Looking for a Custom Software Development Process? Here’s Everything You Need to Know!
Personalized software will offer you a lot more independence in terms of having the exact functionalities that you are looking for in an application that you develop for your business operations. It is bespeaking like no other off-the-shelf market product and the custom software development process in its entirety focuses on making the application tailor-suited for the requirements that you set your eyes upon for seamless usage and operational adaptation.
This project will route through the same processes like market research or operational research to understand the business requirement for insights gathering, target audience segmentation, initial wireframing, code construction, design and deployment, market testing, bug fixes, etc.
The Major Software Development Processes Would be Revolving Around the Following:
1. Determining if You’re Going to Go for Buy or Build
While custom software development has a lot of advantages over the subscription model that you opt for, it also comes with its own set of considerations that you should take note of before you kick to start your development efforts.
Commercial off-the-shelf software is deployed with tried and tested methods that have been in usage over and over again. Hence, they are less prone to bugs, operational ruptures, and application shortcomings. Since they are readily available, there is no elapsing time for development procedures and can be readily availed on demand. But on the other hand, custom software must be coded from scratch and the turnaround times might take a lot more while than usual. You must fix a timeline prior before you go about with your entire development cycle to see if it’s feasible and if your processes can follow your existing model till then.
The budget also is one of the major deciding factors. The custom software development process might incur a lot more costly than going for commercial off-the-shelf solutions. But at the same time, the returns that you reap out of custom applications in terms of reducing the redundancy and enhancing operational effectiveness will happen with custom software over the other alternative. So, weigh all these factors against each other to decide if you’re going to opt for custom software development services.
2. Choosing Your Tech Stack
Both your front-end and back-end tech stack should be carefully picked up according to the end-product specifications that you are on the lookout for. Your front-end is what the customers or your clients will interact with and it traces its origin from frameworks like CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Bootstrap, etc. For mobile applications, Swift and Kotlin/Java will be used for a separate operating system like IOS and Android.
Your back-end on the other hand is what powers the running of your application from scratch and it forms a bridge between the server-side and the user-end. Linux, PHP, MySQL, Ruby, Python, Apache are some of the tech stacks that are used for this. For Microsoft operational system, there are a set of separate tech stacks that are in foundational usage. .NET, C#, ReactXP, etc. are some of them.
3. Software Development Life Cycle
Refers to the development, reporting, and progress check model that you mutually fixate with the web development company in place.
The waterfall model and agile model are the two systems that are majorly adopted in the current market. The waterfall model has step-by-step stage crossing and it is conventionally followed because of its simple nature. It offers you a fixed timeline and turnaround time for launch but the major con here is that you’ll not be able to modify the requirements you initially set out with since the overall custom software development process cycle relies on fixed incremental stages of operations and build.
An agile model can be effective when you want to keep improvising your software on the go and change the initial functionalities you set out with as you see different iterations during each stage to fine-tune your final end product.
4. Calculating Your Budget and Buffer
Your custom software might trace a budget that is attributed to a lot of factors like the complications involved in the development, manpower required time involved, and hourly rates. All of these are more or less intertwined. Most probably, you’d either be furnished with a package rate for the requirements you present a developer or it might be calculated based on the overall time involved on an hourly rate basis. If you want the reduce the overall time taken, you can probably lessen the time involved in the initial stages like the wireframing, tech stack allocations, and even go for a readily available user interface than designing one from scratch.
Always add up a buffer of 20-30% to your budget for accommodating any unforeseen costs incurred. With a company like iTrobes in the picture, you’d be able to get a fixed quotation that calculates even the buffer in prior.
5. Tackling all the Risks Involved
When you’re in the development cycle especially with outsourced third parties, there come a lot of liabilities that you should be well prepared for. There might be a lot of miscommunications, affected quality of outputs, missed deadlines or turn-around times, a lot of back-and-forth dealings, sudden escalations than the initially proposed budget, unforeseen bug fixes or testing delays, etc remains unavoidable.
Always devise a clear-cut plan of action and scope of work documents in a legally bound format. Get a fixed quotation at the start and accept mutually on a monthly retainer model or payment model after completing certain milestones. Be firm about the source code ownerships and other technicalities to avoid any complications, breaches, or duplications in the future.
Going for an expert in the field like iTrobes Technologies might be your best bet when it comes to intensive tasks like your custom software development process. They’ll provide you with their years of hands-on expertise and maintain their turnaround promises, no matter what comes their way. Get in touch with us with your software vision, we’ll make it a reality!
