Software development
The process is more encompassing than programming, writing code, in that it includes conceiving the goal, evaluating feasibility, analyzing requirements, design, testing and release.
[1] Software development involves many skills and job specializations including programming, testing, documentation, graphic design, user support, marketing, and fundraising.
[3] Another focus in many programming methodologies is the idea of trying to catch issues such as security vulnerabilities and bugs as early as possible (shift-left testing) to reduce the cost of tracking and fixing them.
[17] After deciding to develop the software, the company is focused on delivering the product at or below the estimated cost and time, and with a high standard of quality (i.e., lack of bugs) and the desired functionality.
Nevertheless, most software projects run late and sometimes compromises are made in features or quality to meet a deadline.
[19] Challenges for the identification of needs are that current or potential users may have different and incompatible needs, may not understand their own needs, and change their needs during the process of software development.
Software analysts often decompose the project into smaller objects, components that can be reused for increased cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability.
[19] Designers often attempt to find patterns in the software's functionality to spin off distinct modules that can be reused with object-oriented programming.
[27] Often, software programmers do not follow industry best practices, resulting in code that is inefficient, difficult to understand, or lacking documentation on its functionality.
[32] Once the code has been submitted, quality assurance—a separate department of non-programmers for most large companies—test the accuracy of the entire software product.
[34] During production, the developer may create technical support resources for users[35][34] or a process for fixing bugs and errors that were not caught earlier.
Many development projects avoid the risk of losing essential knowledge held by only one employee by ensuring that multiple workers are familiar with each component.
[42][43] Most developer documentation is in the form of code comments for each file, class, and method that cover the application programming interface (API)—how the piece of software can be accessed by another—and often implementation details.
[48] Because the effort estimation is directly related to the size of the complete application, it is strongly influenced by addition of features in the requirements—the more requirements, the higher the development cost.
[51] IDEs often include automated compiling, syntax highlighting of errors,[52] debugging assistance,[53] integration with version control, and semi-automation of tests.
The purpose of viewpoints and views is to enable human engineers to comprehend very complex systems and to organize the elements of the problem around domains of expertise.
[55] Fitness functions are automated and objective tests to ensure that the new developments don't deviate from the established constraints, checks and compliance controls.
