Software development or product development is nothing but developing software using different phases and delivering it on the market at the right time. The overall process of software development is undertaken with the team by taking their views into consideration about the product. Customers are looking for valuable products in the market, and their requirements often change rapidly, especially in software development. Various methodologies are adopting a flexible strategy to bring constant change throughout the process to deliver a valuable product to the customers in a short time.

How is the Workflow of the Methodologies?

• The workflow is to prioritize and envision the projects.
• In the step of inception, certain things are discussed, such as funding, identification of team members, and initial requirements of environments.
• The team focuses on the feedback and requirements of iteration to deliver valuable software.
• There is a step of testing before the release of a product where the quality of the product is assured for a final release.
• Then, it comes to the step of production, where the software is given continuous support.
• The very last one is retirement, where the life activities such as customer migration and notification come to an end.

In short, these are the steps followed in the process of workflow within the organization.

What are the main principles of Software Development?

If we talk about the key principles of Software Development, are divided into three which are as follows:

Inevitable Change: While developing a product, the project should adjust to the changes required for the product.

Delivering Results: Of course, there are processes and tools, but the final delivery of results is the most important one.

Customer Satisfaction: The customer’s requirements play an important role, which is why the first priority is given to the needs of the customers rather than the development’s requirements.

The aim is to satisfy the customers, and for that, the team undertakes different tasks like writing documents, making plans, establishing processes, testing, improving, etc., to deliver the right product to the end-user.

How to Make the Software Development Process Successful?

Even though the process has several benefits and drawbacks, it can be accomplished in a successful way if it is carried out in the right manner. The various methodologies are usually used in certain conditions, especially when a product needs a change or improvement, and the team gets into the process of meeting the requirements of the customers as per their preferences. For improving a product, the team members collaborate with a Product Owner and other stakeholders effectively so as to deliver the working product to the end-user. However, the team follows the below-mentioned steps to make this method successful.

• Regular meetings are conducted to move forward every iteration, make accounts of workers, and maintain open communication.
• The team also gets involved in delivering a live demonstration of the final product of every iteration to get the progress in the product.
• Being in the process of project/product development, they feel free to get feedback from the customers and stakeholders, and it has been shared among the whole team for alterations before the start of the next iteration.
• Based on the feedback received, the team focuses on making changes in product development for further improvement.

Phases of Software Development:

1. Project Start Off

The very first phase of Software Development is the project initiation, where the project vision is discussed with the team. This phase is also referred to as envision phase, under which the team members are identified, and work resources are determined to accomplish the project development. Therefore, it is important to stock the resources so that the economic feasibility can be determined to get the project approved.

2. Making Plans

This phase is conducted to make plans regarding the development of a product along with the entire team and their sponsors and recognizes what they are exactly expecting. This is the only phase when the lifecycle actually takes shape for the entire team. For developing a successful product, they carry out discussions to make things possible by forming a backlog. The stories have been formed based on the customer’s viewpoint of the product, and it comprises different kinds of users and their demands and why they want it. The project would also be planned on the basis of finance and functions where the risks will be measured so that the milestones can be developed with the very first release plan.

3. Requirements

It is necessary to write documentation before designing a project, and it includes the listing of initial requirements. The list consists of supportive features, non-supportive features, and end results of the project. However, the list should only include the ones that are highly essential and avoid the ones that are of no use as the main features work better than others. Therefore, the Developers should take care of this phase as non-crucial features would simply waste time in implementing the crucial tasks. At last, the Product Owner and client will end up this phase with a review of the requirements and thereby making them more relevant in further iterations.

4. Design

There is a designing phase in the software development life cycle, which is divided into two, such as the architectural structure and the visual design of the product or application. In this phase, the Product Owner conducts a meeting to gather their team and make them know about the requirements formed during the previous phase. Then the discussions proceed with the ways to tackle these requirements and suggest necessary tools needed to get great outcomes in the very end. Further iterations are carried out with the discussion of the implementation of the internal structure and features of the product that is going to be released.

In addition, the Developers rough a sketch of the UI in the stage of software development as the user experience and user interface play a great role in product success.  Therefore, the Product Owner can look for possible competitors to review the pros and cons of their work, and accordingly, you can grab an idea and bring improvements to the product. Furthermore, the initial designs are refined in the further process and would make changes to meet the needs.

5. Development

This phase is a Development phase in which the codes are written, and design documents are converted into the actual software. This phase takes a lot of time, and of course, it is the key phase of the entire software development process.

6. Testing

During the software development life cycle, the testing phase is very important so as to ensure that the software is user-friendly and bug-free. In this phase, there is even involvement of the quality assurance team who carries out several tests to make sure that the goals of the business are met with respect to the software.  The testing procedure is done again and again to adopt interoperability, user acceptance, system integration, and so on.

7. Deployment

The Deployment process of the software is done on the servers after a series of testing to offer them to the customers no matter if it is for a demo or actual use. And then, the installed software is updated with further iterations like the bugs resolving and the introduction of fresh features.

8. Review

At last, the Product Owner again holds a meeting to gather the team and make them review the progress made in the software development as per the requirements. During this phase, the team conveys their ideas regarding the product and the previous stages of project development, and the product owner respectfully agrees to their propositions with this, the phases of Software Development come to an end with a new start the phases along with a new iteration.

Final Words:

Agile methodology is all about developing a product or app with the use of a structured, iterative process. This process normally indicates the smoother workflow of the process carried out by the Product Owner, the team, and other clients. There is no specific way to undertake the process as it all depends on the convenience of a particular team. It is the team that decides what fits them or what does not fit them. While forming a product, every enterprise has its own working flow and phases created to achieve its business goals. However, what is important for each company is just the final product delivered to the customers at the end. The paradigms should be adopted in every project to deliver excellent results, and they should be something that meets the needs of the client’s business. If you would like to develop software for your company, you should definitely try to propose the above-mentioned Software Development Life Cycle phases for a better release of your product.