Software Development | Product Development |
Software products exist in every sphere of life. Examples include smart homes and offices, self-driving automobiles, and more. To ensure the quality of the software product a series of stages must be adhered to. There must be a quality software product development life cycle in place.
Here there is a need to record all activities in new locations. Software product development enables you to track inventory movements.
With the increase in the number of clients the number of data increases. Software product development better organizes the data and enables improved decision-making.
The quality of your offerings should be stellar even if you become a bigger entity. Software product development enables better adherence to change government regulations and gauges the quality of your suppliers as well as the quality of your offerings.
Clients will immediately switch to your competitors if your product is subpar. To eliminate a large number of complaints and high dissatisfaction percentage software product development is needed. The latter makes sure your supply chain management is seamless.
Maybe your data collection process is outdated. There may exist miscommunication issues between the staff and managers. Your enterprise is performing below its capability. Software product development could be the solution.
Sometimes the firm spends most of the money on a particular software product’s design and development. Very little money is allocated for sales and marketing. As a result, even a stellar product does not sell. The reason is poor awareness of the offering among the target audience.
If the firm delayed the release of the product, it is possible by that time there are many competitive offerings in the market. On the other hand, if the organization rushed the development of the solution the result could be a low-quality offering shunned by potential customers.
The offering will not be accepted by customers if it doesn’t contain their specific desired features or if similar offerings are already present in the market.
In case the product is designed for a very limited market segment there will be very few buyers. As such the investment expenses may not be recovered. If the product is too generic it is unlikely to stand out or draw the attention of the target customers.
Too low pricing results in business losses. On the other hand, too high pricing drives away customers.
Poor coding, a non-user-friendly interface, and a flawed design may be present.
Software products cannot be developed in a random or haphazard manner. No matter what the type and size of the software product its development should follow a systemic process. Only then will you obtain a high-quality software product that is complete in all respects, meets client/market expectations, and works flawlessly in all environments and conditions. We take a look at the important and relevant stages of the product development life cycle below.
This is the initial stage of the product development life cycle. Brainstorm with your team for ideas. List your goals. Think about how you can make your offering stand out. Determine the target audience. Outline the functionality of your software product. Discuss how to make your product unique in the market. A designated team studies the idea followed by a market analysis. The potential competitors in the market are identified.
Identify the risks associated with the development of the new software product. Is the technology available to develop the software? How much money will it cost to develop the product? Do you have enough time available to develop it before your competitors do? Both qualitative and quantitative market research should be performed. This is a very important stage of the product development life cycle.
This stage confirms whether the product is technically and commercially feasible or not. It identifies possible challenges in the product development life cycle as well as the effort required to address the challenges successfully.
The user experience and user interface experts are involved in the stage. The software product architecture is developed. Also, the look and feel of the product are determined. You get a clear idea of the interface of the product. The different components and their interaction with each other can be visualized. You have the option to use wireframes in this stage of the product development life cycle.
Get your developers to create a prototype and have it examined by potential customers. Incorporate their feedback and suggestions into the next cycle of prototype development. You will get a clear idea of the desired product and its chances of success in the fiercely competitive market. Prototyping is integral to the product development life cycle.
Here programmers use the design documents as a guide to building the desired software product. The front-end, back-end, and programming logic are the deliverables in this stage. Database administrators are also involved in this stage of the product development life cycle.
The quality assurance team is involved in this phase. Unit testing is carried out to ensure each module works flawlessly. Integration testing is carried out to see whether the product works as expected as a whole. Ideally there should be both manual and automated testing. The reason being automated testing in certain scenarios cannot replace the human way of checking software drawbacks. The advantage of automated testing is that it is faster and more comprehensive than manual testing.
Functional testing ensures that all the planned software product features are present. Performance testing finds out whether the product can withstand stressful scenarios such as multiple users or multiple transactions. Finally, there is user acceptance testing. The earlier the testing is carried out in the software product development cycle the lesser the chances of bugs spiraling out of control. Pre-emptive testing is vital in the product development life cycle.
After user acceptance testing the software is corrected for any flaws that are discovered. The software product is released in the working environment of the client. If the product is simply a single release is done. On the other hand, if the software product is complex, it is best to go for a staggered release. This is a critical juncture in the product development life cycle.
If the software slows down with time or there is the discovery of bugs, maintenance is imperative. The software product has to adapt to changes in technology and/or business. It has to be made future-proof so that it has a competitive advantage in the market. Support should be available round the clock so there is no downtime of the software. Otherwise, there could be a loss of existing customers and adverse effects on the company’s brand as well as reputation. This is probably the most important part of the product development life cycle.
Note that the software product development life cycle is not static. As technologies and markets change, so does the product development life cycle. Different firms follow different product development life cycles. This is because each firm is different and so are its technical and business exposure and experiences.
The popularity of the Agile Model
Agile methodology is popularly leveraged for developing software products. The project is split into small increments or short time spans. After a working model is created it is presented for feedback and testing. Changes are incorporated in the next cycle of development. Agile is ideal to reduce software bugs and incorporate changing business and technological environments. Apply the Agile technique in your product development life cycle for superior results.
You may want to develop a new software product or upgrade an existing one. If you lack the in-house capability to develop/modify the quality and contemporary software products it is wise to outsource the software project. Study the outsourcing firm’s website to get an idea about its capabilities. Read the case studies diligently. Identify a few prospective outsourcing firms. Perform SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis along with a team. Ask whether the firm’s software product development process is mature and has the capacity to generate high-quality and flawlessly working deliverables. Ask for documents of the firm’s software product development life cycle.
Focaloid is a stellar software development products and services company catering to clients in the US & UK. We have the necessary expertise and experience in software product development. Our software product development life cycle document is comprehensive and updated regularly to reflect the real-time technological and business landscape. Focaloid has a dynamic team of talented and seasoned professionals in various domains and technologies. Over time we have established a mature outsourcing model which is productive, efficient as well as effective. You can safely rely on us to deliver outstanding software solutions and services within stipulated deadlines. Contact us at your earliest to know how we can help you. We are committed to superior client satisfaction and mutual growth.
Published:18/04/2024
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