Tag: Development Processes

It’s relatively easy for your organization’s decision makers to understand the need to build a new website or app, or rebuild an existing one. The results of these projects are visible to all; the ROI is conspicuous. 

Investing in work that doesn’t have that obvious ROI, on the other hand, can be harder for leadership to stomach. 

And yet, putting time and resources behind three such “hidden” initiatives—incremental UX improvements, behind-the-scenes system modernization, and bug fixes—is paramount to the long-term success of your organization and its online presence. 

Let’s explore why and how to get the buy-in you need on updates (not overhauls) to your digital platform.  

App and Site Updates Can Be Unpopular. Do Them for Your Organization Anyway.

The three areas we want to encourage your decision makers to invest in (UX improvements, system modernization, and bug fixes) are not usually the initiatives that generate the most donations—let alone excitement. Remember: Few people care about unseen upgrades. But you’re still stuck needing to communicate the value of work that isn’t adding new features or apps. 

Here’s what you must focus on to garner the support you need…

A modern platform with few bugs will effectively reach your organization’s audience today. What’s more, it’ll be robust enough, thanks to modern tech, for further development in the future. 

After all, you can’t always build a new thing (although there’s a time and place to do so, of course). Creating a fresh organization site or app takes upwards of 18 months, so you’re leaving your constituents high and dry with a faulty platform in the interim. More importantly, you can’t (or shouldn’t) build a new thing on top of an outdated, poorly functioning old thing. That’s just lipstick on a pig. 

For a Modern Platform, Seek Support for These 3 Initiatives 

Keeping your platform up to date and easy to use is the best course of action. When it is time for something new, your existing tech will be able to support modern dev tools and practices. In the meantime, you have a platform your organization’s constituents can enjoy using, thanks to investing in the three initiatives below. 

1. UX Improvements 

It’s perhaps easiest for your organization’s decision makers to understand the need to invest in your platform’s user experience. The UX of your site or app matters to your users, your donors, and, as such, to your organization as a whole. You may even receive less donations if, for example, one of your constituents can’t locate your donation page because of a poor UX. 

Even though everyone generally accepts that a quality UX is important, you might need to help your internal stakeholders understand that UX improvements are incremental. Working on your UX is a process—not a one-off project. You need resources to support the UX of your platform on an ongoing basis, which is why we include incremental UX improvements as an update or modernization initiative you must undertake. 

To get started with UX improvements, look at your site or app’s navigation and accessibility (you could check that the color contrast is okay for people with low vision). Both are low-hanging fruit when it comes to bettering your UX. 

2. System Modernization 

For lack of a better term, the fear of missing out (FOMO) is real in the nonprofit space! You and your decision makers alike want to keep up with your peers when it comes to the tech they’re employing. 

But remember, you can’t effectively build a new platform atop an old one. Systems fall out of date, and your developers rely on outdated methods and software. From there, maintaining your app’s codebase becomes increasingly difficult because these older methods fall into disuse and the older software lacks support resources. It’s also harder to find staff to work in older coding languages and environments. 

All to say, it’s a slippery slope when you fail to keep your systems modern, which is why doing so is critical. We’ve had clients spend an entire quarter just paying down their technical debt, which could’ve been avoided by making iterative updates. Modernizing, however unglamorous it may seem to your decision makers, is worthwhile. 

3. Bug Fixes

Bugs and deficiencies never fix themselves and often come back to bite your users. It seems obvious that a software bug never just goes away, right? But your development practices may demonstrate that, in fact, that’s exactly what you (or your internal stakeholders) think happens. You’re not fixing the issues that pop up—perhaps because you lack the resources to do so. 

Here’s why you must advocate for support in fixing bugs…

Unfortunately, when you ignore bugs or deficiencies, more and more of your users will encounter them over time. Eventually, they could become disillusioned with your organization. Buggy platforms also rely on band-aid workarounds to attempt to avoid buggy behavior, so you’re accruing tons of technical debt. 

