What is Custom Software Development? | Build Custom Software

You can find various software development models, including the Spiral model, Waterfall model and Agile software model. Among all these models, the agile model is the most popular one. Each software development model has a specific approach to ensure the successful delivery of the product. The methods might differ; however, there are some stages that every model includes.

Here are some necessary steps that help software development companies achieve success:

1. Initial requirements gathering
It is the initial phase when you consult a software development company for your project. During the initial requirement gathering stage, a development company holds many meetings with the client to gather all project requirements.

It is a stage when designers and developers understand project specifications, goals to be achieved with the software, who the software users are, and how do clients want the product to work. Collecting all that information helps the software development company get a sense if you can be a good match for its project.

2. Requirements analysis and planning
After gathering the requirements, the development company starts analyzing them to develop a robust software application base. That is why requirement analysis and planning is the most crucial stage of the entire development process. It is essential to perform analysis carefully for the development company to meet all client needs. In this stage, client goals are converted into a plan so that two visions can meet.

Before moving to the next stage, the client demands need to be documented and verified by both sides. Clients’ requirements are recorded in a Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document based on which the product is designed and developed. Requirement planning also ensures that there will be no misunderstandings.

3. Visual and Technical design
Once the development company understands what they have to build, they need to identify how to do it. Each software solution requires a specific approach; therefore, designing a system architecture is crucial for each project. The internal design of all the modules of the software is mentioned in the SRS document. Parameters that are taken into consideration in this stage are design modularity and risk assessment.

The external design may also be created during this stage. This stage’s deliverables include wireframes, technical architecture, database design, high fidelity screens, marvel prototype, user stories and database schema.

4. Development & Implementation
This phase can be the longest one because the actual product is being developed. Developers start programming the software, following the Software Requirement Specification document and visual and technical design. If the stages before the development stage have been completed with close attention to detail, coding can be accomplished seamlessly.

Each development team performs the development activity from a different angle depending on the software development model type. Most of the companies nowadays implement the Agile methodology that includes iterative meetings called daily Scrum meetings, during which each team member reports progress and issues on their tasks.

5. Testing
Testing is usually done after the product is developed and ready to be released to find and fix defects and deficiencies. During testing, testers perform different types of non-functional and functional testing. In the testing stage, the tested critical features are:

• Core application functions.

• Installation on localized machines.

• Compatibility on different devices.

• Text input.

In case a bug is detected, it is fixed and tested again. The testing process is continued until the software meets quality requirements. The software needs to be tested by both the development team and the client’s team.

Following are the types of software testing techniques that you should implement to test the quality of your custom software:

• Functional Testing
  Functional Testing is a type of testing that involves testing the functionalities of a software application. While executing functional tests, you need to test each and every functionality of the software. You have to see whether you are getting the required results or not. 

  Functional tests can be done both manually and with automation tools. Tools that can be used for functional testing are Selenium, soapUI, Watir and JUnit. 

   Different types of functional testing include:

  • Unit Testing
  • Smoke Testing
  • End-to-end Testing
  • Integration Testing
  • Acceptance Testing
  • Regression Testing
  • Whitebox Testing
  • Interface Testing
  • Black Box Testing

• Non-functional testing
  Non-functional testing is the testing of non-functional aspects of an application, including reliability, usability, security and performance. They are performed after functional tests. 

  With non-functional testing, you can enhance the quality of your software to a great extent. Non-functional testing is about how well the software runs and many other components. 

  Types of Non-Functional Testing include:

  • Performance Testing
  • Load Testing
  • Failover Testing
  • Usability Testing
  • Efficiency Testing
  • Localization Testing
  • Security Testing
  • Reliability Testing
  • Endurance Testing

6. Deployment and Maintenance
A software application is released after it is tested thoroughly. But some people call the project “done” once it is released. When you start using the software, you might come up with some unexpected problems. Based on the priority of issues, they can be either fixed right away or improved later.

When it comes to the deployment of software, you need to decide whether you need cloud-based deployment or on-premise deployment. 

Deploying software on-premise means that the software is located on a company’s own servers and protected by the internal firewall. Earlier, it was the only way of integrating outside software or applications with the company’s codebase. It is beneficial if your organization requires complete control over integrations with external functionality. 

However, on the other side, deploying software on the cloud means building a virtual computing environment. Cloud-based deployment provides organizations with scalable and flexible virtual computing resources. Cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and other platforms can be used for cloud-based software deployment. 

Maintenance is one of the advantages of custom software applications because a development company takes care of your project even after the release. As a part of the maintenance service, the software development company manages any upgrades and added functionality.