Backlogged projects are any project that are delayed in being completed because your internal IT team does not have the resources to get them done now.
We get this question a lot from clients. Part of what sets Switchbox apart in the software development world is our ability to take on the projects that most large IT departments are not able to get done. There are a lot of reasons for this. Sometimes an internal IT department needs a long ramp up time. You have to do a project write up. Then you need to find a project sponsor. Then your project gets submitted to an internal “innovation team”, or a “center of excellence”, or some other committee. By this time 1-2 months has passed from the time the idea for the project started.
Eventually, after some form of additional project review, stakeholder meetings, and the finance team gets involved, congratulations, your project now has a start date… 3 months from now. If this sounds like your company’s internal process you probably have a lot of backlogged projects where you work.
Projects that get stuck in this type of approval process typically become a backlogged project. It’s just too much time and effort to push them through the formal IT process. Often the IT department is capable of completing your website, or mobile application but they can not work on a project as small as what you need. We know that sounds a little crazy and you are probably asking “If they can do a big project why can’t they do my little project.” There are a lot of good reasons why but the short version is that they are not built for backlogged projects. Switchbox is.
Switchbox has built our entire company around handling these types of backlogged web applications. Our team works hard to provide project deliverables after our first meeting. Typical projects have a full scope of work, interactive wireframes, and a project timeline within 4 meetings. This allows our clients to present an entire project set of specifications for budget approval before their peers in other departments even get on the next meeting agenda.
If your project has been placed on the backlog give us a call, we can probably help.