Main Iterations in Software Development by Syndicode Share: Syndicode Date Published 30 July 2019 Categories Blog, Showcase Reading Time 8-Minute Read Main iterations in software development by Syndicode. Every business should decide on organizing the work process inside the company, according to its priorities and projects in the development. If we talk about software development company, a work process mostly related to organizing software development services and processes. Here, in Syndicode we’re Agile! That means – we stand for iterative development. And today’s article is dedicated to the main iterations in software development by Syndicode. Most of you should already know the theory behind software development. But today we’ll show you the real-world processes that are provided in Syndicode right after we sign a contract with our client. Our software development process consists of several phases that are provided in iterations. We’re Agile. What does it mean? Agile software development is a conceptual framework for undertaking software engineering projects. The main goal of Agile methods is minimizing the risk by developing software in short timeboxes, called iterations, which typically last one to four weeks. Each timebox is like a mini software project that includes all the tasks necessary to release the mini-increment of new functionality: Planning, Requirements analysis, Design, Coding, Testing, and Documentation. Agile methods emphasize working product as the primary measure of the progress. Most of the development team members (and business owners too) are located nearby and can communicate face-to-face. But with modern tools of communication and time zone, we’re located it’s easy to talk to our clients whenever they able to be online. So, Agile distributed teams are no longer something impossible. By applying the Agile methodology, the project team has to go through a cycle and evaluate each iteration and find out what changes they need to apply to make a satisfactory end product. This model is the perfect choice for managers and team leaders. Our potential clients like to ask us about our company, skills, instruments, and organization of the work process. Despite we have already answered many of those questions, today we decided to make our work process even more transparent. So we’ll talk about the way we provide software development. Syndicode refined the processes and polished iterations so they could be provided in a perfect way. Main Software Development Iterations by Syndicode Discovery Session: Mind map, Lo-fi prototype, Documentation, Ballpark estimation. UX Design: All screens wireframes, The detailed estimation backend part. User Story Map: The creation of user stories, User story map. UI Design: The layout sheets of all screens using Figma, Detailed estimation frontend part. Project Planning: Decomposition of user stories on tasks, Project timeline. Development Phase: Markup, Frontend, Backend, QA Final testing of the whole project by a client Going Live/Launch of the project Maintenance and Support Discovery Session Whether the client wants to launch a web app for logistics or develop an IoT platform, together we need to go through a Discovery Session. This is a meeting (online or offline) between client’s and developer’s team the main purpose of which is to define a tech stack and product’s features to be implemented. Tech stack for custom software development might contain a bunch of different technologies like Ruby, PHP, NodeJS, GoLang, Python, Swift, Kotlin, Elixir and so on… They are defined according to a technical specification created by software architect or lead developer. Find out the Discovery Session tasks, key participants, timeframe and results. Software development research and writing mindmaps aimed to understand the current tech trends and main characteristics of the technologies meant to be used in this particular project. All the difficulties and best practices count. Apart from the tech side, project manager and business analyst do research about implementation and maintenance prospects. SWOT for current competitors should be prepared as well. After this research, we usually create a plan for the software development process and wait for the client’s approval. A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize the needed information. The main ideas are connected here directly to the central concept, and it has branches coming out from those major ideas. UX Design If you’re developing a web or mobile application, one of the major things you need to get right is the way your app looks and feels. For example, if your field is eCommerce, a poorly designed app will lose you many potential customers. That is why visual design, your brand identity and user experience of your digital product play one of the most significant roles. We devoted a whole page to describe the purpose of the great UI/UX design, the main terms, history, some examples and processes for design development – read a comprehensive UI/UX design guide. Check Syndicode’s page on Dribbble to see what we can. After creating a visual part you have to understand the functionality behind. It’s backend development to handle the functionality of web applications. You can’t see it on the screen but every interaction in the human-computer system is possible thanks to backend development. Backend development refers to the server-side of development where you are primarily focused on how the site works. It is code that manages user connections, connects the web to a database, and powers the web application itself. User Story Map A user story is a tool used in Agile software development and is an informal description of one or more features of a software system. It’s usually a vital part of the software development implementation plan we follow. Writing correct User Stories is a powerful technique that defines the future success of your product. Syndicode designers know the best practices for this. Another thing that defines your success and is tightly connected with user stories is idea validation. UI Design Talking about frontend development we mean everything you can see on the screen. Look, feel and design – that are the 3 main parts generated by code for your digital product in frontend development. Frontend development is focused on the client side of development and responsible for seamless user experience. There are main rules Syndciode follows in creating outstanding UI designs. Project Planning Our teams spend the first hours of each iteration checking through the iteration planning, and a part of that process is the decomposition of requirements that will turn into work that the team needs to complete. Task decomposition is not usually considered to be done until the requirements are ready for iteration. This guarantees that the entire team can check and discuss each requirement and determine a general strategy for everyone. Development Phase (QA) Quality Assurance is a set of activities for ensuring quality in software engineering processes. This stage ensures that software meets and complies with the defined or standardized quality specifications. QA is a process that checks the developed software to ensure it meets the desired quality measures. Software testing is the process of checking developed software for any mistakes or bugs. This helps to validate and eventually verify the product as to whether it is ready for the market. Why QA and testing are so important in software development? Because there are several software quality attributes that heavily affect the product itself and the business behind, and testing helps to ensure these attributes performed well. Final Testing of the Whole Project by a Client The client validated the product and goes through all the project’s development stages. That’s the most important part. If the client is not satisfied with the product’s performance (which is never happen in Syndicode) – the iterations are run again to meet all the requirements. Maintenance and Support Software maintenance is a continuation of the collaboration with the client to improve, modify and update software product after delivery to correct faults and to improve performance. There are 4 categories of software maintenance: Corrective – to rectify some bugs detected while the system is in use, or to improve the performance of the system. Adaptive – to modify and update when the customer needs the product to run on new platforms/operating systems/hardware/software. Perfective – to support the new features or to change functionalities according to the customer’s demands. Preventive – to prevent future problems of the software. Some problems might be not significant at this moment but may cause serious issues in the future. Maintenance is the main indicator of a software development partner’s reliability and experience. Syndicode is ready to prove our level! When you read about all those stages and iterations of software development, you shouldn’t worry as it all handled by a dedicated team of software engineers. And if you are ready to delegate the work on your project to guys who wouldn’t let you down, read more about working with Syndicode team in ‘hiring dedicated teams fears and myths! We are building strong relationships with our clients by showing all the stages of our work transparent and bringing great results. We also try to answer all of the client’s questions and reduce all possible fears. Syndicode offers you one of the most dedicated software development teams in Ukraine!