Software Development Process
The software development process has become vital for almost 100% of the activities carried out by human beings daily. We were living away from technology, impossible in our minds since our appliances and phones are programmed with various codes that allow them to perform multiple tasks. Therefore, the software development process is the basis of our lifestyle and the technological tools that we have at hand.
What does the Software Development Process Mean?
The software development procedure is a general term that labels the overall process of developing a software product. Sometimes called the software life cycle, this process can be used to implement a single application or an extensive ERP system.
Although there is no standard definition, most development procedures include the following activities:
- Gathering Requirements
- Design
- Implementation
- Tests
- Militances.
Explains the Software Development Process
Companies often select a growth process that fits their staff and resources. As a result, various development process methods exist, and organizations implement and qualify a growing body of software development standards differently.
Agile Software Development
There has been a lot of call around Agile in software engineering and application development. It focuses on being flexible and dynamic.
Why is Software Development Process Important?
Software development is also essential because it is pervasive. As IBM Vice President and blogger Dibben Edwards points out: “Software has emerged as a critical differentiator in numerous products, from cars to washing machines to thermostats, with a growing Internet of Things connecting them.”
Some Examples are:
Soul Machines (link outside to ibm.com) uses software to make artificial online advisors that improve customer service and competence. Advisors have human faces, tongues, and voices that react intelligently, empathetical, and efficiently to customer questions and needs. They can answer more than 40% of client inquiries without humanoid intervention and study your interactions to improve over time. Using IBM Watson Assistant to incorporate AI competencies into the development process, Soul Machinery can create and deploy an artificial advisor in approximately 8 to 12 weeks.
Why have a Software Process?
Until recently, software production was done with an artistic approach instead of an industrial approach. However, faced with the constant presence of failed projects and to improve product quality, organizations have introduced software engineering methods in recent years.
Process
Before defining a software development process, let’s understand a function. A simple definition of f process is a “series of actions leading to an end.” This definition matches people’s general ideas about processes but leaves many open questions. For example, is the process the way the organization operates—from marketing to human resources—or is it how a developer designs, produces code, or tests software?
Software Process
The goal of software engineering is to build software products or improve existing ones; In process engineering, the goal is to develop or improve processes. A software development process is a set of people, organizational structures, rules, policies, activities and procedures, software components, methodologies, and tools used or explicitly created to define, develop, offer a service, innovate and extend a software product.
An effective software process enables the organization to increase its productivity when developing software:
- It allows standardizing efforts, promoting reuse, repetition, and consistency between projects.
- It provides the opportunity to introduce industry best practices.
- It allows understanding that the tools must be used to support a process.
- It sets the foundation for further consistency and future enhancements.
Types of Software Development Process
In this section, we appearance at the two chief types of processes in use by software engineering. There are others, but they are less extensively used. In recent years there has also been a movement to reduce the effort required to develop software. This has led to the growth of several lightweight variants of processes (often recognized as agile computing or extreme programming) suitable for small teams of engineers.
The Cascade Process
Each process stage—requirements, analysis, and build (code and test)—is completed before the next one begins. This is a very successful process where the conditions are well designed and are not expected to change, for example, automating a well-tested manual system. The weakness of this approach shows less well-defined problems. Invariably some of the doubts in the supplies will not be clarified until well hooked on the analysis and design, or even coding phases, requiring backtracking to redo work.
Iterative Development Processes
In recent years, a new method has been use, which encourages getting at least part of the code working as soon as possible to discover problems earlier in the growth cycle. These procedures use a series of “mini-waterfalls”, defining a few (the most important) requirements first, taking them through analysis, design, and construction to obtain an early version of the creation with limited functionality related to the most critical needs.
The Unified Rational Process
Perhaps the best-known Iterative Process is Rational Software’s Rational Unified Process (RUP). This process recognizes that our pyramid view of equal portions of the waterfall is unrealistic. In practice, the early iterations tend to be heavy on the stuff requirement issues (you need to define a reasonable amount even to start). In contrast, the later iterations have more effort in the design and build areas. RUP recognizes that iterations can group into several phases according to their stage in the overall project.
Steps of the Software Development Process
Software development usually involves the following steps:
Select a methodology to establish a framework in which the stages of software development are applied. Describes an overall work process or roadmap for the project. Methods may include Agile Development, DevOps, Rapid Application Growth (RAD), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Waterfall, and others. (See glossary.)
- Collect requirements to understand and text what users and other stakeholders require.
- Choose or create an architecture as the underlying structure within which the software will operate.
- Develop a design around solutions to the problems presented by the requirements, often involving process models and storyboards.
- Create a model with a modeling tool that uses modeling languages such as Sys ML or UML to perform early validation, prototyping, and design simulation.
- Create code in the appropriate programming language. It involves s team and expert review to fix problems earlier and produce quality software faster.
- Test pre-planned scenarios as part of software projects and coding, and perform performance tests to simulate application load testing.
Deploy Software for Use and Respond to and Resolve User Problems
If necessary, migrate data to new or upgraded software from existing applications or sources. Manage and measure the project to maintain quality and delivery throughout the application lifecycle, and assess the development process with replicas such as the Capability Maturity Model (CMM).
The steps of the software development process integrate into application lifecycle management (ALM). The IBM Engineering Management solution is a superset of ALM that enable the s management of mechanical, electrical, and software development at the same time.
- Analysis and specification of requirements
- Design and development
- Tests
- Deployment
- Maintenance and support.
The steps of the software development process can group into the life cycle stages, but the importance of this is that it repeat to allow continuous improvement. For example, user issues that arise in the maintenance and support stage may become requirements at the beginning of the next cycle.
Conclusion
The software development procedure is a general term that labels the overall process of developing a software product. Sometimes called the software life cycle, this process can use to implement a single application or an extensive ERP system. In addition to understanding existing models and methods, software development organizations must consider various factors to decide which way to go, such as organization size, resources, global or local market focus, skills, etc.
Also Read: Software Code – Computer, Algorithm, Examples, Related, and More