What is a software development process?

The software development process is a structure imposed on the development of a software product. It is a splitting of software development work into distinct phases containing activities with the intent of better planning and management.

There are several models or methodologies, each describing approaches to a variety of tasks or activities that take place duri  ng the process. Common methodologies include the waterfall, prototyping, iterative and incremental development, spiral development, rapid application development, extreme programming and various types of agile methodology.  

Process Steps

SE processes are composed of many activities/steps:

• Requirement Analysis
  • While the customer probably believe they know what the software is to do, it is common that you need to recognize incomplete, ambiguous or contradictory requirements.
• Specification
  • In this step a precise description of the software is to be written. 
• Software architecture
  • Design an abstract representation of the system. Architecture is concerned with making sure the software system will meet the requirements of the product, as well as ensuring that the future req  uirement can be addressed.
• Implementation
  • Very self explanatory, code the design.
• Testing
  • Testing the software.
• Documentation
  • For the purpose of future maintenance and enhancement.
• Training and support
  • It is very important to have training classes for the most enthusiastic software users, incorporate the rest of the organization into adopting the new software.
• Maintenance
  • Maintaining and enhancing software to co  pe with the new problems or new requirements. It may be necessary to add code and determine how the software works.