Software Can’t Fix Broken Business Practices

It can get expensive…

Originally Published on January, 2025

🕒 5 min read

On one of my projects, I was assigned a particularly difficult task. The client approached our company with a request to improve the login process. They claimed their customers found it too difficult to log in.

In this case, we didn’t actually handle the login ourselves—we simply directed users to the client’s login page. Users would enter their email address and then be redirected to the client’s SSO (Single Sign-On) page to complete the login.

From the start, our team knew this would be a nearly impossible task, but we didn’t give up. With the best intentions, we brainstormed with the client to find ways to improve the login flow.

The client agreed to integrate directly with their SSO provider, allowing users to click a button and be taken straight to the appropriate login page. This was intended to improve the process and enhance the user experience.

We began integrating the new solution, working closely with the client. We delivered bi-weekly demos to gather feedback and strengthen our relationship. The client was impressed with our implementation and believed it would resolve the user complaints. The project took a couple of months, as we were also juggling other priorities.

Let me pause here: throughout the entire development cycle, the client never shared the demos with actual end users. No real user feedback was collected, only the internal administration had tested the system.

After multiple rounds of iteration and optimization, we were finally ready. We delivered the feature for user testing and it completely failed. Users still found the login process confusing and frustrating.

Our initial instinct had been right: the problem wasn’t in the software. It was rooted in the client’s business practices. A significant amount of man-hours had gone into building this feature, only for it to be rejected. Fortunately, the solution was general enough that it could be reused by other clients, so it wasn’t a total loss.

We proposed an alternative solution to the client. But in hindsight, we, as a team, should have addressed the core issue from the beginning.

We write software. We don’t fix broken business practices.

Until next time..

- Bardur