Steps of Software Development Process We Used to Build 200+ Products

As the saying goes, you should never act on a hunch when it comes to the software development process unless you’re planning to commit business suicide. Every successful software project begins with a well-crafted plan and a clear process. While the specifics may vary depending on the business, it’s essential to have a solid foundation that underpins every step of the software development process.

At Relevant, a seasoned software development company with ten years of experience, we’ve honed our software development process steps by creating over 200 products. So we’re excited to share thorough insights into these steps, elucidating the various stages, the teams involved, and other essential information to jumpstart your project. Let our article serve as your North Star, guiding you from start to finish. Here is how to develop a software project step by step: 

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Step 1. Analysis and Planning

These activities lay the groundwork for a successful software development process. Comprehensive analysis ensures all your stakeholders possess a clear grasp of the project’s objectives, requirements, and intended outcome. This stage also enables the identification of potential issues, risks, and constraints.

A detailed roadmap you crafted during the planning phase, highlighting the project’s milestones, timeline, and resource allocation, will be a guiding light for your development team, helping to establish a framework for project monitoring, progress evaluation, and stakeholder communication. Well-conceived planning streamlines the software development process and reduces the likelihood of deviations, ensuring the project remains on course and aligns with the initial objectives.

Tip: The requirements analysis and the primary planning phase often occur simultaneously, as they are inherently interconnected. Such an approach fosters a seamless transition from one stage to the next while ensuring that all aspects of the project remain aligned.

Step 2. Getting to know the development team

Embarking on the software development process requires a tight-knit group where every member is well-versed in their responsibilities. In most cases, your team will comprise the following specialists:

Chief Technology Officer or Tech Lead

Initially, you will communicate your product’s vision and requirements to a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Tech Lead. Nonetheless, their participation will not conclude there; they will be involved in every phase of the software development process alongside you.

What they do: The CTO or Tech Lead manages your project, devises a roadmap, and ensures the product’s technical success. They weave your business strategy into the software development processes, identify roadblocks, and create solutions to overcome them. Furthermore, they act as a mediator between you and other stakeholders to maintain alignment.

Delivery Manager

This role serves as the overseeing authority for your project, ensuring timely delivery without incurring unnecessary costs throughout the SDLC.

What they do: In collaboration with the CTO or Tech Lead, the Delivery Manager creates a project roadmap and oversees all software development stages regarding deadlines and resource allocation. They emphasize your business requirements throughout each phase and provide updates on the progress made. In the Agile model, the Delivery Manager focuses on maximizing the value of your product through iterative development.

Business analyst

Having a Business Analyst (BA) on your team is crucial to guarantee your product effectively fits into the market.

What they do: The BA clarifies your goals and how your product can achieve them. In the early stages, they analyze data and gather insights to determine your target audience’s desires. Then, they bridge the gap between problems and solutions, identifying the optimal approach to creating your product and estimating the associated costs. Finally, they document business requirements and ensure they are met without compromise.

Development team

A dedicated software development team consists of professionals such as UX/UI designers, frontend/backend developers, and QA engineers working together to create your product.

What they do: Their responsibilities include designing, developing, and closely monitoring your software’s quality. They turn your vision into a comprehensive product and deliver it to end-users sustaining it beyond launch to provide ongoing value to your target audience.

Step 3. Idea Validation and Estimation

When it comes to creating a new product, idea validation is an essential step that cannot be overlooked. It’s a process that helps determine whether your idea has real potential and is worth investing time, money, and resources in.

Idea validation

The development team verifies your idea’s validity by thoroughly assessing the current market demand for your proposed product or service, identifying potential competitors, and evaluating the feasibility of your concept. It will help you determine if your idea is worth pursuing and how to position it in the market.

Project estimation

The next crucial step involves an initial estimate of the overall project budget and timeline, followed by a more detailed breakdown of each task and resource necessary to bring your vision to life. Armed with this information, you’ll be well-equipped to make savvy decisions about resource allocation, meeting schedules, and mitigating potential risks that could jeopardize your project’s success.

