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How to Create Software: Key Tasks, Roles, Cost Factors

Delivering software development services since 1989 and practicing iterative Agile software delivery since 2007, Vertscend helps efficiently plan and build software products.

How to Develop Your Own Software Product: Summary

A development process for new software includes software ideation, planning, designing architecture, UX and UI, coding, testing, and deployment. When creating the lean working version (MVP) first, this process can take just 2-6 months.

A software development project team requires a project manager, a business analyst, UX and UI designers, front-end and back-end developers, QA and DevOps engineers. Depending on the project’s nature, additional talents can be required, e.g., data scientists, 3D designers.

Software Development Process Step by Step

Below are described the typical steps we at Vertscend take to complete enterprise application development projects. Some of the tasks can be skipped when you choose to develop an MVP. Also, different development methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall, V-model, etc.) handle these tasks differently – they can be performed iteratively in parallel, or linearly.

Step 1. Product idea organization

Duration: 3 days – 3 months.

  • Generating a product idea.
  • Identifying the target audience, understanding and analyzing their wants and needs.
  • Analysis of competing software products (analysis of competitor product features, pricing & monetization models, customer feedback, etc).
  • Creation of a software product concept.
  • Defining customer acquisition, conversion, and retention strategies.
  • Defining the software monetization model.

Step 2. Software planning

Duration: 2 weeks – 1 month.

  • Defining and prioritizing detailed software features.
  • Creating a software requirements specification.
  • High-level software design:
    • App type/types (mobile, web, desktop).
    • Describing a list of software modules to build and specifying what functionality area each module covers and how the modules should interact.
  • Describing data and process flows between the target software and other existing software, planning integrations.
  • Creating the software development project roadmap with major milestones.
  • Drawing up a business case: conducting cost-benefit analysis, calculating NVP, ROI.

Best practice: We start with planning and delivering an MVP and then proceeding with rapid, incremental software evolution based on the frequent feedback from product managers, users, etc.

Step 3. UX design

Duration: 1 week – 1 month.

  • Conducting UX research to understand the mental models of the target audience.
  • Describing how a user will interact with the software product (e.g., what system response the user gets upon different actions).
  • Creating wireframes that demonstrate basic functionality and content layout on each screen.
  • Combining wireframes into a dynamic UX prototype of the application.
  • Performing the prototype user testing.

Step 4. UI design

Duration: 1 week – 1 month.

  • Deciding on the appearance of user-facing software parts (choosing a color scheme, icons for the buttons, menus, tabs and screen layouts of the application’s GUI).

  • Transforming software prototypes into full-color graphic interface mockups.

  • Creating a UI kit for the quick development of user interfaces.

Vertscend tip: We recommend our clients to invest in the unique UI design only if the design is a competitive software product advantage. Otherwise, we opt for default themes and focus on software functionality.

Best practice: At Vertscend , we usually take time to plan and ensure user interface consistency in different browsers, mobile versions on different screen sizes, and mobile applications on different operating systems.

Step 5. Software Architecture Design

Duration: ~ 2 weeks.

  • Detailed description of how functional modules of future software should work at the code level.
  • Detailed database design.
  • Defining integration approaches (point-to-point, middleware-based, iPaaS, etc.) between the different functionality modules.
  • Choosing the technology stack for the future software back end and front end.

Step 6. Coding

Duration: 2-6 months to deliver the first working version.

  • Establishing development and delivery automation environments (CI/CD, container orchestration, etc.).
  • Writing server-side code and APIs.
  • Turning static user interface mockups provided by UI designers into the fully functional GUI.
  • Conducting unit testing and static code analysis (by developers).

How to build software faster and at a lower cost?

  • Choose the technology platform (it will include a programming language and frameworks, architecture patterns, APIs, and more) based on a careful preliminary analysis of options. The development speed may differ 2 – 20 times.
  • Use cloud services (messaging services, analytics and AI services, image processing services, etc.) by well-established cloud providers, e.g., Azure and AWS.
  • Use trusted open-source tools and APIs.