Intentionally addressing bugs and deficiencies, even if they aren’t particularly apparent to your users, ensures that you have the bandwidth to develop the features you want instead of working around the problems you don’t want.

Tip: Keep track of your platform’s most common and problematic issues through your support department or inbox. Work first on the bugs and deficiencies your users are reporting most often. 

Go Forth and Update Your App

There are no downsides to keeping your systems modern and making iterative improvements. We know you already have your eye on your app or site’s deficiencies. And you probably have a long list of optimizations you’d like to make. We hope this article helps you justify how crucial UX tweaks, system updates, and bug fixes are to maintaining a user-friendly platform.

Ministry leaders like yourself–about to begin a new web or app project–often feel immense pressure. After all, the success or failure of your product significantly impacts your ministry’s growth, reach, and reputation. Moreover, the resources you invest in the project give you little room for error. Rebuilding the product isn’t generally an option, even if it falls short of users’ (and your own) high expectations. You’re already squeezing everything you can from your budget to stand up the product the first time. 

Despite these understandable concerns, developing up-to-date digital products is essential for engaging your constituents in your mission. Today’s end users expect pleasant and seamless user experiences from their digital interactions. 

To put your ministry in the best possible position for success, it’s crucial to avoid common project blunders that will derail your efforts. Below, we’ll discuss five missteps you can skirt to ensure your ministry’s app or website meets the needs of your constituents—and, ultimately, further spreads your mission.

1. Building Your Ministry’s Digital Product for the Wrong Audience

One of the most critical mistakes you can make when starting a new project is planning and building your ministry’s app or website for the wrong audience. 

It’s not uncommon for internal stakeholders to create an app or website as if they’re the primary ones who will be using it. While their input can be invaluable (more on this later), you must develop your product with the people who will genuinely be using it—your constituents—at the forefront.

Remember, the primary purpose of your app or website is to spread your ministry’s mission—and Christ’s teachings—as far and wide as possible. A product that resonates with the greatest number of your constituents (not simply with the personal preferences of individuals) is the best way to encourage its widespread adoption. 

2. Setting Aside User Research as Your Project Takes Off 

An essential aspect of any successful app or website project is gathering robust user research and feedback to inform the plans for your product. To truly understand your constituents’ needs, you must engage with them directly, conducting interviews, surveys, and focus groups to glean valuable insights.

Sidenote: When you conduct user research, be sure you’re not only interviewing your organization’s “super fans.” These folks will likely use any product you create because they’re wonderfully loyal to your ministry. The real opportunity lies in converting more passive constituents into super fans because of your awesome new app or website.

Consider taking a decidedly analog approach to keep user research findings at the heart of your development process. Posting physical sticky notes—or even poster boards—with user personas around your workspace serve as tangible reminders of who you’re building your product for. Maintaining consistent focus on your intended users will ensure your end result truly meets their needs.

3. Involving Stakeholders at the Incorrect Times

Finding the right balance of stakeholder involvement is another critical-yet-difficult aspect of avoiding project blunders. Ensuring key stakeholders—including leadership, development, UI/UX, and finance team members—are involved in the early stages of your project, particularly during the discovery phase, is vital to aligning your team’s vision and creating a clear roadmap for success.

That said, all stakeholders do not need to be involved in the entire process. In fact, involving too many stakeholders can quickly lead to a focus on their perspectives rather than your users’ needs. 

Ensuring a balanced approach throughout your project keeps your efforts streamlined and focused on that ultimate goal: creating a successful app or website for your ministry’s constituents that furthers your mission.

4. Failing to Pivot on Your Ministry’s Path to the Final Product 

App and website projects are complex and ever-evolving. It’s important to maintain an agile approach, allowing your team to pivot and adjust based on new insights and learnings. While some planning is necessary—we love a good on-site discovery session!—attempting to hash out every detail from the outset can hinder your project’s adaptability.

