Rogier on service, collaboration and structural growth in custom software projects.

The first live version as the starting point, not the end goal.

That first phase is often energetic and ambitious. Logical too: you are building something new, something that supports or even changes your business process. But what I increasingly emphasise in my role is what happens after going live. Because digital products don't end at delivery, that's where it really starts.

At Cube, we deliberately go live with a 'light' version: an MVP (Minimal Viable Product). A basis that works, but doesn't have to be able to do everything already. This is how we keep the project manageable, avoid delays and quickly learn what does and does not work in practice. This approach also means that a backlog is created automatically: a list of ideas, functions or improvements that you still want to implement. And that's not a bad thing, as long as you have room to build further. That is why I think it is important to have early discussions with customers about how we will continue to work together after going live.

Safety and quality.

Our approach is not only structured, but also demonstrably secure and reliable: Cube is NEN 7510- and ISO 27001-certified. This means we comply with strict standards for information security and quality management: a solid basis for further development, without compromising on security or quality.

Maintenance and service: better arranged than thrown in.

In many organisations, the software we build is immediately business-critical. Think of customer portals, sales tools or internal systems that dozens of people work with every day. Then you can't afford downtime. This is precisely why a good service agreement is essential. Such an agreement usually consists of four parts:

1. Maintenance and management: we make sure everything stays technically up-to-date, bugs are solved and dependencies are updated.

2. SLA (Service Level Agreement): this provides certainty about how quickly we respond to incidents or malfunctions.

3. Hosting: we do not host ourselves, but have a close collaboration with specialised parties. As a result, customers have a single point of contact and do not get stuck between two suppliers.

4. Strippenkaart: buying fixed monthly capacity in the form of a strippenkaart.

Most customers mainly want clarity on costs in the first phase. This is why we try to indicate already during the sprint 0 proposal that a service agreement is often indispensable after going live. Even if the topic often comes up too early, you want to avoid surprises afterwards.

Stripe card or structural cooperation?

Another important part of those service agreements is the possibility of further development. Because once your application is running, you want to continue. Sometimes these are smaller optimisations, sometimes larger expansions. We make agreements about this, for instance via a strippenkaart (multi-request card).

A strippenkaart is useful if you want to remain flexible, but want to be assured of availability at Cube. It prevents you from having to wait until there is time in the planning. For larger customers, we reserve structural hours per month or quarter. Then we plan releases ahead and both parties know where they stand. We find that this works fine for customers. You maintain the 'speed' you built up during the development phase, and you keep room for growth.

Impact sessions: zoom out twice a year.

Besides operational work, we also try to reflect structurally on strategy. Twice a year, we organise so-called impact sessions. In such a session, we distance ourselves from day-to-day operations together and ask questions such as:

• What did we have in mind when we started?

• Is that still in line with reality?

• What new insights or ambitions have emerged?

These kinds of sessions are incredibly valuable. Especially because in day-to-day reality, you are often swallowed up by ad hoc requests. As a business consultant, this is one of the moments when I can really be of value: I help to keep the bigger picture in focus, detached from the details. Sometimes you notice that teams have become somewhat 'blind' to the big picture. Then it helps to have someone thinking along who looks at it with fresh eyes.

Our way of working: structured and transparent.

After going live, the way of working together will change slightly. But not too much, because during the development process, people are already working with Gitlab as a central tool where everything goes through a ticketing system. Once something is developed, it is tested and released. Every six months, we evaluate the SLA together. We look back at all submitted tickets and discuss how cooperation and processes can be further improved.

We have also built our own system at Cube in Gitlab: Gitbox. This automatically generates monthly maintenance tickets. We work with a traffic light system: orange means an update is coming, red means something really needs to be addressed. This is how we ensure that the application remains secure and up-to-date.

We also keep an eye on errors via Sentry, monitor uptime, and make backups in cooperation with Shockmedia. Most of it happens automatically, but everything is transparent, for us and for the customer;

Understanding and trust as a basis.

What I like about my role is that I get to talk about the big picture. What does it cost, but more importantly, what does it deliver? How do you ensure that your digital landscape does not stand still? That you keep investing, even if something works 'just fine'?

I sometimes use the metaphor of a car for that: if you do a lot of mileage, you have to do regular maintenance. Don't wait until something breaks down. The same applies to software, especially if you work with open source technologies that get regular updates.

Investing in technology.

Our ideal client? That's someone who sees digital processes as a primary process. Who is willing to invest because technology is a crucial part of the company's value. Then a collaboration develops in which you keep challenging each other to become better, smarter and more innovative. So after delivery, the work doesn't stop. It changes. And precisely in that ongoing collaboration lies the real value of a digital partnership.