It's great knowing that our world has evolved so rapidly over the years, but as the world grows, so does the wide range of information we need to interpret and understand. More specifically, if you're having trouble understanding the software industry, let us help you understand a few things.
We'll be focusing on the following:
What is Software and Software Development? 🔍
Where does Software exist? 📱
How is Software actually created? 🛠️
What other services are involved in Software Development? 🧰
The conclusion 🗺️
What is Software and Software Development?
Let's start with Software, the intangible part of a computer or any electronic device. It includes any programs, apps, and instructions that make these devices useful to a user. Imagine software as the architect's blueprint for a house, and the computer as the construction crew. The blueprint (software) guides the construction crew (computer) on how to build each part of the house, from the foundation to the roof, ensuring that it all comes together perfectly (performing a task). 🏡
Software development is the craft of creating, updating, and maintaining these recipes. It involves writing code, which is a series of special instructions that computers can understand. Developers use programming languages to write this code. Just like a chef might tweak a recipe to make a dish better, software developers continually improve and fix software to make it work more efficiently or add new features. 💻
Where does Software exist?
Software can exist in various places, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and even in things like your fridge or car. It's like the hidden instructions that make these devices work.
Here are some common places where software can exist:
Computers: When you use your computer, you're interacting with software. The operating system (like Windows or macOS) is software, as are the web browsers, games, and apps you use. 💻
Smartphones and Tablets: Your phone and tablet are packed with software. Everything from the apps you download to the system that makes calls and sends texts is software. 📱
Home Appliances: Nowadays, even your fridge, washing machine, or thermostat can have software. It helps control these devices and may receive updates to work better or add new features. 🏡
Cars: Modern cars have a lot of software, from the engine control to the infotainment system. It makes your driving experience safer and more convenient. 🚗
Wearable Devices: Smartwatches and fitness trackers run on software. They track your steps, monitor your heart rate, and more. ⌚
Industrial Machines: In factories, big machines often have software to control their operations. It ensures they work accurately and efficiently. 🏗️
Software isn't something you can see or touch, but it's everywhere, making our gadgets and machines do all sorts of useful things.
Software development usually includes and follows a "Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)", the step-by-step process that turns ideas into a working application or program. This includes planning, designing, coding, testing, and maintaining the software. Let's use building a house as an analogy.
Here's the breakdown:
Planning (Idea Stage): When you start planning a house, you start by figuring out what the house must look like and what it needs to do for the person you're building it for. This involves talking to clients, understanding their requirements, and preparing the initial blueprint (like a design or a document). 🏠📐For building software, we do just that. We meet with our clients and discuss their requirements, ensuring they are aware of software attributes and limitations that they may not be aware of. This is all collected into a document, flow chart, and specifications (which I'll clarify). 🖥️📐
Design (Blueprint Stage): After long meetings with your client, you create a detailed floor plan for the house with more realistic examples of how it looks after being built. As the client, you decide on the layout, rooms, and materials for a house and the architect amends his blueprints. 🏠🗺️Software is designed by a systems architect, by creating wireframes, mockups, and database schemas, to help a client visualize the user interface and define how different parts of the program will work together. All this is done in consideration for the purpose of the application. 🖥️🗺️
Coding (Building Stage): This is where the fun starts. The client confirms the blueprints and approves the project, then the team gets to building your big beautiful house. It's standard across industries to keep your client involved to make sure you don't build the whole house, and then end up forgetting the one room needed a furnace. Oops! 🏠🛠️Instead of bricks, cement, and sand, software development involves using programming software, programming languages, and databases (there's far more but let's keep things simple). Software developers then use the specifications (blueprints) to start building. This phase usually includes a lot of communication between the developers, architect, and clients, to ensure the developers (builders) are moving in the right direction. 🖥️👩💻
Testing (Quality Check): Before showing your client their new home, you've got to inspect it yourself to make sure everything looks good and is working (aircon, lights, plumbing, etc). If anything is faulty, it needs to be fixed or replaced. 🏠🕵️♂️The software goes through a similar testing process. Dedicated software testers check for bugs (faults) and difficulties when using the software. They ensure the user interface and user experience work seamlessly for using and navigating the software. Any concerns are reported to the developers by listing them in a test plan (dedicated document for logging test results). 🖥️📝
Deployment (Moving In): Finally, the wait is over and you can finally move into your home. Of course, it takes time to find your feet but you feel happy with the outcome, or you complain and inform the architect that some wiring still needs fixing. 🏠🚚Once the software passes the testing phase, it's ready to be deployed, which means it's released to the public or a specific group of users, like a company's employees. If users give feedback on something that is missing, it gets reported and the developers fix the errors, and then redeploy the changes. 🖥️🚀
Maintenance (Repairs and Upkeep): Every house needs occasional repairs or renovations, which at times, involves doing it yourself or hiring someone. 🏠🔨Software often requires updates or fixes, which are not usually recognized by users after a project is complete. This tends to be the responsibility of the software development company. Sometimes software can get outdated and better technologies can be implemented or perhaps your server has just dropped and needs to be rebooted. Either way, maintenance is very important in the software industry. 🖥️🔍
What other services are involved in Software Development?
Apart from the above SDLC stages, software services don't always include the full SDLC spectrum. At times a client may just want to discuss ideas or want an example of what they will be getting. Whether they move forward with the project is up to them.
Other Software services can include:
Business Analysis: Analyzing business software requirements or concepts to develop specifications and 'blueprints' for a project. 🔍
UI/UX Design: Creating the user interface (UI) to make the software look good and designing the user experience (UX) to make it easy and enjoyable to use. 🎨
Front-End Development: Building only the parts of the software that users interact with directly, like buttons, forms, and menus. 👩💻
Back-End Development: Creating the behind-the-scenes functionality that makes the software run smoothly, like databases and server communication. 👩💻
Mobile App Development: Creating software specifically for smartphones and tablets. 📱
Web App Development: Building websites and web applications that can be accessed through web browsers. 🖥️
Automated Testing: By compiling a series of scripts using a testing program, steps taken during manual testing are saved. These scripts can be run to repeat the entire testing process automatically. 🧪
The Conclusion 🚀
In the ever-evolving world of software, understanding its creation is like going on an exciting adventure! We've compared it to building a house, from planning to moving in and maintaining. Plus, there are even more specialized services to meet any one of your needs.
In truth, there is no limit to what you can create! So, whether you're a tech enthusiast or a solutions architect, software is a journey of innovation and endless possibilities! 🌟
