: From start to finish, typical software development takes between four to six months for medium sized projects. In the case for OSU, both design and software development must be completed within a two month timespan. If not, the entrepreneur is disqualified for the grand, and the software development cannot proceed.
- Compliance: The software developer needed to follow the security protocols of OSU. Without compliance, the software developer has no chance of getting the project off the ground.
- Software features are tested: The software must be tested before its release. What this means is that the original two month window is now even smaller with the testing requirement.
The Solution : Uplancer
- Continuous deployment: Design and software development occurred nearly simultaneously. Designs were done in small batches and were immediate pushed to development. In addition, by implementing a cloud infrastructure, the work could proceed at an accelerated pace
- Leveraging best practices: Through software development best practices, Uplancer was quickly aligned to OSU security protocols to reduce the time required to setup the project.
- Agile development: By testing and iterating early in the development cycle, Uplancer released the software with feedback from the OSU team on the Apple App Store without delays. Additionally, the software had all required features working upon the release.
With Uplancer as their software development partner, OSU can now develop and deploy software nearly twice as fast as other software developers.
