Software
Development Models

For over 27 years, Elinext has been providing outsourcing software development services to companies of different sizes and pursuing different goals, but all gathered by the desire to strengthen their presence on the market with the help of technology. Our extensive expertise in outsourcing, backed by hundreds of successful projects, makes us confident in our belief that each of our clients deserves a solution that is not just tailored to business objectives but also completely fits into time & budget capabilities and expectations.

The Elinext Company Video

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in IT industry

Trusted software development partner with decades of expertise.

IT professionals

A global team of skilled engineers across diverse technologies.

domains

Expertise spanning dozens of industries and business sectors.

success stories

Hundreds of completed projects delivered to clients worldwide.

project managers

Experienced PMs ensure smooth delivery and transparent processes.

cities worldwide

International presence enabling efficient distributed development.

Quality. Impact. Innovation.

Collaboration Models

T&M

IT Staff Augmentation

This model allows you to extend your in-house team with external specialists. You maintain full control over the development process while we provide the right talent to fill skill gaps.

budget control

long-term cooperation

team involvement

launch speed

flexibility of requirements

Great if you want:

To quickly scale your team with specific expertise.
To respond flexibly to changing workload or deadlines.
To maintain internal processes while reducing hiring overhead.
To stay fully in charge of the project management.

Important conditions:

You remain in charge of task management, priority setting, and daily oversight of the augmented specialists.
Talent is matched to your project based on required skill sets and cultural fit to ensure effective collaboration.
Engagement duration is flexible, ranging from short-term support to long-term cooperation.
This model works best when internal resources are lacking, overextended, or require specialized expertise.
We facilitate seamless onboarding and integration so that external staff quickly adapt to your existing processe

T&M Fixed Coast

Outsourcing Software Development

This model entrusts the entire development process to us: from discovery to delivery. We handle all aspects of the project while you focus on your business.

budget control

long-term cooperation

team involvement

launch speed

flexibility of requirements

Great if you want:

To fully delegate project development to an external team.
To reduce the in-house management workload.
To access a wide pool of technical and domain expertise.
To focus on strategic goals, not operational execution

Important conditions:

You remain responsible for task management, prioritization, and responsibility distribution. This means you should have an established internal process to seamlessly integrate augmented specialists into your workflow.
Specialists are selected based on exact skill sets and project fit. Clear requirements for expertise and responsibilities at the start will ensure smooth onboarding.
Engagement can be short- or long-term. This model works best when you anticipate workload peaks or need to temporarily strengthen your team with specific expertise.
IT staff augmentation is most effective when internal resources are insufficient or overloaded. It helps maintain productivity without the delays and costs of traditional hiring.
IT staff augmentation is most effective when internal resources are insufficient or overloaded. It helps maintain productivity without the delays and costs of traditional hiring.

T&M Fixed Coast

Dedicated Team

This model provides you with a full-time remote team tailored to your project. The team works exclusively on your tasks, acting as an extension of your internal staff.

budget control

long-term cooperation

team involvement

launch speed

flexibility of requirements

Great if you want:

To build a stable, long-term product development team.
To ensure deep domain knowledge and consistency.
To keep flexibility in managing scope and backlog.
To scale operations without local hiring challenges.

Important conditions:

Team selection aligned with your needs. Specialists are carefully chosen according to both technical expertise and cultural fit, ensuring they integrate seamlessly into your existing workflows and communication style.
Shared responsibility in management. You retain full control over task prioritization and project direction, while we provide ongoing support in people management, delivery coordination, and administrative processes.
Transparent and predictable costs. Engagement is based on clear monthly pricing that covers all team expenses, so you can plan budgets without hidden fees or unexpected overhead.
Best suited for evolving products. This model is especially effective for long-term projects or startups where requirements may change, as knowledge retention within the team increases stability and accelerates future development.

Engagement Models

Time & Materials

IT staff augmentation Dedicated Team Outsourcing Software Dev.

Time & Materials

A flexible cooperation model where you pay only for the actual time and resources used. Best suited for projects with dynamic requirements.

The time & materials model charges based on hours worked and resources spent. It enables iterative development, quick project start, and adjustments along the way, making it highly compatible with Agile practices.

* Optionally includes a budget cap to control maximum spend while keeping flexibility.

PROS

Flexible scope and requirements.
Fast project kickoff without full documentation.
Payment is strictly for completed work.
Well-suited for Agile and SCRUM development.

CONS

Lower predictability of total budget.
Requires active client involvement.
Scope creep risk if not managed properly.
Long-term costs may exceed expectations.

Fixed Price

Outsourcing Software Development

Fixed Price

A reliable model with a predetermined budget and scope. Costs remain fixed, ensuring predictability and financial control.