You and your team will uncover new insights as you journey through your project. You need to be adept enough to incorporate these insights—without throwing off the whole timeline. Similar to managing stakeholder involvement, it’s another balancing act. 

Examples of necessary pivots include altering your target audience or implementing new features based on user feedback. Case in point: our client, EveryCampus, had to shift their tone from speaking to college students to speaking to the pastors and professional staff serving them. We could only pivot once we realized students weren’t using the app like we thought they would. And if we hadn’t pivoted? The app would never have appealed to the correct user group. 

At the end of the day, it’s about remembering that change and adjustment are inevitable—and essential to ensuring your project’s success. 

5. Spending Your Entire Project Budget Pre-Launch

While it’s necessary to have adequate funds for your ministry’s project from the get-go, it’s just as imperative not to overspend before your product even launches. 

A good rule of thumb is to reserve approximately one-third of your budget for post-launch expenses. That might include latent adjustments based on user feedback and other enhancements you want to add to your app down the line.

A Successful Project Is a Step in the Right Direction for Your Ministry  

Taking on a new app or website project for your ministry is challenging, given the high stakes and visibility of such an endeavor. By avoiding these five common blunders, you will significantly increase the likelihood of your project’s success, delivering a digital product that effectively satisfies the needs of your constituents while further spreading your mission. 

Remember to keep your audience’s needs and preferences at the forefront of your efforts, maintain a balanced approach to stakeholder involvement, and allow for flexibility and adaptability as you navigate the sometimes complicated landscape of app and website development.

And of course, Agathon is here to further guide your ministry’s project should you need a hand.

If your ministry is considering a new initiative or product, one of the first questions you’ll ask any potential development partner is, “How much is this going to cost?”

The answer is: It depends. 

Think about product pricing the way you might budget for a vacation. If you only ask how much a vacation costs, you won’t get a valid answer because the answers are endless. You have to ask clarifying questions.

Where are you going? Overseas or within your own country or state? Traveling by plane, car, boat, or train? What kind of accommodations are you looking for? A luxury resort, roadside motel, or a campground? 

Pricing in the product development industry demands a similar level of inquiry to arrive at a more accurate cost estimate. Do you need a mobile app or a responsive website that works on a phone? Do you want to make it easier for existing donors to contribute or tap a new source of contributions? Do you want to spread the gospel or give your members a new platform to communicate?

We know you have budget constraints, boards to answer to, and constituents to serve. 

Agathon’s approach to pricing is to be as transparent as possible to help you overcome any fear, anxiety, or doubt you might have about the cost of a new development project. 

Let’s examine the considerations that go into determining the cost of a product development project and help dispel some of the confusion and fear that can go along with it. 

Accurate Product Pricing Requires a Deeper Discussion 

Conversations around pricing come up in almost every introductory call with clients. “We won’t hold you to this, but how about a ballpark price?” they often ask. 

Even if we could offer a ballpark price, that’s still just throwing darts at a board. Other companies in the product development sector will often provide an estimate, but that amount frequently balloons, breeding distrust between developers and their clients. 

If we can continue the conversation in a constructive way, we can arrive at a price that genuinely reflects the goal of the project and the scope involved: What are we building, by when, and for whom? Do we know what we don’t know? We work to figure it out together before hitting on a cost. 

How Product Pricing is Different From Other Industries 

To understand the pricing process, you have to appreciate how product development differs from other services and industries.

We had a leaky toilet seal recently, so we called a plumber. He gave us a quote on the spot, did the work, and charged us the price he gave us. How did he know what it would cost for that repair? Because he’s done the exact same thing a thousand times and knows precisely the cost of parts and labor.

Our work is never as straightforward, repeatable, or predictable. Every build is different, with its own set of challenges and complexities. There are no off-the-shelf, plug-and-play solutions with standard prices to match.

Pricing a web or mobile app isn’t like ordering from a set menu. If this were a cookie-cutter business, then perhaps. But that’s not what you’re looking for. Instead, you need something that moves the needle, and that requires doing things that are not the same as what everyone else has done.