Step 7. Testing

Duration: ~30% of the project time (depends heavily on software complexity, security and compliance requirements, the level of test automation, and more).

  • Creating a test plan with a testing scope, test types addressing all functional and non-functional software requirements, reporting procedures, etc.
  • Creating test cases and checklists.
  • Writing and running automated test scripts (API and UI tests).
  • Carrying out functionality, performance, security, integration testing.
  • Fixing bugs detected by testing.

Step 8. Deployment and further iterations

  • Deploying software in the production environment.
  • (often for B2B products) On-site user training sessions.
  • Fixing bugs that users discover.
  • Planning improvements and new features to be added based on user feedback, product manager input, market trends, marketing strategy, etc.

 

Note: In iterative development models, all the described tasks will be cycled in 2-week – 6-month releases of new functionality.

 

Best practice: For our clients with B2B startup, we take time to plan and organize exceptional user support. It’s importsnt to get ready to anticipate customer challenges and questions regarding software setup and operations, proactively provide solutions to potential issues, show how users can achieve max value while using your product.

Software Development Services by Vertscend

In software product development since 1989, Vertscend knows well how to plan and deliver effective, selling software products. Our service offering includes:

Software development consulting

Our consultants:

  • Carry out idea conceptualization and provide competition analysis.
  • Define holistic software product (and/or its MVP) functionality.
  • Deliver PoC (if required), determine MVP/software tech stack and architecture.
  • Advise on advanced techs (AI, machine learning, big data, AR/VR, etc.).
  • Plan application security and compliance (HIPAA, FDA, GLBA, PCI DSS, etc.).
  • Devise a DevOps strategy.
  • Deliver a detailed MVP/software implementation roadmap.
  • Handle implementation supervision: communication with vendors, RFP preparation, continuous project management and quality control.

EXPLORE OUR CONSULTING OFFERING

End-to-end software development

Our team takes over:

  • Product idea conceptualization and feature management.
  • Software UX and UI design.
  • MVP/software development in compliance with industry standards and regulations (GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, FIPS, COPPA, etc.).
  • Testing and QA.
  • Integrations with third-party systems.
  • MVP/software launch and support.

EXPLORE OUR DEVELOPMENT OFFERING

Key Roles in a Software Development Project

Project manager

  • Creating a project plan with milestones and deliverables.
  • Keeping the project on schedule and within the scope and budget.
  • Facilitating and coordinating communication between all team members.
  • Creating a risk management plan.

Business analysts

  • Eliciting wants and needs of future software users.
  • Translating user wants and needs into functional and non-functional software requirements.

UX designer (focuses on usability)

  • Performing UX research.
  • Designing the interactions users will have with a software product.
  • Designing the information architecture.
  • Conducting usability testing.

UI designer (focuses on aesthetics)

  • Creating the style of user-facing software interfaces.
  • Creating a UI kit for user interface development.

Back-end developer

  • Writing back-end code and APIs.
  • Performing unit tests.

Front-end developer

  • Creating a software representation level: everything that the user sees on the screen.

Quality assurance engineer

  • Designing a test strategy and plan.
  • Selecting test tools.
  • Designing, developing, and maintaining tests.
  • Implementing, documenting, and improving the testing process.
  • Tracking test results, finding and reporting bugs.

DevOps engineer

  • Managing software servers.
  • Incorporating an infrastructure-as-code approach.
  • Software containerization and container orchestration.
  • Establishing CI/CD pipelines for automated deployment.
  • Selecting and configuring tools to execute daily software monitoring.

Sourcing Models for Software Product Development

The entire software development process is in-house

Pros:

  • Direct supervision over the development process and team productivity.

Cons:

  • High costs.
  • Prolonged software development project start.
  • All hiring and managerial efforts are on your side.

