What is a software development process?

Or what do you need to build a good-working software development strategy?

SDLC stands for the system/software development life cycle – a process consisting of specific stages that starts from the moment the decision to make software is made and ends at the moment when developers stop supporting the software.

If we could imagine the whole cycle as the ladder, there would be stages:

Idea generation

No matter where the idea's born: in your head, after a fruitful brainstorming at the office or your favorite bar in the evening.

Worked-out ideas are settled in the project requirements document.

At this stage, the idea becomes something tangible and visible. Here you can write everything on your own or unite a complete team of different specialists: sales, dev team, business analysts, testing engineers, marketers, or experts in similar products.

About the unique role of Business Analysts: these guys turn your idea into a complete doc with technical requirements for the system. These requirements are called the Software Requirement Specification (SRS).

Design

During this stage, software architects make a base according to the requirements. Also, we should choose the perfect-matching stack of technologies, database structure, data flows, etc.

Then designer prepares the mockup with all the needed graphical elements.

Development

Finally, developers get design mockups and project requirements and start coding. Code, code, and once more – code!

By the way, details in project requirements are essential: more details = developers know how to use stack properly > fewer bugs > you get a straightforward project faster!

Quality Control

Testing work helps developers to understand how their code works and how to fix bugs if they appear. Here specialists like QA engineers work to prevent errors in the future work of an application. QAs write bug reports, send them to developers who have worked in the determined feature or scope of work, and the dev rewrites code where needed. Then our QA engineer will check everything once more until the bug disappears.

Deployment

Briefly: developers set up working environments, install, configure and launch the product. Then the product is ready for use.

Support

Nothing in this world stays still, so developers should upgrade every application. It looks like new requirements appear > development & testing > deployment. Repeat once more when needed.

What is quality in software development?

It is an interesting question. In simple words, the customer gets a high-quality project when it is bug-free and made following the project requirements. So, specialists should make every development stage as well so the user could enjoy every click during the usage of an application. Thus, all the user needs are covered with the easy-to-use app.

Who's responsible for the high quality of a product? Everyone on the team, but Quality Assurance engineers especially. Keep reading, and we would like to explain who's responsible for the overall quality of a project except for developers!

But first...

What do we mean while talking about software quality?

There are a few standards that companies check after the project is completed. What must you pay attention to?

Functional suitability

When we talk about the criteria, we should pay attention to 3 sub criteria:

Functional completeness – system capacity to provide users with all the required functions correctly;
Functional appropriateness – how does the system operates functions and tasks for the users' demands;
Functional correctness – when the expectations and reality are the same: the user will turn on push notifications during work, so the function works correctly, and the user knows about all the freshest messages in time.

What does the software with functional suitability provide?

Firstly, it reduces operation errors in the software. Secondly, it guarantees that users will be satisfied with the overall appropriate work of your product. Thirdly, it ensures compliance with the needs of a client.

Reliability

ISO25010 shows how the product works under some circumstances in a particular period. Here we have also some sub-characteristics:

Recoverability – how the system recovers the data when a failure appears.
Maturity – how the software meets needs for reliability under regular operation.
Fault tolerance – how does the system deal with tasks with hardware or software errors.
Availability – is the system available for work when the user needs it.

Operability

This point means that the product or system has attributes that make it easy to operate and control.

Maintainability

It requires a few sub-characteristics:

Modularity – how good the project works when it has different modules & degree that shows how good does a specific module work or cooperate with another one;
Reusability of modules and system overall;
Analysability – how detailed we can analyze causes of failures or parts to be modified;
Modifiability – how effectively coders could modify the project without loss of quality;
Testability – how do test criteria meet the actual work of modules.
Transferability of code
Security
Performance efficiency
Compatibility

Points 5-8 have no additional sub-characteristics; thus, our writer has just written them down. Hopefully, you understand what they mean. If you would like to check the software for these points – we would be more than happy to help you with a review and ways to improve your project. Just book a call here: cgsteam.io

So, who is a QA engineer?

A person who is in a special love with developers. Especially loved by devs when they send bug reports in the late evening or more than 3 times in an hour.

All joking aside, it is a software quality assurance and functional testing specialist.

If to go into specifications, QA engineers have several branches.

An automation QA Engineer – someone who writes tests based on scripts for test automation.

Manual QA Engineer – someone engaged in analyzing and improving the testing process.

Quality Control specialist – responsible for product quality control. Their task is to analyze the testing results and monitor the identification and elimination of defects in the product.

And what about software quality engineer skills:

bug tracking system knowledge (Jira, YouTrack, etc.);
understanding of the life cycle and stages of software development;
deep understanding of Agile/SCRUM methodologies;
knowledge and understanding of the CI&CD system: GitLab, Docker, Kubernetes programs or their analogs;
testing of software solutions based on the technology stack;
writing test plans and test cases;
good level of English for sure!