We’re building custom solutions designed to address specific problems for a targeted audience. That level of complexity demands a more rigorous approach to pricing. Before we can put a price tag on anything, we need to know what we’re building. And that requires Discovery, which we’ll discuss more deeply in the next section.

Discovery Process Helps Set Price and Determine Direction 

Because product development is not one size fits all, we have to use a process to reach a price. We call that process Discovery. The terminology may change from company to company, but Discovery is essentially a discussion that helps determine what is being built for whom and by when. 

That process starts by getting the right people in the room. We gather those who are invested in the outcome, those who have ideas and insights to contribute. And we figure it out together. 

Discovery also helps uncover what a client truly needs. Frequently a client will come to us with something specific in mind. But in the course of Discovery, we might find that what they actually need is something quite different than what they initially thought. Sometimes that’s a smaller solution. Sometimes it’s something more involved. 

Either way, Discovery provides us with a roadmap that helps us reach consensus on what needs to be built and allows us to offer a cost estimate.

What Factors Influence a Final Product Pricing Estimate?

With our Discovery process complete, we now have a more holistic understanding of what our client needs. 

But even then we need to determine how a price for that work should be set. Product developers typically use one of two pricing models:

1. Map out the project requirements, then put time/effort estimates on each, accounting for quality assurance testing, project management, meetings, etc.
2. Set a budget and define the project to fit within that budgeted amount.

In our experience, the most successful approach blends the two models above:

• Prioritize the requirements for the product’s first release as in #1.
• Determine how far we can get through those initial requirements within the budget constraints as in #2. 

This approach requires a lot of communication and adjustments along the way to ensure we’re investing time on aspects of the product that matter most. It also creates greater transparency throughout the process.

3 Essential Elements of Accurate Product Pricing

Once we’ve settled on a pricing model, we will take a closer look at each of the factors that will go into an estimate:

• Setting priorities. In almost all cases, a client will come to us with a fixed budget. So we focus on what’s important first. What can we do to get a product to launch and then layer on additional features in response to user needs? We do that within the budget constraints. By delivering the most important features first, you’re in a good spot. And if additional budget becomes available, we can continue to iterate upon and improve that product. 
• Identifying deliverables. This is about knowing exactly what is being built. The price of a website will be different from the price of a mobile app. The price of a communication platform will differ from one used to collect offerings. 
• Costs after launch. This isn’t about cost overruns or a bad estimate. The reality of product development is that we come up with new ideas along the way… as we should! The energy around product development sparks unexpected but fantastic insights that we capture for consideration after the initial launch. As a rule of thumb, it’s good to set aside 30 percent of a budget for post-launch development. 

Don’t Let Uncertainty Over Product Pricing Prevent Your Ministry From Moving Forward 

We get it. You’re worried you can’t afford it, the budget won’t be approved, or you’ll hear one number and find out later it costs a lot more. 

Big money and big budgets can make people anxious. There’s a lot on the line for you and your organization when there are so many dollars at stake. 

But we will work with you to make sure every dollar spent gets you results, and that those results are worth the investment. We’re here when you want to talk. 

You’ll probably never see a project proposal with a line item for “human connection.” And yet, this idea of human connection is one of the intangibles that play an essential part in both the success of a project and the satisfaction of everyone involved.

What is human connection? For the purposes of this post, we’re talking about fostering strong relationships between people. This helps teams improve communication, align visions and goals, and weather misunderstandings. This connection provides the foundation for successful projects as well as long-term partnerships. And let’s be honest, even the most introverted of us need to connect with others!

Why Human Connection Matters

In tech-centered projects, it’s easy to bury human connections. There’s research to do, code to write, and tests to run. And much of this work happens in isolation. Working remotely or with outside teams compounds the issue.

But in any organization, compassion and empathy play an important role. As you build relationships, each party discovers what motivates the other and can better work together to meet their goals.

