Last year, I developed a series of articles to break down the steps involved in developing Custom Software Solutions. I want to take a look back over that series to show you again what it looks like inside the process of building these solutions and answer any questions you may have on the process, expectations, or end results. The benefits here are limitless. It’s important to be aware of what the steps are, to assess how a business consulting organization can help, and to launch a successful custom software application that’s right for your organization.
These articles outline the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) steps involved in creating almost any custom software application/solution:
Requirements / Initial Engagement:
“Before you can start something, you must understand what that something is. The first step in software development begins with requirements gathering or, if you are working with a business consultant, the initial engagement. The requirements / initial engagement process is really a meeting with the team you are assembling and where the business needs and/or requirements are first discussed. This is the pie-in-the-sky meeting and in this initial meeting ideas and concepts should flow freely…”
I have been involved in prototyping sessions that have lasted anywhere from a half day session of single concepts to many month marathon sessions fleshing out complex concepts from user login to backend reporting processes. This is neither a phase that should be ignored nor a place to trim some cost and time out of a project. The better and more complete your prototype is the easier it will be downstream when you get to development…
This is where things begin to take shape and you can start to see what, whatever it is that you are building, is going to look like. I like to use analogies, so picture this if you will: Think of a wireframe design just like walking through the new house you are having built when just the studs are up. You can begin to see room designs, layouts, sizes, etc. In your new home, you begin to see navigation –this is what I will see from the front door, this is what the view from the kitchen will be, this is how many steps from the master bed room to the nursery that it really is. Prototypes only get you so far, like new home blueprints, but wireframes really give the project some life…
You have conceptualized an idea, you then prototyped it and received feedback. You completed a detailed wireframe and the concept is beginning to gel. Now you are ready to begin designing your software application…
This is the step that most organizations want to jump right into when they have an idea for a custom software application. It can start one of several ways. Sometimes someone has a great idea and they write some code to show it off and now management thinks this can be a product that they are selling next week. Or it can start by an inexperienced product manager thinking that they can skip all the above steps and that if they have someone start coding they can make changes as they go…
Depending on the software development methodology that you subscribe to, rounds and rounds of development will be necessary to complete features, functions and sections of your custom software application…
Jim Nagy is Co-Founder/Owner & Managing Partner of JSTD, LLC and a business consultant who specializes in technology consulting and project management. He is also our designer and primary technician. He’s an expert in software development and business applications, with over 25 years of experience in IT, 20 years in software development, 16 years in executive management, and over six years entrepreneurial experience in the technology industry.
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