The custom software development is designing and developing a software to cater the specific needs of a specific business or set of users. The major difference between the custom software solutions and the ready-made off-the-shelf software solutions is that the custom software are specifically designed to address very specific problems, and the custom software solutions are not meant for resell, they are unique and designed according to the unique requirements of a business. For example the Google Chrome or Microsoft Office are available for millions of users all around the world and are ready-to-use off-the-shelf software solutions which are same for everyone. However, if you ask a software development company like RSI Concepts [LINK] to design a document processing tool for your business, that would be unique, and only meant to be used in-house for a single user/business only. That same tool would have been designed to address certain problems and issues that you are facing in your document processing procedure. That is the difference between a ready-made and a customized software.
The problem with off-the-shelf or ready-made software solutions is that they are designed for general usage. It means they are designed to be fit in all kind of environment and requirements. One-fits-all doesn’t always work, when businesses use such tools they will have to adjust with the very limited options and sooner or later they realize that this solutions is not suitable for them or it is not a satisfactory solution. A tailor-made or customize software tool boost efficiency and fix problems. The customize software development offers greater scalability and the future expansion, modifications and changes are also not as that expensive. However, some off-the-shelf ready-made software solutions doesn’t allow more than a certain level of changes and even then those changes and customizations are very expensive comparing to a custom software solution. In this blog we will discuss the key steps of custom software development to provide our audience a better understanding on the subject.
Requirement Gathering and Identifying Challenges
Over the time business processes and operational mechanisms get complicated, it is hard for any business to change those mechanisms over the night just to adjust according to the demands of an off-the-shelf software solution. That is why business chose to develop a custom software that suits their requirements and help them enhance their efficiency by aiding their existing mechanisms and methodologies rather changing them. The best way to gather requirements is to start by enlisting all the challenges you are currently facing. Every business have unique business processes and mechanisms to tackle problems. Still there remains some problems and hurdle which are causing issues for certain processes or for certain group of people/departments, this doesn’t stop the operation but problems cost time and resource which effect overall business efficiency. Any particular business process could also impact others and mostly it does. That is why it is important to highlight such issues and problems and then decide what you need to solve those problems.
Once all the challenges are identified then decide which problems you want to address with this software. Then discuss the same with the management, team leaders and relevant employees and take their feedback. After getting the feedback finalize the idea and enlist the problems that you are aiming to resolve with this custom software development project. This phase is the very first page of custom software development and is also called discovery phase.
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Hire a Good Custom Software Development Company
Hiring a good custom software development company is extremely important. A good software development company with enough experience and capabilities can literally transform your business and a low standard software development company can literally make your life extremely difficult. There are certain things that you should consider while looking up for a software development company in Dubai, UAE. First of all make a list of all available software development companies, such as start asking your friends and colleagues, then lookup in yellow pages or other online directories, the last but not least search in the Google. Short list the companies who are suggested by at least two sources. Then go to their websites and analyze the websites, go through their portfolio and look for the client testimonials or ratings. After carefully examining their website you will get an idea of their capabilities. A bad website means a low quality standards or less competence staff and vice versa.
Contact the short listed companies ask them to share their profiles and brochures. Analyze them and then ask them about their software development teams and programmers. If a software development company have off-shore teams then do not proceed with them. It is important that a business must have on-shore software programmers and developers. It is easier to meet and discuss your requirements with the team rather communicating via emails or online meetings. Other important things to consider is the development and project execution methodologies, costing and payment terms. Always ask for an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) to ensure your idea and proprietary rights before sharing the details and idea of your custom software.
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Analyze Requirements and Define Scope of Work
At least short list three custom software development firms from the previous phase and then discuss your requirements with all of them. A good software development company will always help you and guide you with your discovery phase and analysis requirements. At this stage since the requirements are discussed, the software development company will ask you too many questions to further understand your requirements. A good company will also suggest you to improve the idea. As the software company have a lot of experience and they can more accurately predict the outcome. Here another thing to consider is to check the software development companies’ behavior. Check which company is more supportive and helpful. The software development company’s representatives will give you suggestion to improve your idea in terms of efficiency and cost as well. Then finalize the scope of the work, get the formal proposals and quotes and compare them on the bases of cost, delivery time, support and maintenance terms and licensing, etc. At this stage the business can easily get into an agreement with a customer software development company to kick start the project.
