eHealth Articles & White Papers

The Value of Iterative Development

David Sturtz - Director of Product Strategy

Evaluating a software platform against your organization's current needs is relatively simple when compared to anticipating how that software will serve your needs years into the future. It can be very challenging to take a long-term view when your organization's evolving goals are combined with rapid changes in the industry, technology, and consumer behavior.

That's why you need a technology strategy that is agile, flexible, and responsive. And if you're selecting a technology partner, you should be looking for those characteristics.

Geonetric understands that goals change and new trends emerge. That's why we adopted an iterative development methodology three years ago. We anticipated the rapid changes affecting our industry and positioned ourselves to respond appropriately.

We consistently release an upgraded version of our VitalSite software every quarter - on a planned and predictable schedule. In those three years, we've completed over fifty iterative development cycles and are approaching the release of the twentieth upgrade to VitalSite.

With each software release, our goals are to:

• Deliver value to clients: As a client said recently, upgrades are "like little presents." Nearly 70 percent of development effort in our most recent upgrade was dedicated to features requested by our clients.
• Anticipate market and industry needs: While the broad interests of our client base provide a continuous stream of innovative ideas, our experts are always looking across the healthcare industry to keep abreast of the latest trends, regulations, and best practices to drive new VitalSite features.
• Support Web best practices: Recent VitalSite upgrades have included enhanced support for specific Web browsers and devices, features to support changes in search engine optimization practices, and updates to Web analytics. The Web is constantly changing and evolving - frequent upgrades to VitalSite ensure you don't fall behind.
• Advance our technology platform: VitalSite, like nearly every software application, depends on many other pieces of software. As new versions of our server software, database engine, development framework, and component libraries are released, we update VitalSite. This ensures that your website isn't languishing on inefficient, vulnerable, or outdated technology.

In a traditional software release cycle, an upgrade is often worrisome. The vendor might make a major upgrade every couple of years, and there is little opportunity to establish a successful pattern or learn from the process. At Geonetric, the ninety day cycle creates an iterative scenario where we can perfect the process and build on the lessons learned along the way. Plus, the advantages are clear for our clients. Every VitalSite 5 client is able to take advantage of being on a truly unified platform, gaining new features and enhancements with each upgrade. This supports Geonetric's commitment to delivering ongoing, lasting value to our clients.