This article is the first of a series on the essential phases of software development. It will be divided into 5 main topics: analysis, design, development, testing and deployment. As you will see later in this article, the first one will explain how important the analysis phase is before starting to develop a solution. The second article will cover the main steps to ensure you are designing your application the right way. The article on the development will explain how we are organizing our development process. Finally, we’ll see how important testing is and how we can deploy our solution.
Throughout this series we’ll take Wave as our example. Wave is a web application used every day by all the Semetissians. It helps us gather and visualize the data from various advertising platforms in one place (Check the article to know more). In 2021 we decided to rebuild it from scratch for many reasons. One of the main reasons was that we did not follow the essential phases of development. We learned from that and took a step back to better develop the second version.
Nowadays the world of software development is constantly changing, new applications and websites are developed every day. Before diving into the code, developers need to set the fundamentals for the entire project. During this analysis, the development team usually conducts research in order to define the scope of the project. A good way to gather information can be to conduct interviews or review an existing solution. This will help the team to have a better understanding of what they essentially need to develop. Skipping this phase would potentially mean a waste of time and resources. Therefore, it is crucial to run a good analysis to estimate accurately the release date of each deliverable. In addition, this phase helps to identify potential innovation and improvement opportunities that can lead to a better user experience or improved software performance. At Semetis, we like to call it the “Investigation phase”
Let’s now see how we have approached this on Wave. While building this application, we put a special focus on the investigation phase to ensure the objectives and requirements of the project were well understood. First, we wanted to point out the strengths and weaknesses of our existing V1 tool. This helped us in taking the right decisions to improve the user experience. For example, one weakness that came out the most from interviewing the users was the loading time of the dashboards, which could take several minutes. Therefore we decided to put a lot of effort and resources into increasing our page speed.
With all the feedback we gathered from the users, we sat down with the developers at Atlas, Semetis' R&D department. Together, we defined the new architecture, database schema and features for this new version of Wave. This collaborative process allowed us to define a clear scope for the project and set realistic goals for the development team.
The investigation phase was crucial in laying the foundation for Wave's development. Thanks to this process, we had a clear idea of the features we needed to implement and what data we would be working with throughout the project. This allowed the development team to start working on the project with a clear roadmap and well-defined goals. This was on its own translated into a concrete timeline.
In summary, the investigation is a crucial step in the development of an application or website. Through research and analysis, the development team can establish a solid foundation for the project, understand the goals of the project, identify the potential risks and opportunities and effectively plan the next phases. Neglecting this phase can lead to wasted resources, unsatisfactory results, and missed opportunities.
Maxime Denis
| LinkedinThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
