Managers and executives alike know about the power of incorporating software into their core operations. Although many businesses know software can help scale their business, the development process still seems very vague. Incorporating the right software into your business can help reduce costs, automate manual processes, and improve productivity. In this post, we will cover the basics of how software development works. This will help give you a solid foundation to help you craft a software strategy to meet your business’ objectives.
What is software development?
Software development is the process of creating, designing, and deploying software. In business, it’s typically used to directly create solutions for the business or for the customers. According to IBM, there are three basic types of software development: system software, programming software and application software.
Software is categorized into either frontend or backend development. Frontend development is software development that focuses on the visual elements that customers often see. This includes the user interface, layout, etc. In contrast, backend development focuses on the infrastructure/server side and customers don’t see this. This includes writing code, managing databases, etc.
How does software development work?
A typical software development process includes selecting a methodology, planning, design, coding, testing, deploying, reiterating and maintenance. There may be additional steps depending on the provider you work with and the type of methodology you use.
Steps:
- Methodology: The first step in custom development is choosing the methodology. The methodology will impact how the other steps in software development will be applied. Some methodologies include agile, devops, waterfall and more.
- Planning: In planning, the strategic objective for the software is brainstormed. By the end of the planning stage, your parameters for the project should be clearly stated and you should have a good idea of what resources you’ll need for the project.
- Design: In design, the solution is conceptualized. The architecture of the solution should be defined and the roadmap for a minimum viable product should be outlined.
- Coding/Testing: In this stage, the solution is built. A minimum viable product should be created and continuously tested to ensure no major bugs are in the software.
- Deploying: Once the coding and testing is done, the product should be deployed to customers. This provides feedback on exactly what part of the software needs to be improved.
- Reiterating: After the first deployment, the software is reiterated by developers to address pain points and to make the user experience better. Reiterating is a continuous process until the product is finalized.
- Maintenance: Once the product is finished, it needs to be maintained. This includes doing routine updates, fixing bugs and similar tasks.
This is a brief intro into how development works, use this as a guide when working with developers and teams that are building a solution for your business. To learn more about how the custom product development process works and how you can start using it in your business, get a free consultation here.