A mix of an in-house team and outsourced consultancy

Pros:

  • Outsourced consultancy provides expert project guidance, mentors through the most challenging activities, and closes up the gaps in specific tech skills.
  • In-house team can perform specific tailored, more interesting tasks to grow their expertise in a certain field (developing unique algorithms, improving software performance), while outsourced developers handle routine activities.
  • Tasks that require exceptional security can be performed within the in-house network and infrastructure.

Cons:

  • Risks related to vendor selection.
  • It requires time and experience to establish smooth collaboration and communication between the in-house and consultancy teams.
  • Project team coordination, the concerns about quick and quality delivery, risk management are partially/totally on your side.

Confirm Project Viability, Then Invest

A feasibility study conducted by Vertscend will help you see the strengths of your large-scale project and potential threats to its success.

 
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Our High-Tech Expertise

Advanced data analytics techniques and solutions

  • Big data solutions
  • Data science
  • Machine learning
  • Artificial intelligence (AI)

Innovative technologies

  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Blockchain
  • Computer vision
  • Augmented reality (AR)
  • Virtual reality (VR)

Software architectural patterns

  • Microservices architecture
  • Cloud-native architecture
  • Tiered architecture
  • Reactive architecture

Prominent Projects by Vertscend

The World's Largest PLM Software Development

Vertscend developed a product lifecycle management application powering 20,000 retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers in 110 countries.

Our Customers Talk

trumethods

With vertscend, we’ve been able to reduce our development costs and decrease the timeline on new features and updates. vertscend attention to detail in how everything is documented and communicated is by far the best of any agency that I’ve worked with. The communication and agreement process when starting a new project has been by far the easiest to handle and most professional I’ve seen.

Bob Penland

CTO, TruMethods

leo-burnett
 

vertscend proved to be a professional service provider from the outset. We appreciate their proactive approach and ability to suggest improvements to a prospective solution on both architectural and business levels. We know we can always rely on vertscend various competencies when our clients require quality software which would facilitate their business success.

Mikhail Anfimau

Senior Solution Architect, Leo Burnett

peekaboo

Over the past 10 years we’ve worked on about ten mobile app development projects with vertscend. It was our first encounter with an outsourcing company. The relationship turned out to be very good, so we saw no need to look for other suppliers.

John Andersson

Founder & CEO, Peek-A-Boo

Vertscend Services for Large-Scale Projects

Project management consulting

  • Reviewing your current project management process.
  • Planning and implementing new project management practices and instruments that address management gaps.
  • Documenting project requirements and scope.
  • Planning resources needed to achieve project goals.
  • Estimating the budget based on the project scope.
  • Setting up a project schedule, planning iterative releases if needed.

Software consulting

  • Investigating all business workflows that must be covered by software.
  • Scoping software requirements, addressing conflicting requirements.
  • Helping choose between custom and platform-based software development.
  • Creating functional and architecture specifications.
  • Planning software integrations (10+ integrations may be required for business-critical systems).
  • Planning the infrastructure capable of supporting the required workload.

Dedicated team for large-scale software development

  • Providing all resources needed for project completion (a pool of 370+ software developers and 240+ other project roles).
  • An in-house Project Management Office.
  • Fully self-organized teams with no need for your interference in daily activities.
  • Transparent reporting according to the agreed schedule.

Staff augmentation

 

We can complement your project team with the following competencies:

  • Project management
  • Back-end and front-end programming
  • Software architecture
  • Testing and QA
  • DevOps
  • UX and UI design
  • Cybersecurity
  • Help desk

Get Expert Help for Large-Scale Software Development

With Vertscend , you get knowledgeable project management and skilled software engineering that positively impact the course and results of large-scale projects.

  • Project costs are reduced due to the fast development pace.
  • Project flow is coordinated and clear to all the involved participants.
  • The time-to-value is short, with the first release generally available in 4-6 months and further releases each 2-3 months.
  • Software under iterative development is available 99.99% of the time due to the well-established CI/CD process.
  • Risks of budget overruns and vague deadlines are minimized.
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