We are a Software Craftsteam™

Have you ever gotten service from someone who "is just doing their job"? In contrast, have you had the experience of getting service from people who love what they do and strive to be the best they can be? The difference between someone "doing their job" and a craftsman can be night and day. We are software craftsmen.

Does that mean we cost more? Well, if you measure things by dollars per hour, we are certainly not the cheapest but also not the most expensive. But if you measure things by dollars for value, you'll find that we are usually a great deal. We've had many come to us after going offshore and finding much better value working with us. We also can keep costs down by employing apprentices to do the things that you don't need master craftsmen for, but always under the supervision of the craftsmen. And because we work with integrity, we'll tell you when you can save some money by going somewhere else.

Ken Auer, an accomplished master software craftsman, founded RoleModel Software in 1997. His goal was to help people turn their innovative concepts into working software as he had been doing much of his previous twelve years, and build a team of software craftsmen to accomplish more than he could do himself. In 1998, he began building the first eXtreme Programming Software Studio™, a place where apprentices, journeymen, and craftsmen would work together in a highly collaborative environment to meet client goals. After two years in an attic, and nine in an office/studio custom configured for collaboration, we recently built and moved into our new facility designed with both the current and next generation of craftsmen in mind.

Not only did we sign the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto, but we were pioneers in promoting and living the concept. Ken was invited to provide the opening keynote at the first Software Craftsmanship North America conference on August 26, 2009 in Chicago.

Work with us and benefit from:

Great People

We only hire people who are both excellent in their craft and love to provide value to customers with integrity and honesty. We take pride in our work and always strive to take it to the next level measured by long-term customer satisfaction. We train up our own apprentices, so we can ensure they learn our craft well. And, as part of the RoleModel Community of businesses, we can bring a multi-disciplinary team together to address your needs beyond the software development realm.

Agile Process

People who study processes know that you need a tight feedback loop to have a good process. Unfortunately the software industry has created much of its processes based on antiquated ideas of how to build software based on procedural thinking. To top that off, many “geeks” don't know how to communicate. Our object-oriented thinkers use the leading agile development methods, including eXtreme Programming (XP), to create lean, adaptable software. Our process is built around industry best practices that we have been pushing the envelope on for years. The results are refreshing. From the first week you engage with us, you'll have visibility into the progress with live working software. Tight feedback. No surprises. We help manage your software budget.

High-leverage Open Source Software Tools

We use the best tools for the job. We are a big believer in open-source tools such as Ruby on Rails, and contribute to the open-source community. But, whether open-source or not, we are constantly looking at providing the best value for your dollars.

Successful Track Record of Delivery

We've been building up an impressive reference list of very happy customers who have seen the difference our high-performance teams make whether we're providing new solutions for established companies, or helping entrepreneurs turn their concepts into working software.

Turn to RoleModel as your partner for building software that meets your business objectives and exceed your expectations. We use agile software development methods for everything from commercial desktop applications to small web applications to large enterprise software, embracing the reality that project plans and requirements frequently change. We collaborate with our clients to exploit the tight feedback loop of our development process and our experience to grow software that is continuously improving in its usefulness and providing real value.