Despite the critical role custom software plays in innovation, too many projects fall short. One survey found 20% of all software projects fail outright, and another 52% face serious challenges or overrun. These failures come at a steep cost – companies collectively waste nearly $2 trillion per year on projects that don’t deliver as intended. The rest either miss business objectives, blow past budgets, or drag on beyond deadlines, undermining their return on investment. Clearly, maximizing the ROI of custom software initiatives is no simple task.
The good news? By following key best practices, organizations can drastically improve project outcomes and avoid joining the graveyard of failed IT projects. This article explores proven strategies – from thorough requirements gathering to leveraging top global talent – that boost success rates and ROI for custom software development.
Thorough Requirements Discovery & Alignment
One of the most common reasons software projects fail is poor upfront planning. In fact, “inaccurate collection of requirements” is cited as a major cause of project failure. Thorough requirements discovery lays the foundation for success by ensuring everyone knows what “success” looks like before a line of code is written. This means working closely with all stakeholders – business leaders, end users, compliance, and IT – to uncover needs, define clear objectives, and document requirements in detail. It may be tempting to rush this phase, but skimping on discovery is dangerous: projects with clear requirements from the start are 97% more likely to succeed than those without them. Even Agile teams benefit from upfront clarity. To get requirements right, ensure early engagement across departments, realistic goal-setting, and validation of assumptions with real users or data. Experienced project managers often time-box the discovery phase to keep it efficient, but they never skip it. The payoff for due diligence at the start is huge: it prevents mid-project scope creep, reduces costly rework, and keeps the team aligned with the business value the software must deliver.
Agile and Iterative Development for Value Delivery
With solid requirements in hand, how you execute the project is the next critical factor. Traditional “big bang” waterfall projects often result in late deliveries and unmet expectations. In contrast, Agile and iterative development approaches have a proven track record of delivering value faster and more reliably. For instance, industry surveys show Agile projects achieve a 64% success rate, significantly higher than the 49% success rate of waterfall projects. Agile’s incremental sprints and frequent demos ensure that working software (even if limited in scope) gets into users’ hands early. This allows for continuous feedback and course-correction before it’s too late. An iterative mindset also helps control budgets – by prioritizing high-value features first, teams can avoid over-investing in low-value functions.
However, Agile is not a silver bullet; it must be implemented with discipline. Short delivery cycles, daily stand-ups, and continuous testing are key practices to catch issues early. It’s also vital to maintain flexibility – embrace changing requirements when justified, but use a formal change control process to assess impacts on timeline and ROI. The overarching goal is early and frequent delivery of value. Each iteration that produces usable features is a chance to realize part of the ROI sooner and to validate that the project is on the right track toward fulfilling business needs.
User-Centric Design and Quality Assurance
Even a perfectly coded application can fail to deliver ROI if end users don’t adopt it. That’s why user-centric design and rigorous quality assurance are paramount. A user-centric approach means involving actual users in the design process (e.g., through UX research, prototypes, usability testing) to ensure the software is intuitive and solves the right problems. This focus is not just touchy-feely – it directly impacts the bottom line. Astonishingly, about 50% of software features in the average product are rarely or never used, while only ~20% of features account for the most frequent use.
The takeaway: building the right features is just as important as building features correctly. Adopting user-centric practices (like creating personas, user stories, and iterative UI mocks) helps teams prioritize what users truly need, which maximizes the solution’s actual business impact. Alongside design, quality assurance ensures the product actually works as intended. Automated testing, code reviews, and performance testing help catch defects early. It’s far cheaper to fix bugs or UX issues during development than to repair damage after launch (when poor quality could alienate users or even cause financial losses). By keeping the end-user experience front and center – from design through testing – companies ensure their custom software will be embraced by users and deliver the expected value.
Post-Launch Support and Continuous Improvement
Launching a custom software product is not the finish line – it’s more like the halfway mark. True ROI is realized only if the software is adopted and utilized to its full potential over time. Thus, investing in post-launch support, user training, and continuous improvement is vital. Change management research shows that projects with excellent post-implementation support are far more successful: organizations with “excellent” change management programs were 7× more likely to meet project objectives (88% versus 13% success) and 5× more likely to stay on schedule compared to those with poor support.
In practice, this means after deployment, the project team should remain engaged to monitor usage, provide training resources, and gather feedback. Consider rolling out the software in phases or to pilot groups, using their input to refine features and fix pain points quickly. Track key adoption metrics – login rates, feature usage, user satisfaction – to identify where additional training or system tweaks are needed. It’s also wise to have a dedicated support plan (helpdesk, FAQs, maybe on-site support for early days) to assist users in the transition.
Remember that ROI can erode if end-users revert to old processes or under-utilize the system. Proactively managing the people side of change protects your investment by driving user adoption. Additionally, plan for iterative enhancements post-launch: as business needs evolve, updating the software to adapt (through regular patches, new features, or integrations) will extend its lifespan and value. A custom solution should not be static – continuous improvement ensures it keeps delivering ROI year after year.
