7 Tips to Run a Successful Software Development Process for Your Business

Before you start on a new development project ask yourself do you have a business plan that outlines your business goals. If the answer is a no, then the project is simply a waste of time and money. Without a successful plan, you will not be able to get better estimates, deliver stable systems, create a clear understanding of the tasks and identify the pitfalls. Continuing the web development process without a proper software development process, a variety of problems becomes more and more prevalent. Hence, a successful development process can help in determining the success or failure of your project.

In the traditional method of product development, there is only one way of carrying out the procedure but the process of software development offers several different approaches to creating your product. You should know one thing, the key to developing a product through a software development process is totally non-technical.

Let us discuss the software development process from concept to production stage and how a Software Development Company should benefit from each and every step of this process.

The Blueprint

The team should have a clear roadmap or blueprint with them which includes a set of schematics with different goals. This means that these schematics are different for different individual applications. A schematic diagram is a representation of the system elements using abstract and graphic symbols. Architecture diagram of the application, user-interface mock-up and business process models are the important aspects of these schematics. Ascertain that your technical team is working on the correct path using these schematics. Also to check the status of product development, you can track the progress with the help of these diagrams.

Documentation

Documentation dealing with software product development is required to explain product functionality, unify project-related information, and communication between stakeholders and developers. It includes requirements, architecture, manuals for the end-user, and marketing strategy for the product. When you have a distributed team, it is important to continue the tasks without having to wait for other team members who are not available due to time zone differences.

Detail Knowledge of the Market

Know in and out of the product you are developing that will serve your customers. Understanding the market trend helps in analyzing how the market is going to help during the development process of your product. This will surely help you analyze the specific objectives which in turn, can help you determine the return on investment.

Decision Making

Great decision-making comes with a clear communication process.  Therefore make sure that the roles and responsibilities of your team members are well-defined. Grant permission to access the external system only after seeking clarification. Also, ascertain an easy identification of the persons in contact. Keep this information in a location accessible to everyone.

Implementation and Testing

This is the most important stage of the software development process during which the project team creates the actual project. This is a crucial phase for customers too, therefore the team should work diligently and divide work among themselves. The implementation of coding starts when the developer gets the design document. The software design is converted into source code while implementing all the components of the software in this phase.

Iterative Delivery

If you are following an agile software development process, then you will have to divide the implementation process into various parts. These parts are known as iterations. Before starting with new components and going further ahead in the process, refer to the blueprint framed in earlier stages.  This helps in reducing the risk and provides you with an accurate speed of development.  Once you are done with iterations, test the code for its acceptance. It requires the team members to analyze the partial product to make sure it meets the design expectation. But let us tell you another thing, acceptance testing cannot be taken as a substitute for unit testing.

Review the Code

Finally, when the coding part is completed and tested by the acceptance testers, cross-check the code if it is ready to become part of your product. If you do not have much technical know-how, then come up with a different code review technique with your team. Last but not least, a security review of the code is necessary which identifies any weak areas in the code.

Conclusion

Following a well-understood and well-documented software development approach leads to a successful software release. It is essential to know that your team engages well while plugging the holes and building a repeatable process. It might happen that the first draft might not be perfect but adjust the process on every run-through to have a successful software release.