Think of it this way: developing these relationships is like changing the oil in your car. You don’t own a car in order to change the oil, but rather to drive it. However, the more careless you are about regularly changing the oil and nurturing your car, the higher the risk of your car breaking down. And, of course, your car usually seems to break down right when you need it most!

Just as you own a car to drive it and use it, your ministry exists to faithfully pursue its vision. The amount of intentional care you add to both—whether by changing your oil or building human connection—will affect how smoothly your car, or ministry, will run for years to come.

For us, getting to know clients through an on-site discovery can be an important part of creating that connection. This time together allows us to dig deep into what drives our clients’ organizations. It also helps us identify their goals for both a specific project and their organization as a whole. And it lays the foundation for open communication and understanding.

The Consequences of a Lack of Human Connection

Without a focus on interpersonal connection, partnerships will be shallow and fragile. This makes it difficult for individuals to wrestle with ideas and challenges without emotions or conflict. And it can lead to warring factions who fight only for what they need as an individual or group without concern for what the rest of the team needs.

The lack of connection also leads to a lack of communication and trust. And both of these can slow down and weaken a project. They also lead team members to make poor assumptions and overlook ideas and opportunities.

It can also leave the people on your team looking toward an exit strategy. This can include trying to catch one another in a mistake or put the blame on the other party. This isn’t healthy for the relationship or the people involved. Not only that, but it also affects the long-term success of the project and the health of the ministry as a whole.

3 Common Pitfalls That Undermine Human Connection

Unfortunately, these common pitfalls can undermine your efforts to create human connection among team members, especially as teams grow and work with outside parties:

1. Siloing different parts of the process.

There is a temptation to isolate different parts of a project from one another. Some leaders assume the board only needs to sign off on big decisions, or developers don’t need to hear about certain user experience (UX) considerations on the design side, or the overall strategy won’t impact the backend data handling.

But working in these silos can lead to misunderstandings, wasted time, and extra work.

2. Sheltering parties from one another

Similarly, there’s a temptation to shelter different parties from one another. While you don’t want to bombard each person with every little detail or conversation, it’s important to strike a balance. Each person on the team needs a complete enough picture of conversations and decisions to best do their job.

Whether through a shared Slack channel, Basecamp project, or Jira board, having conversations “publicly” can help facilitate this awareness without overwhelming individual team members with meetings or emails. This keeps everyone aware of what’s happening in other areas of the project so they are better able to ask questions and work together on solutions.

3. Failing to recognize personality differences, skills, and weaknesses

On any team, each individual will have specific personality traits, skills, and weaknesses that impact the way we work. Encouraging strong relationships across the team is valuable. But it’s also important to note where two people might struggle to work well together. Similarly, you want to put people in positions that make sense for their skills and experience, i.e. not elevating a junior staff member if it means they’re likely to fail.

And the opposite is true as well: Putting people together who collaborate well can increase their productivity or creativity. And slotting team members into the roles that fit their skills allows them to shine and benefit the entire team!

4 Ways to Create Human Connection

There’s no Webster’s definition for “human connection.” For us, it means prioritizing relationships right up there with the work that’s being done. The work is still important (so, so important), but the relationship can’t get lost in the project plan.

We’ve found these 4 principles help relationships grow into true partnerships:

1. Involve everyone early and often

It is not uncommon for a small group of people to lead a project, with others joining on a “need to know” basis. However, involving everyone early—and keeping them engaged throughout the process—benefits the team and the project in many ways. It adds additional perspective and ideation to the work you’re doing. And it helps each person feel more invested in the work they’re doing, not just as individual tasks but in the overall project as a whole.

That isn’t to say everyone should have an equal say or the team should make decisions by a popular vote. But hearing the perspective of many team members and including everyone in the process that leads to important decisions makes the process and the final project better.

