Custom software development process: Work with agency & in-house

Phase 1: Ideation & analyze

Estimated time for this phase: 1-2 weeks

1. Identify your target users

Building software is no longer about making it satisfy your requirements and suitable for target audiences. Instead, it’s about creating high-quality, scalable tech solutions that will meet and can adapt to your customer needs.   

Whether you build software for internal use (digital transformation, automation process) or to monetize and sell it (product development), the final goal should be making it user-centric.   

So, in the first step of custom software development process, how can you identify and understand your target users?  

• By conducting interviews with them.  
• By doing research and learning from your competitors: What’s their offer?  
• If you build an internal tool, add this one step: examine how the application will impact your end-user process and performance. Is your end-user a particular group or cross-departmental? 

2. Sort out your requirements

After identifying who you serve, think of what they will need. Then: 

(1) Create a must-have features/ requirements list of your software: it’s the foundation to solve the problems and the standard features that every other software in the market has.  

(2) What’s your unique proposal? What makes you stand out? What features solve your specialized challenges?  

Having a clear set of requirements will help you have productive conversations with potential partners, discussing timelines and technical details with your team.  

From the scope and requirements, don’t forget to set a cost limit for your project. We also have a guide on how much each type of software costs to build and What’s factors or hidden costs can impact it. Of course, you don’t want to squander the company’s budget on a single piece of software. Remember to determine the key features and allocate the funding without exceeding your assigned budget. 

In the initial phase, our focus is to learn who you are. 
 
Through discussion and a list of questions designed to gain insights into your business model and project prerequisites, we deep dive into the specific challenges of your niche, pinpoint any bottlenecks, and meticulously strategize every conceivable approach.

Phase 2: Preparation & planning

Estimated time for this phase: 2-4 weeks 

1. Assemble your team

There’re two approaches when setting out your development team: in-house or outsourcing/ working with a development company. If you are still skeptical about which to choose, you can read our full guide and learn the best strategy. In this blog, we will only cover the “how-to”, as classified under this table:  

Here’s some of our tips on Choosing a software development partner!

2. Plan on development, management and iteration

What’s the project milestone? What are the steps to reach the final goal? What member oversees what? What are the resources needed? When is the deadline? These are all the questions that need to be addressed in this step.   

Your IT agency or in-house team might ask you many questions regarding the company and industry to help design a better application. Try to provide them with the company mission, strengths and weaknesses, competitive advantages, and more.  

After that, you decide which framework and structure you want to build your software on. From this, you will know what tools you need, what steps to take, and more. 

Next, find the main communication channel. Set a clear guideline on when to have weekly meetings and iterations. You also must find the proper project management methods to keep things running smoothly. 

Pro Tip: Try to be detailed as much as possible. The more you break down the project into small chunks, the better you manage its mandate and time constraints. Hence, you can communicate well with your IT partner throughout the entire custom software development process, avoiding costly changes in the long run.
 
At Synodus, we did not take this step for granted. We consider it to be the cornerstone of any project. By valuing this stage, it not only allows us to prepare for potential challenges that may emerge in later stages but also ensures that we are primed to respond swiftly when it arises.  

Phase 3: Design

Estimated time for this phase: 4+ weeks 

1. Research on UX/UI

User Experience (UX) helps businesses create intuitive and enjoyable in-app user flow. A good UX design can bring many fruitful results to a business. Here are key aspects of planning the design:  

• User-Centric Approach: UX/UI should focus on users and their needs, showing that you care and want to equip them with a convenient, adaptable, seamless tool to solve their challenge 
• Research Matters: Good research helps in organizing information, ensuring functionality, and maintaining a consistent look for your app. 
• Brand Identity: The visual design and branding style play a big role in reinforcing your brand’s identity, making you memorable and creating a positive emotional connection with users. 
• Streamlining User Experience: Understanding user experience allows you to eliminate redundant steps and automate repetitive tasks when using the app.   

Proper UX/UI research can help designers improve the software’s quality based on user feedback at different stages of custom software development. Moreover, this step can extend the software’s accessibility and user inclusivity, especially those with disabilities or specific accessibility requirements. 