1. Rough estimate

In general, the rough estimate takes into account the total scope of the project, the scale of the workforce necessary to complete it, and any additional resources, such as software licenses, hardware, or office space. This sort of estimate is typically formulated at the onset of the initiative and can be modified as additional information becomes accessible. Given your budget constraints, it is beneficial for preliminary planning purposes and may help determine whether the project is achievable.

2. Detailed estimate

In contrast, a detailed estimate is a comprehensive breakdown of the expenses and timeline for a given project. It involves dissecting every task and activity needed to finish the project, assigning a cost and time forecast to each one, and recognizing any interdependencies or hazards that could impede the project’s success. The detailed estimate offers a more precise and intricate project picture, enabling you to make informed choices regarding resource allocation, timelines, and potential risks.

Tip: Whether you opt for a rough or detailed estimate, the key is to be thorough and accurate in your analysis to avoid costly mistakes and ensure the project’s success.

It is also crucial to consider the infrastructure and software architecture to ensure accuracy in estimating software development costs. The chosen platform can significantly impact the overall project cost when planning cloud deployment. Popular cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure, each present distinct features and pricing schemes.

As you progress with your project, deciding on the right software architecture pattern is crucial to its success. There are several types of architectural patterns used in software development.

• The layered pattern separates presentation, business, persistence, and database layers to promote modularity. 
• The event-driven pattern triggers real-time events for components to perform tasks asynchronously, promoting responsiveness. 
• The microkernel pattern extends core functionality through independent plug-ins, enabling customized software development. 
• Microservices is a loosely coupled pattern where modules are built, deployed, and maintained as independent services, enhancing scalability and maintainability.
• The space-based pattern utilizes processing units and virtualization technology over a grid structure for distributed data processing and storage, optimizing performance. 
• The client-server pattern facilitates communication between clients and servers for efficient data exchange. 
• The master-slave pattern distributes repeated requests across multiple sub-components for simultaneous handling, improving performance and load balancing. 
• Finally, the pipe-filter pattern uses channels to pass data through various filters with specific functions, providing modularity and adaptability in data transformation processes.

Once you’ve chosen an architecture pattern, the next step is to make all functional and non-functional requirements crystal clear. This critical process involves collecting all the necessary details to prepare a comprehensive software requirements specification (SRS) document and assembling an appropriate tech stack.

Requirements and feasibility analysis

The software feasibility study will help determine whether your software is viable and meets your specific needs while ensuring compliance with legal requirements. There are different types of software feasibility that should be evaluated before starting the software product development process. Key ones include:

Technical feasibility:

Examine the resources and technologies needed for successful project implementation, pinpointing potential technical issues and areas for improvement.

Operational feasibility:

Assess your product’s user-friendliness, maintainability, and integration readiness, focusing on ease of use, reliability, and scalability. Investigate compatibility with existing systems and potential integration challenges.

Legal feasibility:

Evaluate compliance with data privacy, security laws, intellectual property rights, and local regulations. Identify potential legal concerns, such as copyright infringement or data privacy violations.

Tip: During software feasibility assessments, maintain an open mind and flexibility with your requirements. Aim to develop a product that addresses your business needs and appeals to your target audience. Remember to integrate the analysis findings into your software development documentation.

Step 4. Prototype or MVP

Now, it’s time to bring your vision to life with a prototype or MVP. You can take a few different routes when creating your initial product offering. Let’s explore three popular options: 

Clickable prototype

A clickable prototype is a noteworthy alternative for those who desire to experience how their software will appear and operate without investing significant time and resources. Using a clickable prototype, you can experiment with different design and functionality options while receiving user feedback before committing to a more substantial minimum viable product (MVP).

Concierge MVP

Another option to consider is a concierge MVP. That involves creating a bare minimum yet functional version of your software that requires manual intervention to deliver. This method can entail having a dedicated team member handle certain tasks or working with users one-on-one to ensure their needs are fulfilled. This MVP alternative is ideal for validating your idea while receiving more personalized and immersively user feedback.

Full-fledged MVP

Alternatively, one could invest the time and resources necessary to create a complete, fully-functional version of your software, known as a full-fledged MVP. Though this option demands more upfront resources and investment, it can help accelerate your product launch to the market with more features and capabilities.

