Posts Tagged ‘Software Development Process’

Software development means, creating software to fulfill the specific needs of the customers. Depending upon their requirements, the software outsourcing firms develop customized software solutions. The client requirement can be an open source software or program for personal use.

Software development is an extension of computer programming. In programming, programmers design and write, test and troubleshoot, and maintain the source code of the computer programs. The source code is written in programming language. Software development extends beyond programming and it includes research and development, modification for re-use, re-engineering, maintenance and any other activity, which creates desired software product.

The software outsourcing firm can follow a structured, engineering based approach or an incremental approach depending upon the requirements of the project. However, most software development methodologies adopted by the software development firms, adopt an approach which is a mix of below mentioned stages:

• Understanding and analyzing the specific needs/problems of the customer.
• Devising a strategic plan or design for the software-based solution.
• Implementation (coding) of the software.
• Test running of the software.
• Deployment.
• Maintenance and bug fixing (quality check)

These all stages are combined together to create a software development life cycle or SDLC. Depending upon the specific needs of the clients the software outsourcing firm creates and delivers a specific software solution. This involves development of software at above mentioned stages, in different orders. The development process may devote more or less to any particular stage depending upon the requirements of the project.

The development software firm can adopt a “Waterfall” (structured) or an extreme approach. The extreme approach lays more emphasis on coding and development of automated tests and spends less time on planning and documentation. A more structured approach like the Waterfall methodology analyzes the risks and develops a detailed plan before the beginning of the coding phase of the software development cycle. This prevents design changes and re-coding in later stages of project.

Depending upon the complexity of the software requirements of the customers, software outsourcing company can select and follow the methodologies available to them. Waterfall approach is the best option when the developer understands the requirement completely and it is possible to plan a solution well ahead of time. If however, the project appears to be a complex one and is prone to risks then the best option is to adopt an extreme approach, like an incremental methodology. It is a step-by-step process and minimizes the risks associated with such project. It is advisable to adopt extreme approach when a software problem does allow enough space for proper planning and development of the project. The present day software outsourcing company has at its disposal, different methodologies to develop software solutions for its clients. Waterfall, Prototyping, Incremental, Spiral and Rapid Application Development (RAD) are some of the widely used methodologies by the modern day software outsourcing firm.

Mr. Jim John is the Sr. SEO Expert in Tatvasoft. TatvaSoft is a leading software development company in India. The company focuses on custom application development for all the clients cost effectively. TatvaSoft delivers superior solutions pertaining to software development using advanced technologies such Asp.Net, C#, VB.Net, PHP, Silverlight, Flex and many others. Clients get comprehensive software development services with a round the clock uninterrupted support.

Author: Jim John
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Software engineering, known as SE, is the development, design, maintenance and documentation of software by applying practices and various technologies from fields such as computer science, engineering, application domains, project management, digital asset management and interface design.

The conception, development and verification of a software system is what software engineering is all about. It is necessary to identify, define, realize and verify the resultant software’s required characteristics. Necessary testing is required for attributes such as reliability, functionality, testability, maintainability, ease of use, availability and portability. In software engineering, software can be verified to meet these requirements by having design and technical specifications prepared and implemented correctly. The characteristics of the software development process are also important in software engineering. Development itself, development duration and risks in software development are examples of such characteristics.

A computer uses software as part of its system that allows the hardware to operate properly. Software can be system software or application software. System software includes the main operating system and a variety of other utilities that enable the computer and its applications to run. Application software includes the computer programs and relevant documentation responsible for end-user data processing tasks. This kind of software is developed for such tasks as word processing, payroll, inventory and production control.

Software Development

A series of processes undertaken systematically to improve a business through using computerized information systems is what is known as software development. There are two major components to software development, which are systems analysis and design.

Systems analysis is the specification of what exactly the system is required to do, or the main objective. Design is about how to make the system do what is required of it. For system analysis, it is required to study the current system by certain procedures in order to gather and interpret data and facts, identify any problems and use this data to improve the system currently in use. System design refers to the process of developing a new system, concentrating heavily on the technical specifications and other specifications that make the system operations.

Software Development Life Cycle

Software Development Life Cycle, or SDLC, is a sequence of events done by designers, analysts and users to develop and execute an information system. There are a number of stages to this practice, which can overlap. The stages are Preliminary investigation (which is feasibility study), Determination of system requirements (which is analysis), Design of system, Development of software, System testing, System Implementation and System Maintenance in that order.

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Author: Gabriel J. Adams
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process adopted and followed during the development of software. Also known as software life cycle and software process, there are quite a few stages for SDLC.

Requirements analysis

Being acquainted with the specific requirements of the desired software is the first important step. This requires skill and experience in software engineering so that the exact software is developed

Specification analysis

A software development process enters the specification stage once the deliverables are figured out. This is the stage when the software is properly described and written to understand. Specifications are most important for external interfaces that must remain stable.

Architectural analysis

Architecture refers to a conceptual representation of the software system. A well-defined architecture ensures that the software has all it needs to meet the requirements, and accommodate future requirements if any. The architecture step also addresses interfaces between the software system and other software products, as well as the underlying hardware or the host operating system.

Coding

The coding stage is a widely followed step in software development. Here the design is reduced to code for better understandability.

Testing

The coding stage is followed by the testing phase. This is the most important stage of any software development life cycle where extensive testing is done to ensure that coding done by different software developers work together in harmony.

An important part of software development is documentation. Many a times this step is overlooked, only to land up in problems whenever future maintenance and additions are a necessity. Meanwhile, many software projects are found to fail because of lack of training among end users. Ideally, training is an important part of the software development life cycle where end users have all their queries solved by the developers.

Earlier, the entire process of software development consisted only of a developer writing the code of software. However, today the scenario is quite big, complicated, and involves teams of architects, analysts, programmers, testers and users who work in tandem to create codes. This is the main reason why SDLC has become such important. In other words, without a well-defined development life cycle, software often have found to either fail, or lack performance.

Anirban Bhattacharya is a journalist in the field of offshore IT outsourcing as a whole and has written more than 250 articles for various websites. The ideas behind these articles have been drawn after performing comprehensive research on offshore IT outsourcing. To know more about offshore IT outsourcing and to have a look at other research based articles written by Anirban Bhattacharya please visit SynapseIndia offshore outsourcing services.

Author: Anirban Bhattacharya
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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