Last Updated on 1st Nov 2021.....

The software development industry is a million-dollar and fast-changing industry leveraged by cutting-edge technologies and scalable methodologies. Almost every year we, see new disruptive technologies, powerful software development tools, robust programming languages, software architectures, and scalable methods that are evolving rapidly to enhance the functioning and security of the software.

The integration of top-notch technologies in the software development process is considered the critical indicator for focusing their efforts. To lead the software industry and have an edge over competitors, businesses should use cutting-edge technologies and gain enormous benefits from them.

Software development best practices are constantly evolving and improving with the passing years. The software development process is all about starting from ideation to requirement gathering to design, coding, testing, and finally, support and maintenance. Therefore, it’s imperative to understand the best use of software development practices to ensure success.

In this article, we’ve developed ten software development practices required to create robust and reliable software.

1. Simple And Transparent Code

Code simplicity is an idea to ease the burden of developers with reduced unnecessary complexity in software development.

A simple code makes your other codes easier to read. It also helps in maintaining coherence software development progresses. On the other hand, because a complex code is like a domino effect, one wrong input and ever improve everything may become messy.

In addition to this, a simplified code will make it easy to be repurposed and reused. Updations and revisions of the code are suitable to be done while developing a program. So keeping your code simple helps you a lot while developing software.

Here we’ve three checkpoints that tell if your code is simplified and straightforward:

• Your code is easy to test.
• Your code contains logic boundaries only on one domain.
• Your code should be longer than your comments to explain it.

2. Keeping Process Customer-Focused

The customer plays an integral part in the development process – from ideation, scoping to product definition to product validation to product service. So always take their considerations into account while software development. 

The software innovators develop and launch new products that offer new and unique benefits to their customers. They offer a better value for the customers’ money and better meet customers’ needs than other related products. 

Read also: Top 10+ Software Development Companies To Watch Out In 2021

Always ensure to have a deep, profound knowledge of customers’ needs and demands. You can achieve this by working closely with customers to identify their needs through feedback, polls, contests, or surveys. Perform in-depth market research to define the product requirements keeping customers' views in mind.

3. Methodologies Always Matter

In the present scenario, Software development focuses on delivering small chunks of big solutions that perform single tasks allowing them to bring solutions to market faster and continuously improve.

Cesar Gutierrez says, “the evolution of the software development space has led to more organizations embracing Agile methodologies to organize their work. As a result, it’s become standard, and companies that don’t follow Agile best practices are being left behind.” 

The famous software methodologies, including agile and waterfall, are used by developers today based on the project requirements. The methods help the software to get different built-in phases. At each stage, the portion of software built gets tested by the clients in real-time. You must consider the client’s suggestion for further improvements.

Presently, embracing Agile practices is not enough. Businesses also need to embrace DevOps, continuous testing, DevSecOps, and automation to gain a competitive advantage.

4. Keep All Team Members On The Same Page

This software development practice is critical and needs to be executed right from the beginning. The team members should be on the same page in the entire software development process. Their views, opinions, and suggestions about the software are also essential. They are the only innovators that take your product one level up and are ready to market. You can involve team members by:

1. Conduct small regular meetings with your team and clients. Listen to their views on the software process and ask for suggestions if required.

2. Performing code reviews helps every team member to remain on the same page. Also, it will remind them of the many coding standards.

3. Making a regular code check will help keep up the code quality, but it will also improve the team’s coordination and teamwork.

5. Implementing Agile Way

 The commonly used Agile methodology in the software development process is ideal for dynamic and fast environments.

The agile process requires multiple teams that work collaboratively and simultaneously to achieve business goals. These collaborative efforts of various teams quickly enable the organization to identify core problems fast and streamline the process.

Read also: The Ultimate Guide To Hiring A Software Development Company In 2021

Large enterprise developers use an agile approach to work in a fast-paced and competitive environment. Big brands that used the Agile approach in building a top-notch product include Apple, Microsoft, and IBM.

So, if you own a large-sized enterprise with projects that required flexibility and fast responses, and a small time frame, then the agile methodology perfectly fits you.

6. Systemized Software Development Process

Implementing a systematized software development process proves fruitful to any software developed. This practice is popularly known as the software development life cycle (SDLC).

Implementing SDLC facilitates your team and clients to set the right expectations. This software ensures that your methodologies align with the business objectives. Also, make sure to emphasize the value of each role to your members.

Selecting the proper development process depends on your business-specific requirements, consumer demands, technical specifications, scope, and timeframe.

7. Get Global Acknowledgement With Development Standards

Adapting the correct software development standards is necessary for your software development process. Receiving an ISO certificate for your software development involves several benefits.

1. It improves your projects using ISO standards, increases productivity, and maintains a high-quality working environment. 

2. It provides your software with an international presence that would enable you to work with clients all across the globe.

Also, make the right decision when looking for a reputable institution. Check their offers and choose the best one that suits your needs. Today, many organizations across the globe are following different software development practices to minimize economic losses.  And in order to minimize the loss, it is imperative that the coding and other aspects of development adhere to the international standards.

8. Low Code Development

Low-code development is the most trending software development practice used today. Businesses today want to be more agile, scale and fully automated while building software applications. With low-code platforms, they can build applications with minimum coding and lower investment. Using an interactive visual interface, with quick drag and drop tools, and faster automation, developers can build robust and scalable applications that thrive their business values.

Businesses can easily integrate business logic into an app using low-code development tools. It was estimated that low-code development is expected to hit $187 billion in revenue by 2030. Low code development eliminates the need of hiring a specialized pool of talent.

Read also: Software Development In 2021: Statistics You Need To Know

9. Work With Developers To Create The Robust Strategy

Creating a detailed roadmap with milestones and pertinent goals acts as a critical indicator in helping enterprises get a clear view of future solutions. To develop a more robust software development process, you’ll have to sit with your team for hours to build the right plan focused on accomplishing business goals.

Try to work closely with development teams to develop a release schedule, conduct meetings, and prepare a plan for accomplishing milestones/goals.

If dealing with an outsourcing partner, it’s a good idea to check how they help you prepare the right strategy to accomplish core business goals.

The teams’ combined efforts help establish a sense of ownership and a clear understanding of the project.

10. Determine Your Target Outcome

Every team member must have a clear systemic vision of the product they’re developing. This vision includes analyzing the market situations, trends, the industry they serve, implementing Agile practices, and prioritizing features to maximize profits while reducing time-to-market.

It’s all about understanding what they are targeting and what are the expected outcomes they desire.

Incorporating the right set of technology and effective software development practices to develop top-notch products must target every member working on the software. 

It is pivotal to have a sense of awareness and ownership over the process/focusing on outcomes over outputs should be there in everyone’s mind working out there.

Concluding Thoughts

The software development industry is all set for some significant changes in the coming years. It will develop, increase a myriad of opportunities for the developers to make software development more easy and fast and help businesses innovate, evolve and grow.

Developing reliable and scalable software may not be easy. Still, it will become less burdensome, less time-consuming, and more efficient when done with the correct practices and the right mindset.