5 QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER ABOUT SOFTWARE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SERVICE

Year after year, the software product development service constantly grows. According to a survey issued by Gartner in late 2020, the custom software development industry has a market capitalization of $70 billion and is increasing at a rate of 5% per year.

However, to get the most out of software development for your company, you must follow the appropriate steps from product conception to market launch and maintenance.

This article will answer five questions you must understand before creating a successful software product. We’ll walk you through cases and types of software product development. We’ll also discuss the processes and costs of software product development services.

Software product development service

When do you need a software product development service?

Software Product Development Services provides businesses with new ways to grow, extend their client base, and enter new industries.

Here are a few ways that product development services might help your company.

Release a new product

Introduce and commercialize your idea concept to the rest of the world. You can either attract new customers or provide additional value to existing customers with a new personalized product.

Extend and improve your existing product

Give your product a revolution by sharpening it to withstand new challenges. Upgrade and increase the system’s performance, speed and decrease maintenance costs.

Enhance your business with cutting-edge product

Improve your company’s performance by implementing custom business intelligence products. Innovative, clever business products can help you reinvent your strategy.

Upgrade your legacy applications to modern technologies

Renovate and modernize your out-of-date application’s technological capabilities. To recreate a top-notch product, use quick and efficient technologies.

What are the types of software product development services?

UI/UX Design

Making a prototype and fine-tuning the design to present the software product in the best possible shape to captivate clients and increase loyalty.

MVP development

To turn your idea into a market-desirable product, refine it by validating its market potential and creating a basic model.

Full-cycle software development

From concept to finished product, software product development companies deliver complex business automation systems on time and budget.

Web app development

Using the Web’s potential to help your business with high-speed, innovative, and faultless performance apps.

Mobile app development

Creating robust and functional mobile apps with a distinct look, an unrivaled user experience, enhanced security, and offline mode.

How many steps does the software product development process have?

Let’s begin with a definition of software product development strategy. It’s a step-by-step plan outlining all software development stages, essential stakeholders, goals and objectives, and a project timeline.

Here are 7 steps from concept to launch.

Ideation and Brainstorming

Creating a complete vision for the product or service is the first step in the software product development process. Organizing a brainstorming session or ideation workshop with your team and, if applicable, the software agency you plan to collaborate with is one very productive technique. Your goal is to learn everything you can about the product, including what it aims to provide, how it will meet market demand, and how you intend to set yourself apart from the competition.

Requirements Gathering & Feasibility Analysis

Now that you know what the software product will offer, it’s time to undertake a feasibility analysis. It is a comprehensive examination of both technical and business issues that can impact the success of your software development project.

This includes details like the anticipated product launch date, the software development budget, essential project milestones, and the expected return on investment. You must guarantee that all parts of your product development have been addressed.

According to ApiumHub, the number one factor that causes software delivery dates to be missed is unreasonable expectations (according to 14.45% of respondents). We can avoid these by putting in the effort before drafting a single design or line of code.

As a result, you should have a Software Requirements Specification document that your designers and developers will use in the next stages by the end of this stage.

Concept Design & Prototyping

Your designers will immediately start generating early visual designs for your product based on the documentation. They will work on high-fidelity prototypes if you agree with the direction indicated in the wireframes. Once each design module is completed, they will hand over the designs and documentation to the development team.

Development

The longest stage of the software product development process is development and coding. It’s all about turning product specifications into a usable product. Developers must ensure that the code meets product standards and satisfies stakeholders’ expectations. On the other hand, the coding phase should go well provided all preceding stages were carefully handled, and the programmers ended up with a clear SRS document that they can closely follow.

Testing

After the software has been created, it must be tested to ensure no defects or errors that make it difficult or impossible to use. This procedure varies each company, but in general, a group of Quality Assurance engineers conducts a series of tests using a range of frameworks and tools, including:

• Testing of functionality
• Acceptance testing for users
• Integration of systems

The major goal of this step is to ensure that the code is clean and that the final product meets business objectives. Only after that will we move on to the implementation and launch phases.

Implementation and Launch

The freshly produced and tested software is brought to production in this step, guided by an implementation plan. Only specific changes will be deployed if product iterations are required. Depending on the product complexity, the iterations can be done as a single release if the project is basic or in stages if the project is more advanced.

Maintenance

The final stage of the software product development process is maintenance. Its goal is to maintain the software operation, updates, and upgrades. It can be tweaked based on user feedback to ensure that the product functions well. New functionalities can also be implemented during the maintenance stage to satisfy user needs better.

