In the ever-evolving world of technology, the journey of software product development can seem like traversing through a labyrinth with twists and turns. However, this journey doesn’t have to be intimidating or overly complex, especially when you have a comprehensive guide to navigate you through it.
This article will discuss the process of software product development, along with its steps, models and methodologies.
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What is Software Product Development?
Software product development is the comprehensive process of creating a new software product or enhancing an existing one.
However, the definition only scratches the surface. To truly understand software product development, we need to delve deeper into its core constituents.
- Customer-centric: The end user or customer is at the heart of software product development. Whether it’s an app that helps people track their fitness journey or an advanced data analytics tool for businessesβthe aim is to create a product that solves problems and adds value for the user. It implies understanding customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points.
- Iterative and evolving: Software product development is more than just a one-and-done process. It’s an iterative process where a product goes through multiple development cycles, testing, and feedback before it’s ready for the market. And the work continues beyond there. Once the product is deployed, it requires regular updates and improvements to stay relevant and competitive.
- Balance of technical and business considerations: On the surface, software product development might seem purely technical. However, it also involves a fair amount of business and market considerations. Right from choosing the right tech stack and architecture to pricing the product, marketing it, and ensuring it complies with relevant regulationsβthere’s a lot more to software product development than just writing code.
What is The Value of Product Development For Business?
The rapid digital transformation and technological advancements in recent years have made software development an indispensable part of almost every business, irrespective of the industry they operate in. Here are the main reasons why businesses need software development:
- Business processes optimization: Every company has inner procedures that are subject to specific rules. It is a bad idea to change established processes to introduce any software product. It can disrupt the stability of existing corporate systems and affect overall productivity. It is considerably efficient and reliable to create a new product based on the specifics of the business strategy, procedures, and system requirements.
- Oriented approach: No boxed solution can cover all the specific needs, as every business is unique. Product development outsourcing guarantees attention to your needs. The same functionality can work for one but be useless for another company. Developers create exactly the features that fulfill the demands and needs of a particular business and avoid unnecessary features. Also, an individual approach eliminates the extra cost of time and money for functions that are definitely not useful.
- Adapting to change: Business needs are constantly changing. Enterprise software solutions must tend to change. A boxed product with common features creates scalability limits and flexibility. A custom solution can be scaled as the number of users increases and the list of tasks expands. It is easier to add new functions and tools to integrate with third-party systems and apps. That is, do everything to adapt to changes β whether in the market, user preferences, or the requirements of the business itself.
- Increasing Competitiveness: To stay ahead of the competition, it is worth abandoning the standard solutions that everyone uses. For example, SaaS application development can bring business processes to a new efficiency level. And most importantly, competitors will not understand how exactly they did it. Thus, a product tailored to precise needs can become a serious advantage.
Types of Software Product Development
As per the purpose, the software is divided into 3 types:
- System: A part of the system that does not solve specific problems but helps manage the deviceβs components, to support the operation of app software. It includes OS, drivers, and add-ons (language packs, screen extension settings). The purpose of creation is to ensure smooth operation with the device.
- Instrumental: Automation tools for debugging, tuning, rewriting the program code. We are talking about compilers, interpreters, debuggers, editors, and high-level translators. The purpose of creation is to help create and maintain new software solutions.
- Application: Programs for interaction with the user. These are text editors, word processors, spreadsheets, graphic editors, audio and video players, translators, browsers, databases, and business systems. The purpose of creation is to perform a specific action and solve a specific problem.
Application programs constitute the most extensive category. They are handy for businesses as they help solve critical enterprise tasks: warehouse management (CTRM /ETRM), customer service (CRM), resource planning (ERP), content management (CMS).
Glorium Technologies has created various software development projects. Here are some examples of Glorim case studies.