Skilled Teams and Effective Project Management
Even the best processes and methodologies won’t succeed without the right team and project leadership. Software projects are ultimately delivered by people, so their skills, experience, and coordination have a huge influence on ROI. A Project Management Institute study found that projects that implement project management best practices are 2.5 times more successful than those that don’t. This is because seasoned project managers enforce discipline: they set realistic schedules, manage risks, and keep the project aligned with business goals.
In a Boston Consulting Group survey, nearly half of executives admitted that over 30% of their tech projects ran late or over budget, due in part to poor alignment and unrealistic timelines. Great project leaders mitigate these issues by facilitating close collaboration between IT and business stakeholders (to ensure continual alignment), and by imposing rigor in scope management.
Moreover, assembling a cross-functional team of skilled engineers is equally crucial. Top performers know the value of talent – as McKinsey notes, successful IT projects “secure critical internal and external talent” and align team incentives with project goals. This often means mixing senior developers or architects (who’ve “seen it before” and can solve problems faster) with domain experts and creative UX/UI designers. High-performing teams also adopt practices like knowledge sharing, pair programming, and continuous integration that enhance quality and productivity. On complex projects, having a project sponsor or engaged executive can clear roadblocks and provide strategic direction.
The bottom line: Investing in experienced people and strong project management pays off in higher efficiency and fewer costly mishaps. When companies lack certain expertise in-house, partnering with a reputable development firm can fill the gap – bringing in battle-tested know-how to drive the project to success.
Leveraging Vietnam’s Tech Talent for Cost-Effective Delivery
Geography can be a strategic advantage in custom software ROI. In recent years, Vietnam has emerged as a leading tech talent hub offering world-class skills at highly competitive costs. The country’s attractiveness for software development is rooted in economics: Vietnam’s labor costs are dramatically lower – the minimum wage is 95% lower than in the U.S., and average salaries for tech professionals are a fraction of Western levels. For example, a software engineer in Vietnam earns on average around $600–$700 per month, versus several thousand in more developed markets. This cost advantage can translate into substantial savings (50–80% cost reductions) for companies without compromising on quality.
Vietnam boasts a large pool of skilled IT talent, with around 480,000 IT engineers employed and ~57,000 new tech graduates every year. The country’s engineers rank among the best globally – Vietnam placed in the top 10 of a worldwide developer skills survey, alongside the USA and UK. This combination of affordability and expertise has attracted major global tech players to Vietnam. Industry giants like Intel, IBM, Samsung, and Microsoft have established R&D centers or major operations there, underscoring Vietnam’s reputation as a high-quality outsourcing destination.
For a company embarking on a custom software project, leveraging Vietnam’s tech talent – whether by augmenting your team with Vietnamese developers or partnering with a Vietnam-based software firm – can significantly boost ROI. You gain access to top-tier engineering and AI skills, often with excellent English proficiency and a strong work ethic, at a fraction of the cost of U.S. or European teams.
In short, offshoring to Vietnam allows you to do more with your budget. It’s an approach that DigiEx Group, headquartered in Vietnam, has perfected: combining seasoned project management with the country’s deep talent bench to deliver high-quality software solutions cost-efficiently. By thoughtfully integrating global talent into your strategy, you can accelerate development timelines and stretch your investment dollars further – all contributing to a higher return on your software project.
Conclusion – From Failure Risks to ROI Success
Custom software development will always involve risks, but as we’ve outlined, those risks can be mitigated through smart practices. By front-loading effort on requirements and user research, you prevent building the wrong product. By adopting agile, iterative workflows, you stay adaptable and deliver value continuously. By focusing on user-centric design and quality, you create solutions people love to use (ensuring the software’s value is realized, not wasted). And by supporting users post-launch while continuously improving, you sustain and grow the ROI over the software’s lifetime. Crucially, none of these best practices happen automatically – it takes experienced leadership and possibly the right partner to implement them effectively. The payoff, however, is dramatic. Whereas today barely 48% of digital projects meet their goals, organizations that embrace these strategies (the “digital vanguard”) are seeing 70%+ success rates in hitting targets. In financial terms, the difference between a failed or challenged project and a successful one can be millions in ROI.
Ultimately, maximizing ROI in custom projects comes down to planning wisely and executing with expertise. If your company is looking to ensure its next software initiative is a success story and not a statistic, consider partnering with seasoned experts who exemplify these best practices. With over 20 years of global IT experience, DigiEx Group has the proven framework – from diligent discovery to agile delivery – to turn your software vision into a high-ROI reality. Let’s connect to discuss how we can help you achieve a greater return on your software investments.
About DigiEx Group
DigiEx Group is a leading Tech Talent Hub and AI-driven Software Development company in Vietnam, backed by over 20 years of global IT experience. Our team, with 2 Tech Development Centers, 150 in-house engineers, and a network of 50+ domain experts, tailors every engagement to your unique roadmap with a suite of services:
- Tech Talent Services: Rapid access to Vietnam’s top 2,000+ pre-vetted engineers via our Talent Hub platform.
- Custom Software Development: End-to-end product delivery for web, mobile, SaaS, and enterprise systems.
- AI Consulting & Development: Design and implementation of AI Agents and automation solutions.
- Neobank & Fintech Solutions: Cutting-edge digital banking and payment platforms.
