A Step-By-Step Guide to Software Development Process
Applications and software make it easy for businesses to make the communication between them and their customers smooth and instant. It makes them reach out to their customers as soon as possible along with providing them with instant and satisfying responses to retain them with their service for the long term. Thus, there has been a rapid demand for software developers.
However, the process of software development is not only costly and time-consuming but complex. It is an iterative process that needs proper time, technical stack, and resources. The process involves multiple steps like research, designing data and process flow, writing technical documentation, and debugging except for the code written by the software developer.
Let’s go through this comprehensive step-by-step guide on the software development process.
The process of developing software is much more than the invaluable role of developers writing codes. This process includes a number of stages including planning, designing, creating, testing, and maintaining these applications even after they have been made public.
The purpose of a software development process may vary from business to business. An IT company develops software for its clients. In the same way, a pharmacy company may require software to manage its own inventory and other operations. Usually, the software development process involves Backend development and Frontend development.
The process of developing software with the help of a number of stages is often called a Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
We have just discussed above that the process of developing software is comprehensive and requires expert professionals. The professionals who play an important role in the process of developing software include Programmers, software engineers, and software developers.
There are software developers and engineers have specifications in a number of different areas as follows:
Let’s understand the comprehensive process of software development in the following stages:
The first stage is looking for possible requirements to gather the required tools, and resources that will be utilized throughout the whole development process. This stage helps professionals to understand the demands of the users, what functionalities the software should provide, how much time the development process will take, and how much money it will need to be completed. In short, it is the first stage that seeks to check out the scope of the project, required resources, and possible constraints the team will have to overcome to reach the deadline as soon as possible.
Understanding the requirements for the development process is important for the following reasons:
The word ‘Feasibility’ refers to the probability of a thing to be successful. This phase emphasizes on analyzing the feasibility of the project. This tests all the economic, technical, legal, operational, and scheduling factors that can affect the chances of the success of the project. Making sure that there are ample resources supporting the successful completion of the project also helps in identifying potential risks that can come across during the development phase.
This is the initial draft of the software that needs to be designed and launched to offer your users a new solution. To design the software, Business Requirement Document (BRD) or Software Requirement Document (SRD) is used properly as a guide. Designing the software needs to solve a specific problem for the users they can’t find elsewhere. The solution your software will provide should be unique and this is why gathering complete requirements is essential.
This stage creates the architecture and detailed plans according to the devices and the systems for which the software has to be developed. This process defines high-level structure, designs the components of the software, applies design patterns, and ensures the user-friendliness of the software by choosing the right user interface. The design is also documented including the prototypes and models.
This stage can also be called the Programming phase. This is the stage where the software development team writes the codes to transform the designs into a functioning product. The traditional method of writing codes is manual and includes hand-written codes which makes the process comprehensive and complex.
But now the process of software development is being simplified to some extent as AI technology is there to help testers and developers. There are various AI tools and technologies that write automated codes and integrate some design elements in the software or application automatically.
The testing phase involves Quality Assurance (QA) to make sure that the design is ready to deploy. This phase looks for any flaws in the code, potential sources of errors, and security threats the business can face in the future. For example: Most of the DevOps teams use automated testing to constantly check new codes throughout the development process.
There are a number of testing like module testing, product testing, program testing, and user-end testing that are used at various stages in the whole development process. Further, retesting and regression testing are conducted until the software is prepared according to the expectations of the users. The BRD or SRS document helps developers in checking that the software is ready according to the needs and expectations of the users.
The software design is made public by deploying it to the production environment after making sure that it is free from any flaws. This phase includes installing the software on user machines or making it possible for the users to access it by downloading it from any Play Store.
Businesses often consider preliminary releases to ensure the success of the software before making it finally public. Preliminary release is the process of making the software product available to a selected group of people before making it finally public. It enables the team to check for any unpredictable changes and challenges with the software and fix them finally before deploying the software to the public.
After making the software product public, it is kept under regular monitoring to make sure that there is not a single bug or defect users will face issues in. The developing team collects regular updates, patches, and feedback to improve the performance and user interface of the software.
Regular monitoring also allows developers to check what other features can be offered for the users to utilize the software to the full extent. Regular monitoring also helps the team to improve the safety and security of the users by adding advanced tools to the software amid the increasing cases of cyber threats.
A proper and pre-structured software development process is essential for the team to meet the deadline as soon as possible. It helps the development team in many ways. From avoiding hurdles to making the optimum use of the resources and time to completing the project in the expected and less budget, a pre-planned software development process helps you in many ways. Further, developing software includes a number of stages: requirement gathering, designing the software, implementation or coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
While an IT firm has to follow these steps one by one to make sure that their software development process is feasible in many ways- from technical to financial, their job doesn’t end here. Regular monitoring even after making the software public is the thing that helps the team to win the trust of the customers and ensure success. With the help of regular monitoring, the team not only detects any defects and bugs but also can implement robust security measures from time to time. This will create a great impact on user experience and customer retention.