The fixed cost model is based on a predefined specification and timeline. Once agreed, the budget stays unchanged unless requirements shift. It’s best for MVPs, small projects, or when predictability is a priority.

PROS

Budget and scope stability.
Minimal client involvement during development.
Predictable timeline and deliverables.
Free bug fixes during the warranty period.

CONS

Low flexibility for requirement changes.
Requires detailed specs upfront.
Slower project start due to planning.
Less effective for long-term, evolving products.

Quality Management

We leverage decades of IT experience and industry best practices to ensure high-quality delivery across projects of any complexity. Our quality management system is certified and built to meet ISO and HIPAA standards for security and compliance.

Our Process

Time & Materials process

Fixed price process

Client Request

Initial Discovery Call

High-Level Requirements Gathering

Preliminary Estimation & Proposal

Discovery Phase

Fixed Price Proposal (Budget & Timeline)

Contract Signing

Team Allocation & Kick‑off

Implementation Phase

Detailed Requirements & Backlog Grooming

Internal QA & Bug Fixing

Agile Development (Sprints)

Formal Client UAT

Regular Demos & Feedback

Ongoing Scope Adjustments

Continuous QA & UAT

Partial Deliveries (Milestones)

Final Delivery & Handover

Optional Post-Project Review , Support Contract or Warranty

Client Request

This is the entry point to the engagement. The client reaches out through a website form, direct email, referral, or business development channel.

This inquiry typically includes:

A high-level product description (e.g., “we need a mobile app for managing logistics”)
Desired platforms (web, Android, iOS)
Budget range
Desired go-live date or event deadline
Attachments (PPTs, Word specs, wireframes, or RFP document)

Initial Discovery Call ( ~ 15 hours)

An introductory meeting between the client stakeholders (Product Manager, CTO, etc.) and Elinext sales team, possibly including a delivery manager or tech lead.

1 Purpose:

Understand the problem to solve
Clarify target users and business context
Identify unknowns and dependencies

2 Covered topics:

Client’s business context and objectives
Budget expectations and target deadlines
Level of clarity in technical requirements
Preferred tech stack (if any)
Past vendors/solutions and challenges faced

3 Key outcomes:

Preliminary tech fit assessment
Agreement on whether a Time & Materials or a Fixed Price model is suitable
Notes to guide estimation and team composition

High-Level Requirements Gathering ( ~ 1-5 days)

This stage typically spans multiple workshops over 5 busienss days on everage. Pre-sales business analysts (BAs) and technical architects engage the client to collect initial requirements. The goal is not to fully define scope but to gather enough to build a rough roadmap and quote.

Activities:

Identify core user flows and system components
Define key objectives (e.g., build MVP, modernize legacy)
Extract non-functional requirements (security, performance, etc.)
Evaluate 3rd-party systems or APIs (if any)
Draft simple diagrams, personas, or mockups

Output:

A basic scope document or opportunity brief used to estimate work
A clickable prototype with basic functionality to see if Elinext Presales team is on the same page with the client

Preliminary Estimation & Proposal ( ~ 1.5 week)

$ 1.700 Free

Based on the high-level requirements, the team drafts:

An hour-based estimate
(often range-based, e.g., 1000–1300 hours)
Suggested team composition
Approximate timeline (e.g., 3–6 months)
Billing model and hourly rates

Artifacts examples :

Preliminary technical stack vision

List of risks and obstacles

Proposal document and preliminary backlog

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Preliminary product backlog

Proposal includes:

Time & Materials or Fixed Price contract structure
Flexibility disclaimers regarding changing scope
Initial technical suggestions

Experts:

Project manager ( ~ 10 hours)
Technical expert ( ~ 10 hours)
Business analyst ( ~ 35 hours)
UX/UI specialist ( ~ 5 hours)

Discovery Phase ( ~ 2-4 week)

From $3.900

If the initial estimate and proposal meet the client’s expectations, we move to a paid Discovery Phase under a separate agreement. This phase includes detailed requirements gathering and a final Fixed Price estimate.

Scope Freezing & Feature Listing

All parties review and agree on the list of features to be delivered. A scope freeze is declared to lock functionality and reduce future ambiguity.

Outputs:

Functional Specification Document (FSD)
Feature List with prioritization
API and integration specifications

Design & Architecture Phase

1 BA and UX/UI Design

Wireframes → clickable prototypes
UI design based on brand identity
Design reviews and approval checkpoints

2 System Architecture

Decide on monolith vs. microservices
DB schema design and cloud infra planning
DevOps pipeline planning (CI/CD)

Included in the price:

Precise Product Backlog

Project Overview

Refined List of Risks and Obstacles

Paid extra:

Risks Assessment Matrix

Fixed Price Proposal (Budget & Timeline) ( ~ 1-5 days)

This is the formal commercial offer to the client

Contents:

Total price (e.g., $92,000)
Timeline with key milestones
(e.g., Alpha in 6 weeks, Final in 14 weeks)
Team composition (e.g., 1 PM, 2 devs, 1 QA, 1 UI/UX)
Assumptions, constraints, and dependencies
Payment schedule (e.g., 30% upfront, 40% after UAT)
Validity period (15 days)

The proposal may also include optional or out-of-scope features priced separately;

Scope extensions
Support and maintenance services
Licensing for libraries or cloud costs

Proposal review meetings clarify any doubts before proceeding to contract.

