Our process

We understand that organisations need to make informed decisions, and that is especially important with external suppliers. Our agile process manages risk, delivers benefit sooner and enables our clients to change priority when needed.

Agility

The key aspect of our process is the short timescale between releases of new functionality. This enables multiple things:

Getting benefit from the work sooner
Testing hypotheses and getting feedback sooner (also known as failing faster)
Responding to change quicker

Risk Management

Identifying and mitigating risk is a key component of project management. In both planning and delivery, we define our risks, using our delivery risk framework, and put in place strategies to mitigate against them.

Collaboration

Crucial to the success of our process is continued and deep collaboration between stakeholders, users and developers of the software. We purposely remove barriers to collaboration so that our team can work hand in hand with subject matter experts and users alike.

Communication

Clear communication is critical to the success of software projects. At Abstract Leap we place strong emphasis on transparency and knowledge transfer, in both directions.

DevSecOps

In order to deliver software faster and more reliably, we embrace the DevSecOps movement at Abstract Leap. Our software is automatically built, tested and deployed in production environments, enabling quicker delivery, shorter and more confident release cycles.

Documentation

Requirements on documentation differ from project to project. We have multiple approaches for producing documentation that take account of the audience, the reason for the document and the need to maintain it.

Information Security

Information Security is the practice of mitigating (and preferably eliminating) the possibility of unauthorised access to data. It goes alongside, and sometimes conflicts with, data protection which is the use of personal information and the privacy requirements thereof.

At Abstract Leap, we take both of these aspects very seriously. We embed secure coding practices in to our process, provide training to our staff and use third party consultants for external verification.

GDPR

GDPR is a EU regulation on data protection and privacy in the EU that also addresses transfer of that data outside of the EU.

We have helped organisations understand their requirements under GDPR, document those requirements and then implement software and controls to enforce them.

Security First Development

Our engineers understand that developing secure software is a primary requirement for our clients and for us as a business. They all receive training on common sources of errors in the technologies that we use.

Our QA process specifically includes a final code review undertaken by a principal engineer, whose job it is to find security issues.

Pen Testing

We make use of external security consultants who will "penetration test" our systems in order to verify, as an impartial party, the security of the software.

We recommend performing this testing on initial delivery of the software, during any large upgrades and then on a frequent ongoing basis.

ISO/IEC 27001

ISO/IEC 27001 specifies a management system that is intended to bring information security under management control and gives specific requirements.

At Abstract Leap, we have experience of enabling our clients to achieve certification and have operated systems inside an ISO27001 audited environment.

Microsoft .Net

With .NET you can target any application type running on any platform. Developers can reuse skills and code across all of them in a familiar environment.

From mobile applications running on iOS, Android and Windows, to Enterprise server applications running on Windows Server and Linux, or high-scale microservices running in the cloud, .NET provides a solution.

Azure

Organisations all over the world recognise Microsoft Azure over Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the most trusted cloud for enterprise and hybrid infrastructure.

As a Microsoft .Net based company we recognise the synergy between .Net and Azure and use that to our advantage.

Open Source

Where possible we look to use open source software as an alternative to commercial offerings or building similar technology.

These software libraries enable us to build products faster but also provide transparency in to the libraries that we rely on.

AL Infrastructure

Part of our offering includes our own software framework, our "Abstract Infrastructure", that enables us to use our own tried and tested software for components that are generic across solutions.

This enables us to build our software faster and to concentrate on the specific requirements of the software.

The following are an example list of the types of applications that we can build:

Web Applications

The majority of our software is web based, providing open and accessible user interfaces that are accessed through a standard browser either in the office, at home or on mobile devices.

Process Automation

We specialise in building software to automate complex business processes.

Mobile App Development

Where it makes sense to provide a mobile app, we can build native apps across both Android and iOS. This can make use of the full features of the phone and is, usually, more performant than a web app.

CRM Software

We've built software that cuts across sales and support functions, increasing revenue and improving customer service.

Custom Databases

Providing data recording across locations, ensuring data standardisation, allowing simple data entry.

Reporting Software

Make the right decision at the right time requires a data driven approach. Making sense from that data requires robust infrastructure and brilliant visualisation.

Finance Automation

The majority of business processes have some financial implication, be that cost or revenue related. We're created many systems that manage their own financial data as well as integrate with other systems.