Top Five Software Development Best Practices

Is your software development assignment giving you a hard time? The advancement of technology has made the economy more dependent on software. Today, many companies require the services of software developers. Also, one of the best-paying jobs in the world is software development jobs. Although there has been tremendous success in this field, there are also too many failures you rarely hear of. To score the best grade in your software development assignment, you must be well-versed in the best practices.

Software development problems

Some of the most common problems that might plague your software development assignment are:

• Poor quality software
• Serious software flaws are discovered later on
• Developing software that is too complicated to extend and maintain
• Wrong understanding of the requirements
• Software that doesn't cater to changes in requirements

The traditional approach to developing software, also known as the waterfall development method, was marred with several challenges because its assumption doesn't consider the changing universe. The development process of a waterfall approach follows these phases:

1. Analyzing the requirements of the product
2. Designing
3. Coding
4. Testing the subsystem
5. Testing the system

The critical assumption in this approach is that the requirements don't change. Also, when the coding starts, the design stops changing. There was a need for an approach that takes care of the failures of these assumptions. Hence, the best practices of software development were introduced.

What are the best practices of software development?

The best practices of developing software are meant to mitigate the root causes of the problems mentioned above. Any software development assignment that follows this set of empirically proven techniques will likely strike the root cause of these problems. This article discusses five software development approaches recommended for programming students who want to prepare quality assignments.

1. Developing iteratively

   The iterative approach to software development is considered superior to other methods. Since the software elements are integrated progressively, the developer mitigates the risks earlier. Also, this method accommodates new requirements and tactics. It leads to a robust product by facilitating the improvement and refining of the software. It is common for the first design to have flaws concerning end-user requirements. Late discovery of these defects can be costly and sometimes lead to the project being canceled. An iterative approach is one of the best practices you should consider when preparing your software development assignment because of the following:

   ✔ You can create objective milestones that provide you with a short-term focus.
   ✔ You can get early feedback from the user through initial iterations
   ✔ The iterative approach supports continuous integration and testing
2. Managing Requirements

   A sound software engineering student should know how to manage requirements. Concise and error-free requirements will help you detect problems in the software earlier, reducing the risk and cost of the project. Managing requirements aim to ensure that you successfully meet the software development goals. It involves creating a set of techniques that can help you document, prioritize, and agree on approved requirements. Doing this is essential because you can track changes in product requirements throughout its lifecycle. Software development requirements are dynamic and keep on changing. Managing the requirements will help you understand what the software should and shouldn't do with the stakeholders.

3. Using component-based architecture

   It is a framework for developing software based on reusable components. Have you ever played the Lego blocks game? You can build a structure out of various Lego blocks of different shapes, colors, and sizes. Every block has a feature that helps it connect with the others. While software development is much more complex than the Lego blocks game, it follows the same concept. Each software component is created to perform some task in a way defined by the architecture. Students can get the software from the library where they are stored and assemble them to communicate via an application program interface. The features of these components include:

   1. Reusability
   2. Replaceability
   3. Extensibility
   4. Independence
   5. Encapsulation

   If you are working on the assignment as a group, using components-based architecture in your development can promote a clean sub-division of work among the group members. You will also have access to thousands of components available online.

4. Visually modeling software

   We can define a model as a simplified view of the product. It only shows the fundamental elements of the system while hiding the non-essential details. Visually modeling software involves using graphical, semantically rich, and textual design notation to showcase the designs of the software. An example of a notation is UML. It allows you to raise the level of abstraction. Also, it maintains thorough semantics and syntax. Visual models help in software development in the following ways:

   1. It helps developers and end-users understand complex systems
   2. It can be used to compare a variety of designs and alternatives
   3. It is the foundation of implementation
   4. Helps the developer capture requirements precisely.
   5. Unambiguous communication of decisions

   The solution to a software development assignment should meet or exceed the requirements. It costs more to find and repair a bug in the system after deployment. Visually modeling a system can help you test for functionality and reliability.

5. Verifying the quality of software

   Every developer wants to release software that is maintainable and rationally coded. For this reason, it is vital to have an approach that guarantees the quality of the development process. The most common quality monitoring tools that every software engineering student should know about are:

   • Continuous integration: The code should be regularly integrated into a common repository. It ensures that the updated product version is kept in one place and verified. Continuous integration ensures that the development team gets immediate feedback on functionality and quality.
   • Testing: Testing is the best way to prove a product's quality. There are two main types of tests. The first is the test written by developers, also known as the automated test. It aims to verify if the components of the software work as expected. Manual testers often perform the second type of test. They check the software's performance against the user's requirements.
   • Code documentation: There are various forms of code documentation. It is essential to keep this process simple and transparent. Some common types of code documentation are code standard, API documentation, project documentation, name conventions, etc.

Bottomline

Software development assignments are more than just writing codes. To be a competent developer, you should strive to guarantee a high-quality product by following the best practices when writing code. An excellent way to ensure a quality product is to ask questions about the standards and strategies your professor wants you to use. The five best software development practices discussed in this article are the foundations of any solid software development process. Failing to consider even one can hurt your solution. It would be best if you considered and followed these practices when working on your software development assignment.