Creating SaaS applications is the next natural step in your company’s evolution. However, converting an existing solution to SaaS or developing one from scratch needs an in-depth understanding of SaaS information, SaaS application development best practices, and potential pitfalls to avoid. This article will provide you with an understanding of SaaS development and best practices for commercial growth potential.
SaaS Application Development Best Practices Practice
#1. Selecting the Best SaaS Architecture Design
You will need to decide what type of SaaS Architecture you require depending on the specific needs of your app right from the very beginning of your company’s journey into SaaS application development. The term “SaaS architecture” refers to the method by which SaaS providers build and launch SaaS products. There are two common types of SaaS architecture to consider:
Single-Tenant
Every tenant (the company behind the app) has their own reserved instance of their SaaS app under this form of SaaS architecture. In other words, the app infrastructure, code, and data are all isolated from the rest of the tenants. Single-tenant SaaS applications are commonly used for banking apps, medical apps, government apps, and other programs that handle sensitive user data and require strict privacy, isolation, and security.
Multi-Tenant
Multiple tenants will share a single instance of the SaaS app in this form of SaaS architecture. All other tenants in the provider’s SaaS architecture will share the app infrastructure, code, and data. Because it is inexpensive and scalable, this SaaS design is the most popular among enterprises. The number of users in a multi-tenant SaaS application can be easily scaled up. Multi-tenant SaaS applications include Gmail, Slack, Microsoft Office 365, and Salesforce.
Consider the following aspects when deciding which sort of SaaS architecture is best for your project:
- Budget: Multi-tenant providers are usually less expensive.
- Project Requirements: A multi-tenant SaaS architecture is a better option if your project requires cost-effectiveness and scalability. If data security is required, single-tenant is the superior solution.
- Compliance Requirements: SaaS apps that must adhere to extremely strict data security laws are better served by single-tenant SaaS providers.
#2 Roadmapping Your SaaS Product
Monitoring is an essential component of best practices for SaaS application development. A product owner or manager will be in charge of assigning, directing, supervising, and providing all the resources needed to create a successful SaaS product.
Road mapping ensures the success of SaaS application development best practices. It addresses the questions “What” and “Why” will be developing the product, as well as for “Who.”
A SaaS roadmap provides direction for the development process. It often specifies your SaaS product’s short and long-term objectives. And how to attain them to ensure you’re on the correct track.
So, here’s a general step-by-step procedure for developing a roadmap for your SaaS solution:
Step 1: Understand the Goals and Strategies
The first stage is to outline the short and long-term goals you wish to achieve with your SaaS solution. Once you’ve determined what you require, you can begin planning strategies to obtain it.
Step 2: Collect Data
Collect input from all stakeholders of your product. This includes your internal road mapping team members. As well as prospective customers and users for external roadmapping.
Step 3: Sort the Inputs
After gathering input from stakeholders, the following stage is to filter and rank the most beneficial inputs you have received. You must verify that the priorities you select will assist your company’s objective.
Step 4: Make a Resource Plan
After gathering the information from the previous steps, you must establish the workflow and assign resources. To do so, you must first form a team and establish timelines and budgets.
Step 5: Create a SaaS Roadmap
Creating a plan for your SaaS product will be simple and quick once you understand the goals and needs and have the resources to meet them.
#3: Handle spikes in demand
SaaS solutions must be designed to withstand unexpected spikes in user demand. Elastic scaling architecture enables you to instantly add or remove resources as needed, assuring peak performance and availability.
Netflix is an excellent example of a SaaS provider that has effectively implemented an elastic scaling architecture. Its video streaming service can swiftly add or withdraw resources in response to demand, delivering a consistent user experience even during peak usage periods.
You can ensure that your application can manage the needs of a growing user base and remain competitive in a continuously changing digital world by implementing an elastic SaaS architecture.
#4 Design SaaS with data security in mind
Because they are concerned about losing control of their data, most organizations choose a monolithic or on-premises design. Data breaches are such a huge problem that more businesses than ever are planning to invest in cybersecurity to avoid catastrophic losses.
Making RBAC a core component of your SaaS design can assist in increasing data security. RBAC is a data access control approach that prevents various users from accessing and changing data that has nothing to do with their jobs in an organization.
Users can designate administrators, vendors, end-users, contractors, and so on using RBAC. It is also possible to assign roles based on work expertise or authorization.
#5 Testing Product’s Potential through MVP
Some businesses take years to release the first version of a SaaS product in order to perfect it. This method, however, fails because the delay makes the product obsolete and fully gathered by competitors.
As a result, the final best practice for SaaS application development is to test your product by creating an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). In a nutshell, it is the very first version of your application with basic functionality that interacts with early adopters to get feedback.
Making an MVP > Testing > Launching > Receiving Feedback > Relaunching
The MVP allows you to collect genuine input from end customers, which you can then utilize to optimize your SaaS solution.
Wrapping up:
User-centered design, Agile techniques, security, and continuous improvement are all required for successful SaaS product development. By following these best practices, you can develop a SaaS application that matches user needs while also gaining a competitive advantage in the market.
To ensure the long-term success of your SaaS product, be adaptive, open to input, and devoted to continual improvement.
