A custom software application may improve your business performance, save time, unwanted errors, and reduce running costs. However, software, that is tailored to your business model is hard to come by out of the box. Custom Software Development is a long-term investment, that will pay off in time.
Software Solution Scope
Once you have arrived at the decision to build an application and optimize your business, there are few important questions that need to be answered:
- Which part of the workflow should be channeled through the software application? What is the purpose?
- Will the application serve as internal use only, or it will be customer based?
- What is the data sensitivity and what security layers should be put in place to protect the vital information from exploits?
- Is there legacy data that needs to be utilized by the new software solution?
- Do you own or have acquired the necessary hardware, required to meet your needs?
When these questions have answers, the scope is clear and the prototype of the software application can be drafted.
The prototype, Architecture, and UI Design stage
Prototyping is the process of Software Development where a mock of an application or solution is being created. The prototype is used to prove a concept or clarify the scope. Prototyping may be implemented by using prototyping platforms, not necessarily the technology stack of choice.
The Design of a software application is the process of drafting the architecture of the application. It also describes the interaction of the application modules (logical design), as well as building the user interface (graphical design) of the application.
Software Development Stage
During this stage, the actual software development takes place. During this stage, all the modules of the solution are being developed and tested. The code is being committed to a Version Management system. Version Management, together with Task Management serves the purpose of tracking the progress and tackling the problems as they appear.
Development Testing
Each stage of the Software Development Process provides an avenue for testing the solution throughout the process. there are companies, that focus on User testing and can provide detailed reports on how the application is being accepted by the users.
The Software Development team writes Unit and Integration test cases, which ensure the application’s health and reliability.
Delivery
Once the Software Development reaches the minimal viable product, it can be released and grow with new releases. During the development process, a Continous Delivery and Continous Integration (CI/CD) pipeline are set up, to ensure automatic Unit Testing, Building, and Deploying of a healthy and robust product.