My company is a custom web application shop and one of the great things about custom software application development is that you can build pretty much anything you can dream up. This is also one of the biggest drawbacks for some people. Many customers don't know what they want, or they think they know what they want, but have a hard time articulating it. We have a design process where we listen to our customers, and then work to wireframe out a solution. A difficult jump for some is the fact that the wireframe is the blueprint and that is what the project as quoted includes. Aligning those expectations early (before code is written) is the key to keeping projects on budget and on time. These "limits" require the project team to prioritize new requests and table other requests for future development. Each release really begins to become more of a product once the wireframes are approved. (This is what is does and all that it does right now - not saying it can't do more, it just has to happen later.)
Other companies focus on creating products. These products can only do what they can do. If you dream up something different, you either need to find a different product or hope that your feature is included in future releases. This can be a very lucrative path for software companies, because once they have a product they can easily support the single version and only make revisions as they find they need to. This is not such a great solution for customers that don't fit nicely into compartments.
I believe there is a place for both types of development and in the coming weeks you will hear more from SiteCrafting as we expand our offerings in both areas.
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