The whole process of custom software development is classified into a number of steps, where a specific operation is performed in each of these steps. Each step plays an important role in the entire development process. The process is classified into 7 steps; planning, analysis, design, development and implementation, testing, deployment and maintenance. Here is the description of every step that may give you a better understanding of this process.
1. Planning
Planning is the first stage in the software development which involves planning the total project to estimate the possible benefits and drawbacks of the development project. It involves defining the product, developing the plan and managing the project plan throughout the process.
2. Analysis
The analysis phase aims at performing statistics and gathering requirements. The requirements are decided and gathered depending on the planning phase results. After the project requirements are gathered, they are made ready for use.
3. Design
The aim of the design phase is to come up with the architecture of the system. This is a very important stage in the process and acts as a benchmark stage as the errors made until this stage can be eliminated here. In most cases, a prototype of the whole software – which represents the final product as a model – is developed. This helps to detect and remove any technical and design flaws.
4. Development and Implementation
This is the most important stage in the whole process as the major part of the entire project is executed here. It involves designing the technical architecture and maintaining the database records and development process programs. One of the major activities is implementing the model into the final product.
5. Testing
This is the final stage of the software development process and it’s the stage where the product is fine-tuned before presenting it to the client. During this stage, the bugs and logical errors are removed. The test procedures and conditions, which are set in the analysis stage, are applied here. If the final output is equal to the expected output, then project has met its target and the software should be given to the user.
6 & 7. Deployment and Maintenance
The maintenance phase is a very important process as it can determine whether or not the final product is efficient. If there are few maintenance sessions, then the product was designed well. The maintenance team monitors any change in the organization and efficiency of the software. This phase also comes with an information desk, which helps to maintain a good relationship between the creator and the client.