Wireframe and UI Designs
For any software the main objective is to support the users in their daily routine tasks or in a certain transactions or work. The human users can interact with the software through a UI or user interface. The user interface is a kind of control panel which can present information and take user’s command to run the pre-defined algorithms to produce a result the result might display information or it can further update various other systems and databases that are linked to the software. That is what we called a UI. The UI or user interface of any software tool is the key to its success. The software are used to boost the employee efficiency and to make their work easy. Which can only be achieved if the UI is user friendly and the users can easily perform the required task or function on it. The first step of any software or app development is to prepare the wireframes. The wireframes is a rough work flow or a presentation of the software or app. For a custom software the wireframes are important as it will provide the complete picture about how many steps or screens are involved in a particular functionality. Once the wireframes are finalized then the creating the UI is fairly simple. The graphic designers and UI designers can then design the UI which will be the actual software interface.
Custom Software Development Process
The custom software development process is the phase where the software development company works on the programming and develop algorithms. The development process should be smooth, flawless and efficient to ensure maximum quality and cost-effective product. The custom software development or any other project depends upon the performance and capabilities of the development team. And despite having a well-experienced team if the requirements are not clearly communicated to them they won’t be able to produce a good quality product. The custom software development phase is divided in smaller stages which can be taken as the project milestones. At each milestone the progress should be shared with the customer and any feedback or suggestion should be considered. It is the responsibility of the customer software development team to communicate right information so the customer don’t get confused. Any software development is a very complex process. It should be divided into various steps and the software development team should decide whether the progress should be shared with the customer or not. Once the development phase is complete the software team will do the debugging and the quality assurance team will ensure the flawless operation of the final product.
UAT and Security Testing
The UAT or user acceptance test and the security testing or penetration testing is the final stage of the customer software development project. Normally the security testing and penetration tests are carried out by a third party. But the depending upon the complexity of the software the customer software development company and the customer can decide the mechanism for the security testing. If a customer have in-house IT team with relevant experience they can conduct the security tests. The customer software development company should also do all the basic security testing to ensure the data protection and safety of the software. The UAT or user acceptance test is the pre-launch phase. For UAT the software is deployed in the live environment without making it accessible for the public/users. This is done to check the software’s behavior in the live environment. The UAT tests can include a small number of users from all user groups, the management, IT experts and relevant personals. These users will be the actual users in future that is why their opinion is also important. At this stage different business processes can be tested and the users can also request for some changes or tweaks, which can further improve the efficiency and user-friendliness of the customer software.
Launch
The customer software launch is a pretty much standard launch practice. It starts with a soft launch. During this stage the customer software application or tool is made available for all the users. All the data is transferred to the system and the user training sessions are also conducted at this stage. Once this is complete the final step is full launch or going live. From launch and onwards the staff will be only using the customer software for their relevant regular tasks and operations.
Post-Launch Activities
The post-launch activities are also very important. The most important thing is the maintenance contract and SLAs. The business should have maintenance contract, SLAs and warrantee of the custom software. Another important part of post-launch activity is the user feedback collection which is often neglected by most of the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE. However, collecting user feedback is very important it help businesses to evaluate and assess the efficiency and productivity of their customer software tool and it also help them identify the areas of improvements. On later stages the business can improve the software and user experience on the bases of the feedback.
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Conclusion
Any businesses needs some kind of digital solution. In the modern era of IT and digitalization, businesses are compelled to utilize various different tools and solutions to support their operations. Each business has its own unique way to tackling problems. Most of the time an off-the-shelf solutions or a ready-made software application doesn’t help with very unique and specific requirements. That is why businesses develop custom software tools and applications to fulfill their unique needs and requirements. The biggest advantage of a custom software development is that the business can mold it as per their need and requirement. It means they don’t have to make any change in their current business processes and business practices, as the software is already designed to boost the efficiency of the existing mechanisms and methodologies. This makes it extremely easy for the businesses to integrate a new system without disturbing anything. In this blog we have discussed key points to consider while developing a customized software application or tool.
RSI Concepts is a leading name in the custom software development and app building in Dubai, UAE. If you want our help with a new project or if you want to learn more about the topic, feel free to reach us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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