Project Guidelines

Project Guidelines

Project Guidelines

Maintenance, security & scalability

Maintenance, security & scalability

Maintenance, security & scalability

What happens after a project is delivered? Will it just keep working forever? Do we need to have a budget for maintenance, updates and security? What if I want to add things to my app later?

In this article, we answer frequently asked questions and give our perspective on the topic.
What happens after a project is delivered? Will it just keep working forever? Do we need to have a budget for maintenance, updates and security? What if I want to add things to my app later?

In this article, we answer frequently asked questions and give our perspective on the topic.
What happens after a project is delivered? Will it just keep working forever? Do we need to have a budget for maintenance, updates and security? What if I want to add things to my app later?

In this article, we answer frequently asked questions and give our perspective on the topic.
  1. Maintenance

  1. Maintenance

  1. Maintenance

When we build software, we go through testing to make sure the project is solid and doesn't break down. And, in a theoretically perfect world, software just keeps running. However, this is real life, and there are a lot of factors that can cause software to break. Here are some examples listed of why software may break:

  • When your server requires updates to core languages (PHP / Python / …)

  • When your server or hosting provider changes or updates something that breaks your app

  • When a library or API you does does an update and changes their API

  • When browser updates (example, Google Chrome) break your app

  • When Apple releases a new phone that has no more buttons

  • When you discover a very specific bug that was not found in testing 8 months after release

  • When your database gets full

  • When your app unexpectedly goes viral, and you get 1 million users in a day


The world keeps moving and things keep changing. For these things - we offer maintenance contracts. A maintenance contract works as a guarantee that we will make sure your app keeps running, even when unexpected things happen. We do this through a monthly fee that covers any issues, this way, you have a predictable budget for your app to keep running (as opposed to unexpected, higher costs on a random week in februari).

When we build software, we go through testing to make sure the project is solid and doesn't break down. And, in a theoretically perfect world, software just keeps running. However, this is real life, and there are a lot of factors that can cause software to break. Here are some examples listed of why software may break:

  • When your server requires updates to core languages (PHP / Python / …)

  • When your server or hosting provider changes or updates something that breaks your app

  • When a library or API you does does an update and changes their API

  • When browser updates (example, Google Chrome) break your app

  • When Apple releases a new phone that has no more buttons

  • When you discover a very specific bug that was not found in testing 8 months after release

  • When your database gets full

  • When your app unexpectedly goes viral, and you get 1 million users in a day


The world keeps moving and things keep changing. For these things - we offer maintenance contracts. A maintenance contract works as a guarantee that we will make sure your app keeps running, even when unexpected things happen. We do this through a monthly fee that covers any issues, this way, you have a predictable budget for your app to keep running (as opposed to unexpected, higher costs on a random week in februari).

When we build software, we go through testing to make sure the project is solid and doesn't break down. And, in a theoretically perfect world, software just keeps running. However, this is real life, and there are a lot of factors that can cause software to break. Here are some examples listed of why software may break:

  • When your server requires updates to core languages (PHP / Python / …)

  • When your server or hosting provider changes or updates something that breaks your app

  • When a library or API you does does an update and changes their API

  • When browser updates (example, Google Chrome) break your app

  • When Apple releases a new phone that has no more buttons

  • When you discover a very specific bug that was not found in testing 8 months after release

  • When your database gets full

  • When your app unexpectedly goes viral, and you get 1 million users in a day


The world keeps moving and things keep changing. For these things - we offer maintenance contracts. A maintenance contract works as a guarantee that we will make sure your app keeps running, even when unexpected things happen. We do this through a monthly fee that covers any issues, this way, you have a predictable budget for your app to keep running (as opposed to unexpected, higher costs on a random week in februari).

  1. Security

  1. Security

  1. Security

Let us break it to you, no app is ever 100% secure at all times. That's why, sometimes, even Facebook or Google gets hacked. When we deliver an app we will discuss with you what level of security is needed.