2. Build a shared understanding of success

What does success mean for your organization as a whole and for this particular project? Aligning everyone on the team around a shared understanding of success:

• Creates a bond as everyone works together toward that goal.
• Centers everyone on the ministry goal rather than just the technical goal.
• Builds anticipation for how the project will impact that ministry goal.
• Gives everyone a sense of their role in achieving the larger ministry vision.
• Helps each team member feel like part of the larger team beyond just the immediate project.

3. Be real and transparent

A partnership takes time and effort to build. Anyone can start off a honeymoon phase with a positive attitude and expectations. But you create a high level of trust over time by working together and communicating openly—both in what you say and in how you listen.

Through this learning period (and beyond!), it’s important to be real, authentic, and transparent. This is the only way the people you work with can trust that what they see is what they get. Being authentic from the very first interaction ensures there are no surprises down the road in how you work or communicate.

4. Work through conflict

With a strong foundation, everyone on the team will be better positioned to assume the best of each other at all times. When deadlines are tight, something isn’t working as expected, or there’s an unexpected roadblock, everyone is able to approach it as a team and figure it out together. (And let’s face it, when technology is involved, something will inevitably surprise us.)

It also means the frustrated party is willing to pick up the phone to bring it to the other party’s attention. For both parties, it means pushing through awkward conversations to resolve the issue and strengthen the relationship. (Most of us don’t enjoy pointing out where someone has messed up or hearing where we ourselves have messed up!)

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Human connection is important to us as a team, but it also impacts the way we work with clients. It’s our focus on human connection that takes our role with our clients from a contracted vendor who delivers code to an active partner in their ministry.

To learn more about Agathon and the factors that contribute to digital ministry, subscribe to our newsletter.

Technology is always changing—both its capabilities and the regulations around it. And just as it’s vital to futureproof your ministry’s digital strategy, it’s also important to futureproof the technology itself.

Futureproofing determines how well you can pivot in the face of change. This is a key, but often undervalued, part of your role as a steward of your organization’s digital ministry.

Why futureproofing matters

Because technology is constantly changing, chances are high you’ll encounter one or both of these two pinch points throughout your career:

• The need to change from one platform to another to upgrade your technology, integrate with another tool, or meet a new ministry objective.
• Bringing a new technology on board to augment or expand your existing technology as more tools become available.

Futureproofing prepares for those inevitable changes so your organization can efficiently transition as needed. Ministries who fail to do this will find themselves wasting time and money as they scramble to keep up.

Who should be futureproofing?

Boards and leadership play a vital role in futureproofing a ministry’s strategy. But futureproofing the technology usually depends on those with their boots on the ground: product owners and developers.

As you’re making decisions about data models, writing tests, and documenting processes, you should always have the future use case in mind as well. How easily can someone step into your role in the future? How easily can you transition to a new program or technology?

How to futureproof

Knowing why futureproofing is important and who is responsible for it is a good start, but what does futureproofing look like in the real world? We’ve identified seven areas of focus to help you prepare your digital ministry for the future:

1. Data structure

You can lay a strong foundation by structuring your data logically from the very beginning. This means considering the diversity of models represented in your data—both the data coming in (the input) and how it’s used (the output).

For example, let’s consider a volunteer management system. In this case, the granular data you need to collect might include first name, last name, multiple email addresses, multiple shipping addresses, etc. Building a detailed structure for this data—and then sticking to it—will make future migrations easier. You’ll be able to see where you need to connect the dots, which will increase your confidence in the actual migration.

It’s important to note that while planning upfront is important, the data model will inevitably change as your organization needs data in a new or different way. The ideas you have about your data today represent a very specific viewpoint. Those ideas will change with your organization, technology, and third-party tools, and your model will need to change as well.

2. Data quality

In addition to modeling data well, the data you collect needs to be “clean.” Data can get dirty if there are no guards or tests in place, i.e., ensuring email addresses are in a valid format.

When you make updates to the model, you should clean the data to ensure there aren’t unused fields or fields you intended for one thing but used for another. As the data matures, the model also needs to mature with it. For example, consider a broadcast media ministry with hundreds of audio files in the archives. If you want to begin organizing those with tags (Scripture references, spiritual formation terms, topics, etc.), it’s easy to begin tagging files moving forward. But in order to ensure data quality, you will also need to develop a plan for tagging the archives.

