The Process of Designing and Constructing Custom Software

A typical custom software development project begins with the formation of the software concept, also know as the envisioning phase. The concept is reviewed in detail to determine practical feasibility and to develop a target for the software design process. The design should define the functional requirements of the custom software and include all the component definitions required for the custom software development. Common examples of software design components include: security requirements, performance requirements, use cases of user requirements, user interface specifications, a database design, and other requirements specific to the software being built. The design is normally reviewed several times by stake-holders and users before it is accepted and ready for release to the software development team.

The software development team has the responsibility for the actual custom software development. This team may consist of several members including a project manager, software architects, senior and junior software developers, and various specialists such as user interface and web service developers, and a variety of other support staff. A custom database software team might also include database designers and database development personnel.

During custom software development the software components must pass numerous unit testing procedures before being included in the final custom software product. The completed software is them subjected to numerous controlled tests for performance, reliability, and functionality before being released into a beta test environment.