Under the continuous development of technology and technical science today, software development is a very necessary activity, bringing many benefits to businesses as well as improving people’s lives. So what is software development? What are the stages of software development? This article will help you answer these questions.
I. What is software development?
According to IBM (International Business Machines) – An American multinational computer technology corporation defines: “Software development refers to a set of computer science activities dedicated to the process of creating, designing, deploying and supporting software.”
In short, software development is the activity of translating user needs into a software product through computer programming.
What is software development? Image: teamkgsr.com
II. Main types of software
1. System software
This is a type of software that is programmed to operate and control the hardware, allowing the user to interact with the computer’s hardware effectively.
It provides core functions such as operating system, disk management, hardware management, and other operational needs.
The purpose of the System Software is to manage system resources and provide the foundation for the Application Software to run on.
2. Application software
This type of software is written in a high-level language. It is designed for users to perform specific tasks, meeting specific requirements.
Learn more about application software here.
There are also other types of software which are driver software, middleware, and programming software.
III. Software development process
This process includes different stages to create working software. It is mainly conducted by software developers, software engineers, and programmers. Here are the 6 stages in the process.
Software development process – Image: teqblogs.com
1. Define requirements
Developers need extensive market research to determine product viability. The company can obtain information about customer needs by conducting surveys, answering questions, and listening to feedback from potential customers.
From there, they can create an SRS (Software Requirements Specification) document that described the software’s goals and expected performance.
2. Requirements analysis
After the requests are collected, this data is analyzed to ensure its validity. This second phase provides a detailed outline for software developers to focus on. This is also the stage where programmers choose their approach to software development.
Requirements Analysis Stage – Image: milestarbabies.com
3. Design
Design is the stage of choosing the programming language and database that best suits your software, applying methods and tools to create a model of the system to use.
This step provides a template for developers and testers. It also helps to reduce the risk of errors and delays in the finished product.
4. Coding and Implementation
Any previously designed features need to be changed into code and all components must be implemented. Developers write code based on product specifications and requirements agreed in the previous three phases.
This is the longest phase in the entire protocol.
5. Testing
The testing phase is completed before releasing the product to users and this is also a very important stage. If anything goes wrong during this phase or any errors are noted in the codes, it can lead to repeating the encoding process until completion.
Testing phase – Image: performancelabus.com
6. Deployment and maintenance
After all the errors from the coding are eliminated in the testing phase, the next step is the implementation phase – delivering the product to the customer for use.
Based on customer feedback after using the product in practice, developers can improve their products and eliminate possible bugs or vulnerabilities. Also at this maintenance phase, developers need to take care of existing products and keep the software up to date to make sure it works well at all times.
Thus, above are the 6 steps in the software development process. All stages are closely related and need to follow the process to ensure effectiveness.
Hope this article can help you understand “What is Software Development?” and overview of the software development process. This is also a field with very wide career opportunities and good income now and in the future.
