Dynamic online auction portal

This unspecified client approached us with his project relatively late. The project was developed for several years and was in poor condition without the possibility of further permanent and reasonable development. Various functionalities were added gradually, as the portal grew. He could no longer rely on the original development team and needed to stabilize the whole project and also needed to handle it more professionally due to the growth of it. In the client's words "I need to sleep in peace at night".

Short Analysis of the Auction Portal Beforehand

We agreed with the client on a short analysis of couple weeks, where we examined the technical status of the auction portal, individual connections, architecture, API, storage of critical data and server settings.

Results After Analysis

The analysis showed that although this online auction platform is functional and holds together, it will be necessary to work on many parts of the entire auction portal in order to improve the already mentioned quality and stabilization of the project. The first few steps included repairs and adjustments that will not be visible from the client's customer's point of view, but had to be made. Only with a good foundation is it possible to further develop the auction website and the client has fully understood this.

As part of the analysis, the client received a specific individual steps from us, that we recommended to perform on the project in order to gradually get to the desired goal. The client also received the described roles and types of users, the entire backlog filled with individual User Stories with regard to where the project wants to go (ie "how it will work") and also BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) diagrams describing the entire project.

We Agreed To Take Over This Auction Portal Development

Since the client no longer saw the way to further cooperate with the current supplier, we agreed that we will take over the entire auction software and develop it further.

As with any rescue project, we had to gradually clear out several very critical issues. These issues included a complex modification of the database schema, ensuring better security of the portal and its users' data, a new UI/UX and refactoring some very cluttered and malfunctioning modules.

After we worked out the most pressing points, we set about implementing new features and upgrading some existing features.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Auction Software Development

1. What to look out for when developing such an auction web portal?
   We think you need to watch out especially for the security of user data, both of your clients and auction brokers. You also need to watch the cost of hosting the entire auction portal. If there is regular physical streaming of video and audio from real auctions, the cost of these activities needs to be checked out as well. Finally, we recommend that the most critical points of the application are very well automatically tested to ensure that all auctions (basically a bidding sites) run smoothly regardless of where, how and how many clients participate in such auctions.
2. Should the portal have any additional security?
   That depends very much on what you are doing and what data you are storing. In general, we would argue that any web portal (not just an auction portal) should have at least basic security such as HTTPS, well managed access rights for users and admins, strong passwords, secure servers and, for example, two-factor authentication via mobile or other devices. Of course, there are many other security features, but this always depends on the specific web portal and its needs.