Contract Signing ( ~ 1-5 days)

After proposal approval, the client and Elinext finalize:

Master Service Agreement (MSA) – general legal and business terms that usualy cover IP ownership, liability, confidentiality, jurisdiction, termination and renewal clauses.
Statement of Work (SoW) –

SoW for Time & Materials:

High-level scope
Hourly rates
Billing terms
Invoicing and time-tracking practices

Optional retainer: If the client wants a fixed monthly spend with capped hours

The T&M contract does not freeze scope—it defines the process and transparency of delivery.

SoW for Fixed price:

Specifics of the engagement or project details, initial deliverables, timelines and payment terms

Project scope
Deliverables and acceptance criteria
Milestones and payment schedule
Delivery mode and cooperation model

Signed by both parties — often includes appendices with Software Requirements Specification, timelines and diagrams.

Team Allocation & Kick-off ( ~ 1-5 days)

Once the agreement is signed, internal planning begins:

Assign dedicated resources (Dev, QA, PM, BA)
Create or share access to tools
(Jira, Confluence, GitHub, Slack)
Hold a kick-off meeting with client and team

Kick-off agenda:

Introductions
Review of project objectives and deliverables
Initial roadmap and alignment on next steps

Implementation Phase ( ~ 1-5 days)

1 Development (Planned per Scope)

Development starts per the frozen feature list using Agile-like methods:

Each sprint maps to a planned feature/module
Progress tracked via Jira/ClickUp
Developers implement per approved designs and Definition of Done
Client may have visibility via dashboards

2 Scope Change Requests (Managed via CR process)

Any client-requested scope change must go through:

CR documentation
Impact analysis (time, cost, quality)
Client sign-off
Adjustment of timeline and pricing
Signed by both parties before implementation

Detailed Requirements & Backlog Grooming ( ~ 1-5 days)

Unlike fixed-price, this step is ongoing and collaborative.

The team works closely with the client to:

Convert high-level ideas into actionable epics and user stories
Prioritize features using MoSCoW or business value ranking
Add acceptance criteria to each story
Define the Definition of Done (DoD)

This is an ongoing activity, typically led by a BA or Product Owner. The team keeps a rolling backlog that feeds the development pipeline.

Internal QA & Bug Fixing ( ~ 1-5 days)

A dedicated QA team validates the product against pre-defined test cases to ensure overall quality and stability:

Manual and automated testing
Regression and integration testing
Cross-platform/device testing (if applicable)
Functional correctness

Browser/device compatibility
API validation
Bugs are logged, triaged, and resolved before release

Entry/Exit criteria for each build strictly followed. The product must meet internal QA sign-off before moving to UAT.

Agile Development (Sprints) ( ~ 1-5 days)

1 Sprint Planning:

Team reviews the prioritized backlog
Selects stories to work on based on velocity
Clarifies scope and tasks

2 Sprint Execution:

Daily standups to track progress
Mid-sprint refinement if needed
Developers and QA work in parallel

3 Sprint Review & Retrospective:

Demo of completed stories to client
Discuss what went well, blockers, and improvements for the next sprint

Formal Client UAT ( ~ 1-5 days)

The client performs structured testing in a UAT environment:

Client checks against the agreed requirements
Bugs or deviations are reported
All “blocking” issues are resolved before final delivery

Once approved, UAT sign-off is documented and triggers final billing steps.

Regular Demos & Feedback ( ~ 1-5 days)

Every 1-2 weeks, usually at the end of each sprint or milestone, the team presents progress to stakeholders.

May include:

Feature walk-throughs
Backend integration showcases
Design previews

This ensures:

Transparent communication
Early validation and immediate adjustments
Stories reprioritized or re-scoped
Opportunity for course correction

Client Product Owner is expected to participate actively.

Ongoing Scope Adjustments ( ~ 1-5 days)

As understanding of the domain grows or market conditions change, the client may:

Add/remove/modify features
Request changes in team size or focus

There’s no need for contract amendments — scope is fluid as long as budget allows.

Continuous QA & UAT ( ~ 1-5 days)

Quality is ensured continuously, not just at the end. Continuous QA & UAT are performed in parallel.