Step 5. Design of Software Development Product

The goal of the design phase in the software development process is to create a comprehensive blueprint for the software solution, outlining its architecture, components, and interrelationships. 

This phase translates functional requirements into technical specifications, ensuring the software will be efficient, scalable, maintainable, and aligned with the project’s objectives and constraints. Additionally, the design phase aims to mitigate potential risks and address any system-level concerns, such as security, performance, and integration with other systems.

This step encompasses various elements, from understanding users to refining the final design through testing. Here, we will discuss four key components of software design:

User research and information architecture

You probably already understand your product’s purpose and target audience and are ready to start the design process with your team. It should include:

• Design Brief: Collaborate on a concise document outlining project requirements and deliverables to eliminate ambiguity. The brief guides designers and engineers throughout the software development process.
• User Personas: Develop well-defined personas based on user research. User research is essential for understanding your target audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points. It involves conducting interviews, surveys, and observations to gain valuable insights. Based on these findings, we create user personas and stories to guide the design process.
• User Journey and Flow: Craft visuals illustrating how users will interact with your product and their post-goal achievement experience. These components personalize the design and enhance user satisfaction.

These elements form the foundation of information architecture (IA), a crucial tool for organizing your product’s navigation, features, and content. IA prioritizes user experience (UX) during wireframe creation, fostering stakeholder alignment and promoting team workshops.

Additionally, use a business process modeling notation (BPMN) diagram based on a work breakdown structure (WBS) to manage design decisions, artifacts, and information flows. This method connects ideas and processes, ensuring a user-centric product design.

Wireframes and mockups

Wireframes are simple, low-fidelity visual representations of the software’s layout, which showcase the overall structure and organization of content. They act as a foundation or blueprint for developers and designers to work together and refine the application’s design.

On the other hand, mockups are more detailed, high-fidelity visuals that represent the final appearance of the software. They include colors, typography, and other design elements, giving stakeholders a realistic impression of the final product’s look and feel.

By incorporating wireframes and mockups into the design process, developers can create a visually appealing, user-friendly software solution that meets stakeholders’ expectations by incorporating wireframes and mockups into the design process.

UI/UX design

User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design are two vital components that work in tandem to create an engaging and user-friendly product. UI design focuses on visual aesthetics and interactivity, while UX design concerns the overall experience, including usability, accessibility, and functionality. At this stage, you receive the finalized UI design for your product, incorporating your mockup feedback to:

• Refine structural and visual components
• Introduce beneficial design features for your target audience
• Enhance micro-interactions
• Emphasize your brand identity within the product’s UI

It is crucial to test the final design with your target audience to gauge their response and ensure success.

Usability testing

Usability testing is the process of evaluating the software product’s design and functionality through real-world user interactions. By observing users as they interact with the product, we can identify potential issues, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement. Usability testing provides valuable insights by:

• Observing user behavior during genuine product interactions;
• Evaluating the effectiveness of design choices;
• Assessing the design’s visual appeal;
• Identifying flaws and elements contributing to user dissatisfaction.

This testing method allows you to analyze real user experiences, enabling efficient redesigns and ensuring a refined product before proceeding to the coding stage.

Step 6. Development Process

The software product development phase is where the designs, system architecture, and product functionality all come together in written code. That is where the software developers put their skills to work, building a digital product that brings the earlier specifications and requirements to life. This stage involves setting up infrastructure, frontend, and backend work, with you remaining informed throughout the process.

Tip: During development, you’ll receive a comprehensive Statement of Work (SOW). Crafted by a project manager, the SOW outlines the project’s goals, timelines, and services, ensuring you stay updated on your product’s progress. The SOW creates a standardized approach, guiding all teams toward a successful launch.

Project artifacts

Accompanying the SOW are eight essential project artifacts that clarify processes across software engineering steps:

• Communication Schedule: Keeps you informed about project updates, meeting schedules, and communication channels.
• Project Charter: Serves as a roadmap, outlining objectives, stakeholders, and resources, along with roles and responsibilities.
• RACI Matrix: Assigns tasks to dedicated team members using Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed tags, defining specific roles throughout the project.
• Change Request Register: this allows you to track and request modifications within your project.
• Gantt Chart: Offers a deadline-based overview of tasks, duration, and project completion status.
• Project Roadmap: or release plan, confidently displays high-level WBS components across successive sprints, providing a clear path for progress.
• Risk Register: Identifies potential risks, their implications, and mitigation actions to keep your project on track.
• User Stories: Crafted by a BA, these brief descriptions focus on how your product will be used, centering on your target audience’s needs.