Do we have a QA team in-house?

Of course! Our engineers usually take care of juicy bug-free code. By the way, we provide our clients with these services for free because we value the high quality of products we make.

How do we ensure quality in software development?

Here we have a perfect software development strategy (not the only one, but we can't put everything on a table).

CGS-team always pays special attention to explicit estimation and the full scope of work. In our estimation tables, we usually strive to write down every needed process and predict how many hours it will take according to the requirements of a client.

Plus one crucial thing: regular testing and an attentive Project Manager who helps deal with all the tasks as quickly as possible.

Moreover, code reviews help a lot. When a tech lead does a complete code review, he checks the code for its:

maintainability (how easily IT specialists can maintain software);
reusability (how devs could reuse parts of the code in future versions);
portability (how usable the same software is in different environments);
reliability (how correct the code will work).

And as a spicing – we have our code style. That means our developers use specific code combinations to provide exceptional code quality. And as a result, we guarantee that a project's quality will also be excellent.

How do our clients measure code quality?

The success recipe is simple: an individualized approach to every client & project! When we present the project to our customers, we always provide them with free 2-weeks of support to guarantee the highest quality of application/platform for 100%. So when the project is released, the client starts using it, and if something goes wrong – we immediately fix it. But such situations are a most likely exception to the rule since our development strategies are accurate for custom projects.

How much does the software development cost?

Many people say that nowadays software development costs too much. Is it TOO MUCH? Everyone has their limits, so budgets differ a lot. But if you have already asked yourself about the need to develop a product, you should consider how your project will meet expectations. Often these two pictures can be like chalk and cheese because 'good developers cost too much for me'.

If you need an approximate price – according to Cleveroad, prices could be around $49500 for an eCommerce application, $37000 - $48000 for a marketplace, and from $41000 for the booking app.

So, is it profitable for you to pay for high-quality software?

When people have been choosing the language they want to talk in, CGS-team has chosen the language of facts. Thus here are a few of them.

What do we get in addition to pure code? Qualitative maintenance.

Hands-on experience always helps! We can hire the same developers (or others, the choice is yours) further to expand the product's functionality without undue effort. For example, when you hire a young developer at a lower price, their experience will not always correspond to the level of work needed.

Imagine that this specialist wrote you the basis of the application, but he did not consider several aspects because he has never worked with such a stack. As a result, you get a fully functional product with "This is not a bug, it is a unique feature" functionality. Sounds witty, but it's not until you've experienced such a joke in reality.

Think more importantly: a complete coincidence of expectations and reality, or pitfalls in the form of floating bugs/code that can fly at the first upgrades?

Another situation: during the development, the testing phase is skipped or conducted improperly. "We tested, it works; all done." And here, the product looks good from the outside. Everything seems very juicy. Still, you can not edit the site's text through the admin page because the tester did not consider your comments regarding the editing of information. And you discovered this nuance after a month of using the product, and you will have to pay again to make changes.

Moreover, not only financially, but also spend a lot of time developing ideas, building new project requirements, and more. We do not think that while developing new functionality, your customers will be delighted with outdated product prices or the completely incorrect operation of the site. What about your employees? When they have to answer thousands of calls with outraged customers or explain the same thing 100 times a day like a parrot in a cage.

Invest in developing quality software to take care of your nervous system and the mental health of employees and customers. It will thank you for reliable work and profits for many years of its life cycle.

Okay, we figured that out. What about adding new functionality? Not the "new" one that was supposed to work correctly in version 1.0, but entirely more complex new features.

You may not even know how many small nuances are hidden in the code of your product. Honestly, even the developer himself may not immediately notice it. Especially considering that the code may contain several thousand lines and re-reading the whole as an art book does not make sense.

All the small nuances not only spoil the overall picture but also interfere with implementing new features. During the development, devs will be forced to fix everything to get the perfect code "without impurities" and only then begin to develop new features. Thus, the overall process is slowed down at times. Do you need it? I don't think so.

From our point of view, it seems that it is much better to pay more at once but to get quality work and not worry once again that something is not working or working incorrectly. But this is a disadvantage, quite significant. Yes, you save time, which you can spend on optimizing processes, your business, or your leisure, but you have to pay for this time. And often, this amount is at least twice as much. It is very tempting to save, but to have more money, yes. But unfortunately, it's like roulette - never predict that it may not go as you would like. Of course, the developers can expect this, but we don't think they will let you know…

Conclusion

Good job! You have already concluded these long-read, congrats.

Hopefully, our article is helpful for you, so now you can check the quality of your product. Or you can delegate these processes to our tech department. What do you choose?

Infrastructure as a Code Explained