Pro tip: Sadly, many businesses neglect this step, leading to multiple corrections and modifications throughout the custom software development process. A tip from Synodus is to do research on user flow in advance. Once you know about user flow well, you can create a strategy and link the interfaces that match the previously studied UX/UI flow. 

Also read: Avoid these 15 Bad UI Design & Get Inspired with these Good UI & Good UX Design 

2. Design your prototype

When you finish your UX/UI research, it’s time to design the prototype. This step creates an initial version of the software, based on the input from the previous three stages. 

The prototype serves as a visual representation of the software’s key elements, including its information structure and interface design for web, mobile, and desktop. If the prototype succeeds and you have no problem with those areas, you can confidently start the custom software development process.   

Before finalizing any agreements, we initiate our partnership by presenting a Proof of Concept (POC). This POC outlines our proposed solution and details the technical architecture tailored to your specific needs. It also includes a comprehensive plan, specifying the allocation of team members throughout each phase and establishing clear deadlines.
 
The development process can only start once you have approved the POC. This guarantees a mutual understanding and agreement on the project objectives and methodologies, fostering a seamless partnership and a shared vision for success between our teams. 

Phase 4: Development & testing

Estimated time for this phase: 1-2+ months 

The development stage is often conducted simultaneously with testing to implement correction immediately before the official software delivery. It requires collaboration between software engineers, quality assurance, and designers.  

Early error detection during development can prevent hours, days, and even months of undoing the mistake.  

There are 3 crucial tests to perform on the developing software.  

• Internal and integration tests: This test is designed to find errors in interfaces and communication between specific modules. It also ensures that data flows smoothly between components, removing errors that slow down users’ in-app interaction.  
• User Acceptance Tests (UAT): As told by the name, the test checks whether the software meets users’ expectations and responds to users’ commands correctly.   
• Load and performance tests: This test is needed to see whether the software works appropriately or needs further optimization. It also means to faithfully reflect users’ behavior during increased traffic time, thus preparing for heavy usage and how to handle them.   

Here at Synodus, we work with an extensive plethora of frameworks, language and database, catering to web, mobile app and desktop development needs. 

For frontend, we prioritize HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
 
Our backend is powered by .Net, Java and PHP. While PHP stands out for its ease of use and cost-efficiency, Java and .Net are known for their scalability and versatility, making them ideal for everything from small websites to complex enterprise systems. They offer robust cross-platform capabilities, bolstered by an active support community and a rich set of tools. 

We also work with Python, Restful APIs and specialized languages such as Swift and Objective-C for native iOS applications. Our varied toolkit, ranging from straightforward to niche technologies, allows us to develop applications that align perfectly with any budget and businesses of all sizes. 

Expanding our technological horizons, our team of 250 tech mavericks also adopt emerging technology of blockchain, AI and low code to endow your applications with advanced performance and capabilities that outweigh commercial off-the-shelf tools.  

To learn more about our tech stack for testing and deployment, you can visit our portfolio! 

But if you work in-house, make sure that every team member is on board with your tech stack choice. They should also be familiar or at least know how to utilize it to get their job done. If not, consider expanding your team or conducting internal training for your team.

Phase 5: Deployment, onboarding and maintenance

Estimated time for this phase: 1 day to 1 week 

1. Deployment & training

To ensure a successful launch, your IT team or agency partner should provide support for technical issues and user onboarding.  

Remember, a single test may not catch all errors. Engage with real users to identify and correct any issues. Consult with your IT supplier or IT team leader for their expertise in user onboarding. 

There are multiple deployment strategies for a custom software development process.   

• Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD): Includes regularly integrating code change, running automated tests, and automatically deploying software to production once it passes all the tests.   
• Recreate Deployment: The old version is shut down, replaced with the new one, but this may disrupt users during deployment 
• Blue-Green Deployment: Two environments (blue and green) are used; the new version is tested in the green environment and switched when ready. 
• Canary Release: New software is deployed to a subset of users initially to test it in a controlled environment. 
• A/B Testing: Also known as split testing, this method deploys different versions of software to different groups of users simultaneously. 
• Rolling Deployment: Updates are launched simultaneously across different servers to minimize issues. 
• Manual Deployment: Software changes are made manually to production environments, offering more control but potentially time-consuming. 