Project meetings

Our collaboration begins with an engaging kick-off meeting and extends far beyond. Upholding high standards, we employ Agile project management methodologies and encourage your active participation in:

• Daily Stand-ups: These meetings align tasks for the day ahead, fostering a collaborative approach to overcoming challenges.
• Sprint Planning Meetings: We set goals and strategize activities for upcoming sprints, ensuring a clear roadmap.
• Backlog Estimation Meetings: Our team dives into sprint backlogs, prioritizes features, assesses workloads, and plans implementation strategies.
• End-of-Sprint Presentations: We evaluate and discuss the accomplishments achieved during each sprint, keeping all stakeholders informed.
• Sprint Retrospectives: We continuously optimize and enhance our approach for future sprints by reflecting on previous sprint processes.

Tip: Regardless of employing Agile sprints, constructing an MVP, or following the conventional waterfall approach, the objective is to adhere to the SOW, avoid scope creep, and build clean, efficient software.

Step 7. Testing

In the software product development process, perfection is achieved through diligent testing. Testing remains an integral part of the process from when the first line of code is written until the product goes live.

What do we test at Relevant?

At Relevant, our quality assurance services are built upon a predefined QA plan our entire team adheres to. This plan outlines the software testing scope and actions required to deliver a perfect product. During the development stage, we focus on:

• Requirements Analysis: Ensuring the software conforms to requirements established during the validation stage.
• Test Planning and Execution: Developing test cases and strategies for software modules.
• Defect Tracking: Creating a dedicated system to track and mitigate software bugs.
• Pre-Launch Regression Testing: Repeatedly examining existing software modules for flaws whenever code changes are made.

Manual tests vs. automated tests

We employ manual and automated testing techniques to identify and resolve issues efficiently. The choice between manual and automated tests depends on your project’s needs and goals.

Manual Tests require hands-on checking by QA specialists, who rely on their expertise to evaluate software, features, or specific modules. Despite being labor-intensive and susceptible to human error, manual tests are advantageous when:

• Assessing the product from an end-user perspective
• Requiring human control over the QA process
• Working on a small project where writing scripts is not cost-effective
• Adapting QA processes dynamically without prior planning

Manual tests are especially useful for evaluating user experience and discovering aspects only humans can notice.

Automated Tests involve running pre-written scripts to check software for defects. Although the initial setup may be expensive and still requires QA specialists’ oversight, automated tests are more effective when:

• Conducting repetitive testing
• Running tests beyond the capabilities of human testers
• Managing large projects that would otherwise need numerous QA engineers
• Simulating cyber threats for web application penetration testing

Automation is best suited for large-scale test cases that must be executed multiple times, such as regression, unit, and load tests. By understanding the unique advantages of manual vs. automated testing, we can optimize the QA process to ensure your software product meets the highest standards.

Test-driven development (TDD)

Test-driven development (TDD) is our preferred approach to coding and testing, as it allows software development processes to be guided by test results. In TDD, code is written only after a failing test indicates a change is needed to validate specific behaviors. That entails writing the bare minimum of code to pass the test, eliminating duplicate components, and repeating the cycle.

TDD intertwines actual development and testing, differing from traditional testing that occurs once all code is in place. This methodology ensures higher test coverage and promotes a more efficient development process.

By adopting TDD, your system benefits from

• cleaner code;
• enhanced efficiency;
• elimination of duplicate components;
• significant time savings during the final testing stages.

Tip: While TDD often utilizes unit tests, it is not synonymous with them. Unit tests are common in traditional testing for examining behavior at the lowest level. However, in TDD, they serve as an integral part of the refactoring process, actively driving development forward.

