Software development from A to Z

What is the software development process?

Software Development Process also known as SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). This process includes actions taken in a certain order to build and deliver a product that meets technical requirements and serves a business, production or other need. some particularity.

SDLC provides a framework that software developers and engineers can use throughout a software development project. Specifically, by strictly following the clearly defined phases of the SDLC, all project team members are aware of the project’s responsibilities, goals, and schedule. This helps the team work efficiently, being able to produce high-quality software products and on time as expected.
So how many stages does this process have and in each stage of software development what will happen? Find out with Pambu right in the next part.

Software development stages

As a general rule, the SDLC process will consist of 6 steps:

Step 1: Analysis (Planning and analyzing requirements)

Before we start building software, we need to collect and clearly define the requirements of the users and stakeholders for the software product to be built. We need to do market research to determine the functions that the software should provide to the users so that they feel it is useful software for them. How does this research help us determine the viability of the software in the market?

The software development team members then work together with the customer to come up with detailed specifications and requirements for the intended software product. All this information will be aggregated into a document known as the Software Requirement Specification document. The document will include the requirements for functionality, interface, performance, etc. In addition, there is also an outline of the components, the tasks of each developer and the test parameters to create a quality product. quantity.

At this stage, the manager and software developers will agree on which type of software development model (Types of software development models will be detailed in the next section)

Step 2: Design (Software design)

From the requirements and specifications given in step 1, software developers will map out the overall architecture required to create the software. In addition, factors such as budget, time, applied technology, risk level, etc. are also clearly identified.

The end result of this phase is the design specification. It includes specifications for architectural design, system requirements as well as UI/UX representation, Back-end, Front-end, etc., allowing the whole development team to follow the entire software development process. .

Step 3: Development

In this step, software developers will start to write code and implement the design parameters given in step 2. Specifically, Front-end developers will build the interface of the software. Back-end developers will use various kinds of programming languages, frameworks to program on the server and together with database administrators to process data.

After completing the coding, developers will deploy (deploy) the product in the development environment. The programmer will conduct product testing and make adjustments to suit the given requirements.

This phase usually takes up a lot of time and manpower in the entire software development process.

Step 4: Testing (Software Testing)

After completing the software programming part, the product will continue to pass to the testers (software testers). Testers will create test cases and conduct software testing. The purpose of software testing is to verify and ensure the quality of the product is as it should be.

After testing, the tester will update the bugs to the management tool and report the bugs (bugs) to the developers. In this step, testers will sit with developers to deal with existing bugs and update them into the bug management system. Depending on the software development model selected in step 1, the activities of the developer and the tester can be carried out in turn or in parallel.

Step 5: Deployment stage

After completing the testing, the software is free of bugs, the developers will deploy the product on the Production environment (environment containing the real application, running with real users, real data) and deliver the finished product. for customers.

After registration, Beta testing will be conducted to collect actual user feedback to improve the quality of the software for large-scale deployment. At this step, the developer also needs to prepare a plan for all possible contingencies to be more proactive in dealing with unexpected problems.

Step 6: Maintenance

After the software is officially put into operation, customers have started using the software at the highest quality level, the next step we need to maintain the product. The company will set up a team dedicated to maintenance and management of problems users encounter during the use of the product. They will manage and solve all user problems. At the same time, the software is also updated after deployment to eliminate bugs and improve performance.

Today’s popular software development models

Waterfall

Characteristic

• Apply according to certain sequence of software development phases.
• The next step cannot be started if the previous step has not been completed.
• Each stage is strictly documented.
• Testing can only be done at the final product stage, so testing is often rushed. Therefore, fixing errors is also difficult, expensive and time consuming.

Apply

• Small and medium sized projects with clear and unchanging requirements.
• Projects that require tight control, predictable budgets.
• Projects need to follow many different principles and regulations like healthcare projects.

V-Model (V-Model)

Characteristic

• As a linear model, each phase has a test run. It means conducting two activities in parallel: development and testing.
• The model is highly disciplined. The next stage can only begin when the previous stage is completed.
• The tester is involved from the beginning, so bugs are found early and easily remedied.

Apply

• Projects that require zero errors and downtime like medical software or flight management software.
• Short projects. The technology has not changed and is well understood by the project development team.

Iterative and Incremental model

Characteristic

• The model is iterative from the beginning until the full specification is completed.
• At the end of each iteration, a new version of the software is created.
• Each iteration of the software builds on the previous iteration, so the software design remains consistent.
• Since the software is fragmented, a complete specification is not required from the outset and requirements may change slightly during software development.
• The model requires customer involvement.

Apply

• Suitable for large projects
• New technology projects have time for the software development team to learn more.
• Agile Methodologies (Agile Models)

Agile Methodologies

Characteristic

• Focus on iterative development, continuous communication and get early feedback from customers for better improvement.
• Tasks are broken down into small modules that provide specific features for the final release.
• Continuously release software improvement updates.
• The maintenance phase is more complicated.

Apply

• Suitable for many types of projects but requires customer participation and interaction.
• With large-scale projects, it can be easily broken down into small functional pieces and can be developed gradually in each iteration.