How much does software product development service cost?

Have you ever wondered how much software product development costs? Luckily, we have these factors covered here.

Average software development costs

When you begin a digital project, you or your stakeholders will almost certainly want to have a rough estimate of software development costs. Assume that time is equal to money. As a result, your software development costs will almost certainly be estimated by the hour.

Furthermore, the number of professionals participating will be determined by how quickly you need to get deliverables or meet a deadline also impact the overall cost.

One more thing is where your software will be available. In other words, what platform will users access?

Below are examples of the number of hours necessary for software solutions designed for various platforms. In this scenario, the average software development hourly rate is $50, lower than the average hourly rate in the United States but higher than the lowest rate in Asia.

The values provided are just as a guide. Actual figures will vary depending on the extent of the project.

You may also use this easy formula to estimate the weekly cost of development based on the number of developers you hire:

Cost per week = Hourly rate x Hours per week x Number of Developers

The formula works for both in-house hiring and software outsourcing to third-party developers.

Factors influencing software development costs

Let’s look at three of the most critical aspects that influence software development pricing:

Type of Software Project

Typical software development engagements are divided into the following categories on a high level:

• New software development refers to the creation of new software that is customized.
• Enhancement of existing software (software modification).
• Custom code to add functionality or integrate current software into other processes is known as software integration.
• Custom web-based software development is what web development entails.

Each of these initiatives has a different team make-up and necessitates a different level of development. The first step in producing a cost estimate is understanding the type of project. To establish the final estimate, we will combine this information with the project’s size and project team.

Size of Software Project

The following step is to determine the scope of a project. Size is a bit of a guessing game. The complexity of a project and its size tend to be closely related, but this isn’t always the case. In general, project sizes are classified as follows:

Small:

Minor changes are usually involved in a small project. Typically, these are changes to the user interface or bug fixes with a well-defined cause. Interaction with the client is limited, for example, “Is this what you want to do?” followed by “Here is what we did.”

Medium:

These engagements are more significant than a minor tweak, but they usually have a well-defined scope of deliverables and are often standalone solutions or integrations. Typically, we are dealing with a single data source. This category includes projects like a small mobile application or a web interface to an existing inventory system. External requirements for client interaction are more stringent than in small projects. It may include a few design sessions, weekly check-ins, and milestone sign-offs.

Large:

These solutions are more in-depth and complex. Large projects may necessitate system integration, a database component, and security and logging features. An underlying framework and a module-based design are expected, with scalability and maintainability in mind.

This category would include a multi-party application that works across multiple platforms (iOS, Android, and Web). Extensive design sessions and milestone agreements are among the external requirements for client interaction. Daily calls and interactions with technical team members are standard, followed by weekly status calls with upper-level management.

Enterprise:

Enterprise-level projects are almost always built on top of an underlying framework. They have far stricter security, logging, and error handling. Data integrity and security are critical for these mission-critical applications. Though not limited to this category, support systems are designed to be resilient and capable of handling 2-3 concurrent faults in the underlying infrastructure before affecting users.

External requirements for client interaction include fully integrated client and IT teams. Extensive design sessions and milestone agreements across multiple teams; daily calls and interactions with technical team members across multiple groups/disciplines; weekly status calls with higher-level management; quarterly all-hands meetings are all-time requirements.

Development Team Size

After identifying the project’s type and size, you need to determine the size of the team. A Project Manager, a Developer, and a QA Tester are required for every project. However, that does not imply that each role is equivalent to a single team resource. Some materials can serve many purposes.

For example, in a small project, a Developer may also serve as a tester. In a small/medium project, the Project Manager may also serve as the business analyst. Team personnel usually fulfill only one task for more extensive, complicated projects to efficiently move a project ahead.

Rough estimates of team sizes may include the following structural roles

Examples

Let’s use the following numbers to get some rough cost estimates for a team (these prices represent rough costing for quick estimate):

• $1,000/day/developer
• ~$10,000/week/team

We can finally arrive at a project cost by combining the cost of a team with the project time estimates from the chart above.

Learn more: Offshore software development rates by country – detailed comparison.

WRAPPING UP

Whatever project you’re nursing, we hope this guide serves as a road map for software product development. You now understand the steps and factors to determine before choosing a software product development service. As previously stated, each project is unique; however, clearly understanding these five questions can help you have a good start.

Software product development services

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