Software implementation, ring any bells? It sounds like software deployment, one phase of software life-cycle, but the meaning is different. Software deployment and implementation are confused often because the meanings are similar when you think about having the user to use your software, for example, the argument of “people implementing your software for their use” is different than software implementation, but because of that, it can be confused with software deployment.
The difference is that software deployment refers to all activities that make your software available for the user while software implementation refers to the activities that are made before deploying your software such as design, coding, testing, etc., in other words, the design step to the testing step form the software life-cycle and other activities.
In an information technology (IT) context, software or hardware implementation encompasses all the post-sale processes involved in something operating properly in its environment, including analyzing requirements, installation, configuration, customization, running, testing, systems integration, user training, delivery and making necessary changes.
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Not having a well-structured or an accurate plan in software implementation may result to a total failure in the software project, this is because many departments are involved and one misunderstanding or the use of an inappropriate development method can lead many problems.
To prevent many of those problems, is necessary the use of tools that can help to the software implementation; one example is software documentation, that is used to provide information about the software process. I will list and explain a little about common tools:
- CASE tools: One example us the UML, where you can see the connection between classes in a software.
- Compilers, Interpreters and Run-times: Program languages with their respective compilers.
- Visual editors: Provide an easier way to design GUI
- Database Management Systems (DBMS)
- Testing Automated tools that run repeated and multiple simultaneous tests.
There many of them, you can visit here for more information and to know more useful tools.
Reference
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/implementation
http://www.peter-lo.com/Teaching/M8748/L19.pdf
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/software_engineering/software_implementation.htm
