What’s the Big Deal? Isn’t Product Development the Same as App Development?
OK, I’ll admit it. Last week, I nearly got kicked out of a nice restaurant in the city. Why? Because my friend, Lucy was telling me about her company’s business decision to build a software product, and she said this, “Our team can handle it. We do application development all the time.” That statement was all it took to drive me over the edge. Call me crazy, but I have lived through enough so-called software product development projects to know that, without the right team and skill set, the project is doomed to fail. No, I am NOT being overly dramatic!
The fact is that the investment and time required to conceive, design and develop a software product can be overwhelming and there are many ways a business can get off track. There are many, crucial phases to the software product development life cycle including competitive analysis, technical feasibility, product roadmap management, software product testing, and implementation, software product maintenance, and timely upgrades of the product to satisfy the ever-changing user and technology needs. If your organization wants to be successful in its effort, the software product you conceive must be developed and maintained with optimum standards and it must comply with the business plan and financial projections for the product.
Software Product Development must include state-of-the-art software engineering practices, appropriate technical architecture, versioning control, detailed technical and user documentation and high development and quality standards. The software product development process must include steps to refine product requirements and to create and manage clear goals to meet business and technology objectives, mitigate risk and produce products and output. Very few internal business IT teams possess the resources or domain expertise to successfully develop a software product for market.
Now are you starting to understand why I was so stern with my friend, Lucy? The bottom line is that you need to engage the services of someone who knows the difference between application development and a product initiative (someone who can manage the interdependent variables of software product development – time, resources and scope).
If you want to deliver quality products to the market in the most cost effective manner, with flexibility, scalability and performance for current and future requirements, here is where you should start: Software Product Development