2. Further stages: Maintenance and upgrade

Things don’t end at the deployment stage. You and your IT team should actively gather user feedback to perfect the software. You must maintain and constantly upgrade your software after deployment to fix errors and improve performance.   

There are 4 categories of software maintenance and upgrades.  

• Corrective: to detect and correct issues while the software is in use and to improve the system’s performance.    
• Adaptive: to update application when customers need it to run on different platforms, operating systems, or software   
• Perfective: to change features or update new ones according to customers’ demand.   
• Preventive: to prevent any future problems with the software. Some issues can be trivial now but can cause catastrophic problems in the future.

65% of our clients continue to work with us post-development for maintenance and future upgrades. Some of them last for years, proving the strong partnership between us and the said client.

Tips to make your custom software development process more effective

Every business owner and IT developer expects their custom software development process to go smoothly and effectively. But how? One significant factor is to change and keep up with customers to stay competitive and at the top of the game. And, of course, there are ways for businesses to make improvements to it.   

1. Adopt agile development

This environment can help you develop prototypes faster by lessening complexities at different project stages on time. It relies on customer involvement and ensures the delivery speed of the projects. One easy method is to break the project into small chunks and keep track of each project step.   

2. Expand team size

The more members you have on your team, the less tasks will be assigned for individuals. Responsibility and delegation are shared among team members. Employees can focus entirely on their specific tasks and complete them on time. Also, a team of combined expertise can help you achieve multiple aspects of your business goals.   

But hiring that many people to work full-time is not cost-effective for many businesses. Most businesses opt for polyglot developers but then you must trade for the fact that they do not excel in a certain technical aspect.  

This is when outsource software development comes in clutch. You can outsource an agency with specific expertise to your business or the complete software development depends on what your business requires. If done right, outsourcing can help you access significant IT expertise while effectively saving funds.  

3. Speed up with cloud technology or low-code 

Cloud computing and low code are transformative forces in custom software development, offering efficiency gains and cost savings: 

Cloud platforms provide scalable, on-demand resources, eliminating the need for extensive infrastructure investments. This agility speeds up development, allowing teams to focus on coding rather than infrastructure management. 

Low-code technology takes simplification a step further by enabling developers to create applications with minimal hand-coding. This reduces development time significantly, making it easier to meet tight project deadlines.   

At Synodus, we embrace both technologies. Depending on your requirements and resources, we will choose the best suited software architecture, balancing between budget constraints and performance! 

4. Identify KPIs

You should set a measurement to stay on track with tasks that need to be completed and their delivery date. This can be done in between the second phases, when you are planning for the custom software development process.  

Synodus – Leading bespoke solution for business

At Synodus, we don’t just build software, we craft solutions that drive business growth and can be scaled. We understand that the true goal of software is to propel your business forward. This unique blend of technical skills and business acumen is what set us apart.   

Take the Vietnamese Unilever Factory as an example. With our tailored technical assistance and consultancy, they achieved an impressive 80% reduction in operational time and significant cost savings by implementing a custom product planning system.  

Need more proof of our custom software services?  

For an IT company, our team harnessed low code to deliver a comprehensive Human Resource Management (HRM) system in just 8 weeks. This system revolutionized their employee management, streamlining the request-approval process by 85% and digitizing 70% of their paper-based HR tasks. 

There’re endless ways on how tech can transform business outcomes, and having a skilled tech partner like Synodus can be invaluable in navigating this exciting journey. Our clients’ success speaks for itself, with 88% of them ready to recommend Synodus. 

Ready to explore your opportunities? 

Wrapping up

The custom software development process is not easy. It needs the collective and meticulous effort of different individuals, proper planning, and constant updates to keep up with customers’ demand. Developing custom software can be time-consuming and laborious, but you should take your time and be detailed as possible to avoid any possible mistakes before you go too far from correcting it. Your software can turn out great if you follow our suggested steps and keep useful tips in mind.   

More related posts from Software Development blog blog you shouldn’t skip:

• Calculate Your Custom Software Development Costs: How To & Tips
• IT Outsourcing Models: Comparing How Each Impact Outcomes
• 12 IT Outsourcing Risks And Ways To Manage Them