What to Consider Before Starting Software Product Development

Complex software development projects require a lot of technical expertise and managerial skills. You want to develop a product that will be well developed within the planned budget, reach the market at the right time, and be well received by your customers.

To achieve this, a few factors are crucial to keep in mind when developing a new software product.

1. Product vision in custom software development

When creating a new software product, one of the first things you must consider is product vision.

Product vision describes the main goal you want to achieve with the product you are developing and includes a larger picture. This will assist your team in understanding what they are working on and why. A product roadmap is a tool for communicating the product vision to those involved in the agile software development process. This is crucial for all industries, including life sciences, healthcare, and others.

2. Allocation of managerial resources for software product development

When designing a software product, people usually pay the most attention to establishing a technical team with the most relevant knowledge and skillset for the successful design and production of the end product.

However, securing enough time and budget is essential to have at least one product manager on the team. The product manager will ensure that the project is progressing and following the product vision and roadmap.

3. Market research and customer validation

Product management tasks are necessary for full software product development. These tasks include market research, customer surveys, competitor and SWOT analysis, business model creation, and other industry-specific duties.

The processes of custom software development and product development are linked; people involved in both processes must be kept up to date on (at least) a high level of the project’s developments on both fronts.

4. Defining the product development process

All software development projects follow a few crucial steps for a successful launch. However, diverse products will require different product development procedures. There are different software development process methods, e.g., Waterfall development, various versions of Agile software development, etc. Picking the right process is always challenging, especially in modern development practices where Agile is often the default choice. There are numerous cases where it can be the wrong choice — especially if we’re developing a product that will never be online, is tied to specific hardware, or needs a vast amount of documentation — for instance, due to regulatory requirements and such.

Software architecture

Understanding the requirements and intended usage of the product is essential before organizing the software development process and establishing the software architecture. Simply described, software architecture is a high to mid-level plan for how the software must be developed. That must be founded on the data gathered throughout the product development’s research phase.

To create an appropriate software architecture for a particular product, you need to answer questions such as, but not limited to:

• How will the users use the software?
• How much data will users process?
• How technologically savvy are the target customers?
• What user experience will best assist users in solving their issues?
• What is our development process?
• What is our timeline?

Technical debt

Technical debt results from choosing a more straightforward development strategy or architecture during a particular phase rather than designing a better solution that would take more time to implement. It can result from wrong assumptions when there are many unknowns or when trying to de-risk unknowns by implementing proofs-of-concept that are often not discarded — but built upon.

You need to make several trade-offs when developing software products to give your consumers the best solution. You can typically choose from various pathways when developing software, each with advantages and disadvantages.

If, for instance, time to market is crucial, the reality is that shortcuts will be taken when implementing features — it is wise that there is time allocated in later stages that will mend those shortcuts.

5. Collaboration with external partners for software development

External partners can offer a variety of advantages to the software development process for a new product. Some examples of such are shortening the timetable, bringing in more specialists with specialized knowledge and skills (for instance, in life sciences), increasing the project’s workforce, and so on.

However, if you decide to collaborate with an external partner, several aspects of this type of relationship must be noted:

Consider the product vision and roadmap.

The internal product team typically provides a vision and roadmap for product development. But contacting your external partners for their comments at the beginning of the project can be advantageous as they might offer a different point of view.

Describe your procedures.

Keeping your external partners informed of what they need to learn is crucial because they need to understand your procedures as well as you do.

Set objectives for the custom software development process.

Be specific about your expectations and express them as often as necessary. Describe what you anticipate from routine team meetings, reporting, billing, etc. That will help you save time and money that would otherwise be spent resolving issues that could have been avoided with better communication.

Establish functional communication.

It is crucial to provide an effective communication channel for those involved in product development to share information. Be sure to inform everyone of the project’s progress by including the product team, the software team, and any external partners.

Allocate your own resources.

Collaboration types with external partners vary from simple team augmentation to turnkey solutions and everything in between. Even when the collaboration is the most “hands-off” type — turnkey solution, internal resources still need to be available for regular sync meetings and to answer questions, discuss how to overcome obstacles, and such. More complex products need more syncs, especially in the beginning. Establishing communication, trust, and understanding must be worked on if we want the project to succeed.

Summary

When developing a new software product, a few factors are crucial to keep in mind:

• Think thoroughly about your product’s vision, the development process’s road map, and any future enhancements.
• Market research will give you information about the state of the market and assist in determining your product’s development and roadmap.
• Product vision and roadmap will assist you with decisions about software architecture and potential trade-offs.
• Incorporate outside collaborators into the creation of your product. They may provide more talent and knowledge, increase the workforce, or accelerate the release of products.
• Put a lot of importance on the end-users’ feedback on your product — starting from the beginning of the product development. That will help you develop a successful product.
• From the very beginning of the product development, give a high priority to the feedback of the end-users. That will help you develop a successful product.

Do you find this helpful? Read the whole article here and get insight into how to successfully start your next software development project.