The software industry is rapidly growing, offering numerous opportunities for all sorts of people. Business owners can generate a great amount of revenue if they invest in software that enables them to extend services to a wider range of audiences.
As a business owner, you wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to incentivize the growing software industry. So, you must invest in software development. Here is a step-by-step guide to developing software that is just perfect for the purpose of your business:
1. Identify your goals:
First, identify what services you will provide through your application. Figure out why exactly you need to build software to provide those services. Your goal/s can be:
- To improve the service quality
- To increase sales
- To reach more people
- To engage more with the customers
- To digitalize processes
2. Market Research:
Conduct detailed and in-depth market research to understand:
- Competition in the market
- Needs and expectations of the targeted audience
- Resources required to build an app
Through detailed market research, you can understand the possible outcomes of your software.
3. Make a Plan of Action
Based on your resources and goals, you must make a practical plan of action. Your plan of action includes:
- Deciding the operating system for your software (iOS or Android)
- Software developers that you will hire
- The budget you will allocate to each of the software development processes:
- Designing
- Development
- Testing
- Marketing and Launching
4. Laying out your requirements
Make a detailed list of all of your requirements. Include all the features that you may want to include in your app. Include all details such as:
- Operating System
- Features of the app
- Monolithic or microservices app architecture (as per your preference)
- Color palette (if you already have one in mind)
- Age and other important features of the targeted audience (this would help software designers come up with a more practical design)
You may include even the most minor requirements in your list of requirements. For example, if you want your app to follow any particular security protocol, you may also include that in your list.
5. Hire App Designers and Developers
You can either hire an app designer, front-end developer, back-end developer and so on. Or, you can simply hire a custom software development company to do the job for you. You may choose the company that:
- falls into your app development budget
- offer all development services, including UI/UX designing, coding, testing, and maintaining the app.
- has enough skills, resources, and experience to incorporate all of your requirements. For example, if you want to incorporate blockchain technology into your system, the company should be able to do that for you.
- is good at communication and is highly responsive to your feedback.
6. Communicate with your developers:
It is absolutely essential to establish good communication with your software developers from the day you start working together. Accordingly, you must:
- You must decide on a convenient communication medium for all the parties involved in software development.
- Clearly communicate all of your requirements to the custom software development company.
- Be approachable to the developers in case of any queries and concerns.
- Make sure everything at every step of development is documented.
7. Take regular feedback:
At every stage of app development, it is crucial for you to know what’s happening and make sure you are satisfied with the work that is being done. Thus, you must take regular feedback and respond to the feedback actively.
You must make sure that you thoroughly go over and approve the app design before it is communicated to the developers.
8. Monitor the Development Process:
The software development process is often a very long process, entailing lots of processes such as
- Front-end app development – this includes the development of the features of the app that the users may directly engage with.
- Back-end app development – this includes the development of the aspects of the application that would ensure that the software works fine
- Testing
- Identifying and fixing any bugs
As a business owner, it is your responsibility to make sure the app development process follows the project deadline without compromising on the quality of the application.
You must make sure all security protocols are strictly followed, and everything is up-to-mark. Here is where documentation also plays a vital part. Developers must document any work they do on your application so that you can stay updated.
9. Prepare to Launch
Since you would not want all of your investment to go down the drain, you should focus on launching the software among the targeted audience. Work on the marketing strategy for your software. At this stage, you can also hire digital marketing services offered by some of the best custom software development companies.
Before launching the software, you must make sure you use it yourself and check if it performs the functions you want. You may also notice the user experience, overall performance, and ease of navigation while testing the software.
As you prepare to launch your software, you must also allocate a certain amount of your budget to its maintenance. During the first few days of launching, unexpected issues may arise in your application. These issues need to be identified and fixed in real time.
10. App maintenance:
App maintenance is an ongoing process. You must allocate an annual budget for app maintenance. As more customers start using your app and as you scale your app, you will be required to work on the app to make sure the standard of the app is maintained.
You may need to update the app as the operating systems get updated or as security issues arise. It’s always smart to keep a custom software development company on board to handle app maintenance for you.
Summary
Custom software development offers amazing growth opportunities for your businesses, but it is a very long process. As a business owner, you will be required to manage a lot of things. Thus, make smart decisions for your app development and choose a custom software development company that handles the burden of app development and maintenance.
