7 Ways to Develop Quality Software

Developing quality software is crucial to ensure user satisfaction and success. From UI/UX to functionality and features, it’s the quality that keeps users coming back. Learn why software quality matters and the 7 key considerations to develop quality software in this insightful guide.

Just think of your favorite software or the recent one that you are in awe of; it can be anything: a social media platform, eCommerce site, banking application, etc. What is it that you love about it, and why do you keep going back to it?

• UI/UX
• Functionality of the software
• Features of the software which really make it easy to use

Or all these things?

Most of the time, they are all above-mentioned things. We love the software, which constantly takes us back and gets better with every update. In simple terms: it’s the quality of the software. Constantly working to make it better, aligning with users’ needs, and it helps you to develop qualitative software.

Are you thinking of how you can develop qualitative software and don’t know where to start? Don’t worry; we have got you covered. Herein, we will walk you through why software quality matters and seven things to consider when developing qualitative software.

Why Software Quality Matters?

First impressions matter, even if it is software. It is said that one in five users abandon the application or software after using it for the first time. In fact, compared to 2015, today, 21% of users abandon the application/software; this is alarming. This means you will need to provide your users with quality as well as functional experience in the first session. Hence, developing quality software is essential to retain customers, build your brand identity, and expand your business reach. You need to provide users with essential features, proper functionality, intuitive UI/UX, and personalization. But, providing these things can be difficult as there are plenty of things one needs to consider while developing software.

If you are wondering how to develop quality software, you are at the right place. Here, I will walk you through the process.

Keep reading!

7 Ways to Develop Quality Software

1. Quality Company Culture

Don’t be surprised, but this is the first step to having quality software. Company culture has a considerable role to play when it comes to developing quality software. Hire skilled and experienced developers who can keep up with your company’s culture. Additionally, we have to train new developers about the company vision, the importance of quality standards, and the mindset for building pixel-perfect software, which ensures proper standards and quality delivery of software.

All work and no fun make Jack a dull kid, and this is the reality even at work. You will have to develop a fun, collaborative environment for your team members, which helps them to develop software as a team.

2. Interactive User Experience

Follow users and everything else will follow.

Users should be at the center of the developing life cycle. When users download the software or use your website, your app’s home screen is the first thing your end user interacts with, and having an interactive and intuitive user experience is essential.

Just imagine a banking app; when you open an application and try to do something in it, you are very likely not going to finish your task. Either the app crashes, the feature is not working correctly, or you can not find a particular feature, and at last, you being a frustrated user, abandon an application.

This is the same thing that your users do when they do not have a perfect user experience. You need to provide users with an appealing, interactive, and intuitive user experience, and you will also need to make sure that the software is easy to navigate and understand for the end users. Wherever needed, write down the clear UX copies that guide users on how to use the software.

Good UX will take you to places and help you retain customers, provide a better experience, and increase your business reach and customer base.

3. Quality Coding

Code quality matters a lot as it defines how secure, scalable, and reliable your codebase is. Good quality code means one that is clean, stands the test of time, has a consistent style, is easy to understand, and is well-documented. But, again, for each developer, code quality has different parameters. So, if you are a company, you will have to define the parameters of the code quality, as it will help developers to be on the same page and have a consistent coding style.

Going further, let’s see different ways you can measure code quality:

• Reliability:
  It measures the probability of the system that runs without failure for a specific period of time and relates with the number of defects and availability of software. You can count the number of defects using different static analysis tools and can measure software availability using the mean time between failures. Having these counts low is important as it will help you define the reliability of the codebase.
• Maintainability:
  This defines how easy it is to maintain your code. It is defined on different parameters like size, consistency, structures, complexity, testing, and understandability of the codebase. You have to check all the parameters to define the maintainability of the code. Additionally, both human review as well as automation is essential to make sure that the code is qualitative.
• Testability:
  Testability defines how well software defines the testing efforts and checks on different parameters like control, observe, isolate, and automate testing. You can measure it based on different test cases and can find potential faults in the system. The size and complexity of the software can impact the testability and quality of your code.
• Portability:
  Portability is about platform independence and how software works in different environments. To check if your software is portable, you can test it on different platforms, operating systems, devices, and different compilers. It will help you to check the portability of your software.
• Reusability:
  It checks the code and defines whether you can use it again or not. You can reuse assets easily if they have characteristics like modularity or loose coupling. You can measure it on the basis of interdependencies using a static analyzer.
• Scalability:
  When we build software, it has to be developed with proper coding standards, architecture, and coding patterns, to ensure it’s scalable enough for adding more functionalities without breaking out existing or other functionalities. When a big team is working on the same software, if the software is built with the following practices, it helps in ensuring the team follows the same structure. So, it helps us ensure we are all running on the same page and maintaining the scalability of the software.

4. Early Testing

Testing is essential to make sure that there are no bugs in your software, and this gives rise to early testing as it will help you to find complicated issues at an early stage. Remember, more significant defects are costly to solve, so early testing helps to resolve bugs at less cost. Experts suggest it is better to involve testers at the early stage of the software design process to ensure that designs are not buggy, the solution is appropriate, and testers can keep checking on errors before they become difficult to debug. Testing requires a focus on early adoption using the proper automated testing discipline.

For early testing, you can start with non-UI tests and then expand to UI-based tests when the product is stable or in beta. If your software uses WebServices or APIs, automate these tests to ensure all business rules and logic are ideally tested. Additionally, this is the perfect time to introduce automated testing to your development teams and increase testing coverage, accuracy, and quality of your product.

5. Clear Communication

Clear communication is essential to let the team work collaboratively and make sure each team member is on the same page. You need to define the development process and clear communication channels that help all members. Start with defining clear, consistent KPIs that show the metrics to define software quality at each phase of development and provide access to them to all team members.

Another benefit of clear communication is that team members can provide feedback to the team and set clear expectations for development. Lack of communication or clarity on subject matters can delay project launch and not provide quality software to end-users.

6. Pre-defined Development Method:

There are different software development methods, each method having its own merits and demerits, and your software quality also depends on which methods you are using. The recent market standard development model is the Agile method. Being a company, you will have to pre-define the development method for your team. This will help your team to be on the same page, have clear communication, and set realistic goals for your project.

In current times, Agile is the most used method for software development because of its significant benefits:

Daily stand-up meetings help the team to be on the same page

Pre-defined and realistic expectations for the next sprint

Clear communication

Can make changes at the last minute or in the new sprint according to users’ needs

And more…

7. Follow 3R’s

Define the software quality on the metrics of 3Rs i.e.:

• Review
  Testing is the central pillar of ensuring software quality. It ensures the standards of quality software by finding bugs, errors, and loopholes in the software and notifying developers about this so they can clear it as soon as possible.
• Revise
  Understand the development process and define what is working for your team members and where you can bring changes in the software development lifecycle.
• Remember
  Once you are done delivering the quality software, have a feedback meeting with your team. Here, define the positive as well as negative practices that helped the team to work in the best way possible. Keep a record of these things, as it will help you and your team members for the next project.

Conclusion

Software quality has a considerable role to play when you offer someone your services as it reflects your company’s brand, way of collaboration, market standards you follow, and how seriously you take your work. Users are likely to come back if the product they are using fulfills their needs and you are making it better with every release. I know there are plenty of things that go into making any product successful, and an in-house team can solve all the problems; this is when you can outsource your projects.

Outsourcing your projects to other IT companies is a common practice to make sure that we get quality software. If you are searching for an IT firm that can help you with quality custom software development, you can reach out to us. We have experienced developers who will understand your business requirements and help you with developing quality software.