Quality Assurance is embedded throughout:

Developers write unit tests
QAs perform manual and automated testing
Bugs are tracked and resolved within sprint or next cycle
UAT (User Acceptance Testing) environments are made available for the client

UAT:

Client tests features on staging or demo environments
Feedback fed into next sprint

QA often participates in backlog refinement to ensure testability.

Partial Deliveries (Milestones) ( ~ 1-5 days)

In long-term T&M projects, partial delivery happens regularly. Client may receive working
increments of the solution at key points:

MVP version
Admin-only panel
Integration-ready build

These milestones often align with billing checkpoints, client deadlines, or demo opportunities.

Benefits:

Client can begin testing, pilot with users, or seek investment
Facilitates phased go-live or parallel integration

Final Delivery & Handover ( ~ 1-5 days)

This occurs when the client decides that development is complete or pauses. When all prioritized features are delivered, tested, and accepted:

Final codebase is handed over
Technical and user documentation is shared
Credentials, configuration instructions, and deployment packages provided
Project archive created
Final handover document is signed
Optional proposal for post-project support or new scope (for Fixed Price)

Optionally includes a handover session for knowledge transfer.

Optional Post-Project Review , Support Contract or Warranty ( ~ 1-5 days)

The relationship doesn’t have to end.

1 Post-project review:

Retrospective with both teams
Lessons learned
Discussion on velocity, budget consumption, process gaps

2 We also propose a Maintenance/support contract:

On-demand or monthly retainer
Bug fixes, monitoring, small enhancements
Option to keep the team for ongoing product improvements or scaling

3 Warranty Period (for Fixed Price only)

Covers only defect resolution (i.e., fixing bugs related to features agreed in the SoW)
No new features or change requests are handled during this phase
Typically handled by a lean support team
Escalations are routed to the original delivery team for continuity and faster debugging
Issue reports are tracked with complete logs and context
Root cause analysis may be provided for major defects

Why Our Clients Choose Elinext

Elinext rebuilt our payment platform from the ground up, replacing unstable code with a clean, scalable architecture. They added multi-currency support, recurring payments, GDPR-compliant data storage, and a customizable widget that integrates easily with websites and apps. The system now processes millions of requests daily.

View Original Testimonial View Case Study

Financial Services and Banking

Dmitriy Golubitskiy

CTO & Head of Technology, Volkswagen Payments S.A. | Germany

We have enjoyed a consistently productive partnership with Elinext for more than 20 years. They have proven to be very competitive in all the important dimensions, such as: quality and skill level of staff and management, productivity, professionalism, collaboration, flexibility, low turnover, and cost.

View Original Testimonial View Case Study

Telecom

Peter Clairmont

SVP Software Engineering, Broadcom | USA

Elinext`s work has led to a more modern and flexible MES system. Their communication was transparent, with daily sync-ups with our department. Judging by our ongoing cooperation and the way they’ve executed numerous parallel initiatives, we’ve trusted them to lead several more projects.

View Original Testimonial View Case Study

Manufacturing

Martin Russel

Head for Process Automation, Siemens | Germany

What’s really great about Elinext is that somebody is always reachable there over Teams or other messengers, so if I have a question, I can get feedback even at midnight. When we have big changes in our projects, they just do it. We don’t have to haggle all the time about costs and deadlines when the project changes here and there.

View Original Testimonial View Case Study

Travel

Florian Apel

IT Manager, TUI | Germany

Since partnering with Elinext in 2017, we have consistently been impressed by their unparalleled expertise and innovative approach to delivering exceptional services at competitive rates. Our collaboration with Elinext`s Vietnam team for all our Ul development needs has been nothing short of remarkable.

View Case Study

Automation Machinery Manufacturing

Kurt Lueck

CTO And Co-Founder, Automation Intellect | USA

Great talents and resources are some of the perks and value you can expect from engaging Elinext`s services when the goal is to have your projects delivered with both quality and in a timely fashion.

View Original Testimonial View Case Study

Insurance

Eazie Izuchukwu Enibe

Full Stack Software Engineer, Alteos | Germany

The Parrot team is very proud of Elinext`s development, validation, design and management teams for their involvement and willpower to carry out the projects that Parrot entrusts to them. Let`s keep up the good work with more exciting, attractive and innovative projects!

View Original Testimonial View Case Study

Aviation and Aerospace Component Manufacturing

Guillaume Pinto

CTO, Parrot | France

Timely deliveries, good work quality, great cultural fit. Elinext managed to increase automation coverage. They are always flexible when it comes to our unique needs. The entire management structure, including executive management at Elinext, is always flexible and willing to work through special situations. They are a partner.

View Original Testimonial View Case Study

Environmental, Social, and Governance

Dan Pham

CTO, Novisto | Canada

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Software Development Models

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Why Our Clients Choose Elinext

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Software
Development Models