3. Interoperability

The next step is to be sure your data is malleable to meet the demands of your ministry goals, both now and in the future. Starting with a solid model and clean data is the first step, but you also need to collect data in a way that is useable in a variety of ways and systems.

To oversimplify this idea for a minute, think of a single First Name, Last Name field. Let’s say your main purpose for collecting names is for your volunteer database. The single field might work within the volunteer database system just fine. But when you’re ready to begin using that information to send automated emails, you realize the marketing automation system can’t parse it into two separate fields to address your email recipients by first name.

While that may mean collecting data differently—i.e., separate First Name and Last Name fields—interoperability can also express itself in an API. APIs essentially serve as dispatches that know where to get the data and how to manipulate it for other systems to consume it. So if one system collects First Name, Last Name in a single field, interoperability could mean having an API in place to parse the first and last name for the marketing automation system.

4. Compartmentalize

Another step you can take to futureproof your technology is to compartmentalize each part of the process. Rather than creating one monolithic application for the entire process, it can be broken down into smaller modules. This allows each piece to stand on its own without being affected by other parts of the process. However, when you compartmentalize something, you have to then be explicit about each of its connections and which parts of the application should be shared.

Ultimately, this is an IT architecture decision your team should make together. Splitting the workflow into reasonable bits will give you more flexibility downstream but also requires managing each of those connections. Each approach has tradeoffs, and the right answer will vary based on your organizational structure, business logic, and goals.

5. Documentation

Documentation is a critical part of futureproofing. Good documentation includes the model itself, any manual workflows, and the business logic.

Documenting the process tells future readers, “When some provocation happens, it goes through this sequence of events to create this result.” For example:

• Someone signs up to volunteer at an event.
• The system connects that event to their volunteer record.
• It fires off an email to the volunteer coordinator.
• The coordinator initiates a background check.
• Once that’s done, they manually trigger a response with detailed next steps.

Documenting the details of what the system does automatically and what humans need to do manually doesn’t happen naturally. Most people on the team will know how the thing works with the way they work. But if it only lives in each individual’s head, it impacts the future of the organization. Instead, you need to be sure there is a clear understanding of the impact of each data point and procedure. The moment the code changes, your documentation will be out of date, so part of documenting well is also keeping it updated.

6. Tests

Writing automated tests is another important part of futureproofing. Done well, testing serves as an additional form of documentation. The tests should be human-readable, and the results should map to the business logic your organization cares about.

Having good tests in place also creates a safeguard. With automated testing, the system will let you know when a future change breaks something. Tests are the safety net for the inevitable changes the code will go through as your organization’s needs change and grow over time.

Like documentation, tests are an abstraction from the code. This means any time the code changes, both the documentation and tests need to be updated. This adds a layer of complexity, but automated testing provides safeguards that tend to outweigh that complexity.

7. Governance

Finally, as data and privacy laws continue to evolve, you should have a clear understanding of the governance of your user data. This includes who has access to the data and when. As the type of data you’re collecting changes and increases, the need for proper governance grows as well. In the case of an audit, you need to show clear accountability for how you manage the data.

This idea of data governance can span a spectrum from “complicated” to “a legal nightmare.” It includes the data in your customer relationship management (CRM) system, your privacy policy, and how you handle payment information. It can also include data from a wide range of unexpected sources, like web server logs with logged IP addresses. For organizations without the internal expertise to navigate this complicated arena, it may be wise to contract with a specialist who can help you establish governance procedures and avoid legal pitfalls.

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Futureproofing your digital properties requires intention and hard work. But keeping your eye on the future helps ensure your technology can grow with these inevitable changes. This is important for any organization that hopes to continue existing in the future. For ministries, it’s also part of stewarding your donor’s gifts well!