Step 8. Implementation and Deployment

Upon successful pre-launch testing, your software progresses to the production stage. At Relevant, we expertly orchestrate software product releases, ensuring a seamless transition for your solution to reach end-users. To ensure a successful launch, we pay close attention to the following key components of release orchestration:

Setting up servers

Initiating your software launch begins with establishing a secure hosting environment, whether on-premises, cloud-based or hybrid. We carefully evaluate the requirements, including traffic, storage, and processing power, to determine the ideal server size and capacity. Also, we set up backend processes and integrate DevSecOps practices meticulously.

Building a CI/CD pipeline

Incorporating a Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) pipeline is crucial for any software build process. This approach streamlines the release process for all builds and simplifies post-launch modifications. Additionally, adhering to CI/CD pipeline best practices enhances your product’s maintainability by consolidating it into a cohesive package.

Protecting your software from third-party failures

We understand the importance of safeguarding your application against potential third-party service failures. To mitigate this risk, we implement strategies such as monitoring, circuit breakers, and fallback mechanisms, ensuring that your software remains operational and resilient in the face of unexpected issues.

Preparing and implementing a deployment plan

Our team prepares a detailed deployment plan to ensure a smooth and successful software build process. We outline the release schedule, identify potential risks, and establish rollback strategies to minimize downtime. We guarantee an efficient and trouble-free deployment process by coordinating with stakeholders and following a systematic approach.

Step 9. Operations and Maintenance

Upon launching your product, the crucial operations and maintenance phase begins. Maintenance is essential to ensure your product remains up-to-date, operational, and downtime-free. Per the IEEE/ISO/IEC 14764-2006 standard, there are four types of maintenance activities:

• Corrective maintenance: Fixing reported bugs in your product.
• Preventive maintenance: Performing timely checks and fixes to prevent software issues.
• Perfective maintenance: Optimizing and adding new features to enhance your product.
• Adaptive maintenance: Adjusting your product in response to changes without compromising its value.

A maintenance plan details activities, responsibilities, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) documentation, schedules, costs, and reporting. Ideally, it should be prepared during the software build process phase if the same team handles both development and maintenance.

Tip: A software maintenance agreement is typically signed with your development team or a third party, outlining maintenance responsibilities, activities, and liabilities.

Resource analysis is another critical aspect of the operations and maintenance stage. It should account for personnel, environment, and financial resources required for maintenance activities. By collaborating with a maintenance provider like Relevant, you can utilize research findings and statistical methods to estimate costs and budget for maintaining your product effectively.

Our security practices

Strong security practices are paramount in today’s access control breaches and data threats landscape. That is why we diligently adhere to ISO/IEC 27001 standards throughout the software development, investing in extensive employee training to ensure secure products. Upon completion, your product is technically secure and accompanied by essential plans and policies, such as

• Business continuity plan for minimizing disruption and downtime;
• Recovery plan for post-incident response and corrective actions;
• Information security policy for data management and compliance;
• Risk assessment policy for evaluating potential hazards;
• Additional documents are available upon signing an NDA with Relevant.

We also conduct regular risk assessment and threat modeling workshops, fostering awareness and security-focused collaboration. These sessions cover topics in our web and mobile application security guide.

Types of Software Development Processes

The steps outlined above are just a guideline and can vary across different companies, depending on their software development methodology. Let’s delve into a few of the most commonly used ones.

• Agile: This highly flexible and iterative approach empowers teams to respond to changes quickly and efficiently. It promotes adaptive planning, continuous improvement, and rapid delivery of functional software. Agile methodologies focus on collaboration between cross-functional teams and customer involvement throughout development. Learn more about the Agile Software Development Lifecycle by clicking here.
• Waterfall: In contrast, Waterfall is a linear, sequential software development process, with each project phase cascading into the next. The phases encompass requirements gathering, design, implementation, testing, and deployment. The Waterfall software development process is highly structured and requires the completion of one phase before moving to the next, making it less flexible than Agile methodologies.
• Scrum: This popular Agile framework emphasizes teamwork, accountability, and iterative progress towards well-defined goals. Scrum teams work in short sprint cycles, typically lasting 2-4 weeks. A potentially shippable product is delivered at the end of each sprint.
• Kanban: It is another Agile framework that focuses on visualizing work, limiting work in progress (WIP), and continuously improving the flow of tasks. Kanban emphasizes lean principles and the efficient use of resources, leveraging a visual board to help teams manage and track their work through various stages.
• Extreme Programming (XP): XP is an Agile software development methodology emphasizing high-quality software and close collaboration between developers and customers. It incorporates practices such as pair programming, continuous integration, and test-driven development (TDD) to quickly deliver functional, high-quality software.

