AriesDevs engineering team Engineering notes
6 min read
The honest answer is “it depends”, but it depends on things you can name. Scope, the number of user roles, integrations and how quickly decisions are made explain most of the difference between a six-week build and a ten-month one. These are typical timelines for a focused, senior team.
Typical timelines
- Marketing website: 2 to 6 weeks, depending on the number of pages, content readiness and custom features.
- Prototype or proof of concept: 2 to 4 weeks to test one core idea with real users.
- MVP of a web app: 6 to 12 weeks for one core journey with accounts, a simple admin area and payments if needed.
- Customer portal or internal tool: 2 to 4 months, longer with several integrations.
- Full SaaS product with billing, roles and reporting: 4 to 9 months for the first complete release.
What slows projects down
- Unclear scope and changing requirements midway.
- Slow feedback: waiting days for decisions or content.
- Integrations with legacy or poorly documented systems.
- Too many user roles and edge cases in the first release.
- Skipping design and testing, which causes rework later.
How to ship sooner
- Define one core journey and cut everything else from version one.
- Use proven tools for sign-in, payments and hosting instead of building them.
- Nominate one decision-maker who answers within a day.
- Work in two-week sprints with a working demo at the end of each.
- Release to a small group early and improve from real feedback.
Plan for the launch and after
Add a week or two for load testing, security review and a staged release, and plan ongoing time for fixes and improvements. Launch day is the start of the product, not the end of the project.
