We Are a Software Crafts-team™

Have you ever received service from someone who "is just doing their job"? In contrast, have you experienced receiving service from people who love what they do and strive to be the best that they can be? The difference between "just doing the job" and true craftsmanship is night and day. We are software craftsmen.

Does that mean we cost more? Measuring things by dollars per hour, we are neither the cheapest nor the most expensive. Measuring things by dollars for value, you'll find that we're a great deal. Many of our clients have come to us after looking for "cheap" development overseas and finding that you really do get what you pay for. We do minimize costs by employing apprentices, always under the supervision of the craftsmen, to do the things that you don't need master craftsmen for. And because we work with integrity, we'll tell you when you can save some money by going elsewhere.

Ken Auer, President

Origin

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 for much of the previous twelve years, and to 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 could 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 the next generation of craftsmen in mind.

We Are Pioneers

Not only did we sign the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto, 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 with integrity and honesty who excel in their craft and love to provide value to customers. 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 that 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. Meet our development team.

Agile process

Our developers use the leading agile development methods, including eXtreme Programming (XP), to create lean, adaptable software. Our process is built around industry best practices in which we have been pushing the envelope for years. The results are refreshing. From the first week you engage with us, you'll have a window into the progress with live working software. Tight feedback. No surprises.

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 we contribute to the open-source community. Whether using open-source or not, we are constantly looking to provide the best value for your dollar.

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.

Let Us Help

Turn to RoleModel as your partner for building software that meets your business objectives and exceeds 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 while providing real value.

Learn more about how we provide value to our customers.