Key Considerations for Selecting a Software Development Process

Choosing the right software development process is a critical decision that should not be taken lightly. Here are some essential factors to consider:

• Project Size: A more flexible approach like Agile or Kanban may be appropriate for smaller projects with limited requirements. However, larger projects with well-defined requirements may benefit from a structured process like Waterfall.
• Complexity: Projects with numerous interdependencies may benefit from Agile methods, guarantee iterative development and adaptability. Simpler projects with clear and stable requirements might better suit the Waterfall approach.
• Budget: Agile methodologies, focusing on delivering value incrementally, may better fit projects with tight budgets or changing financial constraints. On the other hand, the Waterfall model’s predictability can help keep costs in check for projects with fixed budgets.
• Time Constraints: Agile software development process steps are well-suited for projects with tight deadlines, emphasizing rapid delivery and continuous improvement. The waterfall’s sequential approach might be more appropriate for projects with longer timeframes and strict delivery milestones.

The software development process hinges on each project’s distinct factors. Analyzing these elements ensures an appropriate methodology selection, fostering a successful and efficient development journey.

Best Practices for Product Development Life Cycle

Adhering to best practices throughout the product development life cycle (PDLC) can significantly improve the chances of delivering a successful and valuable product. Here are some best practices for the software development process:

1. Define clear goals and objectives: Establishing well-defined goals and objectives from the outset provides direction and focus for the entire PDLC. It ensures that all stakeholders have a shared understanding of the product vision, driving alignment and collaboration.
2. Emphasize customer-centricity: Prioritize the needs and expectations of your target audience by conducting thorough market research and user interviews. This Customer-centric approach can help create a product that genuinely addresses user pain points and satisfies their requirements.
3. Foster cross-functional collaboration: Encourage open communication and collaboration among team members from various disciplines. It promotes a healthy exchange of ideas, faster problem-solving, and a more comprehensive understanding of the product from multiple perspectives.
4. Adopt an iterative approach: Implementing an iterative development process like Agile can help regularly incorporate feedback, adapt to changing requirements, and deliver value incrementally. It ensures the product remains relevant and responsive to user needs throughout the PDLC.
5. Prioritize risk management: Identify potential risks early in the project and create mitigation strategies to minimize their impact. Effective risk management can help to prevent surprises, reduce uncertainty, and ensure a smoother product development journey.
6. Maintain thorough documentation: Keeping detailed and up-to-date documentation helps maintain clarity and consistency throughout the PDLC. It is a valuable reference point for stakeholders, facilitating better decision-making and more efficient knowledge transfer.
7. Ensure quality assurance: Integrate quality assurance processes throughout the PDLC, including thorough testing, code reviews, and performance evaluations. It helps to identify and address potential issues early, leading to a more stable and reliable end product.
8. Plan for scalability and maintainability: Design your product with future growth and maintenance in mind. Adopt scalable architecture, modular design principles, and clear coding standards to ensure the product can evolve and adapt to changing requirements.
9. Continuously gather feedback: Solicit feedback from users, stakeholders, and team members at every stage of the PDLC. That helps identify improvement areas, validate assumptions, and ensure the product meets user needs and expectations.
10. Review and optimize: Conduct regular reviews and retrospectives to evaluate the effectiveness of your PDLC processes. Identify areas for improvement, implement changes, and continuously optimize your approach to deliver the best possible product.

By following these best practices, you can navigate the Product Development Life Cycle more effectively, maximizing the chances of delivering a successful and impactful product that delights your target audience.

Bottom Line

The software product development process is a comprehensive, multi-stage journey that commences with the inception of your idea and continues until it transforms into a fully realized solution. Navigating these steps requires considerable effort but ensures software projects’ success. At Relevant, we follow this roadmap daily, and you, too, can benefit from it. Contact us if you aim to create IT solutions that embrace digital transformation and drive innovation.

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