To a lot of people, security is very abstract, let us list a few examples to clarify the type of things we are talking about:

  • Making sure no one can attack your API or hosting to run up your Google Cloud bill

  • Spam protection on any forms - so people can't abuse this to send spam emails to other clients

  • User credential protection and making sure accounts are safe

  • Protection of sensitive data through encryption


We'll spare you our full laundry list of checks, but as you can see, the first 2 are quite essential, where the last 2 depend more on the type of app you have (maybe you don't even have user logins). Some considerations to take, that can help you estimate the level of security you want to implement:

  • Does your app handle sensitive data about other companies or other people?

  • Is your app mission-critical to the operation of your clients?

  • Will your app reach millions of people? (= more attention, = more people trying to bring you down)


Depending on these answers, we'll take the appropriate measures. We'll discuss these with you and see how we need to tackle these.


Let us break it to you, no app is ever 100% secure at all times. That's why, sometimes, even Facebook or Google gets hacked. When we deliver an app we will discuss with you what level of security is needed.


To a lot of people, security is very abstract, let us list a few examples to clarify the type of things we are talking about:

  • Making sure no one can attack your API or hosting to run up your Google Cloud bill

  • Spam protection on any forms - so people can't abuse this to send spam emails to other clients

  • User credential protection and making sure accounts are safe

  • Protection of sensitive data through encryption


We'll spare you our full laundry list of checks, but as you can see, the first 2 are quite essential, where the last 2 depend more on the type of app you have (maybe you don't even have user logins). Some considerations to take, that can help you estimate the level of security you want to implement:

  • Does your app handle sensitive data about other companies or other people?

  • Is your app mission-critical to the operation of your clients?

  • Will your app reach millions of people? (= more attention, = more people trying to bring you down)


Depending on these answers, we'll take the appropriate measures. We'll discuss these with you and see how we need to tackle these.


Let us break it to you, no app is ever 100% secure at all times. That's why, sometimes, even Facebook or Google gets hacked. When we deliver an app we will discuss with you what level of security is needed.


To a lot of people, security is very abstract, let us list a few examples to clarify the type of things we are talking about:

  • Making sure no one can attack your API or hosting to run up your Google Cloud bill

  • Spam protection on any forms - so people can't abuse this to send spam emails to other clients

  • User credential protection and making sure accounts are safe

  • Protection of sensitive data through encryption


We'll spare you our full laundry list of checks, but as you can see, the first 2 are quite essential, where the last 2 depend more on the type of app you have (maybe you don't even have user logins). Some considerations to take, that can help you estimate the level of security you want to implement:

  • Does your app handle sensitive data about other companies or other people?

  • Is your app mission-critical to the operation of your clients?

  • Will your app reach millions of people? (= more attention, = more people trying to bring you down)


Depending on these answers, we'll take the appropriate measures. We'll discuss these with you and see how we need to tackle these.


  1. Scalability

  1. Scalability

  1. Scalability

Running an app with 100 users isn't the same as running an app with 1 billion users. That's why Facebook has data centers across the world and a hosting bill with a lot of zeros on it. So, what can you expect from your Black Bear app?


We make sure your app is scalable within reason. Meaning, we can handle traffic spikes, and you probably shouldn't be too worried about your app going down when you send that newsletter.


However, keep in mind that if you start scaling to global use and have a million daily active users, we will need to revise your set-up to make sure we can handle that. But that's a great problem to have. :)

Running an app with 100 users isn't the same as running an app with 1 billion users. That's why Facebook has data centers across the world and a hosting bill with a lot of zeros on it. So, what can you expect from your Black Bear app?


We make sure your app is scalable within reason. Meaning, we can handle traffic spikes, and you probably shouldn't be too worried about your app going down when you send that newsletter.


However, keep in mind that if you start scaling to global use and have a million daily active users, we will need to revise your set-up to make sure we can handle that. But that's a great problem to have. :)

Running an app with 100 users isn't the same as running an app with 1 billion users. That's why Facebook has data centers across the world and a hosting bill with a lot of zeros on it. So, what can you expect from your Black Bear app?


We make sure your app is scalable within reason. Meaning, we can handle traffic spikes, and you probably shouldn't be too worried about your app going down when you send that newsletter.


However, keep in mind that if you start scaling to global use and have a million daily active users, we will need to revise your set-up to make sure we can handle that. But that's a great problem to have. :)